Energy science is the new mantra for excellence in sports? Well, this is the belief of 66-year-old Krishna Prasad Cherala whose ‘sports mind coaching’ programme seems to be catching up of late.
To substantiate that his programme, essentially featuring Neuro Linguistic Programme (NLP) and self-hypnosis, is proving to be helpful, Prasad cites the example of former world under-16 chess champion B. Adhiban, who after attending it, had the satisfaction of making reigning World champion Magnus Carlsen settle for a draw against him in an international event.
Prasad also recalls the compliment he got from P.T. Usha when she was briefed about it. “Wish I had someone like you when I competed in the Olympics (the great Indian athlete missed the bronze medal by 1\100th of a second in the 400m hurdles in 1984 Los Angeles Games). May be, I would have won the gold.”
“We don’t say we displace the regular coaching system. We only complement that by trying to restore confidence and self-belief with what we call energy science,” Prasad told The Hindu here on Thursday.
How is this different from sports psychology? “Here, we change the programme of the mind depending on the needs and aspirations of the athletes. It is not just a one-off session.
“For instance, it is mandatory for anyone to attend 21 sessions of one hour each under our programme which also includes yoga and a special nutritious diet schedule too,” said Prasad even as he listed out the other beneficiaries such as GM Murali Karthikeyan, Aditya Elangovan (badminton).
“Importantly, part of our programme is to make the athletes believe in their coaches and not complain against them in any aspect of their job. So, we only play a supportive role,” he pointed out.
Prasad, who was born in Nellore then worked in Hyderabad before making Chennai as his base now to conduct these programmes, is also a regular to the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai.
“We target the athletes or the subjects (from any field) to think differently. We make it a point to inculcate the need to gracefully accept the opponent’s strong points even in defeat or else they will be stuck with that defeatist attitude,” said Prasad.
“We have approached various Sports Federations and are ready to work with Sports Authority of India as it chalks out a long-term plan to produce Olympic gold medallists,” he said.
Prasad takes pride in reminding that his research papers on this subject had been translated into Hindi by renowned hockey coach M.K. Kaushik.
