All posts tagged: Indian hockey team focusing on fitness to qualify for World Cup through Pro League

‘Camp mode: Dead’ — Eye on World Cup qualification, India’s men’s hockey team turns to sprints, mountain runs to improve endurance | Hockey News

‘Camp mode: Dead’ — Eye on World Cup qualification, India’s men’s hockey team turns to sprints, mountain runs to improve endurance | Hockey News

By their own admission, Craig Fulton has made his players do ‘crazy’ things. They’ve climbed Table Mountain and rappelled in the Swiss Alps. Yet, when they returned to the team’s base in Bengaluru late April, the back-to-back Olympic medallists were already ‘questioning’ their ‘life choices’. Sharpening skills and learning new tactics weren’t the only items on the to-do list of the 55 players, now pruned to 40, who reported for the national camp. What awaited them were 400m sprints, middle-distance runs, mile-long endurance drills, galloping down the hills and intense gym workouts. On top of all that were routine — and unrelenting — turf sessions, rehearsing penalty corners (attack and defence) and shooting skills. “Camp mode: Dead,” vice-captain Hardik Singh wrote, in jest, on his social media page, after just the second day of the camp. Story continues below this ad Scroll down the timeline of any player, and all one sees is him on the running track, on mountain slopes, or at the gym. “This is the most intense training block we have had …