What’s up doc?
SHREEDUTTA CHIDANANDA
They may not receive medals or find much mention in news reports, but few insiders will question the importance of ‘support staff’ in sport. Where earlier it may have meant only the physiotherapist, the term has now come to include video analysts, masseurs, dieticians, and even ‘mental-conditioning coaches’ under its ambit.
The itinerant life, the long months spent away from home at tournaments and camps, in hotels and hostels, can often be frustrating. It may not be every qualified physician’s idea of a career but in Lt. Col. B.K. Nayak’s case, it was preferable to “confining oneself to a hospital.”
As team doctor of the Indian men’s hockey squad, Nayak’s job is to ensure his players do not suffer injury. “Treating someone afterwards is no big deal,” he says. “So my role here is injury prevention and performance enhancement. I have to ensure that they have recovered 100 percent for the next day’s training. It is not something every doctor will enjoy,” he smiles. “You live out of a suitcase. And you are out in the field most of the time. You need to have the aptitude and the interest.”
His own aptitude saw him inducted into the Army Sports Institute, after having graduated from Armed Forces Medical College in 1995. Previously a State-level boxer in Orissa, Nayak was detailed to the Indian boxing team for three years, until the 2008 Olympic Games, before joining the National hockey side. “Hockey is a very challenging team game. Boxing is an individual sport where the boxers know how to look after themselves. They know their bodies much better than anyone else. In a team sport, training, recovery, nutrition – everything needs to be addressed in one go.”
The Indian hockey team perhaps presents a greater challenge in this regard, for its members arrive from varying social environments. A few players have been reported to be underweight and have revealed low nutrition levels — issues coach Michael Nobbs has sought to address. “So you have got to know each and every one,” Nayak says. “You cannot have a generalized approach. A player’s socio-economic background, the exposure he has had before coming to this place – all that matters. It could be that a player has recurring injuries for reasons connected to his background. We speak to them; we ask what kind of training or formal education they have had. We want to bring all of them onto the same nutritional platform. Only then can we think further.”
It is the team doctor, Nobbs states, that ultimately decides if a recovering player is fit to play or not. “When a player has an injury, I need to know how long it will be before he can play, how much it will affect his performance if he carries on with it etc; all this might need to answered in the space of a few minutes. The doctor is vital. I have been involved in many decisions where the coach has played doctor and it has backfired. My team (Australia) lost on a medal in the Olympic Games due to this.”
Unsurprisingly, injuries can often be understated, or worse concealed, by players. “Over a period of time, you develop a rapport with them,” Nayak says. “After some time, a player will come and tell you that he is not feeling well and things are not alright. It is a mutual thing. Obviously, if I start behaving like a Lieutenant Colonel out there, they will also be difficult. But with all the tests we do, it is not that easy to hide injury in the first place. And at this level, even players understand that by hiding injuries they cannot prolong their careers.”
This bonding with the players, Nayak laughs, sometimes takes on worrying proportions. “When I go home (the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, where he is Chief Medical Officer of the Sports Medicine department ), I find myself talking on the phone with these guys. It is easier to talk to them than your household! They become your extended family.”
Nayak’s tenure with the hockey team lasts until February’s Olympic qualifiers, and should the team progress, the Games themselves. Nayak feels all the travel and the time spent away from home is worth it. “It gives a different type of satisfaction and pride that you are representing the country, no matter in what capacity,” he says. “This is a not a job with a mere exchange of work for money. It is much more.”