Colonel Rai’s training played a major role in our performance: Rajpal Singh

Pranav Kulkarni

They might have had to settle with a silver at the Commonwealth Games (CWG), but the fact that the Indian hockey team fared beyond everyone’s expectation till the finals had a lot to do with the lessons they received on winning and losing from Kargil hero Col (Retd) Lalit Rai.

The retired Army man was entrusted with the task of boosting the team mentally and conducting psychological motivational lectures for them during their training in Pune. And even though the team lost an 8-0 to the Australians in the finals, the trainer said the lessons they have learnt will surely get them the Asian Games trophy in November.

When people called me up to say that the Indian hockey team’s performance on Thursday was poor, I asked them only one thing — when the Commonwealth Games began did they expect the team to come so far? The group that we had got was a tough one when we were pooled against world champions Australia and arch rivals Pakistan. The performances of our team during the entire tournament was outstanding,” said Colonel (retd) Lalit Rai, Vir Chakra, motivational trainer of the Indian hockey team and director HR of Pune-based Emcure.

The most important thing we learnt from Colonel Rai was that we should never give up and should never settle for what we have got. The training played a major role in our performance,” said Rajpal Singh, captain of the Indian hockey team whose caller tune these days is Chak De.

Colonel Rai trained the team members during their training camps in Pune over seven sessions during the first and second week of September.

Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri said, “Before entering the field, we just knew that come what may, we had to win and that helped every stroke we played and every goal I saved.” In an analysis of the Indian hockey team, Rai identified that more than technique, it was the team bonding, attitude, perseverance and killer instinct that the team members majorly lacked in. “In any match there is a bigger picture and a smaller picture. Victory is the big picture and personal aspirations such as becoming the highest scorer, playing for the gallery are the smaller circle and I tried to diffuse the latter,” said Rai. “In the finals, they were under pressure as Aussies are world champions. I saw them entering the field with a mind block.