Players in the India camp start practicing is a run of the mill affair for long. But now, due to COVID-19, even the routine has become a news if not headline. Yes, Indian girls and boys, juniors and seniors, have completed their self-quarantine time, and started outdoor practicing today at the SAI facility in Bengaluru.

Arjuna Savita, who is elated to be outdoor and start preliminary phase of practicing, reflects the mood of the teams: “It is a good moment for all of us. We are finally able to resume sports activities, and do outdoor running as well. In our rooms, we were engaging ourselves only with weight exercises and using resistance bands. Doing some sort of outdoor activities is a positive sign, and relief. We followed all the SAI SOPs in a very secure environment.  It was more about staying fit and maintaining your well-being when we were in our rooms, but the feel-good factor is back now.”

Jakarta Silver Medallist Savita

Having had the opportunity to be all by themselves for a period of 14 days, Savita said it was one-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of them to self-evaluate and take out time for themselves. “When you are a professional athlete, it gets really hectic sometimes because you are travelling every other day, and playing often. As such you don’t really get the chance to introspect at length, but these few months and especially the past 14 days, I’ve had the chance to look back on a lot of things and understand myself better,” said the veteran Goalkeeper who hails from Sirsa, Haryana.

“What I’ve realized is that this is the only time I might get in my life where I can analyse a lot of things – personal and professional – and work towards bettering them. It may be the choices I’ve made at certain stages, or something that I can add to my personality on and off the field to make it better. It might vary for different people, but I totally believe that it has been one of the most important phases in my life as I’ve had to be very strong mentally as well.”

Appreciating the SAI and the Hockey India for their remarkable work to provide the team a safe environment she said:  What it means is that we were really confident and excited to step outside of our rooms, and resume the sports activities. Credit also goes to our team management for providing us with a schedule that ensured we stayed fit during these months, and can now get our rhythm back.”

The 30-year-old also shared insights on her team’s new routine post the quarantine period. “We have to get back to full fitness so we will be including outdoor running, high-intensity workouts and a bit of stick-work to our schedule. We started today with an outdoor exercise session maintaining social distancing, and will be resuming sports activities on the hockey pitch to get our rhythm back while also following safety protocols as stated in the SOPs.”

Photos: K. Arumugam