Lately, India has achieved nice feats within the realm of sports activities. India’s efficiency within the 2023 Asian Video games held in China was a testomony to that. With the nation’s athletes making such nice leaps on the worldwide stage, it’s evident that India is turning into a sporting powerhouse. Nonetheless, whereas the bodily and technical know-how of the sport is essential for the athlete to emerge victorious, the essential half that usually goes unnoticed, which is key to the athlete’s success, is psychological security.
What precisely is Psychological Security (PS)?
PS refers back to the emotional and psychological well-being of people of their setting, comparable to being part of a workforce or a sports activities group/federation. Within the context of sports activities, specifically, cultivating a psychologically protected setting is essential for peak efficiency. Fostering an setting the place athletes can specific their ideas, feelings and vulnerabilities with out the worry of criticism or repercussions has the power to nurture the athlete’s psychological well being and resilience and promotes a constructive mindset amongst athletes.
The present situation in Indian sports activities
The Indian sporting tradition takes pleasure within the ‘win in any respect prices’ mentality. Sports activities in India has centered primarily on the psychological abilities that a person should have with a purpose to improve efficiency. Media in India has documented the organizational stressors that elite athletes encounter, comparable to low monetary safety, lack of funds for coaching, insufficient aggressive publicity and sexual harassment[1].
Though the lacking hyperlink is the dearth of formal exploration of those stressors and the way they affect the athlete’s psychological well-being [1], Rajaraman [2] emphasised the necessity to construct PS to reinforce the efficiency of elite athletes in India. He quotes the expertise of India’s first particular person Olympic gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra- ‘Bindra explains how a person’s well-being is a crucial side of high-performing sport. He talked about how he felt psychologically compromised and insecure all through his elite sporting profession. He struggled with nervousness and self-belief and what helped him was being surrounded by constructive individuals who had a fantastic sense of perception in him. Whether or not it was his coaches, mother and father or assist employees, they supplied him with a way of safety and a security internet which allowed him to deal with his sporting profession.’
Whereas India has witnessed exceptional success in varied sports activities, comparable to cricket, taking pictures, and badminton, the emphasis on psychological security stays underdeveloped. The prevalent focus is totally on bodily coaching and technical ability improvement, usually overshadowing the athletes’ psychological well-being. The result’s a possible psychological well being disaster in Indian sports activities.
The necessity for PS within the Indian sports activities ecosystem
1. Psychological Well being and Effectively-being: Athletes face intense strain to carry out, which might result in stress, nervousness, and different psychological well being points. Psychological security helps athletes address these pressures by offering a supportive setting the place they will search assist and specific their issues with out stigma.
2. Enhanced Efficiency: A mentally resilient athlete is extra more likely to excel of their sport. Psychological security encourages athletes to deal with their psychological well being, which might translate into improved focus, higher decision-making, and, finally, enhanced efficiency.
3. Expertise Growth: Making a psychologically protected setting from the grassroots stage is important for nurturing expertise. Younger athletes must develop not solely their bodily abilities but additionally their psychological fortitude to achieve the long term.
4. Attracting and Retaining Expertise: Athletes usually tend to keep dedicated to their sport once they really feel valued and supported. Making certain psychological security can appeal to and retain expertise in Indian sports activities, finally contributing to the nation’s sporting success.
5. Worldwide Competitiveness: As India goals to compete on the highest stage in worldwide sports activities, psychological security turns into a crucial issue. Nations like the USA and the UK have integrated psychological well being assist into their sports activities programs, making them extra aggressive on the world stage.
Steps In the direction of Reaching Psychological Security
To instil psychological security in Indian sports activities, varied measures may be carried out:
1. Training and Consciousness: Athletes, coaches, assist employees and fogeys needs to be educated concerning the significance of psychological security and psychological well being assist.
2. Psychological Well being Packages: Sports activities organizations ought to supply psychological well being applications, together with counselling providers, stress administration workshops, and emotional resilience coaching to coaches and athletes.
3. Open Communication: Athletes needs to be inspired to brazenly talk about their psychological well being challenges and issues with out worry of judgment. Dad and mom and coaches ought to create a protected setting for the athletes to have the ability to share their ideas, opinions and emotions with out worry of going through unfavourable penalties comparable to punishment, being a substitute on the workforce, and many others.
4. Supportive Insurance policies: Sports activities governing our bodies ought to set up insurance policies that prioritize psychological well being and psychological security. Earlier than coaches and assist employees members are employed, they need to be compulsorily made to undergo formal coaching to learn to assist an athlete’s psychological wants.
Within the quickly evolving panorama of Indian sports activities, psychological security is not only an choice; it is a necessity. Creating an setting that values and helps the psychological well-being of athletes is an important step in direction of reaching sustainable success on the earth of sports activities. With the correct measures in place, India can proceed its journey in direction of turning into a world sporting powerhouse, with psychologically resilient athletes main the cost.
[1] Kahn, J. (2010, September 29). Group battles corruption in Indian sports activities. The New York Instances.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/sports activities/30iht-
Bhatia,S. (2011, September 17). Hockey champs deserve higher. The Asian Age. Retrieved from
Telegraph employees (2010, July 21). Hockey India examine sexual harassment claims. The Tele.
Graph. Retrieved from htp://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/hockey/7902249/
Hockey-India-investigate-sexual-harassment-claims.html
[1] Sohal, D., Gervis, M., Rhind, D. (2013). Exploration of organizational stressors in Indian elite
feminine athletes. Worldwide Journal of Sport Psychology, 44(6), 565-585.
doi:10.7352/IJSP.2013.44.565
[1] Rajaraman, A. G. (n.d.). Indian sport must construct Psychological Security to reinforce
efficiency –Circle of Sport. Retrieved August 21, 2023, from
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efficiency/#:~:textual content=Indianpercent20sportpercent20needspercent20topercent20buildpercent20Psychological%
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Urja Mehta is a national-level footballer who has accomplished her MSc in Sport and Train Psychology from Loughborough College, UK. Being an athlete herself, she is eager on creating and making a distinction within the sports activities business in India.
