Take it ‘S.L.O.W’ upon return, says sports psychologist Sumiran

Chennai

Imminent action on court looks highly improbable at the moment, with the deadly virus spreading like wildfire. Starved of training sessions for a long period, athletes are bound to take time to get back to their zone when normalcy returns. And, sports psychologist Sumiran Tandon sees no problem in that as she wants the squash players to take it ‘S.L.O.W’ upon resumption of the game.

“All the athletes will have to move step-by-step. They must assess their (short-term) goals after each session. In the process, they can also add, remove and rectify goals. It is very important to have a layout (of what they aim to do) as well,” said Sumiran during a webinar session hosted by the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) and HCL on the Zoom application.

“The players should obey themselves and work smart. If they don’t work smart, all the hard work will go to waste. So, remember to be S.L.O.W – Stepbystep, Layout, Obey and Work smart,” she added. Sumiran stressed that mental training at home shouldn’t be sacrificed when competitions restart in the future.

“Mental preparation includes video analysis, focus training and imagery. A fixed schedule is essential and the training has to continue regardless of the amount of work put in (on court),” she emphasised. Sumiran also said Open Monitoring Meditation (OMM) would be more helpful to squash players than Focussed Attention Meditation (FAM) since the former allows people to focus on a number of things.

“In FAM, we focus on just one thing. It will be of use for archers, golfers and shooters. But, OMM is different. There, we let everything pass our mind and remain aware of what is happening. In OMM, we focus on thoughts, feelings, memories, sounds, body sensations etc. Squash players have to focus on so many things while competing and hence, I would suggest OMM for them.”