Only the hardiest hockey players (and the most idiotic reporters and cameramen) would brave a training session in the cold and the driving rain at the local hockey club.

The country's top players had been hoping to stay under the radar, gradually building a team capable of being among the top teams at the 2010 World Cup and gaining a medal at the 2012 Olympics.

Victory for England in the European Championships in August changed all that, though, as they knocked off Olympic champions Germany to win the first major title for a British team since the 1988 Olympics.

They have gone from being nearly men (fifth place for England at the 2006 World Cup and fifth for Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics) to having a far higher profile as one of the teams to beat.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

England start the Champions Trophy - an annual tournament for the world's top six teams - in Melbourne, Australia this weekend with more expectation than there has been in the last 20 years.

There was surprise even from within the team at their European Championship performance but the building blocks have been in place since the appointment of former player Jason Lee as coach five years ago.

In the past, players have tended to retire after each Olympic Games but - perhaps helped by a 25% increase in central funding to £14.13m for the sport over the four years between Beijing and London - most of the squad have been together for much of Lee's time in charge.

Eight of the 18-strong squad who arrived in Australia on 19 November have more than 50 caps for England and forward Jonty Clarke - who plays for Reading and works part-time as an accountant - is one of four players with over 100.

Clarke, 28, describes the EuroHockey tournament as an "incredible experience", as England upset host the Netherlands in the semi-final then - with the pressure resting firmly on the shoulders of their fancied rivals - shocked Germany.

But, sheltering under a brolly on the sidelines at Reading, where his club-mates were training, he insisted little had changed for the team.

"The [victory at the] Europeans changes how other people view us rather than how we view ourselves," he said.

England stars Rob Moore, Simon Mantell, Richard Mantell, Ashley Jackson and captain Barry Middleton

Rather than putting more pressure on the team, defender Richard Mantell - who scored two goals in that final - believes it will boost confidence and experience.

"We've got some great experience from the Europeans and we need to make sure we continue that success and are playing in big games between now and the Olympics," he said.

"It's key for us to make sure we're playing in the semi-finals and finals of big tournaments."

If you're confused by the changing references to England and Great Britain, you're probably not alone. At the start of this week, Wikipedia editors thought it was GB who were in action in Melbourne but it is England who get another shot at Germany on Saturday, with a testing schedule leading up to the final the following Sunday.

Great Britain rarely play outside the Olympics. The squad in Beijing included just two Scots with another as a reserve, and their place at the 2008 Games was gained because of England's results.

There will be a chance to watch the GB men in action in Nottingham next July, in a four-team friendly tournament to run alongside the women's Champions Trophy.

To build greater awareness, England launched a "new identity", featuring the three lions logo, in the run-up to this tournament. Meanwhile, Wales and Scotland play in the tier of international teams below England and both have already missed out on qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

Clarke is already looking forward to playing in front of 25,000 fans in the event, at Delhi's revamped Dhyan Chand National Stadium in March.

And he regards this Australia trip as another step to building a side capable of challenging there.

"We now go into the Champions Trophy as contenders rather than just being in it to try and stay in it for next time," he said.

"But we're taking a few inexperienced players and it's part of our development towards next year's World Cup, which is far more of a target for us.

"The World Cup, outside of the Olympics, is the biggest hockey tournament out there. It's incredibly important for us to perform well."

Reading goal-keeper Nick Brothers, who spent the European Champs on the bench behind James Fair, is just one of those who will be hoping to increase their experience against the world's best.

Even if they're confident of bettering Germany again, an Ashes contest looms against Australia - who they have not beaten since 1985, when matches were still played on grass rather than the sort of lightning-fast Astroturf in use at Reading and across the world now.

(And there's also a moust-Ashes contest going: both teams are taking part in the Movember campaign, as you may be able to tell from Clarke's upper lip in our video.)

The England team will be back in Delhi in October for the Commonwealth Games, which performance director David Faulkner recently described as being "vital" for their Olympic preparation because of its multi-sport environment.

Clarke admits the team are already thinking about 2012, but the major events on their schedule over the next three years help them plan in the short-term.

"We would dearly love to come away [from the Olympics] with a medal and ideally a gold one but it's so far away, so many things can change between now and then," he said.

