Indian hockey team needs to match the level of Australia and Belgium consistently, says Graham Reid

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Indian men's hockey team head coach Graham Reid with the players at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Indian men’s hockey team had their best Olympic campaign in four decades when they won the bronze medal after a 41-year wait. The Indian men’s hockey team’s chief coach Graham Reid credited the team's success to certain innate qualities.

The team got the better of Germany in the bronze medal play-off match and returned home with a coveted Olympic medal. The minor blips in an otherwise successful tournament was the league stage’s 1-7 loss to Australia and the 2-5 loss to Belgium.

Reid, while talking to Hockey India, reflected on the Indian men’s hockey team's performance. He said one of the excellent traits of the group is that they are mentally well poised to tackle any adversity on the turf. Reid said:

"This group is very focused and mentally very tough. They have imbibed a team-first mentality and have great bonding among them. At an event like the Olympics, there are so many distractions, and it is such a huge place that often when you hit the ground at the Olympic village and everyone spread out like ants, but we were able to keep the group together and that was very positive."

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Indian hockey team will keep improvising and getting better

Reid feels instead of basking in the glory, it is the right time to analyze how the Indian men’s hockey team can improve further. The coach wants the team to become consistent at the top level.

The head coach said one way to approach this would be to draw up a plan for what is needed to elevate the team’s performance and added:

"Third is where we are at the moment, Australia and Belgium have been consistently playing at the higher level. We need to be able to get to that level. That’s the simple goal I have for this team. We will be analyzing all the games, not just ours but all the games of different teams over the next six months. We will draw up a plan of what is required to get to that next level."

"This is a smart group, and we will work out on the things we need to do. We will need to keep improvising and keep getting better. Deep down the team understands, a bronze medal at the Olympics after 41 years is great, but there is a lot of potential we need to unlock and display.”

Reid said the team will be hitting the ground hard once they resume their training sessions at the Sports Authority of India Center in Bengaluru. He said:

"We have some quality tournaments coming up and there will be a lot of good competition and we will be playing in the FIH Hockey Pro League. There will be enough time for us to prepare, we will get back to the swing of things after their well-deserved break.”

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