India’s vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh reflecting on the bronze-winning Olympic campaign said that collective mindset of the team in ‘difficult situations which got us over the line eventually’. The 26-year-old also won the title of FIH Men’s Player of the Year 2021.

Team India, who are eight-time former gold-winners, won an Olympic medal after about four decades in Tokyo last year. Harmanpreet Singh was a key figure in the country’s resurgence in the national sport. 

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During his guest appearance on the Hockey India podcast ‘Hockey Te Charcha’, the drag flicker sai that the lockdown helped the team prepare for the Summer Games. 

“Our team spent a lot of time together in lockdown last year before the Olympics. It was a difficult situation because we were not able to visit home in the initial months of lockdown, but facing that period of difficulty together prepared us for the challenges of the Olympics last year. Even after trailing 3 – 1 against a team like Germany in the Bronze medal match, it was our collective mindset in difficult situations which got us over the line eventually,” he said. 

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Singh made his national team debut in 2015. He is the vice-captain of the hockey side currently. 

“I really enjoy this additional responsibility of being Vice-Captain. It has never felt like an added pressure because everyone in the team is able to communicate openly with each other. Of course, Manpreet and other senior players like Sree bhai (PR Sreejesh) also take responsibility to guide the team in training and match situations, so it is a collective effort on the part of the whole team to grow together.”

He further added that he has mastered his goal-scoring from penalty corners. 

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“I was training in Ludhiana at the time when my Coaches identified me as a potential drag-flicker, but it was in the Surjit Hockey Academy in Jalandhar that I received proper training for the first time ever in taking penalty corners. I used to spend a lot of time individually before and after the team, practice hours to improve my drag flicks, and also had the right kind of guidance from senior players in the academy. Then after I came into the national team, I saw players like Sardara Singh and Rupinder Pal Singh work on their game. Learning from them helped me improve my skills even further,” he added.