FIH Hockey World Cup 2023: We need mental conditioning coach – Graham Reid after India’s exit

India’s head coach Graham Reid feels the team needs a mental conditioning coach to handle the tricky situations in the big events. The Men in Blue had to face a shocking loss in the pre-quarters as they lost to New Zealand 5-4 in the shootout after playing a 3-3 draw in the 60 minutes.

It was a disappointing performance from the home team as they failed to make the most of their chances. Furthermore, their penalty corner conversion in the tournament was poor.

“We need to do something different perhaps. Following this, we will work on how we can get a mental coach involved. I think that is an important part for the future of the team,” Reid said at the post-match conference.

“As far as the drills or training are concerned, we do what all other teams do. I have been in this game for a long time and I know what other teams are doing. If there is anything necessary, a silver bullet out there, I do think that (is) mentally.”

Reid admitted the team lacked consistency and they need to learn from their mistakes to come up with better performances in the future.

“Tonight, we lacked consistency. In the last quarter, for example, we let ourselves down. We threw the ball away, kept doing stuff like that, Things like that made it very difficult for ourselves.

“Every team has at some stage had certain issues like converting circle penetration. We need to go back to the drawing board a little bit later,” he said.

“It is very hard to answer questions after such a loss. It is (lack of) skill execution at the end of the day, We need to work on that.”

India had won the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics but failed to replicate the same performance in the World Cup. India will look to bounce back stronger in the upcoming tournaments and a mental conditioning coach will definitely help the players.