He was physically absent those weeks, but mentally present: Sjoerd Marijne | hockey news

KOLKATA: It was 2020 and the pandemic had just begun.Sjoerd Marijne, then coach of the Indian women’s hockey team, was in a taxi on his way to Bengaluru airport, from where he was to fly back to the Netherlands to join his family. But midway through the trip, he changed his mind and returned to the city’s Sports Authority of India centre.It was a difficult decision, but Marijne decided to stay. A year later, he led India to a historic fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics.Six years later, Marijne found herself making a very different decision. When she returned to take charge of the Indian women’s team for the second time, she had to once again find a way to combine her commitment to the team with being there for her family. This time, with the World Cup approaching, he opted to spend a few weeks with his family before rejoining the team, a decision that had been agreed upon when he took over.But while Marijne was physically away from the team, he remained closely involved in its preparations. He followed every training session and practice match, staying in touch with the players and holding video meetings to make sure he was on top of the process.“I saw every training session and every practice match. I saw everything. So I wasn’t there in person, but yes,” Marijne told TOI in an exclusive interview after India recorded its best World Cup result in 52 years. “I had contact with the players and did video meetings with them, so I was aware of the process.”Marijne also credited her support staff, as well as the team’s strength and conditioning staff, for giving her confidence that the team was in good hands. “I had very good assistants like Matías Villa. Tim White, who is doing the under-21 team, was also there. So I knew they were in good hands,” he said. “There is a lot of leadership on the team and they knew they had to do well and set an example, that’s why this was possible.“When Marijne rejoined, she discovered that the team had continued on the same path. “Everything was the same. For the girls, it was also as if I had not been absent. So that’s a positive thing,” he said.The Dutchman also highlighted that while he was physically absent, he had never strayed from his responsibilities as a coach. “It’s not that for a few weeks I wasn’t there mentally. I just wasn’t physically there,” he said.For Marijne, the experience also highlighted the growing maturity within the group. The players knew how to take responsibility, lean on older members and stay true to the team structure and culture, even when their coach was away from the training field.“The players knew I was supervising everything,” he said. “The main thing is that it felt like I was out. I was out physically, but to the players it didn’t feel like I was out because I was still involved.”Perhaps that was the greatest reassurance for Marijne: that the team had developed enough trust and leadership to continue moving in the same direction, even when he was not physically there.