That last judgement comes from England's outstanding forward Alex Danson, a talent so precocious that she received her first cap at the age of 16 - a circumstance which caused her long-remembered embarrassment when she was obliged to stand up and accept applause in her school assembly.

Danson's drive and goalpower have been key elements in the English women's rise to powerfulness over the last few years, and she, like every other member of an integrated British squad that has been Lottery-funded since 2009 to train full-time at Bisham Abbey, is putting pressure on herself to perform to her maximum in the next critical year of competition.


Danson (pictured) is hugely enthusiastic about the commitment which she and her team mates are demonstrating as they virtually live together in pursuit of a common goal.

"We are all working very hard," she says. "But motivation throughout training is easy. I just close my eyes and think about standing on that Olympic podium with my buddies. If you think of that, training is so easy. You just have to think of what could be, and the opportunity we have. It would almost be criminal not to take that opportunity. "

But as Danson and her colleagues put themselves on their mettle for the world champions and beyond, another, internal pressure is operating within their highly-motivated midst. Everyone knows that not everyone can make it all the way to London 2012. The British women's squad, comprising English, Welsh and Scottish players, will have to be cut in half -  only 16 will be chosen to compete in the landmark Games on their home soil.

As things stand, Danson is unlikely to have serious worries on that score. But as she points out, the whole tricky subject is already being thoroughly addressed within the camp, as thoroughly as if it were a new tactic, or diet.

"We have been working with team psychologists, looking at everything on the basis of 'Will it help or hinder?' Come next year, when 16 players go to the Olympic Games, we need to feel we have done absolutely everything to achieve success.

"The squad won't be decided until June next year. There is no way that a team could be picked before that date.

"You wouldn't believe how many opportunities we have to talk about that aspect of things. We have all been asked to consider how we would feel as players if we were not selected, or if we were selected.

"That preparation could be critical when the Games come around. Our team will be 16 players with 16 other players right behind them. Whatever 16 are there, I truly believe we are going to be a team to watch. Fingers crossed I play in that 16."

If Danson has her fingers crossed, so too does Beckie Herbert. Like Danson, Herbert's talent was obvious very early - she received her first England call-up aged 17. But while Danson has suffered some eye-wateringly serious injuries in her time as an England player - most excruciatingly when she had to be airlifted off the Bisham Abbey training pitch after dislocating her collar bone and fracturing her sternum in a collision - she has always seemed to recover just in time to play in crucial tournaments.


Herbert's luck, so far at least, has not been the same.

By 2006, this speedy Leicester forward had established herself in the international team, and she played in the England team which won bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne after a penalty shoot-out against India.

But by the time of the next Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where England's women won bronze after narrowly failing to defeat Australia in the semi-final, Herbert was back home, watching on TV, having had the bulk of her season undermined by a freak injury in February which required an operation on her hip.

"It was a sudden thing - I was playing in a match and I felt something go in my hip," Herbert recalls. "I had torn some cartilage inside it. Sometimes you can play on through injuries, but it was something I couldn't do with this. It was quite different from any other pain I'd felt, and I needed surgery, which I underwent in May.

"I didn't get back into action until August, by which time I was too late to challenge for a place at the Commonwealth Games."

She had also missed a team-building expedition to the Royal Marine's assault course at Lympstone, where Danson and team-mate Crista Cullen excelled. "That was three days before my operation," Herbert says, wistfully. "So I missed it. I know I would have loved it. Everyone was full of it when they got back!"

But these two disappointments paled beside that which she endured in 2008.

When the British squad was cut to 16 before the Beijing Games, Herbert wasn't in it. Two others were named to provide cover in Beijing until the competition began. Herbert wasn't one of those either. But she was named as, effectively, number 19 - selected for the selfless task of flying out to the holding camp in Macau in case any of the other 18 players involved should need replacing at an earlier stage. None did. And so Herbert headed home to watch her team-mates on TV.

"I was standing by until the last minute," she recalls. "It was a pretty tough period of time for me. You know there is only a very small chance that you will be involved, but you still have to be absolutely fit and ready in case you are called upon.

"And of course all the others you are training with are getting excited about playing in the biggest tournament of their lives, and you know you are not going to be walking out there with them.

"I was only 22, and it was the biggest disappointment I've faced as a player. You put everything into training, you've been careful to eat all the right things, you've worked on your psychology. Even if you don't think you have a great chance of being picked, it is still really hard to take.

"I still believe I could and should have been in the team. And it still kills me a little bit. But at the time I realised I could still have an impact on the other players and so I tried to be as positive about it as I could."

Herbert has just bought a house with the men's team captain, Barry Middleton, in Marlow, close to the Bisham Abbey training ground.

"We don't have a no-hockey rule in conversation - it's not something we avoid," she says. "But we spend so much time every day involved in hockey that it is refreshing to go home and talk about something different.

"I hope that we both make it to the Olympics and get the chance to march together in the Opening Ceremony, and even both get medals. Obviously it will be devastating for any player who isn't picked."

On paper, Middleton's chances appear the more certain of the two.

"Barry's a phenomenal player," Herbert says. "He's probably been one of the first on the team sheet for most of his career. But it definitely helps to know that you can get support if it's needed from someone who understands what you have put into the sport."

In the meantime Herbert is doing everything in her power to ensure that history does not repeat itself.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.