The new Ligament!

The long journey towards recovery is near the end. Thousand hours of stretching and strengthening and my legs are almost as good as pre-injury.  For all those who don't know, I had torn my ACL in my left knee last september and underwent ACL reconstruction surgery to repair the damage last december. The surgery was just the begining ,I had to undergo the grueling process of rehab for the past 9 months.

The toughest part of this process was never the physical pain and strength, it was the mental dilemma of whether I should go through this pain to reach the end of the tunnel. Yes, playing that game that day one year ago, was the reason for all stress, pain and physical and mental torture I had to undergo while pursuing a career in research. However, thinking of that game every day and my pro-days back in college, it was equally responsible for pushing me through all this pain and help me become a stronger version of myself in the past year.  Everyone gets into a zone when they are involve with some activity, well playing soccer/football is that activity for me. I would never give up on that, it taught me so many great life lessons.This whole process of recovery also taught me valuable life lessons, I also made a lot of friends who had/ or have been undergoing the same ACL recovery.  I won’t lie, there were some instances that I had given up and said enough and enough, but then this particular dialogue ran through my mind:

I started to hit the gym real serious after my doctor cleared me for lifting weights. I started slow but I know in my heart that if I want to play in the future I had to transcend my previous fitness and go a level higher. I started doing all kinds of leg and body workouts. Here is a short video of me hitting a PR in deadlifts (315 lbs. conventional, body weight: 136 lbs., not bad eh?) . ( Instagram link : https://instagram.com/p/7Gpnd3Jyir/?taken-by=aswinreva )

After 4 months of physical strengthening, I went to the soccer field to start practicing with my old team. For 2 months all I did was just standalone exercises and drills by myself.  At the 6 month mark, when I started playing small games the limitation was clear. There was a mental block in my mind, I literally froze on the spot every time the opponent ran towards me. The first thing I had to do was to get rid of this fear. Time and more practice helped me with getting rid of this mental block. I started running and also doing a lot of body weight exercises, I could see my strength level increase each day. Going through the pain of surgery and recovery made normal training pain seem laughable. Here is a video of me doing L-Pullups in my home. ( Instagram Link : https://instagram.com/p/7boWvxJys4/?taken-by=aswinreva )

 So I decided to push harder, but I was also doing a lot of stretching and yoga to balance things out. So after all this, where am I now? My leg strengths are almost back to normal. So I started playing in small tournaments couple of weeks ago. We even reached the finals of the Purdue world indoor soccer tournament, but lost narrowly with one goal difference. Here is picture of my team at Purdue. ( From Right:  Ashish, Aswin (me) , Alix , Don ( Goalie) , Tridib, Horeh, Gillian,Jose)

Then the time came to decide whether I should play in the out-door 9v9 tournament? This is the same tournament I got injured exactly one year ago. Why not? I said to myself, this is why I went through all that training. We won the first two games in last two games. I can feel that I am still not giving my 100% in these games but I know I am getting there. The demons and monsters are never outside, they are always, always, causing havoc inside the head. One has to learn how to tame them and make them your pets. The challenges that push oneself out of the comfort zone help in this process.  I know I still have a long way to go, but I know it’s going to be alright. Life is a mixture of experiences and all we as human beings got to do is just live it! Joga Bonito  folks !

PS: My writing skills have been kind of poor as I haven’t written a blog post for almost a year and I was in a hurry to go for a practice game, so don’t mind the wrong grammar that pops up once in a while during this blog post. I will be writing more frequently from now on so I assure you that the quality of this blog will improve. :)

Broken Knee vs Broken Heart

People say a broken heart is painful, but that is nothing compared to a broken knee. A broken knee is a thousand times more painful.

It was the 18^th of September,2014 – one of the worst day of my sporting career. I shouldn't have played that match, all the signs whispered to me to stay put and study for my qualifier exam. But I could not leave my team alone, that’s not how I was taught to play the beautiful sport.  I get an adrenaline rush just thinking about playing Football.  So there I was in the gold fields at Purdue warming up with my team at 6PM in the evening. I was all pumped up for the match. I even wore my IITH #6 Jersey. I felt great (a touch cocky too) as I felt we had a really good team . Our team OMEGA ( Official Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association) had players from all over the world – China,India, US , Spain and Brazil.  I thought this year would be it, to finally break the jinx and win the gold.  