"We know what we're going to do in the next three years - train really hard and play as best we can - and hopefully that will be enough to do something special."

My favourite response from the evening's interviews, though, came from Brothers who said of the Olympics: "If I'm being honest, it's probably the first thing I think about when I step onto the training pitch.

"London 2012 is our goal and you're not going to do that by having a flash-in-the-pan tournament. We've had some success and it's critical that we build on that."

Watch highlights of all of England's Champions Trophy games on the BBC Sport website (UK users only). Check out the England squad and schedule on the England Hockey website

The World Championships finally came alive on Sunday, with crowds packing the grandstand and the grass banks of Lake Malta.

And the home team rewarded them, with three Polish crews winning medals, including gold for the Olympic champion quad, who have folk hero status and beat Australia in a thrilling final.

But Great Britain's big party was on Silver Saturday and the day after had a hungover feel to it, with dark sunglasses all round.

There were brave faces from Sophie Hosking and Hester Goodsell, who had come into the event as favourites but knew a revamped Greece would provide a tough challenge, even before the water became rough.

And there were tears from the lightweight women's quad, who had their sights on a first gold medal in 16 years for veteran Jane Hall but who had real trouble in the waves of the final 500m.

But there was a firm smile from GB team manager David Tanner, buoyed from the events of Saturday, which took him past his pre-event medal target of four with a day to spare, and also upbeat about the development prospects on show on Sunday.

Only three members of the women's eight, including cox Caroline O'Connor, were in action in Beijing a year ago but they ran with the US Olympic champions for the first half of their final.

The men's eight contains only one Olympian (former lightweight James Clarke) and impressed to qualify for the final even if they dropped off the pace in Sunday's last race.

And the women's quadruple scull, containing two new faces and two - Katie Greves and Beth Rodford - getting used to two oars instead of one this season - impressed in winning the World Cup series, although they struggled in Poznan.

"The guys and girls coming up and in have done a fantastic job this year," Tanner told a huddle of reporters as the final anthems were playing.

"But we need to strengthen those boats to get into the medal zone. There are people there but there is a gap we need to bridge.

"However, Tom Lucy [Olympic silver medallist in the eight] and Zac Purchase [gold medallist in the lightweight double] were not heard of three years before Beijing."

Selection queries have already begun but it will be a slow process before the crews for 2010, and then for 2012, begin to emerge properly.

For now, it's time for a few weeks off. Gold medallist Matt Langridge is off to do a diving course in Egypt, while sculler Alan Campbell is taking his red-and-yellow trainers and red-and-yellow sunglasses to Bermuda.

The reporting date for next year is 28 September, with winter trials taking place in singles and pairs through April before crews are finally put together again.

And Tanner even voiced the possibility that 2010 could be another "flexible" season, with the World Championships later than usual in late October in New Zealand.

That might mean another experimental year for Katherine Grainger in the single and Pete Reed and Andy Hodge in the pair before hard decisions are made.

Langridge would like to be back in the four - which Tanner called the "crew of the Championships, from any nation" - but admits the winter programme is necessary to make them all faster in future.

It has been a great four days in Poznan, with sun, some great racing and another strong showing from Great Britain.

Wherever you watched them (and if you're in the UK and haven't yet, you can do so in iPlayer until Saturday) it would be great to hear your thoughts on the action and on GB's performance.

Memories of Great Britain's Super Saturday in Beijing were never far away from the mind on the first day of finals in Poznan but this was a Silver Saturday for GB's rowers on Lake Malta.

And that was good enough for a squad that is in development, three years away from the next Games in London.

Four GB entries ended up in second place, including Great Britain's first ever brace of medals in the single sculls, for Katherine Grainger and Alan Campbell.

The best performance brought victory for the men's four of Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory, Richard Egington and Alex Partridge, who dominated an Australian crew who were far more impressive in Beijing a year ago.

Grainger came close to pulling off a shock victory in Poznan

"It's difficult to take the highlight away from a gold medal," he said. "But Kath Grainger put in an outstanding performance. The single is the toughest of all events.

"I've got a soft spot for Kath because she was on the team when I was competing."

