A hockey academy set up by the Tatas is building on the impressive showing by the men’s and women’s teams at the Tokyo Olympics to make the sport more popular at the grassroots.

The Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA), established by the Tata Trusts in Jharkhand and Odisha, is a structured, high-quality training institution that reaches out to the grassroots level. Currently, the academy is training 42 boys in Jharkhand while the Odisha centre has 37 girls and 31 boys.

Created in partnership with Tata Steel and gold-medal winning Dutch Olympian Floris Jan Bovelander, NTHA aims to provide international level hockey training through a sophisticated three-tier programme, along with life-skills coaching to children.

The institute in Jharkhand was inaugurated in 2016 in Jamshedpur and, following its success, a similar programme was initiated in Bhubaneswar in April 2019, in partnership with the Odisha government.

“It’s a big step the way the academy has progressed in the last couple of years, more so when you take into consideration the Covid setback,” Bovelander, technical director of NTHA, told The Telegraph.

“Developing hockey skills takes long, you have to take a long-term view of the future and that is what we are endeavouring to do.

“What is our long-term goal? Apart from making NTHA the best academy in India, we wish to deliver a couple of boys and girls into the national team, which always is the goal for any high performance hockey academy.

“A good grassroots hockey programme, a proper structure in place, setting up competitions, setting up leagues, playing competitive matches are some of the basics.”

The 55-year-old Olympic and World Cup gold medallist feels Indians, as a general, tend to practise more intensely than others.

“You need to practise well, take rest, develop other motor skills by playing some other sport, a child needs to develop other social and life skills… A holistic development is what makes you a better player,” he said.

According to NTHA’s foreign coach Wouter Willems: “To develop an academy is not merely to develop the players, but also the coaches. So we give courses to coaches… everyone in the organisation needs to keep developing.”

Willems feels there is a bit of lack in hockey intelligence in India. “Most of the players have high technical skills but the tactical part needs some extra attention,” he adds.

Says Neelam Babardesai, head of sports, Tata Trusts: “In a country like India, each region has people with very specific physical attributes and abilities. Matching these attributes with the requirements of the specific sport will help us provide better training, equipment and infrastructure support. We, at Tata Trusts, have done just that for hockey in Jharkhand and Odisha.”

What, according to Bovelander, is the way forward? “Competitions, more competitions and longer competitions at that. And the need to set up local leagues. The Hockey India League was superb for hockey promotion. Hopefully it will be back… that will be good for India and the world,” he said.