ONLINE MEDIA
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
timesofindia.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
Headlinestoday.in
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
Techlive.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
Indietimes.in
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
Pehalnews.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
Hinditonews.in
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
News.knowledia.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
texasrangersprostore.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
newsnow.co.uk
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
http://www.hotele.lublin.pl/pankaj-.html
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
ub24news.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
breakingnews.deshinewsprime.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
socialdiary.news
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
newsandbulletin.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
Feels great when people say things like ‘he is the Messi of .our sport says Pankaj Advani .
madrascafe.com
From the outside, it seemed like somebody woke Pankaj Advani up and he took his cue stick out, got around the table and did what he does best, i.e., winning world titles. Last month, he added a 24th global trophy to his name, pocketing the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup in Doha. At this rate, despite losing a couple of years to the pandemic, Advani may outnumber his age.
The master cueist is 36 currently. He won his first world title at the age of 17 and has added 23 more in the next 19 years. Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatar capital. TimesofIndia.com spoke at length with Advani after his 24th world title and he opened up on a lot of different aspects, touching upon various facets of sports in general, life, success and mental health.
A 24th world title. Most people get bored of doing the same thing again and again. Has any such feeling ever struck you?
It excites me even more at this stage, getting the taste of winning from an early age. I am still as excited as I was when I won my first (trophy). The hunger hasn’t diminished.
In hindsight, has the forced break due to Covid-19 helped your longevity, maybe unknowingly?
First of all, we were dealing with a lot more serious issues during the pandemic. At the start of the first lockdown, everybody thought that in 3-4 months we’ll be out of this and things will come back to normal. But apparently, Mr. Covid had other plans. So I thought it was a welcome break. Most of us (sportspersons) who were traveling throughout, involved in the whole rat race back and forth, had no time to actually introspect, rest a bit and spend time with friends. But when the second lockdown was enforced, people got a lot more anxious. Many athletes, many of them, hit depression, wondering whether we would ever get to play again.
What state were you in during the pandemic break that kept getting extended?
Sport was never on my mind for the first few months because we’re dealing with something as serious as a pandemic and we lost a lot of people, loved ones, to this. But slowly, as things started getting better and then the vaccine came out, we started wondering when the next tournament will be held.
To the fans of cue sports, your performance in Doha suggested Pankaj Advani never stopped practicing even during the lockdown…
I got the opportunity to play after two years. It’s like when you have an opportunity, you want to make the most of it, although I was probably the most underprepared for these two events. I just got a month to prepare since the last lockdown eased out only somewhere around August. So I’m just grateful that I have still got the winning touch and the flow.
How difficult was it to switch on and get back into the routine of regular training again?
I’ve always felt like one should work smart, not hard. I consider myself an artist. I’m pretty moody. Sometimes I really want to play, I play for 5-6 hours. Sometimes (when) I don’t feel like playing, I’ll just do the basics for half an hour and then go back, just to make sure I’m in decent touch. But the break in itself has obviously made everyone very rusty. So the quality of the game I knew is not going to be as high. It’s going to take a while before we start producing those big breaks and start playing more fluently and get back to the levels which we were at before Covid.
From training to competition mode for the first time in almost two years. Did you face any difficulty, maybe internal, which the results didn’t reflect?
I think I relied on my experience, my ability to choose the right shot at the right time, attack or defend…So I think that decision-making ability was still there; it hasn’t gone away. But obviously the quality of the game and the scoring ability is all going to take a while to come back. I think the important thing is to recognize that it’s okay to make those mistakes because we’ve been out of the game for so long…Life is not as easy or the game is not as easy as it seems.When you’re playing competitions continuously, you know what you need to do, you are in regular touch, you’re under pressure a lot more. Then suddenly (after a long break) you are put under that kind of pressure (again). But I sort of embraced the occasion, accepted the fact that this is how life is, it’s what it is. We can’t change anything, we can’t bring back those two years. We have just got to adapt, accept and move on. That’s exactly what I did with my game as well.
You like being ‘in the zone’ as a player, but this time an added requirement was to be ‘in the bubble’ as well. Tell us something about that. When we went to Doha this time, we were put up at a fabulous hotel and at the same place we had our (tournament) venue also. So things were very well organized by the Qatar federation, the Asian body and the world body IBSF. Of course, we are allowed to go out at times but we had to carry a lot of documents with us and had to show a (mobile) app which needed a green box that meant we were allowed to step out into a mall or a restaurant. It’s but natural for them to be a little worried and take precautions, especially for those coming from other countries and overseas to ensure that they don’t spread the disease. This is a new normal.
