When young Indian badminton sensation Ayush Shetty was drawn against World No. 1 Shi Yu Qi, coach Vimal Kumar asked him to write a note on his mirror: “17th August is a bad day for Shi Yu Qi.”
Ayush saw those words every day in the build-up to the Badminton World Championships in Delhi. When he finally stepped on court, he made them come true, beating the defending champion in three games and pulling off one of the tournament’s biggest upsets.
For Indian long jumper Ancy Sojan, the process has been remarkably similar.
On Saturday, August 22, Ancy competed in the World Athletics Silver-level meet in Bhubaneswar, an event crucial to her build-up for the Asian Games. Ancy won the event with a jump of 6.71 metres, comfortably beating Shaili Singh’s 6.56m, who took home the silver medal.
For Ancy, however, the best jump of the night was average. She knew that she was nowhere near her best. Speaking to India Today after the event, Ancy revealed that she was struggling with an injury that kept her far from her best.
“I have a little bit of a knee issue going on, and I have not been able to take off on the jump the way I want to. I am looking forward to the Asian Games. I am really tired because I started my season quite early. I want to take rest now and then arrive at the Asian Games fresh,” Ancy said.
THE POWER OF VISUALISATION
2026 has been a big year for Ancy Sojan. She broke the long-standing national record of the legendary Anju Bobby Geroge with a 6.88m effort in Bhubaneshwar in June. She also has three jumps in excess of 6.70m, making her one of the strongest contenders for Gold at the Asian Games.
Her 6.88m national record, combined with three consecutive jumps beyond 6.70m, has made Ancy one of the strongest contenders for gold at the Asian Games. The Gold at the Asian Games in 2023 was won by China’s Xiong Shiqi with a 6.73m effort. Ancy finished with a silver there with 6.63m.
Ancy’s 6.88m is also the leading mark in Asia this year, followed by China’s Yingying Huang’s 6.76m.
But how did that improvement happen?
“The national record made me stronger. So, I am confident that my average jump should be higher than it used to be. I can see that progression in me. My main dream is to win the Asian Games and to hear the national anthem when I am at the podium,” Ancy told India Today in an interview at the Continental Tour.
There is another reason for that growing confidence: visualisation.
Ancy says the visualisation exercise that badminton coach Vimal Kumar made Ayush Shetty do before the toughest game of his life has made a difference in her own career. She has now incorporated it into her routine, setting aside separate sessions to visualise the goals she wants to achieve.
What is she visualising?
She sees herself standing on the Asian Games podium, listening to the Indian national anthem.
It is a powerful image – and one she has begun to rehearse in her mind.
“It is in my mind. I say that to myself every day: ‘You are stronger than you think. Believe in yourself. Do not underestimate yourself.’ I am a person who questions herself constantly. Many a time, I have questioned myself in the middle of events: ‘I am not able to take off, how will I jump?’ But that has changed. What I try to do is visualise a jump above 7m. The 6.88m exactly happened like that, so yeah, I am going to start visualising again for the Asian Games,” Ancy said.
WHAT EXACTLY IS VISUALISATION?
But is visualisation simply another name for manifestation, the idea that intensely focusing on a desired outcome can somehow help make it happen?
Not quite.
India Today reached out to psychiatrist Dr Sanjay Chugh to understand what happens in the brain when an athlete visualises an action. Unlike manifestation, which is rooted more in the belief that intention and positive thinking can influence outcomes, visualisation has a neurological basis.
“When you are visualising something, it could be an action, even a thought or an emotion. You are visualising yourself performing any of these things without actually doing it. What you are doing is that you are achieving the activation of the exact same neurological pathways inside the brain that are involved in the actual thought or feeling or action,” Dr Chugh said.
“The more you practice this, the more it becomes your second nature, your default way of thinking or feeling or believing. Essentially, visualisation is acting on the principles of neuroplasticity, where the more you do a certain thing, the more it becomes a habit. So, the more you think of a particular thought, the more that would become a habit of thinking in those particular ways. The more you perform a certain action, the more it becomes a habit for you when you set out to perform that action,” he added.
Why does that happen?
“Because the brain has already been activated through the process of visualisation,” concluded the psychiatrist.
Ancy Sojan goes into the Asian Games as one of the strongest contenders for gold. The numbers say she has every reason to believe. But for Ancy, what matters more is the jump. The perfect jump that takes her over the 7-metre mark.
If she is able to achieve that, it would propel her into a territory no Indian woman has been before, and it will also help the 25-year-old from Kerala achieve her dream: to hear the national anthem on the Asian Games podium.
– Ends
