Introduction Of Podcast
In this episode, Mohit is joined by India’s leading squash player Saurav Ghosal. Saurav is fresh off from his medal wins at the Commonwealth Games 2022 and shares his secret to success. The Indian prodigy lets us into how he got into squash and how his early days were. Having done a lot of firsts for India, Saurav discusses what goes into making him India’s best squash player. Tune in right away!
Timestamps
- (00:00 – 01:33) – Introduction
- (02:42 – 08:12) – Saurav’s Early Career Path
- (08:21 – 11:34) – Saurav’s Breakthrough In Squash
- (11:52 – 21:02) – Saurav On Sports Science, Nutrition & Fitness Hacks
- (21:04 – 29:27) – Saurav On His Experience With M1 CGM & Biomarkers
- (30:32 – 34:02) – Evolution Of Squash in India
- (34:08 – 35:46) – Saurav’s Top 3 Advice For Squash Beginners
Key Takeaways – Transcripts
Intro (Mohit): Squash is an emerging competitive sport in India. What’s unique about squash is that it has strong elements of competition and intensity baked deeply into it. Extremely popular amongst professionals, squash is among merging as a preferable sport for many of the recreational athletes who are looking for a competitive sport that’s exciting from a fitness, intensity and skill perspective. In today’s episode, we’re joined by India’s leading name in squash. We are joined by the latest Commonwealth Games medalist and an Ultrahuman athlete, Saurav Ghosal. Interestingly. Sorrow was an excellent cricketer. But there was that one incident which him into squash. Of all sports, you might love this twist. Saurav won a bronze medal at the Asian Games in 2006, at the age of just 20. That’s phenomenal. I discussed with him what was the mindset with which he approached such a high pressure situation and covered himself with glory. It is said that squash is arguably one of the most exhaustive sports one can ever play. You can burn around 800 – 1,000 calories in a session. We discussed with Saurav his nutrition and training protocols and how he has been using the Ultrahuman M1 device to help him optimize for both performance and longevity. To round off the episode, Saurav gives us an insight into the evolution of squash in India and gives away the essential tips if you want to achieve big in the spot or even want to get started on a casual note. Let’s hear it from Saurav now.
(Mohit): Hey, Saurav. Great to have you here. It’s such a pleasure to be speaking to you. In fact, for some time I’ve been meaning to connect and to actually get in touch, and I think finally we got a chance to speak to each other. I think it’s been a pleasure working with you for some time, but I think there’s a lot that people actually wanted to people in the community, or even the community, wanted to know about you. So here we are. Here’s the opportunity for them. So, first of all, I welcome from the community and welcome from my side as well.
(Saurav): Thank you for having me. Yeah, it’s been great. I’ve been using it, the Ultrahuman sensor, for almost a year now, and a lot has changed for me in a good way, so I’m really glad to be part of this community and hopefully connect with so many more people through this podcast.
Question (Mohit): That’s awesome. So, before we actually begin and talk about your illustrious career in squash, I would love to highlight to our listeners that, first of all, you are someone who’s actually pretty phenomenal in academics as well, right? And I just noticed it some time back. And can you tell us a little bit more about how are the early days, from academics mindset to stuff like scoring you can say, I think you got 97% in your class XII board exams. That’s really cool, man. And then essentially, you got into London School of Economics and then you chose Leeds University because you wanted to train with Malcolm Willstrop. So what is the thought process there? And that speaks a lot about your conviction in this space as well, in your spot as well, but that’s a little bit what was going on in your mind in the early days and your thought process.