I’ve been around for quite a while now. Unless you know something is really off, say you are in the middle of nowhere in a desert or you’re somewhere in the outskirts where you don’t have access to anything and you’re stuck to one particular property for three weeks, then it becomes tough, and we faced those situations also before with COVID.
(In Doha) We were not strictly put in a bio-bubble because we could roam around in the hotel with our masks on, we could go outside also, but we didn’t choose to go too often, just a couple of times for a change. I don’t think it really affected anybody’s performance.
I’m the kind of person that if I have two matches in a day, I just like to rest it out in between, have my meal in the room itself and then go to sleep and get ready for my next match. I’m pretty happy with that or just watching TV at night after the games are over to get my mind off (the sport), maybe go out for a walk or go to the gym or maybe a dip in the pool.
Like you said, you have been around for so long. You are 36 now and, of course, this sport allows you to go on a little longer than other sports that are physically more demanding. So where do you see yourself in the future from that aspect?
Of course it (life) is now divided between my married life and the sport, but as long as it (sport) figures in the top two of my priorities and I’m enjoying it, (I will continue playing). Everybody asks me, ‘you have won so much, what keeps you going?’. For me, the answer is very simple: I love playing the sport. I just find joy in competing, in practising and playing the game the way it should be played and continuously evolve and improve.
I love my country and I love representing and winning for my country. So that itself is motivation enough, forget about other things that come along with it: name, fame, adulation, awards. Those things come automatically…I am at it because I just love doing it.
Do you think there is hope inside you that the sport will get to the Olympics one day, and maybe you want to sign off on that note?
Yes, it would be nice to be part of a quadrennial event (Olympics), but I think we have to also put things in perspective.
Asian Games and all such tournaments happen once in four years. A lot can happen in four years. Careers can end, you may have an injury or you may not be in that same form at that particular point of time. Nothing to take away from all those who’ve achieved medals. They have worked really hard to reach that level of excellence and put themselves in a position to win medals for their country. It’s great. But for me sports is about consistency. I don’t think you can judge consistency and greatness through quadrennial events.
Yes, we make a big deal out of the Olympics, the Asian Games, which is great. I have won two gold medals myself at the Asian Games back to back. So I know that feeling of the national flag going up and the national anthem being played. It’s very emotional. But if somebody had to ask me, would you rather win 10 world titles compared to one Olympic gold medal, I would definitely choose my world titles any day.
I remember Roger Federer being asked to choose between one Wimbledon title and the Olympic gold, and he said, “Wimbledon means more to me”.
So not to undermine the importance of the Olympics, again. If it happens, great. Of course, I would love for cue sports to be part of it. But I think to measure true consistency and greatness in a sport, you need to look at the yearly performances and how often a player has done well and has won medals and titles.
When you look back at your first title wins, in the post-Covid era if we can call it that, what’s one memory, besides winning the titles that will always remain with you?
There are on-the-table and off-the-table memories. The thing is that we probably take so many things for granted. During Covid, it gave us a lot of time to introspect; and frankly speaking, I’m very grateful that I’ve got the opportunity to play again, which we never knew when it would happen.
I had forgotten how to play the game in a way because there had been so many gaps. And then it’s a game that is quite technical and physical as well. I think a lot of people underestimate the physical fitness part of this. As we speak, I’m still dealing with some upper back issues that are under control for now; but during the championships, I was struggling with my upper back and the muscles. There is so much wear and tear because you’re bending, you are sticking your neck out in one position, then you have to be still for hours while playing.
I have started enjoying the game all over again. Because of the long break, I think my hunger has only increased and the joy that I feel while playing has gone up. And I’ve started actually appreciating what the game has to offer and started rediscovering myself and trying to reinvent myself all over again, which is a great feeling.
I know not many people like change, but I think it is something that is inevitable. You have got to change with time, the way you play, the approach to the game.
The first time (post Covid) that I got off the flight and there was somebody to receive me right outside the aircraft, that was such a good feeling to be welcomed in that way and to be escorted to the VIP section at the Doha airport. Then, when I reached the hotel, some of the organisers and players were talking. I just overheard somebody saying, “He’s the Messi of our sport.”
