The Indian women’s hockey team may be aiming to go further than ever before when the World Cup begins on August 15 in Netherlands and Belgium. For coach Sjoerd Marijne, it will only be one of the many halts with the girls on the way to what he calls the summit of sports – the Olympics.
The mountain analogy isn’t far from the mark. The Indian team was addressed by climber, motivational speaker and former CEO of the Naval Tata Hockey Academy Hemant Gupta last week, who talked about his own experiences, drawing parallel between going up the Mount Everest and the girls’ prospective journey at the World Cup.
“He spoke about facing challenges and compared this to climbing the Mount Everest. To reach the summit, you first have to go to Base Camp 1 and so on. That’s exactly how it goes this year through all the tournaments. So, Base Camp 1 for us was the World Cup qualifiers; Base Camp 2 the Nations Cup. The World Cup and Asian Games are Base Camp 3 and 4 and at the top is the LA Olympics.
“So far, we have been successful every time. But maybe in the future, we will not reach the next Base Camp as fast as we want. That doesn’t mean we can’t reach the top. We will take the experience from World Cup to the Asian Games,” Marijne explained in an exclusive interaction with Sportstar on Thursday.
The Indian team is in its final stage of preparations and Marijne at the moment is focussing more than ever on fitness, aware that it could be the difference in a competition of small margins. “That is our main focus now, improving the fitness, because we know they understand the tactics and we have enough matches to practice that. But these are the moments we really have to make the next step in our fitness levels.
The Indian team celebrating after winning the FIH Nations Cup.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The Indian team celebrating after winning the FIH Nations Cup.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“I think we’re doing really well. These are the most intensive weeks of the preparation, we are pushing the girls hard. It’s always a combination of high intensity and good rest and also finding the quality you want on the pitch. And the better the fitness is, the better the outcome will be,” he said.
The team would be leaving for Germany on July 29 to play two matches before travelling to Netherlands on August 2. It will play four practice matches against Chile, Japan, Netherlands and Australia before its opening game against China. Two months later, the team will have a chance to book an Olympic ticket at the Asian Games but Marijne understands the two are very different competitions.
“I think both tournaments are really different, there are different things at stake. Playing Asian teams is completely different than playing European or South American teams. The playing style at the Asian Games is more chaotic, so we have to stay away from that. I don’t see one tournament impacting the other in a negative way. It has been a while we played China so we will see what is our level against them.
“I know it sounds boring but we work from match to match. The first focus is on China. Our focus is on ourselves, how to become the best version of us. It’s all about how we deal with things. Every match for us is a possibility to show the best Indian team. I have a lot of confidence in this side.
“I think Netherlands is by far the best team in the world. But [between rankings] 2-12, I think they all can win against each other. We will always create opportunities and that will be more difficult against higher ranked teams, so if you get three chances, you have to make at least one or two count. We’re working really hard on that,” he insisted.
Asked about dealing with youngsters in the side, Marijne was clear that mistakes were welcome as long as they did not come from complacency. “I think the one thing really important in my approach is discipline and hard work. If those two things are good, there is always room for mistakes. And they will make mistakes, I’m patient with that. But values are very important. If a young girl runs less and thinks, ‘I’m already in the World Cup or Asian Games team’, we don’t accept their behaviour,” he declared.
Published on Jul 23, 2026