Answer (Saurav): To be honest, I think I’m blessed in some ways because I have a photographic memory, so that obviously helps me get a lot of studying done in a shorter space of time. So I’m blessed with that. I think something that I’ve kind of been pretty good at ever since I’ve been young is time management. So in my head, I kind of know very well how long I need to do or I need to get certain things done. And that kind of has helped me kind of schedule my days in terms of when I go train for squash, when I did my school studies and then going to university when I need to get all that done. And I think that is one very, very important kind of quality that someone needs to be able to balance both the academics and sport or another activity, so to say. And I think it’s important to understand that it is possible to do it like the same goals, but there’s a will, there’s a way, it can be done. You just need to be very committed towards what you really want in your life and what your goals are and focus on that wholeheartedly. With London School of Economics. I was an economics major, London School was my dream school, but I remember going to Malcolm Willstrop and trained up north near Leeds in Pontefract. I went there for three days and I really wanted to go to England to train with him. That was the whole idea. And we sat down after the three days, him, my father and myself. And I remember him telling my dad that if Saurav wants to train with me, he really needs to be either here or the University of York, which is the kind of closest. Manchester is maybe a possibility, but London is too far. He’d probably come up like once a month or something like that. And we were supposed to go to the London School of Economics on the way back to India to check the university out. And I remember telling my dad, dad, we’re not going to go there because I know I’m going to be tempted and this is what I want to do. So this is what it is. It is University of Leeds and that’s case closed and that’s how University of Leeds happened. And to be honest, of course, I look back and I wish I could do London School of Economics at some point as a part of me, which kind of wants to and wanted to do it, but I had a fantastic time at Leeds University, was very supportive. You know, I met a lot of nice people with the squash, with Malcolm Willstrop I’ve had such a brilliant relationship with Pontefract, the club, and these are people that will stay with me for life. So I think whatever happens, happens for a reason. And I’m blessed to be able to say that I’ve created so many good relationships in the process.
Question (Mohit): That’s a phenomenal story. This is very unusual, to be honest. In the world of sports, there are a lot of examples of all. On the other side, there are a lot of examples of all work and no play and all play and no work. But this is like great example of just the mindset, of how academics can also be leveraged into sports and the mindset is almost the same. And I recollect some stories, I think there are some really interesting stories about I think I heard Brett Lee talking about some time back about that he was a salesman at a Men’s Wear, I think at a suit showroom basically used to sort of like sell suits after his training sessions. And what he used to say was that this ability to actually do multiple things, multiple different type of things, actually helps him bowl better. And I actually never understood it. If you actually hear Wasim Akram talking about it, he will basically say that if to be a better bowl, you just need to bowl. And this is totally different approach to sports.
(Saurav): Yeah, I think everyone is different. I think the way to tap into everyone’s kind of inner self and the best qualities and their full potential is a different path. And I think it’s important to kind of a, understand for yourself what that path might be and b, have your inner circle understand that for you as well and recognize that and see how you can leverage that inner potential to its highest degree so that you can be the best version of yourself. And that’s the quest for everyone, no matter what field we’re talking about, whether it be sport or academics or any other business industry or whatever. So I don’t think that it’s like a one size fits all. I think it’s very customized. We are unique people in our own ways, and we express ourselves in our own ways. And hence the solutions to our potential being realized has to be unique as well.
Question (Mohit): (That’s great. And we’ll double click a little bit mor about those frameworks and mindset further down. Let’s do a little bit of rewind. So I wanted to understand what was your first breakthrough in this, like as a squash player, which year was the first breakthrough? And I know that you won a Bronze at the Asian Games 2006 at Doha, if I’m not wrong, right? And essentially, probably that was the first breakthrough moment. And tell us a little bit about how that happened and what was it leading to the event and the mindset and if you can sort of recollect, what was the first early feeling of how that happened?
