For the Indian Women's Hockey Team Saturday mornings are the toughest. "It is always a red session," exclaims Monika, Indian Women's Hockey Team's experienced midfielder. Throwing light on their training during the ongoing National Coaching Camp at SAI Centre, Bengaluru, Monika continues to explain, "Red sessions are mostly higher-intensity training sessions where we focus on match    intensity with the idea of superseding match intensity with small-sided variations." 

"Each session is either focused on speed or endurance or direction focused. We have about two-three such sessions a week. Those are the days when our fitness levels are really tested. Each day we train anywhere between 2 hours to 4.5 hours," Monika says.

With less than 75 days for the Tokyo Olympic Games, Monika feels the team is in the right mind-set to achieve their goal. "We have had a few setbacks with some of our players testing positive, but they are all well and back to training now. We don't want to think of the issues that are out of our control. Our focus is to improve each day and be ready for the Games and the entire group is mentally prepared," Monika concludes.