It just feels great to hear these things. Maybe after a few years, these are the small memories you come back with. Sometimes all you just need is a pat on the back or somebody saying something nice. It elevates your confidence to a new level.
You mentioned your back issue. What kind of fitness levels are required for cue sports, because many people, as you said, are not aware of it?
This is a game where you don’t require raw physical power. So you never see snooker players with big muscles or biceps, but what you will see is players being extremely flexible, their core being strong. The core is something that I’ve started working on for the last few years.
I do a lot of core activation, knee extension…dead bugs, bridges, spinal mobility, hip mobility. The hips get very stiff. So you have to work on your glutes, the hips, the pelvic region, because you’re standing in one position and have to be very, very still while playing, both physically and mentally.
Everybody knows about the mental aspect of our sport. It’s like shooting, where your eye has to be on the target. If you take your eye off the target, you miss the shot. But for snooker and billiards, you also need to bend in a particular position, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground. So your legs need to be strong; then squats also become a crucial part of your routine.
So core stability and flexibility is what we work on, especially the upper back and lower back because invariably 99% of the snooker or billiards players have some back problem or the other at some stage of their career. So the upper back and lower back again needs to be worked on constantly, physiotherapy sessions, shoulder activation, constant stretching and strengthening of the muscles in that region.
Such demands of the sport bring us to another important aspect, which is in focus these days: mental health. How do you handle that aspect of your game?
There was a time when I was going through a bad patch and I had lost motivation. (My elder brother) Shree (Advani) happened to visit India at that time, just before the Asian Games in 2006. I was leaving in a couple of days for Doha. He did a few sessions with me. He was into sales, leadership, motivation, and success at that time; he had not yet started his practice….Actually because of the results that it produced, and thanks to Shree, I went on to win the Asian Games gold.
I think mental health is a topic which I don’t know why many of us in India feel shy to talk about because we feel like we’re asking somebody for professional help, so it means there is something wrong with us. But that’s not the case.
I would consider myself a normal person. Representing India, snooker, billiards, I have played all of that. But for anybody, even if you’re happy, going through a good phase in your life, you just need professional advice to keep you sane, to put you on the right track — and there’s nothing wrong with it, not only in times of need, but also consistently to help you gain perspective, to just be reminded of what are the important things in life, and why do we attach so much importance to things that are more temporary. It gives you a more spiritual take on things and helps you deal with pressure and the stress and anxiety of life because we all go through it.
I get butterflies in my stomach before I start a tournament. Sometimes I don’t sleep well before a big match, sometimes I get stressed out about things not happening on time, whether it’s some paperwork or anything. We all get flustered with the smaller things of life.
Sports psychology is still at a nascent stage in India. I think our Indian athletes have come a long way but we still sort of falter at the finish line or sometimes we could have won a higher medal but we sort of fall back and are not able to handle that pressure in the end. So there has to be some reason mentally. It’s not that there’s any dearth of talent in our country.
Luckily for me, I’ve had Shree to take care of that aspect. But I think mental health is extremely important. We all say yes, India should be fit and the whole Fit India movement is great, everybody should keep themselves physically fit. For me, the more important issue, the pressing issue, is mental health. I think when we’re a mentally healthy nation, then automatically we will also work towards our physical fitness and our wellbeing overall.
OneIndia.com
After remaining out of action for nearly two years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which brought the world to a standstill, India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani kicked off the international calendar with back-to-back titles in Doha last month. Advani first defended his Asian snooker title after defeating Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh 6-3 in the best-of-11-frames final in the Qatari capital. Pankaj Advani retains Asian snooker title that was followed by 24th world title when he clinched Six-Reds Snooker World Cup with a hard-fought 7-5 victory over Pakistan’s Babar Masih.
Pankaj Advani clinches Six-Reds Snooker World Cup The current India No. 2 in an exclusive interview with Mykhel said it was pleasing to start the campaign on a winning note, but also believes the rustiness due to the lack of national and international events means the sportspersons will take some time to find the rhythm. The 36-year-old cueist from Bengaluru touched upon topics like life in the lockdown, injuries, and friendship with cricketer Robin Uthappa, the role of his elder brother Shree Advani and his coach Arvind Savur in his career, and his recent marriage to celebrity make-up artist Saniya Shahdadpuri. Here are the excerpts:
MyKhel: What were the challenges you faced during the COVID-19 imposed lockdown as there was no sporting activity for almost a year? How did you keep yourself motivated?
