Badri Narayan

Tennis is as much a game about the mind as it is of the body. How often in recent years have we seen players choke when the stakes are high or lose a match after building a huge lead in a match.

Several tennis stars are now paying attention to the importance of mental conditioning or coaching, and Sportskeeda caught up with one such expert, Badri Narayanan.

Narayanan is a Certified Mental Conditioning Coach, having done his Masters in Sports Psychology from Utah University. He currently works as a Sports Psychologist Consultant/Mental Conditioning coach for players on the ATP and WTA Tours as well as the USTA circuit.

He also works on a consulting basis with a few cricketers in the Indian national cricket team. Besides tennis and cricket, Badri also provides consulting services for some Indian clientele in sailing (Rohini Rau, Ajay Rau), racing (Alisha Abdullah, Armaan Ebrahim), squash (Shruti Settipalli) and table tennis (Sathiyan Gnanasekaran).

Badri Narayanan is also a certified Neurolinguistic practitioner, and his role is to use relaxation response and progressive relaxation methods to get the body and mind in the optimal state for performance.

So what do you call yourself? A mental conditioning coach? A motivational guru? Or a sports psychologist?

I am called both: Mental Conditioning (MC) Coach and Sports Psychologist. I have been in this field for the past 10 years or so. Motivation definitely is an intrinsic part of mental training.

Why did you choose to work in the field of tennis? I’m sure your skills could be used in just about any sport in the world?

Yes, it is. In addition to tennis, I also work with clients in cricket, basketball, squash, table tennis, racing and sailing. I have played and coached tennis for almost 20 years now. It was my primary passion for getting into sports.

Tennis, being a very individual sport, requires tremendous mental discipline. In a match, it is the work that a player does in both mental and physical training off court/on court, that gets him to where he needs to be.

Mental toughness – is it something ingrained or something that can be acquired over time? Are some people better equipped than others to absorb what you teach?

I have seen and worked with players who are, intrinsically, very competitive and don’t want to give an inch. There are also players who are new to this field, but are willing to learn and develop their mental skills.

I wouldn’t like to pass a judgement on whether some players are better equipped to understand and apply mental skills. As an MC coach, all I expect from the player is the eagerness to work mental skills with the same zeal as he/she would work on a backhand or a forehand.

A lot of tennis players have complained of late about cyber-bullying and the downright negative and hateful messages on social media networks. How are players supposed to deal with that?

With the advent of Twitter, Facebook and various other social networks, it gives a platform to the players to express their thoughts and also a way to connect with fans.

But in the newer fringe players that I see, there is also a tendency for players to overexpose themselves and make themselves too reachable.

Recently, we had a player from Canada (wouldn’t like to name) who quit the game due to cyber threats. I think the players need to take a very professional approach when it comes to the internet. Especially when preparing for an event, it is vital that players stay away from anything that distracts them.

One needs to be in control of his/her emotions and thoughts when it comes to social media.