Coaches Fulton, Paddy Upton want men’s hockey team to find their voice, new Indian way of play

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Mumbai . The Indian men’s hockey team had a few sessions with newly appointed mental conditioning specialist Paddy Upton and both head coach Craig Fulton and captain Harmanpreet Singh, before embarking on their journey to Spain for the four-nation international tournament. It was described as a “discovery phase” for both sides.

Harman said that apart from knowing the players and Indian hockey, Upton has also begun to look into one aspect of the mental process that players deal with on a regular basis – a lower-ranked team versus a higher-ranked team. Players feel a change in their attitude when playing with.

Harmanpreet Singh said during a virtual interaction with the media from Bengaluru on Friday, “Normally when we play a team that is higher ranked than us, a tough opponent, we get excited, know what they And every player knows their responsibilities. But when playing against a lower-ranked team or a weaker team, the mind tends to take things easy. Paddy gave some examples of how to deal with it.

He said that one of the examples Upton gave him was about playing against a team like Australia.

Harmanpreet said, “Winning a match against Australia doesn’t mean you have won the world. Like your performance can’t be same every day, but you have to have consistency. He told us how to get out of that mental state. I told.

Coach Fulton, who took over the reins of the Indian men’s team only a few weeks ago, said he is happy to have Upton as a sounding board as he implements his ideas of the ‘new Indian way’ of playing.

Giving credit to his predecessor Graham Reid, who led India to a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games and a top-five finish in the FIH world rankings, Fulton said his process was to bridge the gap between real and perceived ambitions.

Fulton has already told the players his philosophy of defensive hockey, but he also wants the team to play “fluently from the forward”.

While he helps the team find a ‘new Indian way’ of playing, the 48-year-old former South African wants the players to find their voice with the help of Upton.

“Paddy won’t be the main voice in the team. We’ll help the team find its voice. We don’t want someone standing up and dictating and the team can’t function when these people aren’t there.”

He said that he has made some changes in the squad for the upcoming tour of Spain in order to test some of the players who he could not see in the FIH Pro League.

The coach said that due to the limited number of the team, he may not give chances to some players in the core group, but added that some more players will join the team for the Asian Champions Trophy to be played in Chennai.(IANS)

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