What a day in the life of an elite team in competition looks like.

As part of an ongoing professional relationship with a major hockey brand, I was asked to join KHC Dragons, a hockey club based in Antwerp who were chasing the dream of winning the EHL, Europe’s premier club hockey competition.

As a fan you are normally only ever get to see a team play but what goes on before that often dictates success.

I joined the team at their first collective moment of the day, a captain’s walk before breakfast to get the day rolling. After this followed a tightly scripted schedule of physiotherapy, video analysis and most importantly some dedicated time to decompress before leaving the hotel.

After arriving at the stadium, the team entered autopilot, going through their usual warm up routine before heading back into the changing room for their match shirts and some last words of encouragement.

Despite a keenly fought game, it was not to be their day and they were knocked out of the competition but as ever, family and friends were there to rally around and pick them up.