Winning a bronze medal at a prestigious international tournament in Malaysia last month was great. However, we felt that we should have pushed for a higher finish.

Getting in to the final was an objective for us. We were disappointed that we did not achieve this as in the build-up to London we want to be experiencing finals and getting used to the pressure. But at least it was good to push on and prove that we are strong enough to play in these pressured medal games.

Personally, these last few months have been a massive learning curve for me.

I have had conversations with our nutritionist, Dan Kings, and we investigated the idea of trying to trim down some of the fat on my body. We created a strict diet that was designed to strip the body fat away. The diet was only for a maximum of two weeks but I had reached my goal in 10 days. A total of 6.5 kilograms were lost and that was all fat. I then had discussions with our head coach and strength/conditioning coach and we looked at a new bespoke conditioning programme to enable me to be in the best shape come London.

I would love London to be slightly less eventful than Beijing where I scored a goal (that was the top of the rollercoaster) but then became embroiled in controversy after a deemed bad tackle. I need to use what happened there to produce in London. I had some amazing highs in Beijing, especially when I scored in two minutes against Pakistan. But my enthusiasm and will to win meant I went a little too far.

After making a clean tackle against Canada I then went to attack and found myself "removing" a Canadian player that had got balanced on my shoulder. It seemed that moving him by dropping him was not the best way to handle the situation. I was sin-binned and we ended up drawing the game. That result meant we struggled to progress from the group stages.

My enthusiasm and mental control have vastly improved from the guy that was in Beijing. This calmer mind state will enable me to be a stronger and more influential player come London.


In the meantime, we have a busy year. We play in the London Cup later this month - a four-nation tournament against Belgium, New Zealand and Korea - to start whipping up local support for 2012 and are looking to retain our European Championship in Germany in August, as this will be a good way of measuring our progress. We were fortunate to win the gold in Amsterdam two years ago, but we are a stronger, more experienced team now and so we feel we can start to be successful without luck playing such an important role. It would be great to think that Chelsea FC - I'm a season ticket holder - might follow in our footsteps with European success next season too.

Hockey is now such a fast, competitive, skill-heavy game that we train harder, I would guess, than most footballers I know. But we do need to occasionally let our hair down. Lucky for us then, that Richard "Ratman" Alexander is in the squad. If you search "Ratman Dance for Sultan" on YouTube then you will understand why. Ratman also has done a video for Wrappz Hockey. Check it out for use of the word "OK" - close to 30 times in two minutes.

Personally, I think it's crucial to have a distraction that resets the mind after all the stress of training and competition. Along with Rat and another of our players Matt Daly, I've become involved with Wrappz Hockey, a fun product that enables people to personalise their hockey equipment.

It has not gone unnoticed either that 11 members of the team took part in a topless photoshoot for a glossy men's magazine's search to find a cover model. We don't know the results yet, but it had better not be Rat.

To follow James Tindall on Twitter click here.

See James Tindall in action at The London Cup from July 12-16. Book now to see England take on New Zealand, Korea and Belgium on home turf a year before London 2012. Please click here or call 08444 99 32 22 to secure your tickets.

James Tindall, who plays for Surbiton, has won 35 caps for Great Britain and was named as the Hockey Writers Club Player of the Year in 2005

British Hockey is represented by www.davidwelchmanagement.com