HIL: Ice hockey | Interview with Craig Fulton: ‘We have two blocks to peak this year during the World Cup and the Asian Games; bigger the dream, bigger the team’

Every time you go to South Africa there is something unique you plan for the team…

In South Africa we had quite a big focus on off-field team building and sessions with Paddy (Upton), which worked well, and the performance and training with the goalkeeping coach also worked. We had the Lion’s Head draw. It’s quite a steep slope. It is located at the same height as Table Mountain. So now we’ve done both. On days off we did Lawn Bowls, which is a great, incredible game. And then we went surfing in Muizenberg, where we taught the players how to surf, because some of them don’t really swim. Then we had a 40km mountain bike ride through the mountains in Stellenbosch on the way to Franschhoek, which was very difficult, but worth it. We had a few falls (chuckles), it was very enjoyable. I’m just setting a marker for the coming year, 2026. Because Paddy lives in Cape Town, it is a lot easier to do these exercises. The message from Paddy and I is: the bigger the dream, the bigger the team. To be successful, we need a lot of the right people in the right places, doing the right things more often than not.

Craig Fulton (PHOTO: Hockey India)

What is HIL’s role in building the larger squad for the 2026 workload?

We now have a very competitive team. But now let’s open everything up to see if we haven’t missed anyone and to give someone a chance from perhaps the Under-21 World Cup for different combinations. HIL is a different kind of tournament. Certain players will play out of position, which is also interesting. I want to make a selection for a new selection for the World Cup and the Asian Games. The Pro League will arrive at the beginning of February, with four matches in India. It’s quite a tough schedule because there are only five days between playing in India and playing in Hobart.

How do you plan to tackle that?

We may have two groups. One group will play the first leg in Rourkela, those four games, and another group will already go on to Hobart because we don’t have enough time. To travel with the same group, travel 35 hours and then have three days to prepare for a time zone change to get to Hobart is not possible. So we’ll do this block and see how we move forward with this, expose a few more players, because we need a few more players to do the World Cup Asian Games block. If we want to do well, we need a few more players. If you think about the World Cup and the Asian Games three weeks apart, that could be a blueprint for how we want to approach that. We also have to split our staff, which is not the most optimal way of doing things. Some additional assistance has already been approved by Hockey India.

How do you prepare to peak for this schedule?

We have two blocks that we need to peak for. One of them is the World Cup, one of them is the Asian Games. If you told European hockey teams that you are going to play the World Cup and three weeks later play the European Championship, which is your qualifying tournament for LA2028, they would say you are angry, they would say we are not playing. But because it is Asian hockey and we are in this situation, we have to make the best plan possible. It’s not easy because you can’t just take one group and do both. We’ve been building towards this for a while. It’s just how to use it now and use it properly.

Craig Fulton, coach of the Indian men’s hockey team. (Hockey India)

At HIL, all eight teams have Indian captains, who should also help with your leadership group…

That is what we are always looking for, even in our own environment, even without HIL. And I think it will come to light in the Hockey India League, which is better because it’s almost made official now. You don’t really need a captaincy to be a leader. That’s more our conversation with the players. It’s really about doing your job, doing it well and inspiring others to be better. When you create solutions and help your teammates, you become a leader because people come to you for answers. And that is what we are looking for during a match. When things aren’t exactly the way we want them, who do we go to to try to solve that problem in a five-minute block? And if no one raises their hand, we have a problem.