So the referee blew the whistle and chaos ensued. Our striker passed the ball to the left back, and he passed the ball to the center back (Nobody passes the ball to the center when there are strikers so close to the center back!). I was playing in the right back position. The opponent had fast strikers I thought I should go for the ball.  I made a vital mistake taking the ball back in – then a series of unfortunate events unrolled. The opponent striker took the ball and I went for the tackle with my left leg. I landed it awkwardly on top of the football and the opponent striker mishit the football and ended up kicking my left knee cap. I felt mind numbing pain for the next fifteen minutes. I couldn't even breathe properly. I was carried outside the field by my teammates and they called the medics. I was praying that it was not a broken bone; it took me all the courage in the world to look at my knee. Phew! Fortunately there doesn't seem to be anything out of place! I was used to a lot of minor injuries and in a way used to pain however the pain I felt after that injury was unbearable.  I felt my knee cap was unstable and I thought of the next worst thing after a broken knee – a torn ligament. I immediately went to the emergency room with a friend and took X-ray and had the doctor examine my knee. They had to send the X-rays to another hospital for expert opinion. I had to wait for a long time in the emergency room. The wait was like half hour but it felt like forever. The doctor came back and said there doesn’t seem to be any damage to knee and it is just a sprain. Phew! I thought I dodged a big bullet.  He told me to follow RICE ( Rest Ice Compression Elevation) for the next few days I could actually walk ( limp) as I left the ER. I was surprised to find that half the team was waiting for me outside the ER.

Happy to leave the ER without crutches! you can see the doc in the background ! He somehow remembered me from last year when I went to him with a  sprained wrist.

 Ten days passed, the swelling in knee did not reduce and I felt pain if do any sudden movements with my knee. This got me scared and I went for a sports doctor opinion. The good thing about living in a major university is that they have excellent sports medicine. So just moments after examining my knee the doctor told me that I have a compete tear in my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). Damn, it sounded like a serious injury and I thought after taking rest for two or three months and the knee would heal. Then the doctor explained that the ligament won’t heal on its own as it doesn't have any blood flow and I will need a surgery if I ever want to play again. I felt so many emotions and thoughts at the same time. I remembered my goal against KGP and I momentarily forgot all about the injury.

  Then reality struck me when she explained all about the surgery and rehab following the surgery. One piece of advice to anyone who will be undergoing surgery – never ever see the video of a surgery before-hand (especially if it’s a knee surgery- it is barbaric). It’s not for the light hearted. So after four years of playing collegiate level soccer and a year of intramurals, I have finally done it.  The doctor explained that it might be even a year before I can think of playing football again.  Football was my safe haven for many years, I felt devastated. The mental frustration is much more unbearable than the physical pain. I was using painkillers for the next two weeks. I also started doing physiotherapy every day for one hour. Even the simplest exercises such as leg rises seem to be impossible at first. Then after days of pain, it started getting better and I moved on to advance exercises.  I still have a long way to go before the surgery and even longer way to go after that. One important lesson I learnt from my old team and my coach is to “believe “. The thing about injury and downtime is if you push through it you challenge your body and push your physical barriers and emerge stronger than before.  I do hope I can play sometime soon. Till that time the following quote from dark knight will always be in my mind.

PS: I started doing a lot of research about sports injuries. If you are active in sports , some of the following links might be helpful to you.

1) Here is a link about ACL injury and its prevention  http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/injuryprevention/a/ACL_prevention.htm

2.) http://www.webmd.com/men/features/seven-most-common-sports-injuries

Tribute to the person who taught me Joga Bonito!