Answer (Saurav): Yeah, I think 2006, Doha was the first big one on the international senior stage, India’s first ever medal in the Asian Games. A lot of history writing on that, so I always go down as the first one. I think at that time I was at the University of Leeds, I was training with Malcolm Willstrop, I was about a year and a half into training with him and there were a lot of changes kind of being made to my game at that point in time. As a junior, I was physically all pretty good towards the end of my junior career and I kind of won matches purely on physicality and pace to a great extent. And when I went to Malcolm, we tried to kind of create a lot more structure in my game, tried to pick the right shot at the right time, find the right pace of shots to the back of the court as well as to the front. So there were a lot of things going on, but I think something that always kind of was constant, that I really wanted to win and I really wanted to kind of push the envelope for Indian squash as much as I could and move the goal posts to what people in India believed that Indian squash player and around the world also. Now, what Indian squash player can achieve on the world stage and the Asian Games, obviously, is a big, big event for everyone involved and for squash players especially. And yeah, I’m very thankful that the bronze medal happened. I think I had a very good week in terms of putting it all together and then playing well in that week. Sometimes you train your best, but things don’t go according to plan really. But that week, I think a lot of things fell together nicely and I won the bronze and it’s something that I would always be proud of. It was something that obviously, being young, I think I was like 20 at the time, to kind of win that medal, to win the first for India, I think that gives you a lot of belief and confidence that you’re on the right path. So to say, I think success definitely keeps you motivated and tells you that there is kind of more light at the end of this tunnel and you can do a lot more and I think it spurs you on in your career. So I’m very thankful and blessed to have managed to have won that on that medal and life might have been different if that hadn’t happened. So, yeah, I’m thankful.
Question (Mohit): That’s really great to know. And I think what we’ve heard, and this is across, I think a lot of top performers, not just athletes, not just athletes, but I think top performers across any space out there is that the first breakthrough matters a lot. It is what actually sets the momentum, sets the tone, and I think sets the tone for what you’re going after. So this is a great story. Actually Fast forward a little bit in between and also talk a little bit about like when you actually went out there and went for the first medal. You’d have a certain attitude towards the game, right? You would know about your capabilities and what your strengths really are. And if I just fast forward to like, it’s a recent games and you’ve done actually many firsts for India in this space. So how has they look towards the game actually changed? Right? I would love for you to talk more about the mindset, the training methods, recovery protocols, nutrition, all those aspects as well. This is actually really important for Indian athletes, as you mentioned about India in this case, because of course, there are domain learnings that an athlete can use from squash and I think would love to know more about that too. But then sports science in India is pretty new, as we all of us know. So this evolution of mindset, not many people would have actually seen, and coming from you, who has actually seen this across years, would be really beneficial to a lot of people.
Answer (Saurav): I think the first thing that I would say is that I’ve been blessed to have been working with a physical trainer, David Brown, since 2013. I think the reason why I am playing today with the physicality that I do have is all thanks to him. I think obviously there are a lot of subtle variations in terms of what we do now compared to when I was like 25. I can’t do a lot of things at 36 that I did when I was 25. But I think the main kind of generic kind of difference is that squash obviously has a lot of impact on the body whilst we play, right, on the joints and the muscles. So all the training that we try and do off court in massive training phases, is trying to kind of replicate the intensity of the kind of like hard, hard squash matches, but trying to take the impact away from the legs and the body as much as possible. So, a simple thing, you know, like, when I was 20, 22, 23, I used to do a lot of, like, sprints outside, for example, right? A lot of long distance running as well, maybe. I don’t remember the last time I’ve done that. The reason being, obviously, if you’re running outside, there’s still a lot of impact. The only kind of running that I do sometimes is hill sprints because we, as squash