ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will hold online psychological and physical interactive workshops for national players as part of its plan to keep them fit during the ongoing situation, triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Soon after the lockdown came into force [in last week of March], we tried to make our players more ada­ptable to the new way of living. In the start of April they were given online workout plan. Then, online tutorials were held for them during the holy month of Ramazan.

“But the hard times are far from over with no immediate end in sight. The risk factors of psychological distress in such a situation can’t be ignored. Therefore, we’ve decided to hold online interactive sessions for players to make sure they remain mentally and physically fit,” head coach national hockey team, Khawaja Muhammad Junaid told APP on Thursday.

Spelling out the details of the new programme, Khawaja said psychological sessions are likely to start from June 15 in which there would be three to four groups of players. Each group will comprise nine to ten players, who would be given a 40 to 45 minutes lecture via video link by a renowned sports psychologist.

“If need be, there’ll also be some separate individual sessions of 10 to 15 minutes for some players,” he added.

He said similar interactive sessions would be arran­ged with a physiologist after the conclusion of psychological interactive workshop. He said PHF’s physical fitness coach Abid Amin, who was also an affiliated member of American Sports Institute, would give tips to players as to how to keep themselves fit during such a time.

“In hockey four things - mental strength, physical fitn­ess, game skills and lifestyle - are very important.

“Treating the current situation as another challenge rather than a disaster is important. But that can only be done through mental strength. If you are mentally strong, you never give up or deteriorate physically.

“Then comes physical fitness. It can be modified by following a regular training programme even while staying at home.

“Likewise, polishing your skills is necessary as without them you can’t achieve anything. These three aspects [mental, physical and skills] are correlated.

“The fourth thing is your lifestyle. The players must learn the art of self-management. If you are a professional player then it is your own responsibility to take proper diet and sleep during the off season. Even as a pro, you need to take care of yourself. You need to be positive and focussed on your goals and never allow disbelief to take hold of you. Lifestyle has a great impact on mental and physical fitness as well as on one’s skills.”

The head coach also revealed PHF’s plan to arrange motivational lectures for players with erstwhile legends of hockey and other sports by the end of June. “The federation is also considering to hold online sessions for players with former greats of different sports disciplines to help them [players] make optimum use of their time during the shutdown period. The tips by these legends can go a long way in boosting the players’ morale and bringing good out of them. The players can learn a lot from them with regards to discipline, temperament and hard work,” he added.

According to Junaid, Pakistan hockey has been facing the shortage of backup players for quite some time. “There has been a huge gap for the past several years as new talent was not emerging and we didn’t have enough backup players. But we’ve succeeded in bridging that gap to a large extent by identifying a considerable number of young talented players.

“Currently, we’ve 35 players who can represent the country at the international level and 20 out of them are young guns. This is a very positive sign for Pakistan hockey,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2020