Mental conditioning coach Upton will remain with the Indian hockey team till Paris Olympics
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Hockey India has appointed experienced South African mental conditioning coach (sports psychologist) Paddy Upton to assist the men’s national team at the Paris Olympics. Upton, who played a role in India’s 2011 Cricket World Cup win, will be part of the men’s hockey contingent in Paris. He was also with this team in the Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Games.
The Indian team had won gold medals in both these tournaments. Indian men’s hockey team head coach Craig Fulton confirmed to PTI that Upton will remain with the team till the Olympics. When Fulton was asked about Upton’s services, he said, “We have Paddy Upton, he will be with us in Australia (for the Test series). We will use their experience. Certainly he will be with us till the Olympics.
Fulton believes that the Indian team, ranked fourth in the world rankings, is yet to reach the peak of its game. The team will correct the flaws in the coming time. “We have not yet achieved perfection,” he said. However, there is still four-five months for the Olympics. We will try to reach our top. “Any team wants to win the tournament,” the coach said. That is the ideal target but realistically we are now fourth in the world. Does that mean we won’t be able to make the top three, that’s the essence of this game.
“Actually, we are not at that top level yet but we still have time,” he said. Fulton is not in favor of making too many changes to the team for the upcoming series against Australia. “Now we are in Bhubaneswar for the next three weeks for training and practice and then we go to Australia for five Test matches and that is really important. We will return to Bengaluru and leave for the Pro League.
“We’re just continuing our practice, our focus is on becoming a lot stronger defensively, we need to improve in terms of reducing our mistakes. We are not making too many changes, just focusing on getting better and staying in the game consistently.” The Indian team will tour Australia for a five-Test series in Perth from April 2 to 15.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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