Hockey squad get back to business

Ellina Mhlanga
Sports Reporter
FOLLOWING the first group training by the senior women hockey squad last weekend, coach Trish Davies, says they are racing against time to ensure they are ready for the Central South Africa tournament in February.

The men and women senior national teams will take part in the tournament, which will also serve as a qualifier, for the Africa Cup of Nations.

It will take place from February 19 to 27 in Harare.

Davies met with the players over the weekend, for the first time, at St John’s College to kick start group training sessions, with almost a full squad attending from the 32 players under consideration for the final team.

“That’s the first time we have played on turf since March, so, what I have done is I have booked basically Saturday and Sunday, there are only three months left,” said Davies.

“When you haven’t played for a while, on a big turf, you need to get the players to just settle down again and get a feel of it because they carried on doing fitness but they do lose a lot of match fitness when they are not playing.

“That’s where we have to catch up and we only have three months to do that, so it’s a bit of a challenge now.

“The most important thing, at the moment, is to get our match fitness back and to start working on our structure, to get our structure back because, obviously, we haven’t practiced how we are going to play as a team yet.’’

Besides the weekend sessions, the players meet on Wednesdays to work on their fitness through long distance running or sprints, among other activities.

“They are all very excited to get on the turf but, if you think about Zambia and Namibia if they are coming, Zambia has been training since June, we have only started, so we have got to move on now,” Davies said.

Davies, a member of the Golden Girls hockey team, led the Under-21 women to the World Cup in 2016 and, this time around, she will be hoping to inspire the senior side to the Africa Cup of Nations.

Other countries expected to grace the event are Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius and Swaziland.

The Under-21 sides, scheduled to compete in World Cup Qualifiers in March, are also getting their group training underway this weekend.