Grainger was on the same place on the podium but the contrast was marked between the grin here and the tears when her quad were denied by China in last year's Olympic final.

She has already justified her decision to carry on for another four years, aiming to end her run of three successive Olympic silvers with victory at London 2012.

Less happy were Andy Hodge and Pete Reed, gold medallists a year ago in the four but now pushed into second place by New Zealand, even though they pushed the Kiwis far harder than they have all season.

After he and Hamish Bond were pushed to within 1.7 seconds of the world best time set by Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell in 2002, Eric Murray had to be helped from the boat, and Redgrave strode over to shake his hand.

"The GB pair did very well. It's disappointing to see multi-world champions and Olympic champions not staying at that level but this was an outstanding New Zealand pair," said Sir Steve.

New Zealand have been impressive this season, after a disappointing showing in Beijing and with the World Championships set to take place there next year, but there is a sense that GB will slowly close the gap.

You couldn't wipe the smiles off the faces of the men's four, or their coach Mark Banks, who endured having to make do with silver, along with three of this crew in the eight in Beijing.

He revealed that a new format for their start had given them a better platform, and was then lifted off his feet by Alex Partridge, who will hope that he can end his string of disappointments and take gold in his third Olympiad with the squad.

The debate over the GB sweep squad's best combination has not gone away all year and it will intensify now, with Tom James from the Beijing four set to return after a year out and veteran Steve Williams likely to join him.

Given the six currently competing, Redgrave said: "It's difficult because in some ways you want your best athletes in the boat with the best gold medal chance.

"If you put Andy and Pete in the four it would be faster but then the pair would probably not be of medal potential.

"But there are two more world championships to go before London and several athletes have taken a year out."

The women's combinations will also be interesting, as Grainger could now consider continuing with what had originally been a one-year learning experience in the single.

Annabel Vernon was alongside Grainger in the quad last year and was consigned to silver once more, barely able to walk after she and her best friend Anna Bebington ran home crew Poland all the way to the line.

Bebington has a call of "toothpaste legs" in mid-race to make sure they squeeze out all their power, and their push did just that.

Vernon was barely able to walk from the boating pontoon and joked wryly: "I don't think I'll be up for dancing tonight."

Meanwhile Bebington had to balance disappointment with her pleasure at going one better than she did with a different partner in Beijing and winning her first world silver.

Sculler Alan Campbell had a muted celebration too, pleased at having won his first world medal after promising much for the last four years but disappointed not to have gained the extra half-length he needed to prevent Mahe Drysdale winning his fourth world title.

Campbell does much of his training on the tidal Thames, the choppy conditions in a strong tailwind at the finish here proving it an ideal preparation to win Great Britain's first world sculling silver since Stuart MacKenzie in 1962.

Watch highlights of Alan Campbell's race (UK users only)

A group of his club-mates from Tideway Scullers School, who travelled from London to Poland in a minibus to cheer him on, threw him flag in the club's red, yellow and white, in the pattern of the union flag, which he unfurled on the podium.

"It might not have been a Super Saturday but with two sculling singles in was pretty magical," said Redgrave.

"At the beginning of the day I would have said four medals and we've got five. You've got to be disappointed for the individuals but overall it's a great day."

The final day's racing is set to be Slimmer Sunday, with medals on offer for both the men's and women's lightweight doubles, although the men's eight also expect to make the podium, which should put GB atop the medal table.

If you're watching the TV coverage on Sunday and someone nearby asks what those little people at the back of the boat do, it's fine to kick off by saying there are eight big men with small cox but there's a lot more to tell.

Phelan Hill, a 28-year-old from Bedford, says his role in the Great Britain men's eight is like combining those of jockey, football manager and occasionally mother.

When he needs it, he also has experience of dealing with crisis situations thanks to his afternoon job, working as a banking and financial advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

"You go out there with a plan but races sometimes don't go to plan so you have to make a value judgement, like a football manager would," he told me.

"I like the jockey analogy more, though, because that makes the rowers the horses. If you whip them too hard they get tired before the finish but if you don't do it enough they won't work hard enough.

"And, like horses, you have to show them who's boss.

"But you sometimes have to be a mum, aware of how people are feeling. You have to be critical and know when they're being lazy but you can't hit someone all the time."

