During the victory celebration of the Indian hockey team who won the Asian Champions Trophy, cricket fans were reminded of a person who was with the team: as if they have seen this face somewhere! Their suspicions were correct. It was South African Paddy Upton who was with the team when the Indian cricket team won the ODI World Cup in 2011.
The lessons of Paddy, who is famous as a mental conditioning coach, have benefited the Indian hockey team this time. Coach Craig Fulton, who is a South African himself, brought Paddy to the Indian hockey team. Fulton became the coach of the Indian men’s hockey team last May. Hockey India has given Fulton the task of preparing the team for tournaments like Asian Champions Hockey, Asian Games and Paris Olympics.
Although he could not find any major problems in the team’s performance, Fulton realized that there was a ‘missing piece’ in the team. That inquiry led to local man Paddy Upton. When Fulton proved his strength by making the Indian hockey team the Asian champions within two months, Paddy also claimed a role as the team’s mental conditioning coach.
Mind is power
India trailed Malaysia 3-1 at the end of the second quarter of the Asian Champions Hockey Final. The moment Indian fans confirmed that the title was out of hand. From there, India overcame all the pressure, kicked the fear of failure, and won the title with a 3-goal comeback that left the fans in awe of the victory. The job of the mental conditioning coach is to prepare the players to survive the pressure of competition.
A mental conditioning coach prepares a player to face any type of competitive pressure by evaluating the outside of a player like exercise, rest, fluctuations in performance, style of play, character strengths and weaknesses. That is why Paddy Upton also deserves applause for India’s comeback in the final. After winning the 2011 ODI World Cup, Paddy went straight to the South African cricket team. Paddy was with South Africa when they topped all formats of cricket (2012).
English Summary : How Paddy Upton help Indian hockey team to win Asian Champions Trophy
2023-08-16 05:13:10
#Lessons #taught #Paddy
