Say no to choking under pressure at Olympics; Mental training is the way forward

After travelling for a little over an hour to the academy, it took us no longer than seven minutes to wrap up the to-the-point interaction. We spoke about her technique, the areas she wanted to improve upon, her stress-related injury in 2015, and expectations from her first Olympics; what I conveniently forgot to ask her was about her mental make-up going into the Games. Still satisfied having spoken to the champion shuttler, I was ready to leave. That was when, in a casual chat, Sindhu's father PV Ramana told me, "Sindhu is going off social media till the Olympics; she doesn't need extra pressure before Rio and just needs to focus on her game". That was perhaps the first time, the importance of being in a sound mental state before a big tournament like the Olympics, struck me.

The Indian sports setup too unfortunately finds itself in a similar predicament, where not a lot of focus is laid on the mental well-being of the sportspersons, or at least not as much as it should. Of course, the awareness is slowly creeping in, but not at a desirable pace. That is one of the main reasons our top athletes succumb to high pressure at global stages like the Olympics. Just imagine the kind of pressure someone like a 19-year-old ace shooter Manu Bhaker would have gone through in the lead-up to Tokyo 2020. Considering she was one of the biggest medal hopes for the country and was talked about widely, with no one expecting anything short of gold from her. If this was not enough pressure already, she was involved in an ugly spat with her coach Jaspal Rana a few months prior to the Olympics. 

Shooter Abhinav Bindra, India's first-ever individual gold medalist from Beijing Olympics, went into a bubble a year before the Games actually started. Drastic steps like commando training -- that involved putting him into high-pressure situations were taken too. "I had to conquer fear, fear that could grip me during an Olympic final," Bindra had explained as the reason for taking such measures, in his autobiography -- A Shot at History. Well, while Bindra may have conquered the world in peculiar ways, there is no foolproof technique to manage the mind successfully, that could help win medals. Simply put, what works for an athlete, might not get desired results for another.

The constant talk about believing in processes and not the results might resonate with the cricket fans in the country, where former India skipper MS Dhoni used to harp about the same, day in and day out. This attitude worked wonders for the players as well as the team since under Dhoni, who was a champion of this philosophy, led India to two World Cups and a Champions Trophy title. So is it just upon the governing bodies of each sport to take care of the mental well-being of an athlete?

Then what is the best way forward for our Indian athletes, one might question. Just like learning the technique for a sport early is imperative for an athlete, having access to sports psychologists from a young age should be the norm going forward, explains Tandon. "In an ideal scenario, once an athlete starts competing from the age of 11 and above, they should have the support of a sports psychologist, maybe not regular support but someone should be there to look at their mental training in a span of few days. Even the youngsters should be aware that help is only a call away."