U Vimal wants athletes to take care of mental health during lockdown

KOCHI:  The lockdown has confined athletes to their homes and thrown their normal routines out of gear. Goes without saying that these can even be stressful times for them, shuttlers included. However, veteran badminton coach U Vimal Kumar feels that they should use this unexpected downtime to address these mental issues.

“We give so much importance to physical training, technical aspects and other such things. The mental aspect get neglected at times. That is only done just before competitions or when athletes feel tense. Then they go through training programmes for that.“This is an opportunity to address all these aspects. In the next two, three months, when most athletes won’t have any tournament to participate in, they can really work on their mental strength.”

Athletes have been posting on the internet videos of how they are training at home with the resources that they have. Kumar feels that their efforts shouldn’t just be limited to bettering their physical fitness.

“They can also try to train to develop better focus... When you are faced with an adverse situation — like the one right now — and to learn how to deal with it. That’s one way of looking at dealing with this lockdown. There’s nothing else you can do right now. So they can devote time to such aspects. It is a good time for them to develop some mental discipline as well.”

The lockdown is expected to go on till April 14. Kumar is hopeful that the situation will ease  up for everyone after that, so that athletes can start training outdoors.“You can only do so much at home. Athletes should at least be able to go out for a run while taking all necessary precautions. In the larger picture, I hope that the situation gets better in the coming days for all of us.”