The secret of Sachin Tendulkar's success :
"When a fast bowler starts his run-up, I watch only the ball. The noise from the spectators doesn't exist. Neither does the thought of a billion people watching on television. In fact, no conscious thought enters my mind. I leave it to my sub-conscious to respond. There is no time to think. If you think, it becomes too late to play the shot. In between deliveries, I look at the field placement. I have practised my shots for many years. All this is in my subconscious. I trust it, and let it operate. You might not believe it, but I had plenty of time to play Shoaib's deliveries."
He said this quietly and thoughtfully, as if he was replaying those moments. And then, "Sometimes you are in the Zone."
Watch only the ball, not even the bowler. I remembered the story of the legendary Dronacharya teaching archery to the Pandavas and Kauravas. He once told them to pierce a distant bird's eye. "What do you see?" he asked his pupils. "Only the eye," his favourite Arjun answered, unlike the others who saw the bird and the tree it was sitting on. Is it surprising that Sachin has named his son Arjun?
"When a fast bowler starts his run-up, I watch only the ball. The noise from the spectators doesn't exist. Neither does the thought of a billion people watching on television. In fact, no conscious thought enters my mind. I leave it to my sub-conscious to respond. There is no time to think. If you think, it becomes too late to play the shot. In between deliveries, I look at the field placement. I have practised my shots for many years. All this is in my subconscious. I trust it, and let it operate. You might not believe it, but I had plenty of time to play Shoaib's deliveries."
He said this quietly and thoughtfully, as if he was replaying those moments. And then, "Sometimes you are in the Zone."
Watch only the ball, not even the bowler. I remembered the story of the legendary Dronacharya teaching archery to the Pandavas and Kauravas. He once told them to pierce a distant bird's eye. "What do you see?" he asked his pupils. "Only the eye," his favourite Arjun answered, unlike the others who saw the bird and the tree it was sitting on. Is it surprising that Sachin has named his son Arjun?
