CHENNAI: It’s been only seven months since Craig Fulton took over as the India men’s hockey head coach. Since then, the team has won the Asian Games gold medal and qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Fulton, who is here in Chennai to observe the Indian players’ performance in the senior hockey Nationals, said he admires the ambition of the squad.In an interaction, the 49-year-old South African spoke on Olympic preparation and more.
Excerpts:
How is the Paris Olympics preparation going?
First thing was to qualify, so we did that well at the Asian Games. It was a good milestone. Now, it’s just to put a good programme together, so we peak at the right time physically, and everything comes together at the right moment. We’ve quite a few tournaments before the Olympics which can become difficult, but we need a bigger squad, so we have a lot more players to share the load.
Your predecessor Graham Reid won a historic bronze at Tokyo and there are expectations with you to go the distance this time…
There’s no pressure. My expectation for me as a coach in any tournament is to play to win. But you have a realistic objective and an ideal one. The ideal one is to win gold. And the realistic one is that we are ranked third in the world. So, realistically, where should we finish? The objective is to try and get higher up the pecking order to No.2 or 1 in the world in the next six months.

It’s been only a few months since you were appointed head coach. How has your relationship grown with the team?
I’ve learnt a lot about how things work in India, specifically within the training environment. And the thing I like the most is the ambition of the group. They want to progress. We have a golden opportunity to do it now. But it’s not just about Paris. The winner of the FIH Pro league qualifies for the 2026 World Cup straight away. So, there’ll be some players who are in the squad but won’t play in Paris, but will be eligible and probably ready to play the next cycle. So it’s always about knowing where you are but having a goal through a goal.
And how has the team adapted to your style of play?
It’s given them another way to play. And I think that’s important because we need a few different levels and a few different ways of playing different oppositions. As long as we have that variability in our game and the guys feel confident to do it, then it makes sense. And I think we’ve shown in the last three months that it’s
starting to take shape.
How crucial is Paddy Upton’s (mental conditioning coach) role in the team?
With Paddy, it just helps some of the players by making them a little bit more mentally aware that they can ask questions. We can set a framework and he gives them mental skills to help deal with certain expectations. Playing hockey in India is totally different to playing hockey outside of India. It’s two different worlds. So, there are two different skill-sets that you need to manage it.