CHENNAI: Athletes the world over have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. Even if the sheer number of positive tests set the alarm bells ringing, almost all of them have since recovered and gone back to the field.
This showed to Manpreet Singh that it was entirely normal and that there was no need to panic. In an interview to this daily, India’s men’s hockey captain, who has resumed sporting activities at the SAI campus in Bengaluru since recovering from Covid-19, spoke about how he manages his current workload, the steps Hockey India CEO Elena Norman took to assure his mother, and what he learned when he was in self-isolation. Excerpts:
You started sporting activities recently. How has it been?
Our trainers and coaches devised elaborate plans for our comeback. The intention was to start slowly. We began with 20% and we are now at 60 % (of our optimal capacity). The hope is that we can get to 100% in the next two weeks. When we first got back, our first exercise was walking, then jogging, then running. It was to improve our pace in a step by step process. If we go 100% in the first day, we don’t know the side effects.
Can you elaborate on this step by step process?
Our heart rates and oxygen were constantly monitored (it still is). When we first started walking, the aim was to keep our heart rates below 140 bpm. If it went higher than that, our fitness trainer would call and ask us to slow down. Then the new rate was 150 and so on. Our current optimal heart rate level is 170, we all wear GPS so there is live monitoring. We joined the other members of the squad last week. So whenever our level exceeds 170, we will start doing something different than the other members of the squad as we don’t want to rush the process yet. Normally, when we are training with high intensity or playing a match, our heart rates go up to 190-195.
How was it when you tested positive? Did you get scared?
Actually, no. So many players have tested positive and many have recovered. Many footballers did test positive (and have come back to playing). (Novak) Djokovic too... I just told myself it would be okay. I learned a lot during my time in quarantine.
Can you explain?
We were in isolation for more than two weeks, first in our rooms, then we spent close to a week in hospital. I lost my sense of taste and smell. The support of my teammates, SAI and Hockey India was great. (HI CEO) Elena (Norman) constantly called on us to check, she even called my mother and assured her ‘that he would get better,’ after she got nervous. ‘They are our players, they play for the national team, we will not let anything happen to them’. All this positivity showed me that people were standing with us. It was a difficult moment for all, being and staying positive. So how to deal with that, how to be patient, how to deal with this (setback) calmly... how to stay peaceful, to medidate... these where the kind of things I picked up during my quarantine.