The Indian Hockey team has been at the Sports Authority of India facility in Bangalore for the last three weeks, training for the upcoming Olympics. The team is going through high-intensity drills and will be looking to give a good account of themselves at the big event later this year.
Highlighting the same, Indian Men’s Hockey team forward Mandeep Singh said that the team is giving their best and despite the lack of any upcoming tournament the players are giving their best.
“We are giving our absolute best during the training sessions at the national coaching camp. Even though we don’t have an immediate tournament to aim at, we are not dropping our intensity and still giving our 100 percent during every training session.”
Mandeep also added that the team is focusing on improving specific areas and hence are carrying out defence, attack and tackling drills.
He remarked, “At the moment, we are focussing on our basics and carrying out skill-based sessions apart from our training in the gym. We have been doing specific drills on shooting, defending and tackling and the team has improved in each one of the skills in the last few weeks. It’s been great to see the way everyone has been putting their best effort in every session we have been doing.”
The players are working hard both physically and mentally and therefore Mandeep feels that the bond created here feels like family. He also adds how apart from staying physically fit it is also important to stay strong mentally especially during these tough times.
“Apart from maintaining good physical fitness, staying mentally strong is also very important for us. The great thing is that we are at the SAI campus in Bengaluru. We all live like a family here and the environment is wonderful for us. We support each other during good and bad times and all of us have been motivating each other to keep giving our best in every practice session for the team. That’s how we maintain our physical and mental fitness,” concluded the 26-year old.
