CHENNAI: Pongal festival is the time when most players from Tamil Nadu take a break, spend time with families and go out for movies. Not Sharath Kamal. He is training hard to keep himself fit with his India teammates and upcoming players at his SDAT-AKG table tennis academy.
He says the idea is to keep in shape and bond with his teammates ahead of the nationals and Olympic qualifiers. "We had a 42-day camp in Sonepat from October to December during which the players gained momentum to go into the new season post the Covid-19 break. For almost six months, all of us were confined to our homes. Since resumption of table tennis activities, we felt we were getting into better shape and we need to continue the training process that we had been," said Sharath.
"Most of the players from the camp planned to meet again in January for which I proposed Chennai due to the facilities at SDAT-AKG academy and my fitness trainer Ramji Srinivasan, who readily agreed to help the players,'' added Sharath.
Some of the local players at the academy got an opportunity to train with the best in the country. Rao brothers Srinivasa, Muralidhara and Rajath Kamal were the coaches at the camp. "The camp started on January 3 and is going strong. Manav Thakkar of Gujarat (World No 1 in youth), Snehit of Hyderabad (youth national champion), Manush Shah of Gujarat (youth India No 3), Arjun Ghosh of Bengal (senior India No 6) are some of the noted players training in Chennai. Vishwa Denadayalan (junior India No 1), Abhinay V (Tamil Nadu men's No 4), Roopan Santhosh (junior Tamil Nadu player) are some of the local boys at the camp. I am enjoying it as there is a lot of fun, with the players playing like one family,'' said Sharath.
The world No 32 insists that although there is fun and bonding to keep the sessions light, the players are always focused on the game. "The main target of the camp was to help us get into match mode keeping in mind the national championships scheduled in February and Olympic qualifiers in March in Qatar. We initially planned until January 13, but now it is being extended to 17, as the training sessions are intense and helping us have quality technical and tactical practice,'' said Sharath.
"We are also using Rajath's help for video analysis which helps us keep a tab on our technique and footwork. Upon hearing about the training camp, there were enquiries from more players to join the camp but we decided to keep the number of participants to eight, as it would help us focus on the complete group," added the Olympian.
Training with Ramji has helped the players stay agile. "His training has really helped the players improve their skill sets, agility, strength and technique. Players would like to have these kinds of intense training sessions twice a month on a regular basis," signed off Sharath.