India’s new hockey coach Fulton sets sight on Asiad gold

There is no scope for the Indian men’s hockey team to rest on its laurels after the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and it’s up to the players to ensure that they develop the required consency to keep improving as individuals and as a group, new head coach Craig Fulton said on Tuesday.
The podium finish at the last Games came after a 41-year wait and there was much relief and celebration when the long drought came to an end. But Fulton emphasized that it can’t remain a one-off achievement. The subsequent big event, the Hockey World Cup on home soil, saw India bow out of contention before the quarterfinal stage.
“If the players don’t want to improve on the bronze medal, there’s not much I can do as a coach,” the South African said. “One needs to develop the belief and consency to maintain the ‘Olympic Standard’ that they have set.”
It all comes down to the culture and environment of a group, Fulton, who has worked with the Belgian and Irish set-ups before taking over the India job, said in an online media interaction.
“It depends on the accountability, teamwork and leadership in the group. The players need to lift each other and maintain the required spirit. They need to keep each other on their toes. Iron sharpens iron.”
India’s performances since Tokyo have been quite erratic. The early ouster from the home World Cup was a debacle, and cost head coach Graham Reid his job. But the display in FIH Pro League games against Germany and Australia, in which India remained unbeaten, was a boost in confidence, and are at the top of the points table in that tournament.
Those games were played with high performance director David John stepping in on an interim basis. It’s been just two and a half weeks since Fulton took over at the national camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru.
Drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh, will continue to lead the team in the next round of games as the team travels to Europe – first to London to face Great Britain and Belgium twice each, and then to Eindhoven to take on hosts the Netherlands and Argentina in a couple of matches apiecep. The defender experienced the high of Tokyo, but stressed that there was no question of being satisfied and the players wanted more.
“We stay in camps for almost the whole year because we want to achieve more than what we have previously. We want to keep improving and certainly don’t want to get into a comfort zone,” he said.
Traditional weaknesses
Inconsency has been the bane of Indian hockey for decades, but Fulton said it was an issue with most sides.“It’s a big problem for everyone, not just India. Teams aim to win back-to-back matches in big tournaments, quarterfinals and semifinals, and a few bad minutes can put a side out. It’s important to have our best game at the end.”Mental fragility at key moments of big matches has been another drawback of the team for a long time, and the new coach said there was some movement to address that weakness. “I have been in conversation with Hockey India and looking to fill that gap in our preparation. It’s a priority area and we are busy on it,” Fulton said.
Harmanpreet made no secret of the feeling that a mental conditioning coach or psycholog – whatever designation one uses to describe the expert – will help the players.
“The team will definitely benefit as the special will analyse the mentality of the players and help them improve. It also depends on how long the expert is with the team,” the 27-year-old said.Talking about where he sees the Indian team at the moment and where he aims to take them, Fulton, 48, said there was work to do.
“We are a good side, not the best side. Ideally, we should be aiming at the gold medal, but there is a gap between us and the top two teams in the world. In the short and medium term, we need to be the No.1 team in Asia consently, and reach the podium in whichever tournament we play. First of all, we need to win the Asian Games gold medal to qualify directly for the Paris Olympics, and all our matches before the Asiad will be geared with that goal in mind.
“India is very difficult to play against at home, and generally anywhere in Asia. But as most of the big tournaments in the next few years are scheduled outside the continent, we need to become better overseas,” Fulton said.
‘Defend to win’
Every coach comes with his own philosophy about the game, and Fulton’s is based on strength from the backline.“Defend to win – that’s my coaching style. It’s the first step to win the ball back and launch a counter-attack. One can employ a high press only if there’s stability at the back. The Indian team has got good strikers and it takes time to imprint an ideology while harnessing the innate DNA of a side. Anyway, we don’t have time to make any big changes. Whatever style one employs, the players need to be composed enough to execute it,” he said.
Coaching the Indian hockey team is one of the most high-profile jobs in the game, but comes with its own pressures and expectations. The attrition rate of coaches has horically been very high, but the latest appointee is talking a good game.“It’s one of the hardest jobs in hockey but I expect to do well. I am very positive. I like to work on projects, and this is a totally different scenario to what I had in Ireland or Belgium. I enjoy meeting and working with people,” the South African added. “The players need to have a flame inside them, a never-say-die attitude which says: ‘We never lose, we just run out of time.’”