How do we feel about our England men and women's teams both coming home with bronze medals from the European Championships? As you might expect, pleased but very aware that we can push on towards London from here.

Failure would have been not winning a medal. This was success: a podium finish and confirmation that we're amongst the top four teams in world.

We're there in the window of competitiveness.

For our women, it was their sixth Euro bronze in a row. To the outside world, that might look like a flat line in terms of progress. But I see something different.

When they lost to Holland in the semi-finals, they were hugely disappointed. You could see it in their body language as they dragged themselves off the pitch. They had dealt with their pool matches outstandingly well and qualified top of the group. In the semi-final they expected to play the team that qualified second from the other pool - and, extraordinarily, that turned out to be Holland, consistently one of the best women's teams in the world. I think that had an impact. On the day, our girls didn't perform. They did a bit of soul-searching in the 48 hours afterwards and I hold firm to my belief that these women are on an upward climb.

The men were simply involved in a farce in their semi-final against Germany. A pitch that couldn't support any amount of rainfall was lashed by a storm and the delay almost lasted longer than the match itself. A potentially outstanding match against the hosts was ruined by the facility. Of course, it was the same for both sides but it still made a mockery of the match. We accept the defeat, we still need to raise our game but all the evidence is that we are competitive with the best teams in Europe, which is in itself the strongest continent in the sport.

In all, the tournament demonstrated the areas of our improvement: physical conditioning, the ability to beat teams ranked above and below us, tactical awareness, technical skills. Much of these gains have come since Beijing when the women's team in particular was hit by ten retirements and I am a huge admirer of our current squad for making the difficult decision to relocate to Bisham Abbey as a group. Seven years ago they were ranked outside the world's top ten. Now they are fourth and challenging the top three. That is a huge achievement.

I was asked after the tournament if both teams need to work on their big game mentality, as neither performed to full potential in their semi-final. We have to look at everything and both men and women have full access to sports psychologists both as a group and individuals on a confidential basis. It's very different from my "psyche" experience as a player, I'm pleased to say. After Seoul in 1988 when we won the gold medal, we were told: "You must do this!" I didn't understand why I needed it. If it had been offered to us on a take it/or leave it basis I think it would have been better received.


But I do recognise the importance of mental strength and anything that can be done to fortify it. London 2012 will pitch our players into an environment they have never come across before. A 16,000 crowd versus the usual one man and dog. Huge media interest versus flying under the radar. There will be hype, expectation, nerves on a new level and we don't want any of it to come as a surprise to them. None of us have ever been part of a home Games before and we want all the athletes to have a positive Olympic experience.

There are many challenges between then and now. The greatest will be to cut the squads down - each from about 30 athletes to the 16 who will be selected as GB Olympians. The final selection date is June next year. So much will depend on fitness, form, the balance of the squad and it is certainly too soon to judge now. I've been on both ends of the process - selected for Seoul and de-selected for Barcelona - and I can tell you that it is a ruthless business. But this is a results game. Those in the mix must accept the positive/negative of selection. I have to admit, though, it took me a while to accept it. I was angry with the system and the team, but when I reflected on it later, it was probably the right decision.

Looking forward to 2012: Yes, GB can reach a podium. Both teams have the capability of winning a medal at their home games and they are doing everything possible to reach the gold standard. The margins between the top four to six nations in the world are very thin. If our teams play to their highest level they have the ability to win every match they play in the tournament.

Meanwhile, who'd be a performance director? As I said in a post-tournament interview with the BBC, the role is best described as "bloody difficult". There are so many things in the team sport environment that are interdependent. I call it "The Moving Jigsaw". It's about bringing it all together, not just for London 2012 but thinking beyond even that monumental stage to Rio four years later.

We are striving to produce a group of individuals who will walk out on to that blue Olympic pitch next August and do their best for themselves and as a team. That thought motivates me every day.

David Faulkner won 225 England and GB international caps and was part of the 1988 gold medal winning hockey squad in Seoul. He joined England Hockey as Performance Director in April 2005.