players, have very tight hips. So if you’re doing hill sprints, you can’t extend the hips as much because you’re going up. So hence the risk of injury is lower. So I do hill sprints sometimes in the summer, which is one of the hardest sessions to do, but it’s got to be done. I think more often than not we are doing more stuff on stationary bikes, the roar, the versatile climber, things like that, to kind of take the impact out of the legs as much as possible. I also think we’ve kind of started focusing a lot on the strength aspect and the power aspect of the game. I think the game itself has evolved over the last four to five years, especially where the physicality has become very high, and having that power and strength to kind of like, get into the corners and blast out of those corners as well has become very important. And obviously, I’m not a really big guy. I’m only 5’6, so compared to the other guys, I’m definitely one of the smallest guys on Tour. So I definitely need to work extra hard to be able to kind of hold my shape on deep lunges and things like that. So I think that is something that we’ve worked on considerably, especially over the last year, year and a half, and that was a very key point of focus moving into the Commonwealth Games this year. And I think a lot of good came out of that. Physical training side, I think that has definitely changed than what I did before. I think working with David Palmer on the squash side of things, I think we do a lot of stuff with high intensity on court so that we can replicate what we might have to do, like in matches. And I think that has kind of helped give me a lot of belief and confidence in being able to use my physicality to attack the balls a lot better than what I did before. And I think the combination of these two things has probably made my game a lot more secure today than what it was when I was 25 years old. Today I go into a match knowing exactly what I need to do, how I need to do it. There is no, like, stress in my head and whether I can execute this or not, it’s a question of now it’s just purely a question of how long I can execute it, depending on the response from my opponent. Because obviously, at the end of the day, you need to impose your game on your opponent and that’s how you match it at the top level. So the how is not stressful anymore. It’s a question of how long can I do the how for? So it’s kind of like evolved to that kind of point right now, which is a very good space to be in because you are very confident about the way you want to play, how you want to play and what you want to do. And in a way, it makes it a lot more enjoyable to play hard, tough matches on the world stage. In terms of nutrition, of course, I used to eat a lot of things before, which I don’t eat now. Ten years back I used to have like six, eight Rasagullas every day and I’m getting away with it. I can’t do that now. I probably go without dessert, which is a big, big weak link for me for like two-three weeks leading up to a big tournaments like the Commonwealth Games, for example. Also I’ve been working with a nutritionist over the last two years, Krushmi Chheda, and we’ve kind of done a lot of trial and error and figured out how I kind of react to different foods, how much quantity works best for me when the matches are depending on what I can eat before after to recover better. So my recovery in terms of coming back from hard matches the next day is a lot better today, funnily enough, then what it was when it was 25, which is probably the opposite of what it should be really, you know. So I think, I think nutrition has played a big role in that. I think the mental side of things, I’ve worked very hard at that over the last year. I’ve been working with a psychologist, Gayatri Vartak for the last year and I think she’s helped a lot. You know, the performance, especially in the Commonwealth Games and the Bronze medal match probably wouldn’t have happened if that side wasn’t looked into in detail enough. So I think that is important. And then, yeah, I mean, I think I’m also doing stuff to kind of train my eyes as much as possible. So I do this thing called “eye gym”. It’s like seven to ten minutes a day, but it’s basically trying to kind of be really quick and zoned in to kind of see the ball as quick as I can, you know, and be really, really agile. So I think everyone at the top of their game is trying to add, you know, the smallest marginal gains that they possibly can to be the best that they possibly can be, because those small percentages are the difference between winning and losing at the top level. And I’m no different, I’m trying to kind of give myself whatever little advantage I can possibly can, whatever is in my control, I try to do that. I try to work hard and try to work smart as much as possible and, you know, in the process, hopefully I will win some big tournaments and push the bar further for Indian squash on the world stage.
