Serious stuff for women's hockey team but Brits try to laugh their way to the top

Women’s hockey team are now a force, having been challenged in some unique ways over the last four years
p91 editiom 25/7 Britain's Alex Danson
MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images
Ian Herbert25 July 2012

At least one aspect of the GB women’s hockey team’s rise to genuine Olympic gold medal contenders has been unscheduled. No one quite expected Kate Middleton, an enthusiast, to drop in on training and, by some accounts, send sales of hockey sticks up into the stratosphere.

She will be back to watch a campaign that opens against Japan on Sunday though the women have not been banking on royalty amid their long quest for the place at the top of the podium, which Holland and Argentina will have something to say about.

Every aspect of the last four years has been geared towards that gold, in a way that even the work of Jason Lee’s men’s side have not. Say the words “gold medal mentality” around the Bisham Abbey base where the women have worked in a centralised, five-day-a-week training programme since 2008 and you’ll hear a sigh. That’s how engrained that mantra has become.

The women, coached by Danny Kerry, have developed such an esprit de corps that Kerry was on the brink of tears when he announced his final squad. They’ve been put through every kind of ordeal — from a Royal Marine course to being forced to perform improvised stand-up comedy — to ensure they will have faced more uncomfortable prospects than a gold medal game.

It is why they have been regularly beating top-four sides for the past two years now, their narrow defeat to Argentina in the final of the Champions Trophy in February being their best finish in 20 years. Forward Alex Danson and Kate Walsh, defender and captain for nine years, may just provide one of the sleeper stories of the summer. The Dutch, No1 in the world, and fifth-placed China stand in the women’s way as they seeks a top-two place in the pool of six, to clinch a semi-final.

The men’s last four years have been built around intermittent four-day training programmes but they embarked on a radical, attacking tactical philosophy in 2009, on the basis that “first is first, second is nowhere”, as Bill Shankly once put it.

“Playing strong defence like you might in football is not really a viable way of winning a tournament,” said coach Lee.

He will throw men forward, watch them interchange rapidly and dispense with goalkeeper James Fair entirely if they are 2-0 down with 10 minutes to play. Like the women, they are world ranked fourth — though beat the world’s best less consistently. That is why last week’s 2-1 win over Spain, who thumped them 8-1 in the Champions Trophy last December, felt so significant. GB also beat the re-emerging India there.

Barry Middleton, the captain, who scored in Spain, is one on whom much rests but Jackson’s goals, corner flicking and a 100mph shot — rare in hockey — are all imperative if the men, who face world No1 Australia in their pool, are to progress.

The favourite motto of Jackson is: “The name on the front of the jersey means a lot more than the name on the back.” It is the one USA ice hockey coach Herb Brooks engrained in his 1980 Winter Olympics team at Lake Placid, a story depicted in Gavin O’Connor’s film Miracle which the GB players have watched a lot. “It’s a brilliant quote. If you are not playing for those reasons and for the team around you then you’re in the wrong environment,” said Jackson. Brooks’s boys beat Russia to gold.

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