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New Delhi: Set to return to the Olympic stage after eight years, the Indian hockey team is working hard on being a mentally strong unit by practising yoga and meditation before the London Games.
“Olympics is the most important event and we are playing there after eight years. So, naturally there is pressure to perform. We are practising yoga daily for 40 minutes to enhance mental strength,” India captain Bharat Chetri said from Spain.
“We also have an interactive sessions with coach Michael Nobbs and trainer David John daily in which they share their good experiences. John has also started an innovative mental visualisation session on a daily basis which is a sort of meditation,” he said.
The mental visualisation sessions have been a regular affair for the past one-month.
“We take part in mental visualisation sessions before every match for the last one month. It is a sort of meditation. We all lie down and forget about the external world. David (John) then makes us imagine the real match situation according to the opponent,” he said.
“We all imagine how we are going to react in that situation. It is so useful that we choose team composition and make strategy according to that,” he added.
Chetri is well aware that Mission London is going to be very tough for them but he goes by the new mantra of “convert your weaknesses into your strength”.
This is what London Olympic (1948) gold medallist Leslie Claudius and Keshav Dutt told Chetri before the team’s departure for the Europe tour.
“I know London Olympics will be a very tough challenge. But I got a chance to meet Leslie Sir and Keshav Sir before our departure. They told me to convert weaknesses into strengths. Whenever we have a bad period on field, this mantra comes into my mind and inspires me to excel,” said the veteran goalkeeper.
“We have to improve our passing. We played well in some matches on the Europe tour but passing is not upto the mark. We are working hard on it,” said the captain.
According to him the strength of the team lies in bonding.
“Team bonding, focus and attacking game are our strengths. We have an excellent forward line and I am sure they will live upto the expectations,” he said.
“We are playing together for the last six months. There is great co-ordination among players. If one has a problem, all are there to solve that. Being a captain, I am very fortunate to lead such a bunch of great players,” said Chetri.
India will play their first match against Holland on July 30 and Chetri is confident of winning that.
“It is a tough match but we are ready for that. We are confident that if we play to our potential, we can win that. Our penalty corner specialists Sandeep Singh and VR Raghunath have some new weapons in their armour and they will open their cards in Olympics only.” he said.
India, meanwhile, squandered an early lead before going down 1-3 to Britain in the inaugural match of the tri-nation invitational tournament, their final warm-up event ahead of the Olympic Games, in Santader.
India took the lead in the third minute through Shivendra Singh's deflection off a Tushar Khandker cross on counter attack. James Tindall scored the equaliser through a 17th minute penalty corner.
Ashley Jackson put his team ahead in the 45th minute off a penalty stroke. Harry Martin made it 3-1 with a 62nd minute goal off a deflection from Chetri when Jackson scooped the ball. (PTI)
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