Renowned mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton will be working with the Indian men’s hockey team for the upcoming Paris Olympics, scheduled to start at the end of July this year. Upton, who was associated with the Indian men’s cricket team for the 2011 World Cup, has worked with the men’s hockey team on various assignments.
Upton was there when the Indian hockey team won the Asian Champions Trophy and the Asian Games 2023 as well. Head coach Craig Fulton confirmed of the development.
“We have Paddy Upton, he will be with us in Australia (for Test series). We will be using him wisely. For sure he will be there for Olympics with us,” Fulton said.
The latter added, that the World No. 4 Team India is yet to peak, despite producing some stellar performances at the FIH Pro League. ”We are not complete yet but, in 4-5 months from the Olympics, we will be there.
”Ideally any high-performing team wants to win any tournament. That’s the ideal goal to be realistic. But realistically, we are ranked fourth in the world now, does that mean podium ‘right now no’ but that’s the beauty of hockey,” he said.
”Realistically, we are not there there yet but we still have time. We are in a development phase with the squad. We are trying to create some depths in different positions. That’s important to do now because it really counts in crunch matches in Olympics,” he said.
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