Hockey World Cup 2023: Can the hit be revived as alternative to drag-flick? Experts weigh in

The drag-flick’s predecessor, the ‘hit’, has been steadily regaining acceptance from former players even though it hasn’t made it to the current training manuals.

The Netherlands’ Bram Lomans was one of the earliest practitioners of the drag-flick and among its most successful ones in world hockey. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The drag-flick is one of the most familiar techniques in modern hockey and the first option for teams trying to score through a penalty corner. Teams with the best flickers in the world often concentrate more on earning penalty corners (PCs) than scoring.

But some of the best in the business insist the one-rule-fits-all isn’t the best way to utilise PCs. The drag-flick’s predecessor, the ‘hit’, has been steadily regaining acceptance from former players even though it hasn’t made it to the current training manuals. That may well change soon, feels Bram Lomans.

Lomans, one of the earliest practitioners of the drag-flick and among its most successful ones in world hockey, is one in a longline of Dutchmen who elevated the technique to an art form and, with compatriots Teun de Nooijer and Floris Jan Bovelander, was a crucial cog in the all-conquering Holland side in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“I think the ‘hit’ is still very important. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some team even here (at the World Cup) tries to use it to try and score. I also think teams around the world need to start developing it again and find good hitters because scoring through flicks is also getting tougher, the space and angles to score are getting reduced all the time,” Lomans, who worked with the Indian drag-flickers for a specialised one-week camp fine-tuning their actions ahead of the World Cup, told Sportstar.

He isn’t the only one. Another of Dutch greats and PC specialists, Ties Kruize, also favours retaining the ‘hit’. “I think moving from hit to flick was a natural development, in line with changing rules and the goalkeepers and defenders getting better and teams trying to find new ways to score. But sometimes you get 3-4 short corners quickly and don’t score, and maybe players should think, ‘I should try an alternative way, maybe give it a good hit’? There can be so many variations, they are all legal,” Kruize wondered.

Lomans agreed, acknowledging the importance of the flick but insisting teams ought to experiment. “The main reason flicking developed was because it got difficult scoring through hits. It was easier earlier because a hit was scored from inside the circle, so the ball had to travel maybe 10-12m. Then the rules changed. The ball had to go out of the circle before a shot could be taken, so the distance increased to around 15m. That makes a huge difference in actual play at those speeds.

“Defence also matters. With a hit, you could only hit as high as the backboard, and the goalkeepers would naturally lie down to save. With a flick, you have the entire goal to score, but that area is reducing with better defence. Goalkeepers hardly lie flat now. And, of course, variety is always good,” he explained.

Bovelander, too, has been a long-time proponent of using the ‘hit’ as an alternative scoring method, something former Dutch and current Spanish coach Max Caldas agreed to but hasn’t been too keen on simply because of lack of personnel who can execute the same.

Interestingly, the staunchest supporters of the ‘hit’ are from Holland, the country that actually pioneered the drag-flick revolution. Whether that is a sign of things to come remains to be seen.