CHENNAI: Elite athletes are creatures of habit. Most of them lead monotonous lifestyles, perfecting their chiselled bodies in their pursuit of excellence. This habit usually sees them chart out course months in advance. For an Olympics, the planning usually begins a good 12-18 months in advance. With the Games postponed to next year thanks to the spread of COVID-19, athletes, for want of a better phrase, are currently swimming in unchartered waters.
Their plans have been gutted for no fault of theirs. Some could even develop stress because of the changes to the schedule. So it’s only natural if it throws ‘people off their plans’, says Divya Jain, head of Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Fortis Healthcare in New Delhi. “It’s been an abrupt change... athletes are usually well prepared with a certain timeline in mind. But at the same time, if they can recalibrate, it’s not necessarily the end of the road.”
The plans usually revolve around training camps and exposure trips keeping in mind upcoming events, qualifiers and current rankings. With all those out for the foreseeable future, Divya says athletes will be better off taking it day by day. “Rather than looking at when all the rearranged events will happen... those are things that are out of your circle of control. Avoid worrying about those. We should look at it this way: ‘I have these many extra weeks to prepare, what can I do at this time to make sure I am ready once the lockdown is lifted?’ There should be process-oriented goals rather than competition-wise goals.”
A few of the athletes have said they will view the last 8-12 months as a year lost. But Divya doesn’t buy that argument. “I don’t think that’s correct. Anything that you have trained and learned, stays with you. Even if you take a slight step backwards, you are still a lot better than what you were (last year) in terms of skills. A lot of things you have learned is now part of your memory. I wouldn’t think of it like that (a year lost).”
A few, according to Divya, are also bound to have withdrawal symptoms because this is the first time that most of them will have an enforced break.“Even if they are training on their own, there could be restlesness, agitation and general worry. They are used to expending a lot of energy, so that’s natural. But finding ways of continuing to train if possible and also working on specifics that they may have ignored in the past (should do them a world of good.”