Asian Champions Trophy: Indian Olympian Jude Menezes, now the coach who is getting Japan punch above their weight | Hockey News

Among the six head coaches at the Jharkhand Women’s Asian Champions Trophy, only one represented India at the Olympics. And he paces around the dugout of the Japan team.Jude Menezes, the goalkeeper who played more than 100 matches for India until early 2000s, is now back in the country of his birth. “It’s quite cool to be back in India and now as a coach. The experience of being in Japan is quite different but it’s a great learning experience for me leading a program,” says Menezes. “The Japanese are fantastic people. I’m enjoying it.”

It’s been nearly two years since Menezes took over. In his first assignment he oversaw Japan win the 2021 Asian Champions Trophy (albeit a Covid hit tournament). At the Asian Games, Japan were perfect in the group stage before back-to-back heartbreaks in closely-fought semifinal and bronze medal matches. In Ranchi too, they impressed on their way to the semifinals, with their clash against India (1-2) arguably the best match of the pool stage.
“We have grown quite significantly after the Tokyo Olympics,” Menezes says. “Around 9 or 10 players moved on. So we were in the process of rebuilding. Then we were right in the middle of Covid. So matches became hard to get. We have a young team so when you compare it to the other teams, they are quite inexperienced. But we still punch above our weight and I’m quite proud of how far the team has come over the past couple of years.”
Japan Women’s hockey team during a training session in Ranchi. (Hockey India)
Menezes, who quips he has learned more about hockey after he stopped playing, had been around the New Zealand setup for a couple of Olympic cycles, where he was most notably the assant coach for the women’s team. “My philosophy is to get the best out of every single player and make them bigger than the sum of the parts. I feel coaching is beyond hockey, a holic approach, it’s about people, I am responsible for their overall growth” he says.
Moving away from New Zealand, where he has lived with his family since 2002, wasn’t easy. Language was a barrier he had to overcome and even though he has a translator, Menezes pushes himself to look for understanding, and observe rather than stop after saying the words. “I also learned quickly that I had to make them explain it back to me. So, once they did that, I knew whether I had to explain it further or not,” he says.
One of the senior players in the squad Shihori Oikawa speaks fluent English and helps Menezes with getting his messages across during quarter breaks and such. “We learn a lot from him, he has immense knowledge about hockey,” Oikawa says. “He always says that the team is like a family, we have to always be united. That really is our strength, if we play united then teams can’t beat us easily. That’s his main focus, always team first. He tries to give personalised coaching too. Especially the younger players have improved a lot under him.”
Menezes believes his team are still in a growth phase. “We are a decentralised program. We don’t train together for months. It’s camp-based so we train together for a week or 10 days and then they go back to their company teams. So this year we have had 100 training days, ideally I would want 180 or 200 days,” the 52-year-old said.
After every goal they concede, Japan players get into a huddle. That in itself is not unique, but the process of huddling is almost as instantaneous as the hugs that follow for the team that just scored, the contrast of that imagery is fascinating. “Reset, start again. The goal’s gone, nothing you can do about it. We make it a point that every time there is a break in play, we get together, communicate clearly”, is how Menezes explains it.Most Read
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Those lines – albeit stretched over a vastly lengthier timeline – could apply to Menezes as well. He once told The Indian Express that the ‘thud’ of the ball hitting the board when Poland scored an equaliser that broke Indian hearts at Sydney 2000 echoes in his head. India were seconds away from the semifinal but it wasn’t to be for a team that was brimming with quality on paper. There wasn’t anything the Mumbaikar could do after the ball went in.
After calling time on his career, he hit the reset button, and moved to Auckland. Then there was a break too where he became a businessman, but hockey wasn’t going to stay away from his life for long, they got together again. He took up roles with the Black Sticks. And now, he is heading a program of his own, helping the Japanese women’s team punch above their weight.
And to take a good team and make them better, Jude believes the process starts with him: “I keep telling myself I want to keep getting better every day. I will go back after a match, make a few notes, reassess, and watch the footage. I’d probably go to bed at 2 am after a late-night match. I’ll make a few pointers for myself. I’d give myself two or three things that I could have done better today before I debrief my team. It all starts with me.”