Zero-error season

The Rio Olympics, is at least 500 days away. For most of us that’s a lifetime but for India’s most promising names in sport, it’s training time. Special diets, no sodas, no junk food… nothing. In Hyderabad, the hub of Indian badminton, eyes are already on the prize. Saina Nehwal, Srikanth Kidambi, Parupalli Kashyap, P.V. Sindhu and Guru Sai Dutt have a host of tournaments to go through before the Olympics… but they are already in the “no-error” zone — from here on, there’s absolutely no messing up.

“We do have a lot of important tournaments lined up and performing well in them will determine our qualification for the Olympics. The idea is to maintain our rank. There are pretty big challenges coming our way with the World Cup, Super Series finals etc.,” says Srikanth Kidambi. So, what are preparations like? What are the badminton hopefuls doing to prepare their bodies for hours of peak performance during this “season of scrutiny”? We checked with the group.

Describing this as the time “they are preparing to qualify for the Olympics”, P. Kashyap says: “We are playing three times a day and each session is for about two or two-and-a-half hours. This is followed by off-court training which includes, weight training or running that is decided by our coach. These exercises are for strengthening.”

And P.V. Sindhu adds, “It all depends on our training for the day. We also have endurance and fitness exercises.” Overall, however, there has been a tweak in the training process, especially for someone like Guru Sai Dutt who’s had a rather troublesome season. “Gopi sir has changed the training schedule a little bit and I can already feel the difference. All the coaches are helping us a lot. I can already see a good difference and that is boosting my confidence levels… keeping in mind the fact that I’m just coming back from injuries. Being injury free right now is the key factor,” he says.

Explaining in detail about how he’s working on his injuries, Guru adds: “I have back exercises which work on making my abs and core strong, which will basically give support to my back. In January, I also had a neck injury which took me six weeks to recover. So I have to be careful about that too.”   But with several tournaments lined up, schedules have become equally hectic.

Saina Nehwal says: “Each month, we have two tournaments of one-week duration. This means three to four days for travel, leaving about 10 to 12 days in a month for regular training. So our training goes on in a very rigorous manner. Keeping in mind that we are traveling, when it comes to food, in a month we take care of 12 days in India, the rest of the days is taken care of in other countries and it depends on the availability of meals in that country. The point is to take energy-rich foods. Milk and curd are also important dietary requirements for us.”

Talking more about their food intake, Srikanth reveals: “When it comes to the diet it has to be protein-rich food, where we completely avoid oily food and sweets, or in fact, anything that has sugar. Apart from that, I also take multi-vitamin tablets.”Kashyap, meanwhile, has given up on all kinds of junk food. “We have carb drinks during our sessions, lunch is more of carbs as at that time we would have just completed two strenuous sessions. We completely avoid junk food and personally, I don’t have the cravings either, because it’s been a while since I’ve any junk. When we go out with friends, that one dessert is allowed. Nothing else.”

Then, there’s the mental conditioning… helping players handle all this pressure. Coaches are spending an increased amount of time with their players to help them focus on the game. “I know that I can’t waste any minute on that court. Before every session, I prepare myself and my mentor simply reminds me why I am playing… and that helps me a lot.” And Sindhu is just bracing for everything that’s coming her way. “We can talk to our coaches anytime we feel like, about our strategies, our games, our opponents or more. Yes, the Olympics is the ultimate aim but from now, practice also gets tougher because the competition is also tough.”