This week has been a game changer for  IITH FC. My coach got a permanent position as the coach for the football team. Hearty Congratulations to him ! This could be the single most important thing that could have happened to IITH FC. I can be now rest assured that the team will be in great hands for the years to come. Here are some iconic snaps to one of the most influential person in my life – Akbar Sir.

The most pumped and fired up speech I heard was from him during the second match vs. Kanpur at INTER IIT 2010. This single moment changed IITH FC forever; somehow he managed to pump passion and pride into our game and hearts. From then, we went on to win the Bronze medal and finish in the top 4 for the last 2 years.  I can see that speech in my eyes as I am writing this post.

This Pic says it all ... After the bronze medal finish !!

Even during training when I could not keep going any further he was the person who made me to push my limits and never give up. I always feel that I that I sometimes am being pushed too hard, but then I saw Randy Pausch’s last lecture and all this made sense to me . “ Its good that you are being pushed harder ,it means the coach has not given up on you … When you are making mistakes and no one is pointing out and telling you your mistakes that means they have given up! “ thank you for not giving up on me till the last minute of the last game. Thanks for teaching me this wonderful game. It was because of you I learnt the discipline to train hard which I now am transferring to all aspects of my life . I could still hear your shouts in my mind while playing football " Goreyy Goreyy! " . 

Me with Akbar sir after the last game!

Many cheers and thanks! To all the alumni and current IITH FC players who made this happen. The future of IITH FC does look bright indeed. I wish I could make it to the Elan game! 

Class of 2013 with Coach Akbar

To the Current Players : Practice like a devil ,Play like an Angel and go for the gold! 

The Journey Continues!

So here I am, thinking it’s all over on a Friday evening. So many things have changed since I last played with red and white combo for my Alma matter. Thinking again I am surprised it’s just been 6 months- It sure seems eons ago looking back and pondering over all that had been done in the last four years. I really feel proud of the fact that we achieved a lot, but now I feel blank when I reflect on what’s next.

Most of the people are excited about Friday evenings because they want to go out and party or have a drink and relax. My Friday evenings are as intense as it would get. It’s called Indoor Soccer (Football, damn they Americanized me!). So here is what is cool about a big foreign university , you get players from all over the world and styles of football mix and match and create what is truly called a beautiful game. I do accept that my fitness has slacked a bit but I could only say that my game is onto a next level.

I also played in the intramural (intra collegiate leagues) for a couple of teams. Sadly both the teams could not get past the semifinals (Still couldn’t get past the jinx!!). The last game I played was at 10 ‘o’ clock in the night with freezing temperatures of -1 deg Celsius for a team called Busia United. We had the game in our hands but on the last minute the opponents scored due to a minor glitch which resulted in a free kick and we lost in the penalties 6-7. (All that was going on in my mind was Roorkee 2012 and kgp 2011). I got pulled out of the game in the second half as my toes froze due to this extreme weather.

Giving out everything for the game gives a sense of satisfaction, a sense of calmness that no other thing in the world could give. I hope to explore more of this beautiful game and hopefully give something back to this amazing sport. After all it’s been part of my major transformation of my adult life. This beautiful game sculpted my personality and my attitude towards life. Many of these thoughts would not resonate with a lot of people who don’t play football, but it will definitely strike a chord with the clueless footballers. All this said I got to get going , its Friday evening- my solace in this world during this part of my life- Peace! 

PS: I hear my IITH FC  is training super hard for this year's INTER IIT. Three cheers for them and my coach. Keep it up guys! 

Tribute to IITH FC

IITH FC Believe - This is a small tribute to the outgoing batch of players in IITH FC. 

