Footprints from Formative years

During my school years, I was an introvert who didn't have many friends. My mother almost forced me to join a Trekking Club when I was in 10th grade, and I believe, looking back, she saw that I would need certain influences from outside of my house that would and could form my personality. At our trekking club, we had a trekking instructor named Bhide sir. And as it happened one fine day, we had decided to organize a small social gathering. There were about 20-25 of us there, the coach called me amongst everyone out of the blue and told me that you are going to be the Secretary of that entire social gathering. That I was going to be in charge of organizing this whole thing. And this one single incident actually changed me because I realized that somebody was ready to believe in me. And from that point on, I recall becoming a really friendly outgoing person, more relaxed, more fun-loving, confident and a happy-go-lucky person, and I believe that being introduced by my mother to the trekking club was one of the major turning points in my early life.

The second important incidence occurred following my post-graduation. One of my early-education apart from psychology studies was ‘orthodontics’. My father was a doctor and since he was a doctor, I just happened to say “I’ll be an orthodontist” when he asked me what I wanted to do after my 12th grade, without really knowing whether it was the right fit for me. I didn't have anything that was inspiring me nor there were any career counselors at that time and who could give me an idea of what I needed to do.

I began my practice in 1998 after receiving my post-graduate degree, I also recall being really outraged at that time, not only over India's hockey loss in the Olympics, but also over the Kargil conflict. I felt a strong need and desire to do something for the country. In September 2001, there was an article by the then chief of Army staff, General S. Padmanabhan who said something that completely changed my life. He said that, “if we can't win at sports, we can't win wars.” It really struck me hard. It was there in the paper that came as a headline, I had cut that newspaper article and I'm proud to say that today even after 22 years that original cutting is on my office wall which I see every day. That was the day in 2001 when I realized that this is my calling. This is what I want to do. Of course, without realizing what I was getting into, or not realizing the challenges, the resistances, or the prejudices that people had in general about the mental part of performance & mental fitness, and most importantly, about the difficulty of making this passion into a profession. But yes, these are the two early factors that shaped me into who I was as a person and the profession that I am in today.

Beyond the Barricades

‘My Mental Coach’ and its irreplaceable Values

Yes, ‘my mental coach’ is something that I'm really excited about from the time I started my mental coaching practice. I quickly realized that this is something that you can't just teach through books or conventional teaching techniques. Because any coaching is an art and a science. The science is what we can teach, but how can you teach the art of coaching? So, you cannot replicate yourself beyond a certain limit and I think that is why I was very clear that whether it's a junior athlete or a senior athlete, I'm going to obviously give my full undivided focus to that player to help him perform to his potential. And therefore, for a long period of time, I was happy working as a single person company. However, I realized this later, especially during covid phase that more the awareness that was being created on the subject matter more the students & aspiring athletes started seeking & persuading their parents asking for mental health training. I realized that I needed to do something about it and that's where the digital technology came to the fore. That's where my “mental coach” was born. And I'm really excited because it is allowing me to realize my vision of ensuring that mental training should not be privy to only those athletes who can afford it or those who are residing in the urban areas, I want mental training to be as easily accessible as physical training. And therefore, I want to innovate democratized mental training, so it becomes accessible to all and not want any athlete to be left behind or be deprived of the mental training.

Although, we are seeing great days in sports and how well we’re doing in every Olympic or any big Championship like the Commonwealth Games, the fact of the matter is that 90 to 95 percent of teen athletes get out of the sports by the age of 18 years which is a big number. Ever thought why is that happening. Why those athletes are stepping out of sports at such an age? Athletes who are unbelievably talented and have been categorized under Top 50 -100 Indian Athletes, despite having supportive parents who have sacrificed a lot for these talented children. What is going so wrong that they prefer to get out of the sport? The most influential factor surely is the inability to manage their emotions. They do not know how to manage themselves under pressure and how to manage themselves as a person & as a player or how to achieve that ideal balance between the studies and sports. And I think this is where ‘my mental coach’ can really add value to those athletes and let them have their best chance of succeeding at the highest level. So, that has become my next purpose now, and I'm very happy to share with you that we've recently tied up with ‘Shikhar Dhawan,’ through his venture ‘Da One Sports,’ which is a sporting venture, and we have partnered with them as their mental coaching partners. I look forward to connecting with and working with thousands of athletes and help them in this journey through this venture. Also, we have now started looking for like-minded organizations, academies, coaches, athletes, parents etc. to ensure that they too inculcate this as a natural part of an athlete's training routine and not see this as a problem which requires to be solved. Don’t see it through a problematic perspective, because it is not. There's no problem that you're trying to solve, it is just one area along with the technical and physical areas that you are optimizing to help you perform to the best of your potential. That's another mindset shift that I would want people to have when they look at mental training and that's what is exciting and I'm really excited about.

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