Train your mind to train your body

  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...

  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...

During this period of the Corona virus pandemic, I have spoken to many friends, students and fellow coaches. The primary complain they have from the situation as regards to their fitness is that, “there is just no motivation. So it’s very difficult to maintain regularity in exercising.” Well, that’s absolutely correct. There is no tournament coming up, no one to compete with and restrictions in moving out of the house. The uncertainty of the situation adds to the problem.  No one knows when we will be able to compete in a tournament next. It’s been well over three months since squash courts have been closed and keeping the motivation on over such a long period is becoming increasingly difficult. In such a situation, how do we continue to drive ourselves to do that very important work out every day and continue to be in a minimum acceptable shape? Here are a few tips which you can use to motivate yourself to exercise- . Get a personal fitness coach - This is the easiest way to motiv...