We're ranked fourth in the world at the moment and a lot of people have started talking about us getting a podium place in 2012, but us hockey players don't like to blow our own trumpet. We've been through some dark times in recent years – England Hockey nearly went bankrupt and we had games where literally the result was dictating whether we would still have a job or not – so we're not taking anything for granted. Still, being expected to win things is a nicer pressure to have than what we've been through. We're chasing the Australians and the target is to improve our world ranking by one place each year, which we've been doing, but there's a long way to go. Next week we start training as a British team, as opposed to England, and so this is where our preparation for 2012 really begins.
In the past we would only train one year out of four as a GB team, but this time round we are starting much earlier in the cycle. It's not straightforward – next summer we will compete as England in the European Cup, in which we are defending champions – and we still don't know whether we can compete in the Champions Trophy as GB or England, but it's a big improvement. Hopefully I'll still have the captaincy in 2012, having been captain at the Commonwealth Games this year, where dealing with all the off-field problems in the athletes' village gave me a wealth of experience and I would love to continue in that role.
Biography
Born 12 January 1984
Doncaster
Educated Hall Cross school, Doncaster and Loughborough University
Learned to play
Doncaster hockey club
Current club An der Alster (Hamburg, Germany)
Coach Jason Lee (for England and Great Britain)
Favourite film
The Shawshank Redemption
Favourite band
Kings of Leon
Favourite food
Cadbury's Twirl
Key statistics
Experience
Two Olympic Games, two World Cups, one Champions Trophy, three Champions Challenges, two Commonwealth Games and four European Championships
Major honours
Won a gold at the 2009 European Championships. Has also been included on the shortlist for the 2010 International Hockey Federation's player of the year award
World rankings
1 Australia
2 Germany
3 Netherlands
4 England
5 Spain
6 South Korea
Training
GB training starts next week. We have a cycle so we'll do two or three days a week together as the British team for three consecutive weeks and then have a week off, where we train individually. The programme will take in different phases so, for example, next summer we have the European Cup and training will work around that. In the next few weeks we'll look at what we need to improve. We've made massive progress in the last year and a half, so the progress we make in the next 18 months might not seem as sharp in comparison. At the last five tournaments we've played we've made the semi-final or final of all of them. Now we need to start winning them.
Olympic countdown
6 November 2010
First training camp with the Great Britain team in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics. Training camps will take place up to three times a month and last for two to three days
17 November 2010
First of two Test matches for Great Britain against Argentina at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall. The second Test will take place the following day
August 2011
Middleton will captain England at the European Championships in Germany. England will defend the title they won in 2009
December 2011
Another tournament with England at the Champions Trophy in India
