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Three Sundays, three titles, and a jump of three ranks. Saina Nehwal has turned June 2010 into a historic month for Indian badminton with three titles in three successive weeks. What a performance! Saina one of the very few ‘focused’ players in India. Through her performances one can say that its not just her matches and ranks that need to be followed but there is something else that should be followed, her mental processes. One of the mentally tough players in India. She has done so much that she has reached to a level, where upcoming players can look up to her as their role model.
Lets find out the qualities that can be learnt from this role model. I have drawn 10 such things from her and her coach’s interviews (about her) over the years. Here are those ten qualities of the mentally tough player with the excerpts from the interviews, you can add more in the comments column.
01. A strong will power“I have always been mentally strong. The desire to win an Olympic medal drives me. Most people have to strive to get their will power in place – but for me, I have enough of it.” - Saina.
A strong will power to achieve something becomes the driving force for you. And helps you remain focused on your game.
02. Love for the Game“My first love is Badminton” -Saina Nehwal. If you love your game you can be assured of a consistent good performance.
03. Know Yourself and your opponent wellIts very important to know yourself and your opponent well before the match, planning becomes easy. Understand you strengths, weaknesses and your opponents strengths, weaknesses well and then plan strategies accordingly. Different players play on different strengths and weaknesses of yours, So you need to be ready for every player. “She (Saina)had to be prepared for a long game. She had to stay in the match and it was important to keep attacking. She fought hard. Lu Lan was leading in the second game (15-13), but once Saina got the opportunity, she closed it out.” – Pulella Gopichand
04. Practice and Discipline make you perfect“I have always been a disciplined sportsperson. I am always 15 minutes early in practice sessions. I am focused. I cannot stay away from the badminton court for a single day!”
There are no short cuts to success. Practice, practice till you succeed. Unless you take your practice seriously you cannot expect the (good)results in competitions. “I train for eight hours a day, since the past nine years. And no, that is not much – the Chinese train for 14 hours a day – which means that I have a lot of catching up to do.
I concentrate more on physical fitness. I do a lot of weights. I run a lot – I have to do 12 speed runs, along with a half speed run for a half hour. This is especially because the girls’ game is mostly a lot of running. We sprint, jump and hop for 65 minutes or more. And that, for five days on end. Because badminton is such an intense game where every point is so hard fought for, I need enough rest between tournaments, like say, one week. I can’t stay a day without badminton. I can only relax if I’ve trained.”- Saina Nehwal
05. Focus on your goal and manage distractionsOne thing that you will invariably find in all the interviews of Saina “I want to be WORLD NO.1″. And this particular goal has helped her to manage the ‘glamorous’ distractions, that most of the young upcoming sports sensations had fallen prey to. She resembles the Arjuna from Mahabharata, who could see nothing but the ‘birds eye’ and one can sense that Saina can see nothing but ‘World No.1′.
06. It is okay to get angry, frustrated, sad (show negative emotions) as long as it make you determined on what you have to do.Why run away from the fact that we were disappointed by our game and give excuses for our failures. It’s okay to admit our negative emotions. That shows we are honest to ourselves and helps us focus on the next match. After losing to Li Xuerui at the Asian Championships in April 2010 Saina broke down at the venue but that made her more determine to win the next match with her. “Saina was tactically better prepared this time (the next time she played Li Xuerui). She was more confident.” – Pullela Gopichand
07. Not just talk about winning but also about what you have to do to winWinning is very important to her. She is not just hard on herself but on her fans too :) Modest player wants her fans to be there when she is winning but she don’t want them to be around when she is loosing. “They (fans) also get disappointed if I loose the match so I just want them to be happy when I am winning matches”.
You would find her in almost every interview talking about winning, but its not only that, at the same time you would also find her emphasize on what she needs to do to win those matches. Winning is very important but if you only focus on it you are not going to win, for that you need to focus on the things that are within your control which is your performance.
08. If your opponent is playing brilliantly its your job to play better than her/him“I have lost so many matches where I played my best but still lost, its tough to take such defeat, but you have to think why the opponent has won the match, only because, she must have trained harder than you, or she was more focused than you or she must have done something better than you, so next time I play her I have to be better than her.”
Saina Nehwal: a perfect ten
Instead of being afraid of the opponent you need to find out what changes you should do in your game to play better than the opponent. That’s the simple ‘funda’ to beat the ‘unbeatable’. And one of the reasons why she is winning with the Chinese players.
09. If you push yourself, you can do anything. The greatest thing is to take yourself out of the comfort zone, and do something that seems difficult to do.In an interview to TV channel in 2008, she was asked “Why did you choose badminton, not many people follow it in India?” and to which she said “I want to be world No.1 in the sport that I have chosen, it’s okay if I am not famous in India.” And today with that determination she has reached the 3rd position in the world and has pulled the crowd to the stadiums to watch a badminton match (which was not much followed earlier)
10. Success should be linked with the quality of effort.“I have more fans (now) because I am winning tournaments, I want to be 100 per cent at every tournament,” she said after winning Indonesia open super series. “I’m not concerned about rankings. If I win, my ranking will improve. My focus is on improving my game and fitness. If that happens, everything else follows.” This type of attitude keeps the player on her/his toes. S/he does not take the performance for granted. And even if you are losing you don’t loose the hope, “I’m not scared of anybody,” she would say during the spell of losses to the Chinese. “It’s about fitness. If I’m fit, I’ll win.”
