Adrita Banerjee

I am a Sport Psychologist, presently associated with the Indian National Elite Women's Boxing Team. I am a passionate well-being and personal development advocate with a demonstrated history of working with diverse sports disciplines, individuals with emotional/adjustment and performance difficulties, as well as socio-economically vulnerable population. 

An erstwhile national-level tennis player, I endeavor to bring together my passion for sports and expertise in the workings of human mind and behaviour to raise awareness around the significance of Mental Training and Mental Health within all domains of co-curricular and competitive sports. With an extended involvement in sports, I am well equipped to grasp the first-hand experiences of athletes grappling with victories, defeats and the constant pressure to be at the top of their game and competitors. My personal and professional experiences have helped me realize how handling victories may sometimes be as challenging as setbacks with expectations (of oneself and others) mounting or shattering with consequences at competitions, impacting athletes’ self-perception, esteem and efficacy beliefs. Thus, helping athletes, coaches, sports parents and teams deal with their highs and lows, fears and insecurities, exhilaration and anxieties has helped me find my niche. I attempt to blend psychological skills and their training strategies with the nature of individual or team sport, their technical, tactical and physical prerequisite to offer athletes an edge on their mental game with relative ease. Skilled in aiding athletes with their motivation, performance mindset, building resilience, injury rehabilitation and effective interpersonal dynamics, I strives to ensure a rewarding experience for my clients with special emphasis on their personal well-being. 
 

Beginning from my time as a trainee, I have worked in diverse settings and organizations and engaged with track and field athletes, footballers, cricketers, tennis, badminton and basketball players performing at the state, national and some international tournaments. 

However, I started out as a full-time Sports and Performance Psychologist in 2020, as a consultant, assisting the "high performance program" project at The Bengal Tennis Association for national and ITF players and collaborating with a state football academy for their "Talent identification and development program" in Kolkata, India. My work here landed me as a Guest Speaker at the prestigious Bengal Olympic Association’s Webinar on "Covid-19 Combat Measures for Sports in Bengal". 

Following these projects, I sought to work within a sports science teams and landed an amazing opportunity at The Sports School - Centre for Sports Science, in Bangalore. This was a rewarding experience being the first of its kind institution in India that integrates sports and education to encourage young sports enthusiasts and support professional athletes. Here I enjoyed the exposure and challenge of working with multi-sports and reputed clubs like the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy, Bengaluru FC, Centre for Cricketing Excellence, Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre, Badminton Gurukul and Jain University Sports collaborated with The Sports School.  

After a good experiencing in engaging with youth athletes in their transitional stages, I finally landed a dream offer to work in elite sports and join the Boxing Federation of India for their Elite Women's Team. I have been employed here for the past 9 months as part of the performance support team, involved in designing & implementing diverse and tailor-made performance support/enhancement plans, evaluating psychological skills essential in performance and monitoring performance patterns across competitions. 

MSc in Sports and Exercise Psychology (Loughborough University, UK)

MA in Applied Psychology - with Specialization in Clinical Psychology (TISS, Mumbai)