(order from defense line to offense line )

Madhu Mohan Bhukya

Popularly Known as- El captiano

Position: Stopper ( Captain )

IITH FC is one of the best things that happened to me in IITH life. Leading IITH FC to win Bronze in IIT Kharagpur is the most awesome moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Syed Khalid Mohammad  

Popularly Known as- SKM -The Bull

Position: Center Back

" IITH FC which is a substitute for Believe, is a bunch of students who sweat their blood out for IIT Hyderabad and I was lucky to be a part of it. It has taught so many things about love, sacrifice, defeat, victory and most importantly Believe . #IITH FC   "

Subhav Nandecha

Popularly Known as- Shub the Dipper

Position: Left Back

Starting from "zero" and reaching till the top not just ones but twice in consecutive years is not a joke. It takes 5PM-7PM daily. Playing for the team who has this much courage and enthusiasm, is the most amazing part of my IITH life. Thanks to Akbar sir and all team-mates for “BELIEVING” in me and making me believe in “BELIEVE”. 
IITH FC will always remain close to my heart.

Aswin Karthik

Popularly Known as- Goreyy ( Ashkar)

Position: Center Mid

 "One of the best moments in life is when you sweat your blood for a bigger cause and to win and see the happiness in the faces of your teammates. I literally spent more time on the ground than with the books! Started my FC career as a fat 75 kg stopper , got a straight red in Delhi, shifted to right wing back to win Bronze in KGP ,finally retiring as a playmaker after scoring two goals to help my team reach semis in Roorkee. All this taught me two very important lessons in life – never cease to BELIEVE and the power of will and hardwork. #IITH FC –One Love \m/ "

Parag Sarogi

Popularly Known as- Paggy

Position: Center mid (Playmaker)

"But one thing that I will miss the most is Football. My love with it has grown every passing day at IITH. Practically it is what I have done in the past 4 years. I have sweated it out and given it all to achieve something for the institute and I am glad to be one of the major reasons for the BRONZE!!!Some people can snatch away some individual awards that I deserved but no one can snatch the feeling of a bronze. Well it’s okay, they don’t have a bronze either and I am overwhelmed that this medal was purely based on merit. No chance of any politics being involved!!!"

 Ghanashyam Gowda

Popularly Known as- ShaumBoyy

Position: Right Mid

"Football is art and the footballers are artists "

Anil Kumar

Popularly Known as- Bolt

Position: Right Striker

" IITH FC is one of the best things that ever happened to me . It is the reason why I learnt football. The best memory will be scoring the winning goal for my team against IIT KGP. IITH FC means a lot to me and my teammates and will always be in my heart! " 

A very special thanks to Akbar sir from the pass-outs of IITH FC. This pic says it all... 

Without you all this would have never happened.

The great fire speech during the half time of Kanpur Match in IIT Delhi is the turning point of IITH FC. All of it will be in our hearts forever trickling into our minds and puts a smile in our face when we think about it!. 

Will Beats Skill (Part 1)

There is a saying by Paulo Coelho - " And when you want really something, the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it" in his famous book – The Alchemist. This quote has had a huge impact on me over the past year. There is another quote which I thoroughly believe in – “ Will beats Skill “. Yes, the will to win is the main motivating factor for any Footballer.

Pep talk by Akbar sir before the Match

The preseason for IITH FC was amazing – we thrashed many teams in the local neighborhood 5-0,6-1, 5-1 etc. But still we had miles to go in terms of the level of competition to match INTER IIT level. This time it was in Roorkee – Our last chance to win the championship. The pass outs ( Carlos, Paki , Yatharath , Pramod, Shyamang , Vindy , Chithransh ) from the last year team left a small dent in the team formation, but luckily we had two incredible additions to the team from my batch- SKM and Bolt. As the potential replacement to Yatharth ( Manas) was injured ,hence my coach moved me to center midfield position where I could see more of the ball. The Bronze medal was a huge motivation for the team and hence there was also huge pressure and expectation on the team. So we had to put in even more hard work than in the past years. Since the arrival of flood lights (thanks to Bindu ) we had longer practice sessions every day , sometimes even extending till 8:30 – 9:00 in the night. We even had morning practice sessions three months before INTER IIT – That’s 4-5 hours of practice a day for three whole months - This is not an easy feat to pull off with the added pressure of placements, acads etc. Of course I was enjoying every moment of it and we still had the FC fire in our hearts but we were also nervous as we felt we did not do enough.

