Neeraj Chopra's attitude and mentality helped him win the Olympic gold, says former coach

When Neeraj Chopra stepped into the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports in Patiala in 2015, he was just a boy of 17. A boy who dreamt to conquer the world along with the composure of a veteran. He would not get intimidated by the scores of his seniors and would focus on just improving his numbers, even if it was by a centimetre.

"Neeraj hardly cared how others did. In his first senior nationals, he will run in, complete his throw and focus on the next. His attitude makes all the difference for him. That made him won the gold. There may be athletes who are technically better than him but his mentality is hard to match," stated Kashinath Naik, who coached the Olympic champion from 2015 to 2017, to Olympics.com.

"Neeraj is super confident. He will never have any kind of fear even when he is competing against the best. He will not get daunted even if someone scores 97m. Look at (Johannes) Vetter at the Olympics. He is one of the best but I think he came under pressure. In training, you can do wonders, but to replicate that in competition is a completely different thing. Whereas, Neeraj always does better in competitions than in training," he added.

It was under the guidance of Naik and Gary Calvert that Neeraj won gold at the World Junior Championship in 2016 by throwing 86.48m. Since then he has never looked back. With the help of SAI, he has traveled frequently to foreign shores to train and compete. Before Asian Games, where he won gold, he went to Finland to train. He qualified for the Olympics in South Africa where he was undergoing a training and competitive stint, and before flying to Tokyo, he set up his base in Sweden and competed at Lisbon to get in the perfect shape.

"The fear of competition gradually goes away once you start participating in international tournaments. There you will find throwers scoring regularly above 85. Yet you will not get intimidated and you will start learning to focus on just giving your best. Then there also you get to train with the best. In India, you have the best of facilities but exposure trips are important to forge a stronger mentality," Naik explained.

The coach revealed that after coming back from the injury in 2019, Neeraj had undertaken a different training regime to reduce the load on his throwing arm. 

"He completely reduced javelin throwing load. Instead, he would throw heavy medicine balls in a particular body shape and would do other exercises. Only one or two days before the competition, he would throw javelins. The training quality also increases this way and the risk of injury diminishes. Only an elite athlete like him can do this. Others have to practice with the javelin at least two-three days a week." 

The 23-year-old athlete had also changed his javelin from a medium composite Nemeth to a piece of more modern equipment in Nordic's Valhalla. This variant has more carbon fibre and has a sharper landing tip. However, one must be technically perfect to make the most of this javelin. 

"For a very long time, he used to train with both Nemeth and Nordic javelins. But in competitions, he would use only Nemeth. There is a pressure that you must be technically perfect with Nordics so he preferred to use Nemeth, where there is slightly more room for error. These new javelins are very stable and it swivels pretty less even in windy conditions. So the friction is also less and it travels more if thrown the right way. Only raw power will not help in Nordic.  

"Vetter used it and threw 97m. Then Neeraj also thought, let him try that in competitions as well. The one he used at the Olympics cost around INR 150000. This is the costliest javelin that he used," Naik revealed.

Neeraj revealed that after the Tokyo 2020 gold was confirmed, he was aiming to break the Olympic record of Andreas Thorkildsen (2008) which stands at 90.57m. However, he could reach only 84.24m. Naik believes that Neeraj went for more power instead of focussing on technique and that did not help his cause. 

"He will definitely cross 90m. After the first throw of 87m, I was confident that he would hit 90m. But there are a few shortcomings still in him. I keep telling him whenever he tries too much to throw long, his throwing arm and the upper body go a little ahead of his right leg which disturbs the sync and coordination. During the last throw also his power position along with his right leg was not in sync. So even when he threw with full power and energy, the javelin did not travel much," he analysed. 

The Indian Army personnel believes that at Paris 2024, India might have multiple medallists on the podium.