Train your mind to train your body

  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...

A coach has a huge impact on an athlete’s life. If the athlete is a child, chances are that he listens more to his coach than to his own parents. Choosing the right coach with a right attitude for those early sporting days for your child is extremely important. The coach will have visible effects on not only to your child’s sporting skills, but his overall personality. He will teach your child on how to be a good human being. So, what are the qualities which we should watch out for in a coach, what are the must haves? Let me give a few pointers for parents to help them take that decision. According to me, when starting a sport there are three qualities which a good coach must possess- 1) Walks the talk Your child will look up to his coach for almost everything. The way he talks, behaves, plays, eats, drinks, everything. For the child, his coach is nothing less than a superhero. If I want my student to follow something, I do not always say it to him. I just do it myself and the child le...

Athletes often approach their matches without a game plan. But going for a match without a game plan is like watching a movie without a script. Anything unexplained and absurd can happen in such a movie. In a match, that means leaving more outcomes on luck and chance. So, why and how do we make a game plan and points to remember before making a match strategy? Let us find out…… When I used to go for my exams in engineering, my elder sister always said to me, “Attempt the easy questions and heavy marks questions first. They will ensure you are outside the danger zone and scoring average marks. After those, you can go to the difficult questions.” This was an ideal example of a simple yet extremely effective strategy. Having a strong game plan before our match induces confidence in us, irrespective of the opponent. Especially when about to face higher or lower ranked players, athletes (mostly club players and junior athletes) consider making a game plan as a totally futile exercise. But...