Pakistan coach sees conditioning as key to improvement

KARACHI, Sep 20 (Reuters) Pakistan hockey coach Shahnaz Sheikh believes Asian teams must improve their physical conditioning to compete against the leading European sides and Australia at major tournaments.

Sheikh became coach just a month before the recent World Cup in Germany and led his team to a sixth-place finish in the competition, won by the hosts in a thrilling final against Olympic Champions Australia.

Asia was once home to the world's leading hockey-playing nations but South Korea were the only team from the continent to reach the semi-finals, eventually finishing in fourth place.

India took 11th and Japan 10th, with Malaysia failing to qualify for the tournament.

''Modern day hockey is not just about skills. Now it is about speed, power and having the stamina to play at the same pace on the artificial turf for 70 minutes,'' Sheikh told Reuters today.

''Asian players lack the physical strength to play back-to-back games and match the European and Australian players, who make their skills secondary,'' he added.

The former Olympian, who has been asked by the Pakistan Hockey Federation to coach the team at the Asian Games in Doha, said he would make some changes to the team for the December event.

''Some of the players will retire and we need to bring in some youngsters and build up a good combination,'' he added.

Four times world champions Pakistan have not won a major title for 12 years and India is suffering a 26-year global tournament victory drought.

Sheikh said his first priority had been to change the mental attitude of the players.

''For the last seven years we have not won anything major and this is shown in the attitude of the players. Psychologically they had become used to losing and we need to change that,'' Sheikh said.

REUTERS DH KP1646