Indian Men's hockey coaching team: The backroom staff that helped India script history at Tokyo 2020

The Indian men's hockey team created history in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics when they beat Germany 5-4 to clinch the bronze medal at the Oi Hockey Stadium on Thursday evening.

Simranjeet Singh (17', 34') scored a brace while Hardik Singh (27'), Harmanpreet Singh (29'), and Rupinder Pal Singh (31') netted once each for India to help the Men in Blue make a comeback after being 3-1 down at one point.

This win also ended India's 41-year medal drought in men's hockey at the Olympics. After a disappointing 5-2 loss in the semifinals to Belgium, the team picked up their pieces once again and made sure that they were up and running.

However, behind these heroes, there is a team of backroom staff that has worked relentlessly to help them perform at the highest level. Let us look at them in brief.

Graham Reid (Chief Coach)

The former Australian player took over the reins of this team in April 2019.

After his arrival, he has worked on making India one of the finest attacking teams in the world. There has been a visible change in mentality in the players who have come to believe that they can turn around a match from any situation. This was highlighted in the bronze medal match where they overturned a 3-1 deficit to lead 5-3. Even after a chastening 7-1 loss against Australia in the group stages, they came back strongly in the tournament.

Under Reid's guidance, the team has consistently performed well in the FIH Pro League and the Olympic medal is a testimony of how this young Indian team has blossomed in the last two years.

Gregg Clark (Analytical Coach)

The South African joined the Indian team just seven months back as the analytical coach. Interestingly, he has also coached the Indian Colts in 2013-14 and during his reign, India won the Sultan of Johor Cup and participated at the 2013 FIH Junior World Cup in New Delhi.

He has over 250 caps for South Africa and has coached the national team as well for six years. He has four Olympic Games (two as a player and two as a Coach), four World Cups (two as player and two as Coach), three Commonwealth Games (2 as player and 1 as coach), and countless FIH tournaments under his belt.

Shivendra Singh (Assistant Coach)

The former Indian forward joined the team as an assistant coach in March 2019. He primarily works with the forwards and the way the strikers delivered at the Tokyo Olympics, he will be a proud man. The young guns like Shamsher Singh and Dilpreet Singh came of age in this tournament and credit must be given to Singh.

He was an integral member of the team that the gold in the 2007 Asia Cup, silver in 2010 Commonwealth Games, and bronze in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

Piyush Kumar Dubey (Assistant Coach)

Piyush Kumar Dubey started working with the Indian team in February 2019 under interim coach David John. He used to work with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and was a part of the group of 25 coaches that travelled to Birmingham in 2016 to learn the tricks of combining coaching with sports science.

Robin Anthony Webster Arkell (Scientific Advisor)

Arkell joined the team set up as the scientific advisor who worked primarily on the fitness of the players. He started with the junior men's team and was later promoted to the senior team. He has worked with several rugby and cricket teams as the chief strength and conditioning coach. The Indian team had hardly any issues with fitness, despite playing in the Tokyo heat and the credit goes to Arkell.

The other members of the support staff are: Ratinasamy Bose Kannan (Physiotherapist), Ashok Kumar C (Video Analyst), Arup Naskar (Masseur).