K Shamini has progressed steadily from the time she began playing table tennis as a youngster from a small village called Kalapakkam. Spotted by the Rao brothers — A Srinivasa Rao and A Muralidhar Rao — at a weekend camp in Kalapakkam, Shamini wisely shifted to Chennai in order to train at the SDAT-AKG Academy. Since then, she has never looked back.
“We used to give coaching at weekends at Kalapakkam and there we saw a young girl with a lot of talent. After some weekend stints, we told Shamini’s father that if he shifted his daughter to the city, she had a good future. After some initial problems, Shamini’s father Kumaresan did well to shift his daughter to the city and the move has paid rich dividends,” recalls coach A Srinivasa Rao.
“The table tennis culture in the city was good with quite a few quality academies, wide range of inter-club tournaments and quality state ranking tournaments. Plus, the infrastructure and coaching at our academy helped her evolve as a player to watch out in the future,” adds Srinivasa Rao.
Although Shamini may appear to be a calm and studious girl, she is a totally different person once she enters the TT arena. A good listener with an uncanny knack of learning quickly, Shamini made an impact when she won bronze (in team event) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games at Melbourne but says her senior national title in 2009 is something special for her.
At the nationals, she defeated a seasoned campaigner in Mouma Das of Bengal. Mouma started as the favourite since she was a nine-time finalist and four-time winner, but Shamini with her all-round performance surprised the veteran and won her maiden national crown.
“Shamini has very good ball control. She can push the opponent and defend with élan. Over the years, she has learned to be aggressive and can attack well,” says Srinivasa Rao. In line with her improvement, Shamini did well to enter the main draw at the World Championships in Japan. “She began well in the World Championships and reached the main draw. She fought well, but in the end what did her in, was speed,” says Srinivasa Rao. “Today’s TT, apart from technique, is all about speed. You have very little reaction time. She will learn from her experience how to improve in the global context and this experience will come in handy in future tournaments.”
Explaining what it will take for India to catch up with the likes of TT superpowers China and Korea, Shamini’s coach says: “Like in cricket, we need specialists and support staff in table tennis if we have to excel on the world stage. China and Korea are far ahead of us because they have a more professional set-up. To catch up with the world, we need physios, sports psychologists, video analysts and professional trainers and experts in sports medicine to handle players.”
Shamini’s next target is the 2010 Commonwealth games in Delhi. The TTFI’s year-long camp ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games will be a big boost for her. A foreign coach and several pro events will help her in her medal quest.
ashokvenugopal
@yahoo.com