Hockey: How Hardik Singh, India’s midfield dynamo, sought mental help and vowed not to stop trying | Hockey News

Hardik Singh’s first touch was uneventful and harmless: a simple trap and pass in the centre of the midfield. It didn’t take long for the boring to turn into breathless.Minutes later, he was on the left of the defence near the line, presenting his cornered teammate a passing option. He then popped up inside the opponent’s striking circle to aid an attack and instantly sprinted back to fill the gap on the right of the back-line. When captain Harmanpreet Singh ventured slightly forward, Hardik swiftly dropped deep and became the sweeper back.
Friday’s Pro League match between India and Ireland was only 20 minutes old but Hardik had played in five different positions. Sprinting, scheming and splitting defence. “He is our dynamo,” says India coach Craig Fulton. “He makes things tick.”
Ireland wasn’t an exception. All through the week, Hardik was elegantly running the game against Australia, the Netherlands and Spain. Showing his wide range of skills, running into empty spaces and holding the ball, to see passes others can just dream and controlling the tempo. A player so skilled and diligent, he makes others around him better.
Unlike football, hockey isn’t a sport obsessed with stats. If it was, 2023’s world player of the year would perhaps have the most touches of the ball and most dribbles while his heatmap would resemble a giant omelette spread on a pan.
Hardik’s importance to the team hit home not during one of his many tireless performances. But it was when an injury cruelly ruled him out in the middle of the World Cup last year.
Friday’s Pro League match between India and Ireland was only 20 minutes old but Hardik had played in five different positions. (Hockey India)
Think of the ankle injury Hardik Pandya suffered during the cricket World Cup last year and the buzz around it before the all-rounder was eventually ruled out. The hockey universe isn’t as big as cricket but inside the relatively small bubble, the hysteria around Hardik’s injury was no less than his namesake.
While the cricket team did not feel Pandya’s absence at the cricket version, Hardik’s omission following a hamstring injury spelt immediate doom for the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalls, who got prematurely booted out of the home World Cup.
The realisation sunk in then that in a team of stars, his star was on the rise. It did occur to Hardik immediately back then and his return was full of self-doubts and insecurities that long injury lay-offs often trigger.
Hardik says he was a ‘little depressed’ and was too hard on himself but a timely intervention sports psycholog Paddy Upton, who was with the team for the Asian Games, had a profound impact.
“I was a little depressed. I was taking myself, my game too seriously. If I lost the ball, if there was a turnover because of me – even in training – I was taking it too seriously and being too hard on myself,” Hardik tells The Indian Express.
“I spoke to Paddy about this. At some level, talking about mental health is considered taboo here as we think our minds can’t be weak. We overcame that mindset when he joined our team. The thinking was, if such a world-renowned coach was spending time with us, we must utilise his services.
Hardik says he was a ‘little depressed’ and was too hard on himself but a timely intervention sports psycholog Paddy Upton, who was with the team for the Asian Games, had a profound impact. (Hockey India)
“The sessions with Paddy were very helpful. And one thing he said that stayed with me was, ‘You can never fail to try’. It’s a mantra that I will follow for the rest of my life,” Hardik says.
If Upton – who shot to fame in India after being a key member of Gary Kirsten’s coaching staff that helped the Men in Blue win the 2011 World Cup – made Hardik a mentality monster, it’s in Kobe Bryant that the 25-year-old seeks a champion’s mindset.
Currently Hardik’s bedside is the NBA star’s autobiography and he finds ideas and inspiration in every page he turns. “It touches upon a lot of things like the mindset of a champion, the outlook to have towards all things and also sends out a message that sometimes, you have to sacrifice for the team. You have to be prepared to do the dirty work. Himmat chahiye, bas (You need courage, that’s all),” he says.
“My motto is simple: If I have to sacrifice myself to help my teammate, then I am happy to do that,” Hardik adds. “Our ultimate goal is to win. So if it means that if my teammate is having a very good day in the central midfield and I have to play in the back five because of that, I am okay with it.”
In a team where players in the past were often seen guilty of putting their interests ahead of the team’s, Hardik embodies a refreshing change of mindset that was key to India returning to the Olympic podium.
For Fulton, it’s a boon but with a big asterisk. “He is a competitor. He wants to win. So if it means, ‘Give me the ball and I’ll do something’ then guys know it. And sometimes, he just plays the holding role to let someone else do it,” the coach says. “At the same time, we can’t rely on him all the time. He is also a human.”

And to his credit, at present, Hardik is operating on super-human levels. After 55 minutes of play, Ireland made a dangerous circle entry from the left and played a ball across the face of the goal. An attacker was lining up a shot but out of nowhere appeared Hardik, picking up the ball and cleaning the mess left an open defence.
The next second, he was sprinting forward to join the attack. Just Hardik doing Hardik things.