Mathias Boe: You need to be a bit selfish to succeed

Indian badminton saw a wonderful high in doubles this year with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty breaking new ground. After winning gold at the Asian Championship and Asian Games, the pair climbed to the top of the men’s doubles world rankings.

Now, as they prepare for next year’s Olympics, their coach Mathias Boe, who transformed them into one of the world’s best pairs feels how the two handle the mind games will be crucial for success in Paris.

“The pressure on your shoulders at the Olympics is very crazy, mostly from yourself, but also from your country. Satwik and Chiraj have a good chance of winning a medal, so they will feel the pressure a little bit more,” said Boe, the former men’s doubles World No. 1, in a chat with The Hindu at the Muthoot Alwin’s Badminton Academy here on Saturday.

“Mentally, we will try and prepare the most but at the end of the day, it is how they handle the pressure that will matter.”

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The 42-year-old from Denmark, now in Kochi on a short holiday with his relatives, feels anybody from the world’s top eight or 10 pairs are capable of winning in Paris.

Satwik and Chirag, currently World No. 2, will now be working to be among the top four in the seedings for the Paris Olympics.

While the pair is riding a happy wave, Boe feels the rest of the Indians in doubles need a change in attitude.

“There’s been a bit of a standstill in the last 12 months. Instead of using Satwik and Chirag as the target, they use them as their role model. So instead of looking at them with a ‘hey, I want to beat them, become better than them,’ attitude, they are a little bit like, ‘I can’t beat them, so what am I practising for’,” said Boe who won the men’s doubles silver at the 2012 London Olympics. “I need to try and push them a little bit more.”

He is impressed with javelin thrower Kishore Jena’s attitude and feels players need to be a bit selfish to succeed.

“You need to put yourself first, you need to be a bit selfish. Selfishness is not a negative word in my world. If more people are selfish, they would put themselves first, they would achieve something,” said the 43-year-old.

“I met Neeraj and the guy (Kishore Jena, Asian Games javelin silver medallist), he was leading until one of the last throws at the Asiad. He has Neeraj as an idol, but he also has that attitude like, ‘I want to see if I can beat him’. And all of a sudden in a big final, he was close to winning,” he said.

“It’s important to have that attitude, you can be respectful, you can somebody as a role model, but you also need to be hungry to beat him and be better. That is the right rivalry you need to have.”