Ever wondered what makes PV Sindhu the destructive force she is? Or what makes her strokes so powerful that opponents can only watch the shuttle land in distant corners of the court without even thinking of retrieving? What gives her the energy to operate at such speed against some of the finest athletes? What keeps her on top of the women’s game without a break year after year, when rivals break down from time to time?
A video showing Sindhu train that has gone viral provides glimpses of what goes on behind the making of a champion. There is more to it. It’s a confluence of many factors. If the Pullela Gopichand Academy is where it all started, a short detour has played a key part. For the last many months, Sindhu starts her daily session at the academy and visits the Suchitra Badminton Academy later for physical activities under Srikanth Varma. It revolves around explosive weight training to increase muscle strength and reflexes.
Back at the academy, those are put to test. Sparring partners from Indonesia try to make her life difficult, as she faces three of them at the same time. Shuttles whistling over the net with milliseconds to react, Sindhu works on her defence and quick reflexes for hours.
She has been religiously following a strict routine ever since she was first identified by chief national coach Gopichand years ago. Though she has her sweat and blood to credit for her stupendous success, there are many behind the scenes who have helped her reach the summit. From the zen-like guidance of Gopichand to the foreign coaches and sparring partners — they all have played a part.
Sindhu is an early bird. The 24-year-old is the first senior player to hit the SAI Gopichand Academy every day at 6 am, with father PV Ramana. While the rest of the seniors start at 8.30, Sindhu is up and running at 6.30. The session goes on till 11.30, with intermittent breaks. The player is back at the academy at 3 pm for the evening session, which lasts about two hours. The mornings are generally dedicated to on-court skills training. In the evenings, weight training is the focus. Sundays are for recovery. Technique correction sessions are held from time to time to make her game error-free.
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The idea of specific weight training is to gain muscle strength and enhance the reflexes. Varma, the personal strength and conditioning coach of Sindhu, has deigned this programme. Most weeks, she has a two-hour session on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the facility and skips the evening session at Gopichand Academy those days. A lot of appreciation has come the way of Varma after Sindhu thanked him for helping her achieve the long-time goal.
It was in the beginning of 2017 when Varma started training her. Shedding light on how it works, Varma said, “She plays on courts here, and then we analyze the video to observe her muscle movements. Then we work exactly on that. We don’t shoot in the dark. It is individual and integrated training based on the data we collect. The type of workout is designed accordingly.
“In recent months, her fitness levels propped up quite high. It was all due to the efforts we put in during the last two and a half years. She did not gain weight, but muscles. That’s why she was able to hit those 370kmph smashes. She comes here depending on the training programme. When there is an intense on court session in the morning, she comes here in the evening. Otherwise, she comes here directly after the morning session the academy.”
The diet, too, has be modified with respect to the situation. Varma says it contains primarily of minerals, proteins and carbohydrates.
The carbohydrates intake is scaled up during tournaments. “There is no definite pattern. It is all according to the conditions and situations,” Varma said.
While Saina Nehwal will forever be credited for bringing a consistent Indian force onto the world stage, it is Sindhu who has made sure that the momentum is maintained. One of the first students of the coach when the academy opened at Gachibowli Stadium in 2004, Saina has closely observed the badminton ecosystem in the country transform and propel talents such as Sindhu. “When I first started playing in 2000, there were wooden courts at Lal Bahadur Stadium. When I went for junior tournaments in Europe, they had courts with HOWA surfaces.
There was no exposure to physios or trainers and foreign coaches. When I shifted to Gopichand Academy, there he had improved facilities and slowly we got what is required at the international level. Foreign coaches were recruited. Finance was a big hurdle during the initial stage,” the former World No 1 told this newspaper.
Though Gopichand has been the main man behind the rise of Indian shuttlers, he has had to seek support from abroad from time to time. Mulyo Handoyo helped singles players a great deal in making a mark. When he left in December 2017, there was a vacuum of more than a year before new foreign coaches were hired — South Koreans, Park Tae Sang (men’s singles) and Kim Ji Hyun (women’s singles). As the Worlds results suggest, the duo have already made an impact. Ji Hyun was seen by millions as she guided Sindhu during matches in Switzerland. “After each match, I used to give her an analysis. She listened closely and executed all the plans perfectly, which shots to play and which ones to ignore,” Ji Hyun said.
What does these foreign coaches bring to the table? “There are not many quality coaches in India. Imagine this scenario. Your student is up against someone like Lin Dan, and you did not even spend enough time at the international level as player. How will you counter the strategies of your opponent? There are many who claim to belong to that level, but they do not. So, you have to look at options outside of the country,” Gopichand opined.
In Saina’s words, it is the “time” factor. “They are abreast with latest techniques of the game. And they are just and more professional as they have a limited tenure. So, they want to give better results with the available time they have as compared to Indian coaches,” the 2012 Olympics bronze medallist remarked.
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While coaches and physios form the backbone of Sindhu’s support system, there are also others who help her implement what she is taught. Sparring partners come into the picture here. Sindhu has four of them, and each one is an Indonesian — Heri Setiawan, Tri Prasetyo, Riffanjaya and Ade Kurniawan. They work almost as hard as the athlete. Three versus one scenarios are used time and again to iron out rough edges. “Most of the time, we use the three versus one style. It is mainly to improve her defence. The rest of the time, we go for two versus one, when we let her use her natural attacking style. We concentrate on all the aspects of the game, from net play to dribbles,” 26-year-old Prasetyo, who was called by Gopichand from one of his academies in Greater Noida a month before the Worlds, explained. With each and every nook and cranny of the game covered, more is expected.