‘Sindhu can Handle Pressure. She Needs Belief’ India’s badminton legend Prakash Padukone talks with BORIA MAJUMDAR about traveling with players, PV Sindhu’s mental issues and Lakshya Sen’s physical fitness and their Olympic preparations. Excerpts He needs to stay injury free and be physically at his best all through. At the moment, he is losing steam in the decider ON LAKSHYA SEN.We have never seen you courtside guiding your students during the matches. It’s a new development. How has been the experience so far?
I’ve never travelled outside of India with the players; it’s a new experience for me as well. I have to say it has been a huge learning. To see them first hand on court and see what they do, how they deal with victory and defeat, how they recover for the next game, how they deal with situations.
It’s given me a lot of very critical information which I’ll use going forward. It is one thing to see videos and try to help them but a very different thing to be courtside real time and make a difference. I’m there to ensure my players play the right shots at the right time. At the elite level, everyone has their range of strokes. But not everyone uses the right stroke at the right time. They may create an opening but then give the point away by not playing the right stroke. Strategy and execution is what I aim to help with from the courtside.
How did you and Sindhu get together and how has the partnership evolved over the time?
The truth is I didn’t even know Sindhu well. I had met her at a few functions but that was about it. It was when I read in the papers that she was going through a low that I decided to reach out. I asked Viren Rasquinha (former India men’s hockey captain) to put me in touch with her. I was clear — at best she will say no and that she doesn’t need my help.
I was perfectly fine if she said so and would understand as well. But I didn’t want a situation where I didn’t reach out and later feel I should’ve done so. That’s how we got in touch and when we did it seemed Sindhu was also waiting to speak to me. Glad I made the first move. For the first few weeks she was playing tournaments and all I could do was speak to her on the phone.
I just tried to give her confidence because she was on a low. She has the shots and the game and all we needed to do was work on her mentally. Thereafter when she came to Bengaluru, we did some tests and realised that she needed to lose some body fat. For a whole month we kept measuring her body weight twice every day and other parameters and the nutritionist worked on her full time. She shed two kgs and it was the fat and not the muscle mass.
We used sports science to understand where she needed to be physically and worked on it as a collective. She did her best and soon was in decent physical shape. But she also needed match practice. For the first few weeks between January and February we had time to work on her in the academy and get her game back to where she should be. I’m not for once saying she’s back to her best. But from what I have seen I have every reason to be optimistic and hopeful.
With Sindhu having made the Olympic cut, how do you see the next few months?
No doubt that she still has some distance to go before she’s at her best. Having said that, we have a detailed plan in place. After the Asia Championships in April and the Thomas and Uber Cupwe’ll have three months to get ready for the Olympics. Though the plans aren’t yet final it could well be that we go outside of India to train and travel straight to France from there. We have identified a few areas where she needs to put in more work and the endeavour will be to make her self-reliant.
She shouldn’t have to look at the coach at the end of every point. She should be in a position to know which shot to play when and not keep checking with the coach. The shot should automatically come in her subconscious mind. The same shot that I would’ve asked her to play if I was to instruct her. That’s where we need to get to. You need to be at your best at the Olympic Games and we’ll make sure that she is physically and mentally there. She will be chasing her third consecutive Olympic medal.
Undoubtedly, there will be pressure. But five world championships medals and two Olympic medals don’t come if you can’t handle pressure. So that’s not something I’m worried about. She needs to be mentally confident of her ability. She needs to believe she can do it and beat the best. If she’s in a good space mentally it will automatically translate into her doing the right things on court. It is fairly simple.
If she is mentally fresh, she will automatically move better, think better and identify the right shots. My entire endeavour will be to see she’s in the best mental space in the next few months. Elite sport is no longer just about the player or the coach. It is about the team. The trainer, physio, nutritionist, mental conditioning coach and the entire support system.
Are you satisfied with Team Sindhu?
That was the first thing we did. When she first came to me, she was not eating the best, not doing the right things for her body and we needed to make a few important changes. While the coach worked on her strokes, the nutritionist worked on her diet and the physio made sure she was physically back at her best. It’s certainly not me alone. It is the team. And I think my role is being over hyped.
If she wins a medal at the Olympics maybe you can give me a little credit but for the time being let’s be clear — it is the team that is doing the job and not just me alone. Lakshya has turned the corner, too. After several first round exits, it’s good to see him make back-to-back semifinals in the French Open and All England and confirm his Olympic berth. Unlike Sindhu, where the issue is more mental, for Lakshya it is more physical. He needs to stay injury free and be physically at his best all through. At the moment, he is losing steam in the decider. It happened in the French Open and the All England.
He clearly has the game. But he needs to be at his physical best to execute the shots at crunch moments. In the Olympics you will not get a single easy match. You need to be prepared for physically challenging matches and can’t say all my matches were long. There is just no room for any excuse. Lakshya is surely getting back to where he should be. Like for Sindhu, we have clear plans for him as well and I am very optimistic and confident we will be able to get him in his best shape for Paris.
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2024-03-23 17:16:46
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