Save the best for the last

Abhinav Bindra shares his secret to performing well consistently and not getting bogged down by failure. Read on for more.

The last week has been a busy one. I have been training close to 8 hours a day as the World Championships are now an uncomfortably close ten days away... My form has not reached top performance yet but, ironically, that is normally a good thing! I subscribe to the theory: "save the best for last" (and leave the rest to Paul the Pundit!).



Essentially, shooting at peak performance level, ten days prior to the main event, would be too ambitious a level to sustain. In my experience, the mind loves to play funny tricks and eventually one has to master the art of playing these tricks back... Or perhaps learn to dominate the alter ego we all have inside us, to some degree — "that guy" generally has embarrassingly different plans to those of your conscious self!

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Do I sound crazy? All I am trying to say is I have to constantly trick myself into obtaining higher and higher levels of concentration. Being in average form forces you to mobilise your inner resources better and stay on your toes, super alert! This is precisely the stuff that propels you to survive when stress and pressure attack you. And finally, for lack of alternative avenues, you simply have to stand up and rise to the occasion! A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. It’s a time for focus and determination, not to mention stamina.



I think the ground rules are pretty similar for all walks of life when you are testing your prowess or taking an exam. So, the next week will see me slow down, relax,and charge my batteries! Oddly, to win, you have to reach the minus of your battery and for that to happen, the battery must be fully charged. Only then can one even venture to dig deep enough to find those minus levels.



So now you know what I shall be doing next week — laziness with a mission, if such a term can be coined. And then? I guess that’s when the fun begins!

Read more Abhinav Bindra columns.

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