Drag flicks craze takes over Lugogo

Looking at the clock, a novice in the game would have thought two seconds would elapse before Cassiem could find the net and Uganda would walk off with the honour of limiting South Africa to just 10 goals. Hockey rules, however, allow for a penalty corner to be executed to a logical conclusion even after the buzzer.

South Africa did not need much time. There were just about five seconds between the time the ball left Mvimbi’s stick, rolled on the turf to when Cassiem’s bullet of a ball waded through the night’s air and found the back of the net past Ugandan goalkeeper Richard Kaijuka.

Cassiem made a run up, touched the ball with the hook of his stick and then while he crossed one leg over the other in a forward movement, swung the stick into the air lifting the ball with pace and precision to its destination in the process.

In that instant, South Africa had given Uganda a lesson not to forget about drag flack; a quick injection from the baseline, a silencing stop, plus a meticulous and authoritative finish.

The drag flick had definitely already been an obsession at home. In fact Uganda had scored from their own executions in previous games in Pretoria and in Ghana at the Africa Cup in 2022.

But if there was ever a moment to show how effective it can be, that was it. It was years after most of the current playing crop probably saw their first drag flicks in January 2014. At the time, Egypt Sharkia’s Sameer Mahmoud was putting teams to the sword with the skill when Uganda hosted the Africa Cup for Club Champions (ACCC) in Lugogo.

Game decider

This season, at home, the three games among the top sides in the men’s league have been decided by late drag flick drama. It has arguably substituted the straight hit and the passing routines.

With five minutes left on the clock on April 7, Collines Batusa’s power effort deflected off Kaijuka’s puncher into the net as Weatherhead laboured to a 1-0 win over Kampala Hockey Club (KHC) Stallions.

Under two weeks later, Wananchi’s Emmanuel Baguma put Weatherhead to the sword at the death for a 1-1 draw. It was pure precision from the time the ball left Baguma’s stick. Weatherhead keeper Charles Ekapolon did not even bother to move.

“It was a fantastic feeling scoring one at that moment because it is one of the skills that I had taken time working on and also because my teammates had put much trust in me to deliver with the last action of the game,” Baguma shares.

Last weekend, Jordan Mpiima put away such an effort for KHC Stallions too in the 53rd minute as they beat Wananchi 3-2. KHC's first goal in that encounter came from another drag flick from Alfred Agaba while their first ever drag flick goal was scored by Richard Ssemwogerere last season.

Almost all other clubs have players trying to execute the skill. Brian Ofoyimungu and Ronald Okethayot try for Rockets. Wananchi have Jackson Musinguzi and Martin Okello trying to emulate Baguma while Weatherhead turn to Timothy Ntumba in Batusa’s absence.

Others like Badgers have Shafik Abdul and Mark Ojok while Ezra Mandela tries for City Lions.

Technique over power

“With the men’s teams the enthusiasm is clear because the stats, on the international scene, say that 70 percent of the time, the ball finds the back of the net in such situations. For a while, maybe, before Covd-19, we had only Derrick Akuwa drag flicking,” Okello says as he delves into some of the techniques he has seen.

Akuwa loved the power game and for a while, people thought they needed as much power as him to execute the flick. There is no coincidence that Batusa – but especially Baguma and Mpiima, who are demystifying the power trend all had stints abroad in Italy, where they could have been exposed to ‘soft’ drag flickers.

“I have noticed that the run up informs the technique. Some guys are helped by the steps they take but I have seen someone that does maybe one step and flicks while another just has power in his upper border. But it is not necessarily that one needs power to deliver a drag flick.

But for most of the guys I have seen executing the drag flick, it is about taking two or three steps before they carry the ball,” Okello says.

Baguma and Mpiima are not your idea of bulked up hockey players but the pace behind their most important goals thus far was a marvel but the latter insists the trick lies somewhere in balancing the movement, carrying the ball and summoning whatever energy they have. This should be music to the female hockey players, who have not been as keen.

Ladies not so keen

“For me, the pace of injecting the ball has to be right and the stopper should be perfect. If the ball is off the ground or changes direction then that penalty corner routine is dead.

I think what we lack are the coaches to train the girls in these aspects,” Baguma says. His teammate Okello has tried teaching Norah Alum and Doreen Asiimwe but they are yet to show what they have mastered in games.

“Maybe they want to try but you cannot tell for sure what routines they discuss with their teammates during matches,” Okello says.

Asiimwe says she has not been consistent with training but warns her opponents that she is about to dedicate time to the skill. She adds that the first step towards execution is choosing where one puts the ball; either high up or low in goal.

KHC Swans defender Winnie Alaro believes the girls need wholesome training and a change in attitude.

Dangers involved

“Before we even get to drag flicking, we need to perfect our ball injection and then also encourage more people to take up stopping roles,” Alaro says. She has had quite the experience with drag flicks. While defending a penalty corner for Uganda against Zimbabwe in Ghana, the ball landed on her knee and turned it as she waited to clear the ball behind the Hockey She Cranes’ first two dashers. But the adrenaline rush during the match hovered over the pain.

“Immediately after the match, I could not move. I was carried to the ambulance and later to the medical room. The team manager (Bridget Baine), my sisters (Alum and Lucky Akello) were present but I could not tell what they were discussing with the medical staff. After a while, one of the medics came and turned my knee in one instant back to position. The pain was immense,” Alaro recalls.

“But I was back defending them again against South Africa. I am self-motivated and I believe that good individual performances translate into good team performances.

The pace and power behind the ball make drag flicks a real danger to the defending team. Yet pace and power are arguably the anti-dote to defending them.

Defending

“I encourage our defenders to be as fast as possible when dashing to the top (to stop the flicker) such that they are in time to stop the ball or to at least find the ball when it is still at shin level and below the knee. If they are late, I tell them to leave the ball for the keeper but our goalkeepers generally need to do a lot more training on high balls,” Okello shares.

“Sometimes the ball could hit a defender or the drag flicker might clash with or be knocked by a dashing defender,” Okello says while Asiimwe insists that any unpracticed skill is a recipe for injuries.

The rules and regulations are subject to interpretation but whenever a drag flick is unsuccessfully executed and the ball ends up rising above defenders’ knees, possession is turned over to the defence.

KHC Stallions defender James Mugisha is both a stopper for his side’s drag flickers and also the first runner stopping opponents from hurting his team. He did this largely well against Wananchi last weekend suffocating Baguma, who scored three of his six goals for the national team in Zambezi Series last month from such penalty corners.

“The best form of defence is not to give away penalty corners. But when we do, we try to distract the drag flicker, get in his way and ensure he cannot see the goal,” Mugisha says.

Kaijuka insists defending this penalty corner routine is as complicated as one can imagine.

“No drag flick is the same. Sometimes, it is possible to see the ball come all the way and those are probably the ones we save.

Sometimes you see it but the pace of the ball means you cannot even react effectively to save. Or there is a lot of power behind the flick that you cannot stop the ball.

But for the national team, most of the ones I have faced, I never really see the ball after it leaves the stick. In fact I rely on the turn of the executer’s stick at Top D to predict where the ball is headed,” Kaijuka says.

Taking stock                                                                                                      

The drag flick is not generally a new phenomena but it is belatedly catching on in Uganda. And like any other skill, some Ugandans are doing it well and enjoying how decisive it can be.

We cannot know for sure how effective it is as both the teams and Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) hardly taked detailed stock of the penalty corners but for this season thus far, the drag flick has settled the matches involving the top three matches.