The way an athlete thinks can make or break them: Mugdha Bavare

Q. Who are some of the athletes and which are some of the teams that you’ve worked with?

My start, of course, was with the MCA back in 2006. It was quite challenging because I had players in the teams, who were 14 or 15 back then, but luckily, they understood at that time the importance of it. I'm still there with the MCA. I also started my consulting practice with the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) and I've been with them for almost 10 years. Prior to that, I’ve also worked with JSW Sports. And then I’ve also worked with Paralympics as well as the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) in my journey.

Q. We often hear that it’s not the skill that’s bogging an athlete down, but his/her mind. Can you explain that statement for laypersons?

Be it in foreign countries or in India, the athletes spend so much of their time building their bodies, which includes skill training, fitness, conditioning, diet. In the last 10 years, we’ve seen all these four areas have gained so much importance that hardly any players would skip these. But what we lack is the understanding of the mind—the way we think. The way you think can either make or break you as a player. It’s nothing else but how you control or manage your emotions. Like the way we work on our body, it's critical that we also work on the thought process because that impacts the action. And that's where I say that there is some kind of an imbalance that happens most of the times.

Let’s talk about players who are ready for the Olympics or the bigger stage, but if I give them certain situations—for example what would you do when there are 10 runs to score off three balls. How would you manage these situations? And I immediately see a questions mark on their faces. So, physically they are ready, but not mentally. That’s where you get stuck and are not able to perform. If we elevate our mental strength, it helps us maximise our potential, and increases the chances of winning. In sports and also with corporates, we talk a lot about performance, but what is performance? It’s not about winning or losing but the way to reach your potential. And if you are doing it the maximum number of times, you’re obviously winning.

Q. When you sit down with an athlete, what's the process that you follow?

There are two things that happen when I am doing mental conditioning. One, if it is a team event, group sessions have to happen because I have to take all those members of the team to achieve that one single goal that we are looking forward to. But the second part is also the individual approach. Having those one-on-one conversations is crucial because not everybody is comfortable opening up in the group. Through one-on-ones, the sports psychologists try to understand, one, the way a player is thinking, but also the personality of that player since that’s where the thinking is rooted. That's what we are trained in to identify. It's an intricate process—all the methodology that we would be following in the one-on-one sessions would depend on how we click in the first session. So, it’s important for us to develop a connect in the first session.

Also read: It's a golden period to be an athlete in India: OGQ's Neha Aggarwal

Q. Is it easier for a team sports athlete to deal with their mental health than an individual sports athlete?

This is a common question that I get asked. It is both ways. In team sports, it’s not easy, but the way I would like to put it is that the responsibility is shared. When that happens, you are a lot calmer. Whereas in an individual sport, you are the only one—it's your responsibility if you win or lose. But in terms of my work, with an individual player I have to deal with one person and provide specific strategies. Whereas when I am working with the team, I have to take into consideration myriad personality aspects and then tune them into a single goal. So, as I said, the challenge lies both ways.

Q. In sports especially, athletes seek validation from outcomes. How do you teach them to decouple from the outcome?

It's an important question because, ultimately, they are doing everything to achieve performance and performance is nothing else but the medals, the trophies, the external recognition. I'm not saying that's wrong, but what I train athletes to do is teach them about outcomes and then break them down. It's a kind of reverse engineering that I use with them where we're not really asking them not to think about the outcome, because outcomes would give you direction and the bigger picture, but then I break it down to what is it that they need to do now to reach that outcome. So, we have both the perspectives in place and that is where I work on bringing in that motivation. And in that I tell them to analyse and monitor themselves as to how they reach that level.

I talk a lot about goal-setting. So, like, if they’re starting to think about the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028, we break it down [into smaller goals]. And that's what I'm doing, especially with my grassroots athletes, and equally with the Olympians I'm working with, and our chart is ready already.

Q. So you mean incremental changes, and not in terms of the four-year Olympics cycle?

Absolutely. But the vision is always there as to why am I doing it. I was travelling with a few of the Olympians, and post the event, in Paris itself, we sat and charted out the entire four-year programme with what we want in Los Angeles and how do we get it from now onwards. The moment it's there, it's a complete, clear vision—this is what we call it a vision board in our language. It is ready and it gives you a very clear perspective on what is it that I'm doing.

Q. Failure, in India is considered to be a taboo and a shame. Does it make your job a little more difficult?

I think now I'm really in a good space because people have started understanding that failure doesn't define you as not-a-good-player or success doesn't define you as an excellent one. We do a lot of awareness programmes with coaches and parents, and they have started understanding what failure is all about. But yes, it still is a challenge because at the back of our mind, we're still relating to failure as something big. So, when I’m charting out my programme for players, we tell them to not only think about success but make them understand what failures they may come across. The whole understanding of failures and making them prepare for it mentally is one aspect to handle it in a better way. And then we work on Plan B. Acceptance of failures is the first thing [of dealing with it]. We just need to be aware of it and accept it, and be ready with the plans for it.

Q. The common notion is that athletes struggle with their mind when they are not performing. But a lot of champion athletes talk about the emptiness they are enveloped with once their goal is achieved. Shooter Abhinav Bindra, for instance, battled with depression after he won the Olympic gold medal in 2008. Can you explain why such heights of success don't sit well with champions?

At the level that we're talking about, they are in the zone of sports and performance all the time. So all their time is occupied with training, competitions or travelling for competitions. Even when they are eating, they're so mindful of what to eat because that will impact their performance. And that's all because they want to achieve something. The outcome is in front of them and that’s what they are working towards. Suddenly, when you switch over to the other side—that's what we call it as transition in sport—there's that whole lot of emptiness because the goal is lost. Now they don’t know why they are doing something. I personally went through that slump because mid-career, I decided to quit swimming because I wasn’t performing so well. Initially I thought I would enjoy because now the restrictions were gone, but that just stays for a few days. That's where now a new term we talk about—career transition—and I have begun to speak to active athletes about their post-retirement options as well. And the good thing is, now there are so many options available, which weren’t there during our times.