KOLKATA: It's been about a week that mental conditioning expert Paddy Upton has been part of the Indian men's hockey team camp and he is not leaving any stone unturned to get the hang of things.
His main priority has been attending training sessions, gym sessions and even watching the players off the field. He also held sessions with the players as well as the staff and as coach Craig Fulton said, "It was refreshing, and it gave everyone a new vision in that space."
Fulton, however, made it quite clear during a virtual press conference on Friday that "Paddy is not going to be the main voice in the team."
"We are trying to help the team find its own voice and manage themselves, the game and the training internally. Those are the signs of a championship team when they can manage themselves inside out," said Fulton.
"We don't really want to have someone standing and creating all the instructions and then if that person is not there, the team cannot function. That's not what we want."
Having said that, Fulton did point out how Upton's presence has been helping him.
"With Paddy there it really helps me, helps the staff. You create the right language, the right vision and that's important. At times you do things without checking yourself and then it's nice to have a sounding board to say, 'Well try it like this or do it like that or say nothing or now is the time to come in.' It's refreshing, its good," said the coach.
As far as captain Harmanpreet Singh is concerned, Upton has helped the players to think differently.
"Paddy has said an important thing that 'you cannot always play great. Sometimes it does happen that you beat a good team like Australia, but it doesn't mean that you have won everything and that you are the best'," said the captain.
"Sometimes you also lose to lower-ranked teams, but it doesn't mean that you are bad. You just have to maintain your consistency and work is going on as to how we can achieve that."
Besides these sessions, Fulton has been working with his fellow South African to identify the 'new Indian way'.
"We want to search for ways to do things better than what was done before. That obviously will start individually before it grows collectively. Nothing is set in stone, it's all discovery at the moment and these are all open conversations that the team is having," the coach explained.
Team announced for tournament in Spain
Defenders Varun Kumar and Nilam Sanjeep Xess and midfielders Sumit and Nilakanta Sharma are back in the Indian national squad after missing the FIH Pro League matches in Belgium. They are part of the 24-member squad that will participate in a four-nation tournament to be held in Terrasa, Spain, from July 25-30 where they will play against England, Netherlands, and hosts Spain.
The squad: Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak; Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Manpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh (c), Varun Kumar, Sanjay; Midfielders: Hardik Singh (vc), Vivek Sagar Prasad, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Rajkumar Pal; Forwards: Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Abhishek, Pawan, Dilpreet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Karthi Selvam
