Train your mind to train your body

  You are watching your friend play and you wonder how talented he is. But there are other thoughts which also come to your mind, “I will never be able to play like him. I don’t know if I will ever make it big in my sport. Do I even belong here?” Do you have this sinking feeling when you watch someone from the same field/sport perform? This thought of feeling let down because of comparison with your peers is quite common. Most of us go through it at some point or the other. In clinical psychology, it’s called ‘IMPOSTER SYNDROME’ What is Imposter syndrome? 'Imposter syndrome is defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud'. ‘Fraud’ is a big word, but it somewhat resembles of how we may feel when we watch someone more successful from the same field. "Why am I not as good as him?" or "When will I become like him?" or "Will I ever make it big in this sport like this guy has?" or "Why am I doing this?", w e ask ourselves...

  What is visualization? How can we use this technique to produce better results? And what are the benefits? To get answers to all these questions, I had an opportunity to interview a special guest and a very dear friend of mine, Tom Ford. About Tom Ford- Tom has been the under 19 European squash number one. He has played numerous professional squash tournaments and has won many of them. He has traveled all around the world to train budding squash athletes. Tom has always been very passionate and interested about the mental side of the game, a common interest which lead us to connect with each other a few years ago. I could not have asked for a better guest to discuss on this topic, than Tom Ford. Below is the interview- Amit- Hi Tom. Tom- Hi Amit, thanks for inviting me on. Amit- today we have invited you to discuss about visualization. Thank you so much for being here with us. So my first question to you Tom- what exactly is visualization?  Tom- Sure, we need to und...

  Often we wonder how cool our favourite sports stars are. We are amazed at not only their sheer talent, but their style and that oomph factor. We love to see them play, win, we love to hear them speak about themselves. We are curious to know what they do when they are not competing. Can we try and emulate their style and habits and see what comes up for us? Will it really have any effect on us? What can we expect? Young budding athletes often think of their favourite athlete as though they have come from a different planet. Ask tennis fans about Roger Federer and most will have the opinion that he was born to be a star. We often think top ranked athletes as, “they are there, and we are here” and there is no way we can get even close to that level. No doubt, they have reached there because of hard work and talent and we can close on that gap by working hard.   But there is something more we can do to get that tiny bit closer to them. Your favourite athlete has that style, ch...

  Sometimes we reach a stage in our lives where despite all the hard work- results still elude us. An athlete faces such a situation at least once in his career. At such times, we start running out of patience. Our motivation during training dries up and we enter into a vicious space of negativity. Efforts begin to look futile and you begin to wonder whether you are making any headway at all. How do we handle such a situation? This blog talks about possible reasons why this could be happening and what we can do to come out of such the situation. The situation described above can be very difficult and frustrating for any athlete. I myself have been through this phase where I was just stuck with a weakness. No amount of hard work was helping the cause. In fact it was just getting worse. I then started running from pillar to post for guidance and advice. But all my efforts seem to push me further away from my goal. The thought of quitting had crossed my mind a thousand of times. Watch...

  In every field, we often come across people who have made winning into a habit. In sports, we often see such athletes. They seem to do well in any competitive scenario they face. How do these athletes manage to not only enjoy, but thrive in such difficult, challenging situations? It is the mind-set which separates them from the rest. In this blog, we will try and understand how athletes develop that attitude towards their sport and make winning into a regular affair. A winner’s mind-set- There is a very interesting incident which comes to my mind when I dwell on the winner’s mind-set. Once I took my daughter to a swimming competition as suggested by her coach. There was a 4 year old girl who had filled the entry for the free style race but she was the only girl to enter in that age category. As per the rules, she had to swim from the start to the finish to officially ‘win’ the race. It was the child’s first ever race, and probably did not even realize that she was the winner ev...

  Which came first- the chicken or the egg? The answer to whether an athlete is ready for competition, is equally tricky. Should I play tournaments when I am ready or do I play to get ready ?   This question has many amateur athletes and sport parents confused. “Am I of the level where I can enter into competition?” “Should I send my child for tournaments?” “I don’t want to put any additional pressure on my child” are common thoughts which come to an amateur athlete's or a sport parent's mind. In this blog, we will try and analyse various dimensions of playing tournaments and eventually have a clearer picture on the above question. I was recently watching a 13 year old practice while chatting with his father. The child is being coached by someone else but as I share a good relation with his father I suggested he starts playing serious tournaments. The father replied that “he is still not ready”. On this I narrated a very interesting true story to him. There was a young b...