Lot of it happens in an auto mode: Dinesh Karthik on Nidahas Trophy final

Shedding light on the importance and necessity of mental strength and conditioning in sports, Star Sports 1 Tamil show Mind Masters by MFORE will have Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik and Indian squash professional Dipika Pallikal as guests to discuss about the need of mental strength and how they dealt with tough situations

Both Dinesh Karthik and Dipika Pallikal talk about their sporting journeys and the difficult moments they had to face at different points of their careers and how they overcame it. They also talk about the best moments of their careers and how they climbed the ladders of success.

Talking about his success in the Nidahas Trophy final Karthik said, "I was waiting for such a moment like that to prove myself. I had been practicing a lot to face a chance like this. When the real situation came to go through that I think it is fun at that stage. Lots of it happen in an auto mode.

"As you practice a lot and when you are at that stage you know what you need to do. I had belief that we would win that match, it was 2 overs 34 runs to win, and I still thought that I could win this game for the team."

Both Dipika and Karthik have faced tough situations in their careers, Karthik with a career spanning over 17 years has been on & off the Indian side while Dipika had to go through the heartbreak of missing the 2010 Commonwealth Games only to make a dream return in the 2014 Glasgow Games.

Karthik while shedding light on mental toughness said: "To sum up mental toughness, it's the ability to stay in the present consistently. So that whenever you face tough situations, you will get lots of random thoughts but most importantly if you can focus on what you need to do right now and consistently get that right, more often than not you will be victorious. All successful players have gained that strength over a period of time."

Dipika on the need for mental conditioning said: "I got to world number 20 very fast and I was stuck there for a long time and at that point I didn't believe in a mental coach but to get to world number 10 you have to do a lot of different things, not just run on the tracks, not just follow fitness programs, not just play squash. I think a lot of outside things have to be implemented in your game and the reason why I got from 20 to 10 in the world was definitely just because of the mental skills training that I did. And a lot of athletes have not explored that area because I don't think it's a very big topic in India as such. I think when you train your mind at a very young age you do get result at a very young age as well."