FIH Hockey World Cup: For Germans it's mind over matter

Apart from regular physical and tactical training, the team spends a lot of time harnessing their mental strength

In terms of mental strength, the German hockey team is amongst the best in the world across all sports. No matter the situation or the opposition, they never give up and keep fighting on till the very last second. The backs-to-the-wall wins against England and Australia are ample proofs of their resounding resilience.

In the last-eight clash against England, the Die Honamas trailed 2-0 and were on the brink of exit. They were outrun and outmuscled by a well organised Three Lions for almost 95 percent of the match and even missed a penalty stroke with four minutes left.

Most teams would have thrown in the towel at that stage, sinking to that ‘it wasn’t our day’ feeling. Not the Germans though. They kept fighting. Winners of four Olympic golds, two World Cups and nine Champions Trophies, they scored twice 40 seconds apart in the dying moments of the match to push the contest into a shootout which unsurprisingly they aced.

They had to summon the same determination on Friday in the semifinals against Australia. Down by two goals again and finding it hard to break the gritty Aussie defence, the Germans struck twice to pull things back before being stung by a scintillating Kookaburras goal in the 57th minute. It was solid counter-punch, strong enough to flatten several teams. Again, not the Germans.

Germany equalised through Gonzalo Peillat in the 58th minute and then man of the match Niklas Wellen scored the winner six seconds from time, utterly bemused fans at the Kalinga Stadium standing up and applauding them for their never-say-die attitude and extraordinary self-belief.

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That begs a pertinent question. From where do these Germans get this extraordinary fortitude? How do they perfect it? The answer is the amount of time they devote to mental conditioning. Apart from regular physical and tactical training, the Germans spend a lot of time harnessing their mental strength by hiring psychologists, practicing yoga and the coach even donning the role of an umpire and instigating players during mock drills.

“Apart from athletic strength, tactical strength and technical strength, we train for mental strength also,” said coach Andre Henning, who is a lawyer by profession. “Mental strength is super important. You can train your mind about how to, like maintaining some secrets. But it's like, people working around the team like mental coaches, and we talk a lot about situations. We know that these crucial moments are coming and we discuss it. Some guys have support from mental coaches too.”

Skipper Mats Grambusch, who scored one of the goals against England, said working on controlling the heart-rate also helps. “We do a lot of mental strength training to calm ourselves, especially in tense situations. Calming ourselves means calming our heart-rate. For breathing we practice yoga. In shootout, it’s important to stay calm. When it's your turn, you first calm yourselves and then go for it.”

Peillat, who won the 2016 Rio Olympics gold with Argentina before switching allegiance to Germany following differences with the federation and head coach German Orozco in January 2019, hailed the mental stamina of the Europeans. “In Argentina, we are more passionate and lose our minds a little bit (during tense situations). With German culture, we are more calm and trying to go for the tactics, trying to find what is the weakness of the opponent. That’s the difference.”

It indeed is. Against England and Australia, things weren’t going their way. But they never lost shape nor sight of the target. They would need every bit of that mental fortitude if they wish to knock Belgium off the top of the world on Sunday.