Indian men’s hockey team undergoes shift in philosophy, emphasis on defensive structure for Asiad

PTI

New Delhi, September 20

The Indian men’s hockey team is undergoing a philosophy shift, moving away from the traditional attacking style of play with new head coach Craig Fulton emphasising on having a sound defense.

Defence has always been the Indian team’s weakness. Playing with an attacking mindset the strikers and midfielders move forward, leaving the defence vulnerable.

However since the time he took over the top job in April, Fulton has made it clear that chinks in defense are non-negotiable for him.

“It’s a little bit of philosophy change, we really want to improve our defence and counter-attack to win and that’s the philosophy,” Fulton told PTI in an exclusive interview.

“And also the mental side of the things, when the team and individuals are struggling, we are working on finding out ways to get the job done,” Fulton said.

The South African added that working on the mental side of things is also top priority for them as a gold-medal finish would fetch them a direct berth at next year’s Paris Olympics.

For this, World Cup-winning Indian cricket team’s former mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton will be engaging with the men’s hockey team during the business end of the Asian Games.

Fulton, under whose guidance India won the Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai last month, is pretty clear about his present target -- to become number one in Asia by winning the Asian Games gold and qualify for Paris Olympics.

“I have only been here for 4 months with the team where we had three really good competitions and things are going really well. At the end of the day we will now get tested in the Asian Games. And we just want to qualify (for Paris Olympics).

“India has a rich history of Asian Games and Asian Champions Trophy. When I first joined I wanted India to be the No.1 team is Asia. We have to know where we are, where we need to improve and ultimately we want to qualify directly for Paris through Asian Games, that's the realistic and ultimate goal,” he said.

Fulton said there is no alternative to training to get better everyday and achieve success at the global stage.

“We try to really create a very competitive environment and at the same time you have to know where you are in order to improve areas that probably have let you down before,” he said.

“So whatever the cycle of the team is it has really done well in Tokyo, had a bit of disappointment in the World Cup but now we are on the up. We know we are really doing well and need to improve all the time,” Fulton added.

India will open their Asian Games campaign against Uzbekistan on Sunday.

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