Phelan steers the boat using small handles, which attach to a rudder below and behind him and he also speaks to the crew via a microphone that connects to loudspeakers by their feet. He also has a "cox box", which tells him times, speeds and stroke-rates, all of which he will relay.

He isn't the coach - that job is shared by John West and Christian Felkel - but he is the voice of the coach in the boat. And you will only see a cox in an eight at big events, since other coxed categories were cut from the Olympics in 1996.

Garry Herbert was the cox who won a thrilling Olympic gold in 1992, in a coxed pair with Greg and Jonny Searle.

These days he is the BBC rowing commentator who produced adrenaline-packed sound tracks that accompanied famous victories in successive Olympiads for Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, and the GB men's four in Beijing.

He believes Phelan is a good mix of head and heart, which is just what is needed.

"Training is all about the head but racing is the head and the heart," says Garry. "You need to be able to say one word, when they're in pain, to make them go beyond that.

"You can only make a change to improve a crew's racing without panic and with a closeness that you have to build up over time."

After the heroics of 1992, Greg Searle moved into coxless boats (where steering is done using a plate attached to the feet of one of the rowers and instructions are a few grunted calls from an assigned member of the crew) winning bronze in the four in Atlanta and coming fourth in a pair in Athens.

Greg Searle, Jonny Searle and cox Garry Herbert won gold in Barcelona

"Garry coxed the way he commentates," Greg told me. "He was very enthusiastic about our prospects, had a high level of belief.

"When he said, 'I can see you're coming back on them,' we believed him and dug deeper."

Just before the Searle brothers surged past Italy in a thrilling finish 17 years ago (which I can't link to but which is well worth watching on YouTube), Herbert famously asked: "If not you, who? If not now, when?"

Greg only recalls hearing the first half of the line but it was enough to remind him of the phrase being used during a meeting the three had with psychologist Brian Miller.

"It took us back to that meeting, sitting around a kitchen table, looking into each other's eyes and telling each other what we were prepared to go through for each other.

"Garry knew what to say to get the extra out of us. If he'd said, 'You could be famous' or 'You could make a lot of money out of this' it wouldn't have worked."

Garry, Greg and Jonny came up through the rowing ranks together, which the first two believe plays a major part in the bond between cox and crew.

But they cemented their gold medal-winning bond on an altitude training camp in Silvretta, Italy, when they chose to throw three beds into a two-man room.

In the same venue 17 years on, Phelan and his crewmates were building camaraderie around an in joke about cut-down shorts. It's at least better than the fancy dress sported by last year's lot.

Phelan Hill and the GB eight hope for a place on the podium on Sunday

Five of the eight are called Tom so Phelan (although he can be seen on TV on Sunday saying, "I'm 'Phelan' there are too many Toms around here") has to work in nicknames to tell them apart.

It's difficult to be one of the lads, though, when they're pushing their bodies to exhaustion while you sit, steer and shout.

"I need to work more on my experience, being more of a leader," says Phelan. "As a cox you're part of the crew but not. I'm a link between the guys and the coach.

"You can't be their friend all the time and that's sometimes quite difficult."

Phelan has only had two months in this line-up but the bulk of the crew have raced together all season and have identified opponents in other crews, who Phelan will mention in his calls.

If Sophie Hosking and Hester Goodsell continue their impressive form this season and take World Championship gold on Sunday, the first thing they will be breaking open is the ice-cream.

The duo make up the women's lightweight double scull - one of Great Britain's best chances of gold after two international victories already this year - but racing at lightweight means they have to think about more than just training hard in the lead-up to a regatta.

Two hours before each of their races this week, they have to weigh in at no more than 59kg each, with a crew average of 57kg - 8st 9lb. That means no chocolate for Hester, no beer for Sophie and no ice-cream for either of them.

Goodsell and Hosking are one of Great Britain's best bets for gold

After decades of dominance for big, heavy men in British rowing, the smaller members of the squad are finally enjoying success.

The categories were first introduced to the Olympics in 1996, done in the hope of spreading rowing success around more nations but instead they have generally opened up new routes to gold for established nations like Great Britain.

Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter won Olympic gold in the men's double in Beijing last year and are expected back for more at London 2012, despite both taking time off this season.

Meanwhile, Sophie and Hester - having already won GB's first World Cup gold medals in the category this summer - have their eyes on the first ever World Championship lightweight gold for GB's women this weekend, despite losing a close sprint to Germany in their semi-final on Friday.

It isn't as easy as cutting out ice-cream, though. As in boxing, the best competitors are those who are naturally heavier but shed the pounds, and that means an entire season of moderating food intake, often feeling hungry and tired as a result, and sometimes sweating off the final few ounces on the morning of each race.

On Friday in Poznan, in the sort of headwind that makes lightweights wince when they wake up, Sophie and Hester did what they needed to do to make the final.

Sophie's smile afterwards made it clear that Germany had tried much harder to win a neck-and-neck race, even though the first three finishers qualified.

Meanwhile, Rob Williams and Paul Mattick, standing in for Purchase and Hunter this season, were pleased to make it through to the last six after failing to gain a medal at any of the three big races so far this year.

When I spoke to Londoners Sophie and Hester before these championships began, they took the lightweight aspect of their jobs in their respective strides.

"I'm 5ft 9in so it's quite a challenge for me to be 57kg but we do it because we want to be the top in our event," said Hester, 25, who finished 11th at the Olympics with her former partner Helen Casey.

"We could never be 6ft 4in and 100kg so we row lightweight and aim to be the best at our particular weight."

Sophie, 23, added: "It's just another challenge and something we have to factor into everyday training."

It takes speaking to someone who has been there, done it and is no longer doing it to get a real insight into the challenges.

A year after racing in the lightweight four, Clarke now strokes the openweight eight

James Clarke, 24, was a world champion in the men's lightweight four in 2007 but the crew struggled to repeat that success last season, finishing fifth in Beijing.

Since January, though, Clarke has put on 10kg, is rowing in the openweight men's eight in Poznan and the smile on his face when we spoke said it all.

"Most of the lightweights can deal with it. Maybe they have a different mentality from me but I found it a bit too stressful," he said.

"The whole process of losing weight detracts from performance. You've got to lose muscle, lose your fat and towards the end you have to sweat down as well.

"It's quite a scientific process. We get a lot of support from nutritionists, physiologists, trying to help us hit our targets.

"But feeling hungry the whole time and trying to survive on not enough food plays havoc with your concentration and you get short-tempered."

Cheese was the thing James missed most. Now his biggest challenge might be hiding his food from the seven bruisers who sit behind him in a crew that he hopes will be good enough to win a medal after qualifying in impressive fashion earlier this week for Sunday's final.

He still isn't anything like as big as his crew-mates but Clarke feels the time spent as a lightweight taught him a lot about relying on technique rather than brute force, a lesson he is still putting to good use.

"I now have an extra 10kg and I know how to use it, whereas some people who have always been strong may revert to just pulling harder when they need to go faster," he said.

Hester, Sophie and James all race next on Sunday, with the men's eight the grand finale of the championships at this relaxed yet impressive venue on Lake Malta.

But Great Britain's other medal hopes compete on what could be Super Saturday, when an event that has been pretty quiet on the banks so far should get a lot more exciting.

You can watch it all live on the red button (and the BBC website if you're in the UK), listen live on 5 live sports extra or watch the highlights later in the day on BBC TWO.

Alan Campbell grew up near the Giant's Causeway near Coleraine in Northern Ireland. So it's appropriate he now competes in an event for huge bodies, huge talents and huge egos, as Great Britain's representative in the men's single sculls.

Most of rowing is about taking individuals and making them work together as one collective, efficient whole. This event is the one big exception, though, and on Lake Malta in Poznan, Poland on Thursday I got my first look for five months at all the giants rumbling together, in the World Championships semi-finals.

Chief giant is 33-year-old Olaf Tufte, a Norwegian farmer who has won gold at the last two Olympic Games. When you're used to meeting rowers, their height has less of an impact, and they're all pretty wide but Tufte has a third dimension - he is deep too. He has a chest like a hot water tank.

Campbell, 26, was fifth in Beijing after a harrowing few months that saw the infection from an abscess in a tooth travel to his knee, leaving him requiring surgery and out of action for five weeks, with the muscles in one leg so wasted it was half the size of the other.

