BHUBANESWAR: Even as the future of penalty corners continues to be debated in the corridors of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), there has been an undeniable shift in the art itself. Till recently, the main protagonists were considered to be the drag-flickers, ones standing on the top of the 'D', clutching their sticks as if it was a toothpick. They had a swagger, their bulging biceps adding to the theatre of the setting.
Because the penalty corner has traditionally resulted in lop-sided contests between the drag-flicker and the moving four-person wall protecting the goal (apart from the goalkeeper), they invariably finished tournaments as the leading goal-scorers. For example, each of the last three Summer Games has seen penalty corner specialists end up as the leading scorers (Mink van der Weerden in 2012, Gonzalo Peillat in 2016 and Alexander Hendrickx in 2021).
That, though, has been slightly changing. Even if the best flickers keep sounding the board on a periodical basis, the contest is now more even. The ongoing World Cup in Rourkela-Bhubaneswar has been witness to it. Out of the 195 penalty corners that have been won by teams till Thursday night, only 32 have been credited as goals from penalty corners (do bear in mind that several of these 32 were rebound efforts so direct goals from shot corners are fewer). In other words, at this World Cup, the conversion rate is roughly 16.5 per cent. Historically, that figure is around one in three. It's down even from the last World Cup where the conversion rate stood at 22.4 per cent (57 out of 244).
While the working theory was that some of it was perhaps linked to the usage of water — FIH have done away with the practice of watering the turf at half-time in a bid to make the sport more sustainable — coaches at the World Cup have discarded that. They have instead focused on analytics and better defending. Paul Revington, England coach, said: "I just think it's a matter of teams evolving with the game and realising if they don't pay more attention to the runners, linemen and everything, you just end up with Sohail Abbas and Taeke Taekema (two of the best exponents of the art in the last three decades or so) situations where they end up ripping balls... it's still happening but we got to do the homework."
Some of that homework refers to the importance of the first rusher, the defender who hares towards the drag-flick taker as soon as the injector pushes the ball towards one of the two batteries. With elite sport all about finding that extra 1 per cent in search of perfection, there is now a method in the madness behind the selection of the first rusher. They not only have to be fast and fit but also very durable and be up for a fight. Somebody like Victor Wegnez, the rusher for Belgium who ran down a lot of strikes for Belgium against South Korea, accurately fits the bill. From an Indian perspective, Manpreet Singh and Amit Rohidas are the primary first rushers.
India's analytical coach, Gregg Clark, one of whose jobs is to study penalty corners and try to deduce weaknesses and strengths, if any, before relying the same to chief coach Graham Reid and the players, namechecked Wegnez and Manpreet. "Really think the defences are getting better," he said. "If you look at our game against England, Manpreet was incredible with his rushing when he was on the pitch. Wegnez also ran down a whole bunch against Korea. First rushers have gotten better and I think teams are really analysing it and maybe protective equipment is getting a bit better."
That's true. For a long time, defenders were only allowed primitive equipment to protect themselves against balls that were hit towards them at roughly 80-85 mph. With injuries taking a toll, FIH continued to amend the rules for a long time. Their latest rule change to Rule 4.2 enabled defenders to wear protective equipment to continue to play the ball outside the circle after an interception during the taking of a corner. Defenders now have facemasks, hand protector gloves, shin pads as well as a mouth guard. It gives them a sense of confidence when standing up to potential rockets.
The net effect sees them blocking 50 % of all goalbound efforts from such situations. Here's Netherlands coach, Jeroen Delmee. "Quality of the first runners, that's the main reason," he said on why numbers have dipped in this World Cup. "Percentage of shots blocked by the first runner is about 50%. So, I think the first runner is stopping more shots than the goalies at the moment. That's practice, that's what everyone's doing and that's why scoring a penalty corner is so much harder than it was in the old days.
Revington actually went even further. He suggested that TV companies should have defending metrics so that the sport celebrates the first rusher and the defenders as much as the drag-flickers. "It's interesting that all the stats generally are given around the attacking team," he said. "I think it will be interesting if, on TV, they give stats about a player from a defensive perspective. To view the quality of the running, waves, lines... all those from other sports are very important. If you take the NFL, they give you all the defensive stats."
Tucked away in a small corner of FIH's 2023 World Cup is the information of the person who leads in terms of blocks. All of Rohidas, Manpreet and Wegnez figure inside the top 10.
Numbers to keep in mind
2018 WC
Goals from penalty corners 57
Total penalty corners 244
Conversion rate 22.4 per cent
2022 WC
Goals from penalty corners 32
Total penalty corners 195
Conversion rate 16.41 per cent
50 per cent of PC shots are blocked by the first runner according to Dutch coach Jeroen Delmee
1/3 Believed to be the traditional conversion rate from corners
*Stats accurate as of Thursday night