Sportsmen and women use different techniques and tactics to calm their nervous energy before a major event. You may be supremely fit physically and condition yourself to withstand the rigours of competition in a high-pressure environment but even champions may feel nervous just hours before the start.
Some may choose to read a book, watch a movie or just switch off from what’s happening around them. There is no particular method that is recommended because it varies from individuals and the sport concerned. Everyone has their idiosyncratic behaviour but ideally those engaged in high-octane sports such as motor racing or boxing would like to remain calm before exploding. This is where mental preparation comes into play and the mystic art of meditation is becoming increasingly popular among professional athletes.
Sri Lanka could become the hub of this unique tradition which is being promoted by an Israeli mind control specialist Guy Rosenberg. Having made Sri Lanka his home for the better part of two decades, Rosenberg in partnership with a local entrepreneur Chirath de Silva is planning to break barriers and create centres for not only sportspersons but even corporates and billionaires to unwind themselves in a peaceful monastery deep in the jungle away from civilization.
A practical Buddhist as he calls himself, Rosenberg is not a psychologist and does not consider his unique methodology as a therapy. Concentration and focus is the name of his mind game which is aimed at improving the fortunes of dedicated professionals from businessmen to athletes. Rosenberg has mostly worked with athletes in Switzerland, Germany and Israel but has drawn up plans to expand to Sri Lanka and South East Asia big time. Some of Rosenberg’s high profile clients include GT3 racing driver Bar Baruch, elite level judoka and sambo competitor Alice Schlesinger, professional basketball player Murphy Holloway and Sri Lankan racing star Dilantha Malagamuwa.
Among his most devoted students is Israel’s leading racing driver Bar Baruch whose life changed after hooking up with Rosenberg a few years ago. “We developed together with his experience in driving and my experience in concentration techniques,” said Rosenberg who also had a chat with shuttle star Niluka Karunaratne during his visit to the country along with Baruch last week. Malagamuwa also had a friendly duel at Katukurunda with 26-year-old Baruch who launched the ‘Racing for Sri Lanka’ project.
“Guy has been coming to Sri Lanka for the last 19 years to seek knowledge and develop his unique meditation technique. We wanted to see how this focus and concentration on mental aspects can be applied to sports because no one has tried this before and how his knowledge can be passed down to Sri Lankan professionals,” explained Chirath who hails from Galle Fort. He was also impressed with the humanitarian side of Rosenberg who engaged in spontaneous charity work away from the public eye to help people suffering from the spiralling cost of living. Rosenberg also supported the Indira Cancer Trust during his latest visit and has plans to raise funds through racing in future.
A champion sprinter during his youth, Rosenberg was more attracted to surfing, relishing the challenge of tackling mountainous waves which prepared him mentally for extreme sports. “I always challenge my technique and ability of concentration. It is difficult to survive waves that are sometimes three times as big as a mountain. You need the ability to dive immediately to catch some reef 10 or 15 metres down and to stay there for one or two minutes. You need to calm down,” said Rosenberg who rode huge waves in Portugal and the Canary Islands.
Rosenberg considers the mental ability required to handle pressure is the same whether it is GT3 or Formula One racing where speeds of 300 kmph are the norm and a slight mistake could be costly.
“This is exactly what he (Baruch) is doing in a race. Some people with regular abilities will not be able to handle pressure. They don’t have time in a race. The aim is to continue and perform at the highest level. Nobody cares that you had a crash or had some problems,” said Rosenberg.
He acquired meditation skills as a yogi in the Himalayas, Shaolin temples of China to the Shinto Shrines in Japan, from the origins of Buddhism in India to Buddhist practitioners in Sri Lanka.
“You have to be clean and pure to handle training which is demanding. I trained for a few years in traditional yogi isolated in the Himalayas in very poor conditions. Coming from a wealthy family, for me it was a challenge but after a few months I got used to it,” said Rosenberg who was initially disappointed when he came to Sri Lanka.
“In the beginning we were a little bit disappointed because we went to the wrong monasteries. After a few days we had a chance to be in a kind of a jungle temple where monks are very serious, very cool and dedicated their life to meditation.
“We found a gold mine. We stayed there to teach those monks the physical elements of yoga and our approach of meditation which was not so different,” he said.
“No matter what, you have to do the practice. To be very strong in the mind is to be very soft as well and be flexible. The ego needs to go down to earth. You have to learn manners, and speak straight forward without playing any games,” he said, summing up the elements that go into the discipline of focus and concentration through meditation.