Play at your best when your best is required.
That's the message about pacing during long campaigns that's driving the Australian men's hockey team to win gold at next year's Rio Olympics.
The Kookaburras came away from London with bronze and they have been hell-bent ever since on winning gold in Rio.
Much like the lead up to London, the Kookaburras find themselves as the No.1 team in the world, the trick now is sustaining that form going into the Olympics.
Captain Mark Knowles, a gold medal winner from Athens in 2004, is set for his fourth Olympics, and believes the team learnt valuable lessons from London.
"We didn't play well in big moments, which was our downfall," he told AAP.
"That's been the case in the past two Olympics, we've let ourselves down when you really have to play well."
It was words of wisdom from former coach Ric Charlesworth - who handed the reins to long-time assistant Graham Reid last year - which have helped drive the Kookaburras on the road to Rio.
Since London, they've enjoyed a successful run which included the 2014 World Cup and Commonwealth Games titles.
They won the World League Semi-Final tournament in July this year with a last-minute victory over Belgium to qualify for Rio.
Last month they beat New Zealand to clinch the Oceania Cup.
"One of the things Ric talked about after London was that you have to play at your best when your best is required," Knowles said.
"It's about stepping up for those big tournaments and those big moments and big games, like semi-finals and finals, and we have been doing that since London."
Some of the Kookaburras depart for India on Friday for a three-Test series prior to the final major tournament of the year, the World League Final in Raipur, starting on November 27.
Knowles and a number of senior players will leave the Kookaburras' Perth training base later to play in the World League, with an opportunity given to some younger, up-and-coming athletes in the India Tests.
The Kookaburras ramp up for the Olympics with a series in Perth against Great Britain in April-May in 2016 before the Champions Trophy in Argentina in June before the Olympics two months later.
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