Then there is Mahe Drysdale, who won the World Championships in three successive years but suffered a stomach virus at the Beijing Olympics and collapsed over the finish. But only after he had won a bronze medal.

Campbell, Drysdale and Tufte are friends and favourites for world singles medals

Drysdale, 30, has won every event he has entered so far this year, maximising his 6ft 6in frame with a brutal efficiency.

Campbell got out of his boat after winning his semi-final and shouted, "Yes, we're gonna do it" to a group of British supporters in the grandstand.

But even as he said it, his friend Drysdale was powering through the second semi-final and Campbell is under no illusions that the Kiwi is the man to beat on Saturday.

Most of rowing is faceless. Competitors might know rivals to nod to but don't tend to socialise outside their own crews or squads. Scullers are different, a band of brothers that crosses national and competitive divides.

That is why, last March, eight of the world's top scullers - including five of the six from the Olympic final - came together in London to race in a crew together.

They took on Cambridge University's Boat Race crew after five sessions together then at the end of the week beating Great Britain's best - a crew featuring five Olympic medals from Beijing.

And afterwards they could be found together at their host club, dancing on tables and singing Bonnie Tyler.

As Campbell told 5 live's Nick Mullins recently: "We are very friendly. We have a great respect for each other. It almost gives us more enthusiasm to beat each other because there's something good about getting one up on your mates."

I went to visit the "Great Eight" in training during that week in March. After a 14km trip on the river, Tufte asked their coach, "Can we train now?"

The weights room was a mass of sideways glances, working out who was lifting what and adding a bit more and a bit there to make sure they didn't get left behind.

Around a mountainous pasta lunch Tufte, who earns a living growing cereals at the family farm in Horten in south-east Norway, had time to talk about the annual Farmer Challenge he runs, in which competitors throw milk churns, run with sandbags and chop logs.
Campbell adopted aspects of the challenge in his Christmas training programme last year, in a bid more for increased mental toughness than improved fitness.

He has been uncompromising all year in his determination to win the gold medal at London 2012, the main aim even before last year's disappointments gave him an extra surge of motivation.

Drysdale was quieter than those two characters, revealing that he considered spending a year at Oxford University this season and taking part in the Boat Race but that other logistics were against him.

There was also Czech Olympic silver medallist Ondrej Synek, whose smiling, friendly demeanour and brave attempts at speaking English do little to temper the intimidation you feel when speaking to a combination of 6ft 5in in height and 15st 6lb in weight.

On Thursday, Campbell dominated his semi-final, a length ahead of Synek, while Tufte only just took the third qualifying spot from Christou Ioannis of Greece but, according to Campbell, looked comfortable.

Meanwhile Campbell, who has been in danger of gaining a reputation as someone who does well early in the season but cannot win championship medals, has undergone something of a coming of age.

"I feel I should have got a medal by now and I still haven't got it but I feel in the best possible shape," he said.

"I gave it a good, hard go but I didn't have to redline."

Asked about Drysdale, he said: "We'll see each other on the course and I want to see him do well, but I want to do better."

Drysdale looks favourite for Saturday but even that is just the first of the giant steps to Olympic gold, laying down a marker and inflicting a little further psychological damage.
There are lots of little steps too, like the brinkmanship in the weights room, and perhaps Tufte playing dead in his semi-final.

"It's going to be a pretty good final," Drysdale told a group of reporters after pulling into the side of the lake still dripping sweat and sun cream.

"Tufte will try to find something, Synek usually saves himself for the final and Alan is going well."

Does the fact he knows them all so well count in his favour or against him?

"I know what to expect because there are no guys out there who will be a surprise but it's harder because I've got 48 hours now, knowing how much it's going to hurt."

As Campbell readily points out, Tufte's first international medal after Athens 2004 was in Beijing in 2008. While Drysdale dominated the intervening three years, the Norwegian overcame illness and peaked just at the right time.

Campbell doesn't quite seem ready to concede gold here but he will certainly say that it is gold in London in three years' time that matters most. He is still learning and that gold could be his even if he has to accept silver on Saturday.