Question (Mohit): Well, this is a great example of training for longevity, right? So essentially performance for longevity, which is you are actually going to the extreme levels of your body’s capabilities and sort of like utilizing it during the match, but you’re also training not just for one match, you’re training 100 matches, you’re training for years and years, right? And I think the statement that you made with recovery being better like now versus eleven years back, it’s actually quite phenomenal, right? Because this is what science and data can actually help people with. And I think this is very very you can say much beginning of the place where you could say that in the next may be 10 years or 15 years, if the athletes the average retirement age is around 44-45 years, which used to be 37 years. You can say 30 years back. Maybe in the next 15 years, this would actually reach around 55 – 60. There’s a very high chance maybe, right? I think there are very early signs of, especially in the endurance sport of people actually becoming better when they actually sort of like developed their game over years and years and especially 20+ years. So I think this is a great example for people, especially when they’re training to take a long term mindset towards when they think about their performance and also for their health. I think there are a lot of similarities potentially in health as well. Of course, here we are talking about marginal gains and the last mile of health. In case of a general like everybody who actually trains for health and longevity, what they are looking for is easier ways to actually get fit and probably even for them taking a very longterm mindset and thinking of this as a lifestyle might actually make more sense. Now, on that note, I think we do know that of course you’ve been using the M1 platform, the Ultrahuman M1 platform for some time now. Would love to know more about your experience with your glucose data, but also out other data pointers that you actually use. What we keep doing constantly, as you would have known by now about the platform is that over time we actually want to add more and more biomarkers to help you understand more about your body and I think we’re launching the Ultrahuman Ring very, very soon. It’s already out there in the public. I think the delivery start very soon. So I would love to understand from your perspective, what are some of these biomarkers that you would want to see in the future and also your glucose experience.
Answer (Saurav): I think firstly I was very circumspect with a lot of the data that’s coming at me through the M1 sensor because you can be inundated with a lot of data and that could be very difficult to deal with. And initially to begin with, I only used it when I was training, not at tournaments because I didn’t want my head to be clouded as much as possible. But today I use it even at tournaments because I’ve basically found the space in which I kind of perform at my best through looking at the data that the M1 sensor is giving me. I think the glucose data that comes through in terms of, again, going back to the nutrition bit, what I eat, when I eat and how I eat it and drink and stuff like that, I think that has really helped me in terms of A, priming me for my matches and for my training and also to be able to recover as well as I can after a match at night and things like that. I think the glucose data, especially whilst I’m sleeping, there are days when the glucose levels are really low, which kind of gives me a good idea that, you know, my body is very tired at that point in time. And I think that has been something which has kind of been a revelation, especially to me over the last four to six months. Because once I know that my body is really tired, I plan training based on that. I plan what I eat and how much I eat based on that and I plan how much I drink and what I drink based on that to be able to get it up to respectable levels as quickly as possible. So I think I think that has helped me, helped me big time. I think the other marker that I look very closely at is through the glucose levels is when I play matches, to see how high my glucose levels are going when I play certain matches and in certain conditions. So actually when I played in Qatar right now, I had a brutal match for 70 minutes and my glucose levels were up to like 280 – 290, which is higher than the normal even for me for matches. But it’s something that I understand that that’s what happened and then obviously, once it’s gone that high, the drop is pretty sudden as well. So I understand that now after it’s dropped suddenly, I need to eat and drink correctly so that I can stabilize it as quickly as possible so there are not more peaks and troughs going into the night and then the next day. So I think these things have helped me produce performances which maybe before I wouldn’t have been able to on a consistent basis. And I think considering also that we travel so much, we play in so many different cities, countries, there are so many different types of food, it’s not like for every tournament I can eat the same food before and after a match. So I generally try and get to tournaments three days before. So whilst I’m there, I kind of try and see what I can eat and then kind of look at how my body is reacting through those markers and if the markers are good, then I continue doing that through the tournament. If the markers are not good, then I try and find something else, you know, so it gives me, I think most importantly, before the Ultrahuman M1 sensor came along, it was a question of feel, the question of how I felt after training, after eating, after drinking. Today, of course, the field still has to be there because that’s your gut instinct. But it’s in combination with an objective kind of number, objective assessment through your interstitial fluid, which is the M1 sensor which kind of backs up on most occasions how you feel and make sure that you’re on the right track and gives you the belief that this is good, body is good, you’re ready to fire now, if the body is low, you need to do things to make it fire again. And I think having that kind of scientific way of looking at it is, again, going back to those marginal gains. And what it does is that it creates more consistency in performance. And at the very, very top, you’re trying to raise kind of your base level of consistency to as high as you possibly can. Because that’s when you’re going to be able to kind of get through matches, even on days when you’re probably not playing your best and kind of get through those days so that you give yourself the opportunity to play your best when you really, really need it. And I think that’s been really good from the M1 sensore and obviously, as you can tell, I’m really super happy with it. And in terms of in the future, of course I’m excited about the Ring. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m excited about seeing what it can show, especially with the sleep patterns and things like that. But I think there are so many things that can come up. That’s why you all come in, you’re all the experts. So you all need to kind of delve in deeper and see what else you all can show us that can make us better athletes and produce better performances.
