It is important to ‘park’ social media distractions aside to achieve success - Cawanibuka

It is important for Team Fiji to ‘park’ social media distractions aside if they want to achieve success at the Paris Olympics which starts this Thursday.

This was highlighted by former Fiji Men’s 7s Strength and Conditioning Coach Naca Cawanibuka while speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan about the importance of mental preparation for our team at the Olympics.

Cawanibuka says while he was still with the Fiji Men’s 7s side, the team adopted a social media blackout rule before the 2016 Las Vegas 7s tournament to keep the players away from being distracted by the sad news of Tropical Cyclone Winston that hit Fiji back then.

He says they continued using that rule heading into the Rio Olympics and it worked out well for the team which resulted in their first-ever Olympics gold medal win.

Cawanibuka says he does not know if the team still practices that rule nowadays, but it definitely would be helpful if they bring that rule back. Fiji will face Uruguay at 3am Thursday in their first match, they will then take on the USA at 6.30am on the same day, before playing hosts France at 1.30am Friday in their final pool match.

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics will be held on Saturday.

The Men’s quarter finals will kick off at 7am Friday, the semi finals will kick off at 1.30am this Sunday, and the final will be at 5.45am Sunday.