Bengaluru diaries: Getting the corners right

‘Goals in all corners of the net’ is all that I’m thinking constantly these days. As a dragflicker, I don’t want to be in a situation where my team wants me to flick towards a particular corner and I’m not able to convert or I don’t want to be thinking, “I haven’t practiced this enough”. During our recent Korea Tour, I scored in the top right corner. I was quite ecstatic after getting those goals. 

I’ve got videos of it and I watch it quite often in the room. Though I watch videos of other players taking penalty corners, I watch my goals too several times because it gives me confidence.  

We returned from South Korea on Tuesday last week and our Chief Coach gave us two days rest. It was much-needed as the long hours of travel was tiring. We played well in Korea and to win against a higher ranked team, especially in difficult weather conditions, is always a big boost. With a little less than 10 days before we leave for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the training now has intensified again. It almost seems like 24 hours is not enough in a day. We train almost five to six hours a day, we have psychology classes (individual and team) which includes neuro tracking, we have a nutritionist meeting us on a one-on-one basis and most-importantly we spend a lot of time in the meeting room too chalking out our plans for the upcoming event.

I either start my training half an hour before everyone or I stay back after the team gets off the pitch to work on my corners. Today, during our defence training I wasn’t having a particularly good session. I even got an ear full from the Chief Coach. But later, with some good PC conversion, he gave me a pat. On tough days like these, it’s that one pat from Coach that changes everything – at least for me. I was so angry during practice because I wasn’t getting things right, it was frustrating, but after he gave me “Shahbashi” (a Hindi word for praise) that anger instantly turned to ‘ a sigh of relief.’

I’ve been fortunate to regularly feature in the national camp for a year now. There’s so much that I’ve learnt in these past months. Something that gave me tremendous stress initially was to face media questions. Being the only dragflicker in the team, there was a lot of interest from the media to know who I am and where I came from or how I managed to come back into the camp after being dropped in 2016. Not knowing how to speak fluent Hindi affected my confidence to give the right answers too. 

Cut to the present day, I just gave an interview ON CAMERA. It feels like an achievement especially for someone as shy as I am. I can feel that my confidence has improved and I can take questions both positive and negative in my stride. When I think of it, giving interviews too becomes a part of the overall growth of a player and it’s also very encouraging to get media coverage for women’s hockey. I’m quite the popular one in my village now, thanks to the publicity. 

I’ve never been to Australia before nor have I experienced how a multi-disciplined sporting event. I’ve heard so much about how life is in a Games Village from the senior players. I look forward to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games with eagerness and we are well-prepared for the challenge.