(Mohit): I think you’ve got it spot on in terms of saying that the field and data both matter in combination because what really trying to do is we are really trying to marry the aspects of your field with physiology and sometimes these two could actually be different because physiology and psychology might not go together. On some days, psychologically you might feel that you’re drained, but you might not be physiologically another way around as well. And I think it actually depends totally on the individual as well. But I think what’s really cool is that over time you actually found your own pace with the data, which is really interesting because any data by default actually drives anxiety. So there is this sense, of course, you have a fantastic background in economics. You understand that when there is this famous saying about money that one of the best ways to there are two ways to feel stressed about feel stressed about business. One is to lose money and second is to look at numbers, right? So these are two ways to actually feel stressed about your business and both are the right things to optimize and the right things to understand. But it’s just that it takes a little bit of understanding and pace with the data because of course, if you ignore numbers, there’s still a way to run the business but then it could. I mean, sometimes we are shocked as well that oh, I was thinking that I’m somewhere else, but this is somewhere else. But I think this combination of machines and I’m calling M1 a machine in this case or even like other, I think in this space there’s a lot of innovation happening. Now, of course, you have heard of companies in this space. Apple is now of course trying to bring in new biosensors to help people understand about their own body. There are some other companies like trying to understand Lactates and Ketones. We are trying to get some of that stuff on the platform as well. In the future you can look at your Ketone usage or your Lactate levels, etc. in real time. I think in the future we will be able to either help people with improving their instinct and marry that instinct to what the reality is. At the same time, I think in the future the interpretation will become much, much better compared to what it is right now. Right now, a lot of it actually needs validation because data without validation is risky sometimes as well. But I think I just feel that there’s a lot going to be happening in this space and we are really thankful for you actually helping us push this space forward because especially when you think about performance, the margin of error is actually pretty low. And if the platform over time can deliver value for you, it actually adds a lot to our confidence in terms of saying that we are getting closer to the position. Of course there’s a long way to go as well. But on that note, I think, and this is a very popular question that I’m sure you would have received from people, is that when I think about squash in India, I get multiple types of emotions, right? One, of course, because I know a little bit about the sport. I know that’s a very high intensity sport, it’s very exciting sport to watch and also to play, but then it’s still a very fairly new sport in India in terms of adoption. And the other emotion is that it’s seeing a very natural, organic adoption in India compared to other sports, which is basically that you would see that a lot of people actually, in some ways. And a friend of mine was telling me that the upgrade from cricket to squash in some ways, right? As people realize over time that for some people, this is more high intensity, high energy, and requires much more I’m just quoting the person that probably requires more skill. So I think what are some of the things that you have heard and what’s your view of how the sport in India would actually evolve? When do you see the golden moment of breakthrough is going to happen at the grassroots, at the ground level?
