Bengaluru, 17 August 2020: The 14-day quarantine for the Indian hockey teams come to an end Tomorrow. It means the team will start combined practice soon.  The entire Core Group of players barring the six who got affected by COVID-19 virus and are in hospital, were living in isolation for the last two weeks. Forward SV Sunil speaks about his experience of living in isolation since returning to SAI’s National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Indications are that the team is in Ready, Set, Go mode now. 

“We all realized from these past two weeks that we all needed to be really strong mentally, and to make sure that we were always in touch with our friends, family and teammates.” 

Having gained first-hand experience, the Indian forward said he has huge respect for people who have spent time in quarantine centres or home isolation during the pandemic.

“Sometimes you don’t realize how much effort goes into something. After having lived in isolation, I can relate to what everyone who has lived in quarantine centres or home isolation has gone through. It is a great challenge of mental strength and really tests your patience, so I have tremendous respect for people who have managed to get through such phases during the pandemic,” said the 2014 Asian Games Gold Medallist.

“It was important for us to stay busy, because you can’t always be on the television or play games on the phone to get through the day. So our Chief Coach and members of support staff decided to make sure we were doing something or the other. We were asked to do some research on the greatest Olympians ever, and then present to the team on our video calls. It was a nice activity as we learned a fair bit from all the players choosing various legends and talking in detail.” 

“We have also been able to maintain our fitness levels by following the indoor-fitness schedule that we’ve been given. Personally, I have also enjoyed taking part in our activations which include stretching and foam rolling. So we have been having one hour sessions in the morning over video call where all the players join in, and follow what our Scientific Advisor and Physio asks us to do. It has been a different experience to do it over video call for sure.”

“It was so good to see how we got our food served, which was through contact-less delivery at our doorstep. All of us felt really safe, and I am really happy that we can resume sports activities from Wednesday onwards. It is good for us that we have been able to maintain our fitness through indoor body-weight exercises, but it will be good to start outdoor running as well in a very safe environment’.