Pankaj Advani: It has been a very difficult phase for the entire human race to deal with something like this. No one had ever imagined that they’ll lose their loved ones to a pandemic and get restricted to the confines of their homes. We had to remain indoors, no physical activities and socializing. Only phones and gadgets kept the people in touch. In the first few months, I wasn’t even thinking about the sport because everyone’s health and safety was of paramount importance back then. At the same time, especially for the sportspersons – who travel a lot – the lockdown was easier to deal with because that’s something we would have wanted anyway. We could stay at home for ten days or a week, relax and do nothing. But when the lockdown was imposed for the second time it was difficult and that’s when I realized that patience is one thing that’ll take you forward. Things don’t happen overnight, you don’t become champion overnight and don’t get success and adulation overnight. It was really difficult for everyone, especially youngsters, to come to terms with one-and-a-half years of doing nothing. Not knowing when the competitions will resume. So it was really difficult. I would go for a walk and keep my mind stimulated by playing some online games, helping out a little bit in the household as there were no domestic aides available. Personally, I feel I became a better human being but of course, professionally, we’ve all suffered.
MK: Did you interact with fellow cueists or athletes during these tough times to know how the other person was dealing with the tribulations of the COVID-19?
Pankaj: Our fraternity is quite closely knit, our rivalries are healthy and we’re good friends off the table. So, amongst the players, we kept in touch with each other quite frequently during that phase, especially before the tournament started. You know Robin (Uthappa) is a good friend of mine and my neighbour in Bengaluru. We’ve been in constant touch during those tough times. I’ve even been reaching out to fellow players in the snooker fraternity to be connected and find out when the next event was starting because our tournaments took a little longer to begin. For Robin, I’m extremely happy for he was instrumental in helping Chennai (Super Kings) win the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. So, I’m really happy for him.
MK: Did you face any hardships adjusting to the rules kept in place when you competed in Qatar?
Pankaj: There were a lot of formalities and documents to be submitted. So that was a little painful in that sense, but then we all understood why all that was put in place. The organizers had to be cautious of who’s entering the country because there’re fewer positive cases there. We were at the hotel where the competition was being held. So we didn’t have to go out a lot, although there wasn’t any restriction on our outside movement. Also, there was an application that we had to show wherever we entered. The app was just like the Arogya Setu app we’ve at home which monitors if we’re in the safe zone or not. So, yes it was different this time, but we’ve to adapt and we (as athletes) know that probably better than anyone else (it was for our own safety).
MK: Do you think this break has also affected the quality of sport?
Pankaj: This is a game of muscle memories so it’ll take a long time for us to gain the original rhythm. The quality of the game isn’t going to be as high as it was for a while. The reason why I won in Doha is that I relied on my experience and temperament, courtesy of my elder brother Shree Advani who is a sports psychologist. I just played through those big points well and got through those tricky situations well. Everyone seemed rusty but seemed excited at the same time. So everybody seemed hungry to give their best.
MK: How do you deal with the pressure of expectations being the flagbearer of the sport in India?
Pankaj: There’re always expectations, I think the expectations that others have from you are easier to deal with than the ones you’ve from yourself. There’re certain standards that you have set for yourself and if you go below that, you start doubting yourself. So, you’ve to be at your best at all times and take every match and opponent seriously. You can’t get complacent for you never know when your opponent will surprise you, and that’s the kind of mindset I’ve. I also understand the responsibility on my shoulders, being the flagbearer of the sport in the country and enjoy it. Being the face of the sport in the country, the responsibility lies upon our shoulders to popularize the sport as well. I think the sport really needs to grow in our country. There’s no dearth of talent because there’re so many good players in the country. I think the only aspect we lag behind is the television coverage for that’ll help the sport gain popularity. But that’s a question for the federation to answer.
MK: What else do you think is a hindrance for the sport to reach the masses?