So we set sail to Roorkee – the coldest freak place an IIT could have been built. The December in Hyderabad is moderately cold, but the weather in IIT Roorkee is a freak show compared to Hyderabad. We had no clue that it would mind numbingly cold – the average temperature was around 5 degree Celsius. We luckily bought skin tights along with our jersey to protect ourselves during the matches. The field in IIT R was actually small when compared to our ground, so we had a slight advantage in terms of our defense. The teams in our group were IIT Mandi, IIT Indore and IIT Kanpur and we could never underestimate the power of new IITs , so we had to give our best effort to win the matches.

MATCH #1 vs IIT Mandi

This is the team which I would say the second strongest amongst the newer IITs (after us of course! ). We had beaten them in the quarter finals of the last year’s tournament convincingly 3-1 after them taking the lead. This being said the pressure was on us to rip apart Mandi and also since Mandi had the home weather advantage on us . The kick off was at 3:30 in the afternoon, so we had no problem of mist and the weather was fairly warm which suits our playing condition. The match started and we were slightly nervous and were making wrong passes many a time mainly because it was the first time many in the team are playing in this level. But eventually we did get a hang of it and started becoming comfortable. Around the 30th minute we got a corner after a lot of miss chances. The corner was taken by Shyamboy , it was a beautifully crafted corner ( landing just outside the penalty line). Their defenders missed the header and I was standing near the far post waiting for this exact thing to happen and the ball bounced and was at my reach. I toed the ball and it hit the far post and went into the goal. The next few moments were bliss.




The momentary amount of ecstasy I had then was incomparable to anything I had experienced in my life till now. I started running around the ground in joy with my teammates behind me. It took about 10 minutes for me to calm down and it would have taken more time if not for Akbar sir shouting from the dug-out. It was my first goal for me in INTER IIT level – from a five minute send off to an opening goal – it was all flashing in my mind. It took every ounce of will power to get back in game. The game went fairly with us having a majority of the possession. We however made a small defensive blunder which cost us badly and we ended up drawing the match which we easily should have won.

MATCH #2 vs IIT Kanpur



This was the game I was eagerly waiting for – It was revenge time. We would have met in the third place match in IIT Kharagpur if not for their disqualification. So this time I knew it was payback time for the defeats we had in their hands in the first two INTER IITs at Kanpur and Delhi. I also could never ever forget my send off against them in Delhi. Hence I so wanted to beat these guys very badly to find peace for my ego. This time the kick off was at 11:30 and it was damn cold. We didn’t get the chance to warm up properly and we started off on a bad note giving a penalty to them at the 10th minute. Déjà vu – it was happening all over again I thought. They had such low sportsmanship that they started wasting time so early in the match using throw ins and faking injuries (******).

Level of visibility during the match

The following 60 minutes of the game were one of the most fire filled game I saw being played by IITH FC. I could see in each of my team mates eyes” how badly they want to win?”. Kanpur’s defense was a bit inexperienced and fortunately for us we had two of the fastest strikers of INTER IIT ( Navanshu a.k.a Junglee , Anil a.k.a Bolt ).We ripped apart their defense. We were dominating possession and making an attempt at goal every 5 minutes of the match. Eventually their defense had to break down as Anil scored a beautiful chip for a goal. The entire Kanpur team was stunned after the screaming we did after the goal. To be frank they were intimidated by us for the first time. The second half started with us pumped up full of fire. We had to use their weak fullbacks to our advantage and hence we mainly moved the ball from the wings and had to put the ball to the strikers. In the end this worked and we scored two more goals both being scored by Navanshu. Kanpur realized Karma is B*t*h.

MATCH #3 vs IIT Indore

The match against Indore was supposed to be a cake walk and it was. The only glitch was that the match was scheduled at 8:30 in the morning and it was freaking cold and one could not see beyond 20ft because of the mist. But not to worry as we totally outclassed Indore as we were in altogether new level. This match witnessed one of the marveling performances by a striker in IITH – Navanshu- the Hat Trick hero. All of INTER IIT was taking a look at IITH and he eventually became the most feared striker of INTER IIT 2012.

