India’s hockey team sets sights on World Cup qualification via Pro League: “We want to be well prepared for mega performance”

“Camp mode: Dead,” vice-captain Hardik Singh wrote, in jest, on his social media page, after just the second day of the camp.

Scroll down the timeline of any player, and all one sees is him on the running track, on mountain slopes, or at the gym. “This is the most intense training block we have had since the Paris Olympics,” says Hardik.

For a good part of the last 15 years, India has consistently been one of the fittest units in world hockey. Yet, Fulton doubled down on this aspect with a singular goal: to get them back to the levels shown in Paris last summer.

A bunch of ‘red sessions’, perhaps, were also to lay down benchmarks for the newcomers into the system in the new Olympic cycle. And because of what Fulton saw during the FIH Pro League home leg in February. Back then, his players — without having much rest or an off-season — looked jaded, their bodies broken and performances flat.

Eyes on World Cup berth

With the away leg of the Pro League, where a World Cup spot awaits the winners, less than a month away, Fulton is not taking any chances.

“Iron sharpens iron,” the chief coach tells The Indian Express. “As the cliche goes, the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. So, we’re working hard on our fitness and hopefully, it translates on the field, off-ball, and on-ball.”

The second half of the Pro League will be in Amstelveen and Antwerp, from June 7 to 22, when India will face the Netherlands, Argentina, Belgium and Australia. With 15 points from eight games, India are third behind England and Belgium, and winners of the league will be rewarded with a direct spot at next year’s World Cup.

“The bottom line is that we have the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup through the Pro League. So, we are pushing hard to see how far we can go, and it would be nice if we could win the Pro League,” Fulton says. “At the same time, Belgium has qualified, Holland has qualified (for the World Cup, as hosts), Australia has qualified, they’re defending champions. So, we want to be really well prepared for that mega performance.”

This is the first full training camp the team has had since the Paris Olympics; an uncommon occurrence for a squad that otherwise spends more than half the year in camps.

Increasing endurance

However, since last August, one event has rolled into another, giving the team management very little time to condition the players for matches. It started with the prolonged post-Olympic celebrations, which were interrupted only for the Asian Champions Trophy. The Hockey India League ate into the only clear off-season window, and a week after its conclusion, the new international season began with the India leg of the Pro League. Weeks later, all players turned up for their states and departments in the National Championships.

Individually, the players did their thing — former captain Manpreet Singh, for instance, shed six kilos to get in shape for the World Cup.

Yet, so concerned was Hockey India about the players’ well-being that they dispatched the national team medical and strength and conditioning staff to monitor their fitness. The team’s scientific advisor Alan Tan, Hardik says, ‘trusts the track’ to improve the players’ endurance.

“You run 400m, 1,600m, on the hills… and you get to know how much you can push yourselves. You are testing your limits. The body gets exhausted, but you still have to push, stay fit. What goes on behind the scenes… that’s the hardest thing to do,” Hardik says.

India will play six matches in nine days in the Netherlands and Belgium, followed by a week-long break before the last two games. Fulton said the increased focus on improving the team’s fitness is to ensure the players are conditioned for a ‘really tough and heavy schedule.’

“You need to have the ability to play out games; to start strong, and also to manage when a team is down 1-2 at half-time or 0-2 with the fourth quarter to go… Can you sustain the last 15 minutes? You have to build that stamina,” he says.

The ability to play all four quarters with high intensity is what helped India navigate a tricky draw at the Paris Olympics and finish on the podium. Breaking the stereotype of conceding late goals, India remained vigilant and didn’t let their levels drop against Australia, Great Britain and Spain, while pushing Germany till the final second in the semifinals.

Fulton says improved endurance levels help his players to execute their skills better, making them even more dangerous.

“We can control our level of fitness, and if we do a good job with that, everything else falls into place because we have nice attacking players, we have a real focus on defence. (If) We get the defence right, we can attack more, but if you want to attack more, you need to be fitter, else you can’t sustain it,” he says.

”Everything links back to conditioning, and the level of your conditioning literally gives you the level of your skill. It releases the potential of the skill-set that you have, because you can do it and repeatedly do it. So that’s what we’re trying to improve.”