Pankaj: There’s also a perception that needs to be busted is cue sports is a rich man’s sport. But the thing is most of us who’re representing the country at the national and international level hail from the middle class. The ‘cue’ that we have aren’t very expensive, in fact, it costs far lesser than badminton and tennis racquets because it’s a one-time investment and could be used by a lot of people. Yes, every sport has its share of struggle but that’s part of every athlete’s life. We all work hard, don’t we? With corporate support and help from the federation, our sport can do wonders. Also, a franchise-based league like the other sports are having can just help the game reach the next level. MK: How do you approach any big game? Are there any special preparations you make? Pankaj: Everyone has nerves ahead of big games or matchups but I try to enjoy them and embrace the occasion. Instead of trying to run away from it, I try to accept it for that’s what we work so hard for. I know there’s pressure but then the pressure can be enjoyed too. I’ve developed this mentality over the years and with the experiences. Even my brother helps me a lot in this direction as he could break down those moments where I did wrong and how I can improve it after thorough analysis.
MK: How important was the role of your brother in your formative years?
Pankaj: Shree’s contribution has been immense in my success. He’s helped me at times I was really low on motivation. He’s helped me play big matches well and not let anxiety get the better of me in crunch situations. He’s been instrumental in my consistency as a player, he has made me resilient. MK: Which has been your most special achievement? Pankaj: As they say, your first love is always special. For me, the memory of winning my first world title on October 25, 2005 in China will always be special. Next week, it’ll be 18 years exactly and I’ve got very fond memories of it. It was Diwali, and I remember calling back home when my family, my coach and the club members were bursting crackers and celebrating my victory as well as the festival of lights. I remember the huge reception at the airport and was taken in the huge motorcade around the city upon my arrival. I would love those memories to come back soon on an occasion like that.
MK: What’re your plans for the near future?
Pankaj: We’ve selection trials for the World Championships, the one I won 18 years back. This time the championships will begin in Doha by November end, so my aim would be to finish in the top two from the country to qualify. Then we’ve national championships as well in the next two to three months. There’s quite a packed calendar now and a lot of excitement is there as well. Also, I’ll be travelling a lot between Mumbai and Bengaluru as I’m dividing my time between these two cities now and it’s fun. MK: You recently got married. How’s your second innings going? Pankaj: Marriage is a new phase I’ve entered so I’m enjoying it too. I used to think it was only the sport that kept me consumed for so long, but things have changed after my marriage to Saniya, as I have a lot more to look out for on a personal level.
MK: From whom do you take inspiration in your life?
Pankaj: From within my sport, I take inspiration from my brother Shree and my coach Arvind sir. Arvind sir has played a huge role in my success. He took me under his wings without charging a single penny to date. He never won a world title himself so he realized his dreams through me. Rarely, you find such generous and kind-hearted people like my coach. And outside this sport, I love tennis and the legendary Roger Federer. Just the way he plays the game and speaks at the interviews is inspiring. He doesn’t take himself seriously and that’s what I love about him. He brings a certain class and grace to the sport that I could relate to. Also, his humour is simply amazing.
MK: Not much is talked about injuries player goes through in cue sports. How did you combat those injury concerns in your career, also what would be your message to the budding athletes who feel it’s the end of the road for them after sustaining an injury?
Pankaj: It’s a good question, actually there’re two aspects to it. Earlier, as I was speaking about COVID-19 there were few youngsters I’ve been in touch with during the lockdown. One of them went into depression thinking he won’t be able to compete anymore. And these are the youngsters who’ve never participated in an international competition. That’s when I talked to them to help them understand that I’ve been there done that. I’ve seen it’s difficult to deal with injuries, especially the mental part of it. I try and explain to them that life’s not just about sport, it’s much bigger than that. We need to cherish it. Success and failure are part and parcel of life. I’ve suffered an injury in 2018 with my upper back which kept me out of action for nearly six months. Even now I am battling stiffened upper back and working hard to keep myself fit. Injury is a part and parcel of our sport as well. But people hardly realize that we’re also prone to injuries. Bending up and down, keeping the hands and fingers stretched at long times does take a toll. A lot of cue sports athletes face back-related injuries in their careers. Now I’ve ensured that wherever I’m I keep myself fit and understand my body.
MK: What do you do in your free time?
Pankaj: I love bowling, I love watching films and listening to music. Whenever I’m on international flights I watch films and on domestic flights I prefer listening to music be it Bollywood, English or Pop. Before the match, I’ve my pre-match preparations like visualizing but after the match, I try to keep myself busy by watching comedy movies, or shows on the television. I’ve also started keeping a track of the latest developments in the world through the news to keep myself updated (smiles).
~The End ~