KEY POINTS:
One of South African hockey's most potent goal scorers has a new target - enhancing New Zealand's attacking arsenal at the Beijing Olympics.
Greg Nicol has turned from a handful to hands-on, the Durban-raised striker now at home in Napier juggling the demands of running a hockey academy with a job as assistant coach of the Black Sticks' men's team.
When South Africa emerged from sporting isolation in the early 1990s, Nicol matured into his sport's most prolific goal scorer.
The double Olympian retired after Athens in 2004 with a remarkable 244 goals in 200 appearances.
"He was always dangerous to the extent he was a player you identified as someone you needed to take care of," said former national men's coach Kevin Towns.
"You went to the pains of working out what his skill set was and how he played."
Now the top goalscorer at the Atlanta Olympics and Manchester Commonwealth Games is transferring his expertise to New Zealand strikers Simon Child, Phil Burrows, Gareth Brooks and David Kosoof.
Installed as Shane McLeod's assistant when Towns stepped aside after the 2006 World Cup, Nicol has enabled the Black Sticks to become gradually less dependent on drag flicker Hayden Shaw.
While Shaw slams penalty corners , his variations have been subject to intense video scrutiny from rivals, so more emphasis has been placed on finessing the open play offence.
The benefit of Nicol's expertise was already evident, Black Sticks captain Ryan Archibald said.
During pre-Olympic tours of Malaysia and Europe the number of field goals increased while Shaw's input waned slightly, though New Zealand were deliberately keeping some variations under wraps at penalty corners.
"Hayden's percentages are quite low for him but our field goals are going up," Archibald said.
"Greg does a lot of analysis and coaches players to get in the right positions.
"He works on their techniques, developing their range of scoring shots whether it be forehand or backhand."
Nicol, 33, followed a familiar exit route from South Africa, heading offshore for lifestyle reasons.
He initially went to England where he signed on as player/coach with Holcombe.
He also coached in Belgium before Hawke's Bay's sporting benefactor Sam Kelt lured him to New Zealand to head the Kelt Capital Hockey Academy in May 2006.
"Sam Kelt was instrumental in getting me to New Zealand and it made sense to get involved in the international set-up as well," said Nicol.
"I'm trying to get us to score more goals and win more penalty corners."
While penalty corners are Shaw's domain, Nicol it was imperative to lessen the 25-year-old's burden.
"If you've only got one weapon teams can combat it, so over the last year we've managed to create or better a lot of our other weapons. We're certainly scoring a lot more field goals in games.
"Hayden is still a huge part of our game but there isn't as much reliance on him and if we can score from corners - and field goals - we become a world class team."
Perfecting striking the ball with the reverse stick has been one focus for Nicol.
"It adds another to all strikers' methods of finishing," he said.
"When approaching the circle, most defenders will try to channel you on to your left (weak side), but if you are able to shoot equally well from both sides this tactic will no longer work."
- NZPA
