The journey from Sonipat To Indian Hockey team: Vikas Dahiya

Hard work and perseverance is all that one needs to be successful. This theory of success is proved by Sir Vikas Dahiya, Indian Hockey Team Goalkeeper. Being born in a financially weak family and being not such an academically bright student must have been a hassle. Yet, his motto of aiming at the goal and leaving no stone unturned to achieve the same has brought him this success.

As mentioned earlier, he wasn’t fond of studies, yet fitness was his forte from the beginning. The first time he bunked his school and went to SAI, he didn’t even know what was waiting for him. He loved playing football, yet he didn’t choose to play football because he wanted to be different and try new things, so he chooses hockey and undoubtedly is shining bright now.

Let’s change a bit for something we want to achieve.

He believes that one who wants to pick up sports professionally will always have to give extra towards sports than what he provides to academics. The real essence of commitment can be traced from his 7-8 hours of practice, strict diet, shift from being a vegetarian to adding up eggs and chicken in meal, just for proteins, all this struggle to achieve his goal. The constant battle to be fit and healthy with a strict diet and routine even when there isn’t any forthcoming tournament is inspirational, no doubt.

He still remembers his first-ever live match in 2013 that he saw in Delhi’s stadium, that very moment he knew what playing for India is.

His first match was incredible! 

In 2015, he played his first-ever Match Junior Asia Cup as an Indian team in Malaysia’s stadium and became the Man of the match. Being able to represent India in the RIO Olympics 2016 must have been a proud moment for him. He saved two goals against Australia at the Junior Hockey world cup 2016 in the semi-final stage in a penalty shootout that helped India climb up the finals, later winning the finals.

The journey of Being a Fan of SIR PR Sreejesh, Indian Hockey team goalkeeper, and just dreaming of getting his autograph way back in 2015 to sharing rooms now is surreal and something that inspires us to achieve our goals. His favorites include Sir MS Dhoni and Sir Usain Bolt because their calmness and consistency in their respective fields have always been his go-to mantra towards his goals.

Having many financial problems initially, His coaches helped him a lot in coping through that phase; he said His coach Sir Gautam had inspired him the most with life and game lessons. From Back in those days of Financial issues, his sir Gautam gifted him a quite expensive kit. And a dream to own that kit to today being sponsored by the same company of equipment makes him and us super proud of how beautifully he aimed, focused, and achieved his goals.

His message to the youngsters pursuing sports would always be to focus and never get distracted from what they want to achieve. Never get satisfied with anything less than what one aimed for. If one aspired for gold in the Olympics, one shouldn’t get happy with silver and always work on the basics to achieve your desired goal.

According to him, any sportsman should always have leadership qualities to handle pressurized situations, hardworking to achieve dreams, and, most importantly, communication.

Being a national level player, having 24 International caps, and everything a player can dream of, he still isn’t satisfied. He still believes there is still a lot more to learn and achieve for him to be self-satisfied is what everyone should learn from.

Such talent in our Indian hockey team, yet all our attention is towards Cricket world cups only. Also, his all-time favorite song, ” Kar har maidan Fateh, o bandeya,” keeps him motivated all along with his practices and tournaments.

Its high time we need to focus on other games too and give Talented sportsperson like Sir Vikas the recognition he deserves