CHENNAI: Since the beginning of the month, Anup Sridhar has helped put the basics in place for PV Sindhu’s comeback to the circuit after a below-par Paris Games. After Sindhu’s camp approached Sridhar post the Olympics last month, Sridhar flew out to Hyderabad.
Almost a month later, the 41-year-old has ‘a fair understanding of what works best for her’. “I met with Sindhu and her team (after the Olympics),” he tells this daily from his current base at the Gachibowli Stadium. “I initially wanted to understand just where she’s at, how she’s feeling physically and all of that.
She’s feeling very fit, she doesn’t have any pain and no knee issues. She also spoke about how fiercely motivated she is to make it work. It’s very impressive to see somebody who has achieved so much still has so much hunger and drive.”
To make it work, Sridhar, who had a short-term assignment with Lakshya Sen earlier, has been putting the two-time Games medallist through her paces. While there has been some on-court work on a daily basis, they have focussed on building endurance and ensuring she’s fit, healthy and safe.
“We have been experimenting with different kinds of schedules and gathering data on what’s best. I have a fair idea of what works well for her. We meet twice a day, we are doing some running on the ground as well. We have been training every day. Apart from that, catching up on her matches and taking notes.”
While the 2006 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist is not at liberty to discuss all the things they are doing, he’s fairly intimate with two drills they are paying special attention to. One, to get her into position in the back of the court for her to essay her all familiar power game. “The obvious things that are really strong in her game are her attacks,” Sridhar says. “When she’s in position at the back of the court, she’s very dangerous to any opponent. But that’s the key, she has to be in position. Even in the match she lost in Paris (He Bingjiao), she was a bit late at the back of the court, especially on the forehand. She got caught out a bit in terms of her position. This is something we have on our mind and we are working on it.”
The other specific drill they have worked on is her movement from the net to retrieve a drop shot to being in position at the back. “Between footwork and multi-shuttle routines, the main focus has been on one deep lunge in the front where you block a shuttle... like, say, for example, when an opponent plays a good sharp drop, and then a quick movement back, either on the forehand or the backhand side. We have done a fair amount of it.”
The understandable focus on physicality will taper off from Wednesday because of the upcoming European swing (Finland and Denmark). Post those two events, they will have a conversation to see if they want to continue this association.
While Sridhar is excited and looking forward to the opener at the Arctic Open, he’s urging caution in terms of expectations. “We are not going to show a miraculous sort of improvement but I can tell there is an improvement for sure.”
For so long, Sindhu had an extremely high floor and the highest of ceilings. The battle is on as the 29-year-old aims to rediscover her ceiling from a low floor.