Navanshu

So again we were the group toppers for the second year in a row. The expectations rose but as again challenges rose with it. The Quarter finals were against IIT Kharapur. They were the favorites for winning the tournament- They had a skill level that is one step higher than all the IITs. Till now our defense and goal keeper were never tested to the limits. So there were severe doubts whether we could handle the might of KGP. Seeing their practice sessions one day left us in awe for the team. But we could never stop to Believe – not after Roorkee! 

                                                 Contd......... ( Scroll down for Part 2 )

Will Beats Skill (part 2)

So we went in with full preparation after Akbar sir giving us valuable tips on how to handle KGPs No 7 and No 10. The kick off was at 10:00 am.



We started the match confidently putting in crosses from the wings to test their defense. In the second minute of the match we got a free kick at about ~30 m from the goal. Again Shyam took the free kick and I intuitively started running around their defense line to shake off the man marking me before finally positioning myself near the near post. I could never forget the next twenty seconds of the play. He took the kick and it was beautifully lobbed in just above the wall (I thought he would go for goal) and hit my leg and bounced for a volley near the D-line at almost zero angle to the near post. The next few moments were like slow motion, my eyes lit up seeing the opportunity for a volley and I swung my right leg for a perfect out foot shot. The ball grazed the goal keepers hand and went into the goal (the sweet sound of the nets). This time I was stunned by the situation and managed to do a Thiery Henry kind of celebration telling the audience to be quiet. It was yet another moment of eternal bliss. With the adrenaline running high and by being crushed by the hugs from my teammates – this is my most memorable moment of my FC career. We were leading against IIT KGP at the 3rd minute!!!





Of course we still had miles to go before the end. The KGP team quickly raised the tempo of their game and we entered a total defense mode. I dropped behind to play as a CDM . As I said before the KGP team’s skill level is a class apart and they were attacking from left and right , shots were being taken from all around the field . Our goal keeper was never tested to this kind of attack before. Expectations were lower from him after stepping into the shoes of Paki. But the following hour’s performance he gave for the team demands huge respect (He was almost equal to Paki) – saving at least 20~25 shots. I witnessed one of most hard working defense during the rest of the match. Special Thanks to them (Ravi Kiran – RB , Khalid – CB , Madhu- CB , Subhav- LB )! They were literally drained out of energy after the match. Even I have been drained out - At one point I was literally tackled in the air and was breathless for a minute and the referee had to force me to sit out but I refused and continued playing. The first half ended with us in the lead 1-0.

At the beginning of second half we decided we couldn’t risk the chance conceding by defending heavily so we decide we’ll take a couple of chances and then at the 48th minute we had one lucky counter attack. Navanshu got the ball in the center and gave a beautiful lob-through ball over their high defense line up and Anil made a timely run to get ahead of the defense to have a one on one chance with the goal keeper. Their goal keeper made a huge blunder of advancing and seeing this Anil chipped the ball above the head of the goal keeper (who was outside the D-Line now ) for a goal. It was one of the most beautiful goals I had witnessed. That moment we were sure that the match is ours and that we were knocking out the favorites out of the championship. The numerous attempts of KGP at goal were either blocked by the defense of stopped by the Deepak who was in superlative form. The whole of IITH contigent was present during the match chanting Goomtha lakdi gula gula Hoo Haa Hoo Haa . The whole ground was vibrating at the final blow of the whistle. We did it again; we broke the shackles again to reach the semifinal knocking out the favorites. The KGP team was in tears after the game. I couldn’t believe the result. Will had beat Skill!







Nevertheless this game had taken a heavy toll on us leaving many injuries on many of our players. We gave our best in the semis and 3rd place match losing by a margin of only one goal each. The referees who had initially been against us were full in respect and awe for us and our coach after the tournament. This was a defining moment in IITH FC timeline – we had started to make older IITs fear – we again proved we are no longer a new IIT and finally we proved “ Will beats Skill” .

IITH FC Class of 2013

                                                                              ~ Football My Soul …. A Blog by Aswinreva \m/