Answer (Saurav): Look, I think in terms of scale, I think every sport has a different kind of set of skills that you need. So I think it’s probably wrong to compare one sport to another sport in terms of skill. I think in terms of intensity, yeah, I think squash is right up there with the most high intensity sports. I think what’s going for it is that in half an hour, 45 minutes, because of the high intensity, you probably had a really high energy workout that would probably not be replicated through other sports. Really. And obviously in this day and age, where kind of everyone is on the move and life is so chaotic, time is of the essence and if you can pack in that amount of intensity in 30, 45 minutes and get your kind of daily fix of exercise, that’s great. So I think that’s where squash is brilliant. And I really hope that more people kind of understand that logic and take to the sport. If you have questions about what is the big liftoff for squash in the country, I think there are two things which are needed for that. I think one is on our side in terms of the players, I think we’ve done well over the last 10-15 years to kind of take Indian squash from really kind of barren lands on the world stage to being very competitive. I think the next kind of step is to kind of win big, big things on the world stage. So, like the World Championships, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, like win them and be like top five in the world, go into every big tournament with a realistic chance of winning. And that being shown on television. I think that is important to kind of capture the imagination of the common man in India. So I think that is one. And I think two, on the admin side, with the Government, Sports Ministry, the National and State Federation, I think we need to get it into schools because it is a very healthy sport and it’s a great sport for kids to play. And that’s the way to get into the grassroots. And if we can kind of marry these two approaches well, so the responsibility lies on our shoulders as players to do one side and the other on the admin side. If that can happen, I think that gives us the most conducive kind of environment to have lift off. I really hope that in the next couple of years, why is I’m still playing and I can be part of that process and we can have a lift off the squash in the entire country.
(Mohit): That’s a really great answer because I think apart from these two factors as well, generally the sports will see a massive adoption over the next few years. And I totally agree with your point that every sport can add something to people in their lives. In this case, some sports can add speed, cardiovascular, I mean, really from a health perspective, cardiovascular conditioning. Some sports can add hand-eye coordination, some sports can actually train you for strength. I think each one of these, whether it’s cricket, whether it’s actually like ground hockey, all of these sports essentially are and squash, of course. I think the best answer is to actually try and with whatever you enjoy the most and probably do a mix in the early days to understand. And I think you did the same. From what we know, you actually tried out your hand with different sports and actually figure out what you really love. I think on that note, I think for squash lovers, I think across India would really love to understand what would be the top three things that a squash lover, let’s say this person is just getting started. Maybe like trying to train professionally or just trying to get into the sport because of the love of sport. Or enjoy what would be top three things that they should think about while getting started. I think first and foremost, no matter which sport you play, this is generic. You must remember that you need to enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, then no matter what you do, you’re not going to get better. Enjoyment is paramount. Sport should be enjoyable. That’s the whole ethos of sport. Secondly, specific to squash, focus on technique, focus on trying to hit the ball correctly. Squash is not just about power, it’s about timing. Like most sports, tennis, cricket, it’s not just about raw power, it’s about how well you can time the ball. And technique is what gets you the timing. So I think focus on that and I think finally, try and watch some of the best players in the world and try and understand how they move, how they structure their games, how they structure points, what they do from certain kinds of positions on the court. And watching the best players in the world is the best education to kind of get better and be the best that you can be. So I think those three things I would say would be paramount if you’re starting out to kind of play. I mean, of course this is over and about at the end of the day, no matter what you do, you have to work hard. But at least these three things I would say are very important.
(Mohit): Well, this is phenomenal advice for people to get started. And on behalf of the community and myself, of course, I thank you Saurav, for sharing all the insights and of course your enthusiasm about the sport. I think it’s been a pleasure to host you on the Ultrahuman Podcast. And of course we’ll stay in touch and look forward to delivering more and more cool stuff for you to try and work with us on. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Saurav.
Outro (Mohit): I hope this session was insightful for you. I think we can definitely establish that for any athlete to make it big in 2022, just hard work and talent is not going to cut it out. Sports tech, sports science as we speak and it is imperative for one to introduce these in their respective journeys to be at their absolute athletic best, something which helped Saurav bring home some of the biggest medals and laurels and especially at the Commonwealth Games. If you would like to see more personalities like Saurav Ghosal, stay tuned, subscribe and follow the Ultrahuman Podcast. Your support means a lot to us, so share and pass on this podcast and help enable people with more knowledge and metabolic health. I’ll see you soon with the next episode.
