Maximal Aerobic Velocity is not a term Indian hockey is too familiar with, but — considered vital in Europe for assessing the fitness of players — it is one of the several tests introduced by Jesus Garcias Pallares, the new human performance analyst of the national team.

“When I joined the camp in Pune a month ago, a lot of work needed to be done,” Pallares, 27, told The Indian Express before the team left for a month-long European tour on Thursday night. “In the time we had — just over three-and-a-half weeks — I’m very happy with the progress made by the players. If we continue at the same rate, in another four to five months, this team can be at a good level internationally, among the top six teams in the world in terms of fitness.”

Pallares, hand-picked by new coach Jose Brasa, was on the support staff of the gold medallist Spanish kayaking team at the Beijing Olympics. He said the next thing on his agenda was running the team through a series of strength tests to assess their needs in greater detail.

“We didn’t have any strength training equipment in Pune, so I wasn’t able to perform strength tests. In Barcelona, I will run through the entire battery of tests to assess their strength and power to design individual profiles and training plans,” he said, adding that the current tour was only to see how well the players respond to the month-long training during match situations.

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