Olympics: No flicker of hope for Black Sticks

If New Zealand women's hockey coach Kevin Towns misses any one attacking weapon in his switch from coaching the men, it will be a penalty corner smasher.

During his seven-year reign with the men's team, Towns had the luxury of Hayden Shaw's drag flick from penalty corners as a regular source of goals.

The Canterbury defender racked up 105 goals in 73 tests, but the women's side are lacking in that department.

"We don't have a drag flicker per se," said Towns, who took over the women in late 2006.

Veteran Kayla Sharland was the most likely candidate as a Shaw clone, but her body has not embraced the physical demands.

"We identified five or six players at the start and have worked with a group of them," Towns said.

"Kayla Sharland was the pick of the bunch but has been hampered by injury.

"She's gone through a lot of injury issues so I'm a bit loathe to load her up with what we call a repetitive skill. If you load them up you quite often cause them problems."

Sharland, an 87-cap midfielder, took more than a year to recover from knee surgery after rupturing a ligament in the opening minutes of the 2006 World Cup.

To compensate Town, has focused on variations at penalty corners.

"We've worked hard on that but we're going to be a little light in that area. I think we've done enough work and we've scored quite a few corners to date, so I'm comfortable.

"We haven't got a Hayden Shaw but I'm confident we'll get one in the new generation of players."

While nations such as China and Korea have developed drag flick exponents, it was not a priority when Jan Borren and Ian Rutledge were coaching New Zealand.

"Women's hockey had no use for it prior to me starting," said Towns, who said developing a player capable of sweeping the ball home from a penalty corner was not easy.

"It's all about getting their strength right and doing the right sort of conditioning programme to ensure they don't get injured and they have the strength to do it," he said.

Although it appears the shoulder is the key to a powerful drag flick, the impetus actually comes from the legs and backside.

Towns said the time taken to develop Shaw illustrated how hard it was to groom a female version.

"Hayden had developed his drag flick really before we got hold of him," said Towns.

"He'd got through a lot of that strength work just by doing it so many times.

"Once he hit the New Zealand side we got a biomechanist to work with him and develop it a lot further.

"Hayden also went through a number of injury problems and if he over does it he can hurt himself.

"It's getting that balance. I had to get the team focused on playing hockey and doing well, getting a drag flicker was secondary," he said.