Do you know hockey can be practiced even on terraceIJ The women hockey players of Mizoram are doing so due to lack of plain area across the State. Interestingly, these girls practice on hills as well. The fact was shared by the team representatives during the 60th National School Games Federation of India (SGFI) Under-17 Hockey Games 2014-15 at Astroturf stadium in the State capital which commenced on Saturday.
Notably, Mizoram girls are the only state contingent to represent on behalf of North-Eastern States in this national platform for both boys and girls. “The concept of Astroturf Stadium is new for our state. We have hardly two stadiums in the entire State which are under-construction. Our players are habituated of playing on terrace or hills. It has made them expert in balancing speed during the game,” said the Team Coach lalrothuami told The Pioneer.
Among the 18 participants, 15 girls are playing national for the first time. Eight out of them hail from interior villages where there is hardly any sports facility. However, some of them are aware about the technicalities of both football and hockey games. 16 year old lalrimfeli said the tactics of football and hockey is almost same. Jharkhand’s Jagan Topno who is mentoring the adolescent girls for last one year as the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Chief Coach said practicing on terrace and hills has naturally increased the lower-limb strength of the players. “In other states, players have to attend gym for strengthening their lower limbs. But, in Mizoram players do not have to use gyms,” added Topno.
Also, Topno pointed on the recent performance of the girls on newly built Astroturf at Thenzwal. “Turf’s base requires regular water supply. But, such facilities are yet to be installed at our place. It does not affect much on the performance of players as they practice on turf during morning dew hours and continue the same on their terrace or lanes cut out of hills,” he said.
Youngest player in the team, lalrindiki aged 14 year has represented the state twice at School Games. Unable to speak Hindi and English, she explained through expressions that “such kind of practices” has always boosted her confidence to compete with strongest teams like Jharkhand, Haryana or Punjab.
“In our state, football is more popular than hockey. In spite of this, we have girls who were associated with football in childhood days but are now shining as hockey players,” Coach lalrothuami said. The efforts of the girls were appreciated by Sports Department Principal Secretary-in-Charge l Khiangte who happens to be a native of Mizoram. Topno has been asked to focus more on improving the field-performance of the girls.