Lose your cool and you lose everything, says India’s NBA star Satnam Singh

Training in the US, where the emphasis is on one-on-one practice, was eye-opening, the basketball player adds.

A towering presence at 7ft 2in, Satnam Singh Bhamara is India’s first basketball player to be drafted into America’s professional league, the NBA. Back in India from a month of training at in California, the 23-year-old from Punjab is now sweating it out alongside Team India ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup (Asia) qualifiers coming up soon. Here’s how he keeps fit:

Fitness is your best game-starter. It primes you for the pace the game demands. Being unfit in basketball can mean disaster for your knees.

The NBA was quite the eye opener. About 80% of the exercises I did there were the same as the ones I did here, but the approach was different. Here, all of us trained together as a team. In the US, there’s great emphasis on one-on-one practice. A personal trainer determines which part of your body is weak and which muscles are strong, and tailors the workout accordingly.

The idea is to balance upper and lower body. Besides your weight, your muscles too have to be in tandem with your height. Today, it’s great to see India adopting this approach and professional, personalised training.

With all the training, my upper body is in great shape, but we run a lot in basketball, so the lower body needs more attention. That’s also where you get your balance from. A strong lower body means you can’t be pushed.

The regimen I follow for most of the year is workout for two days, then rest for one. I also make sure to alternate working out the upper and lower body, never doing both on the same day.

Currently, at the camp, I have practice twice a day, five times a week. Mornings are usually for footwork, shooting and drills, and in the evenings we play. I go to the gym only twice a week when at camp. You don’t want to overwork your body; you should assess your muscles’ needs. Muscling up too much reduces fluidity in movement, slows you down. It’s also to avoid stiffness and slowing down that I do light weights and more repetitions.

My diet is nothing special to be honest. Eggs, milk and bananas for breakfast; dal, rice, chicken and veggies for lunch; and a light dinner. I don’t like eating out – I think, ‘Why not eat well? Eat something your body and you feel good about?’

On rest days, I just sleep, talk to my parents on the phone. When on my own, I like to go over the moves I’ve discussed with my coach; watch and study replays of my games.

Basketball really involves the mind – so you’ve got to keep your focus sharp. Reserve anger for other teams; never yours, or your coach. Lose your mind, your cool, and you’ll lose everything.

Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter