Someday after the Indian Open in January, the place he suffered his newest in a sequence of first-round exits, Lakshya Sen sat down for a chat with former All England champion and his mentor Prakash Padukone. Attempting to get out of the hunch in type relationship again to the backend of 2023, Lakshya’s probabilities of going to Paris for the Olympics had been hanging by the proverbial thread. Padukone requested then, “Are you simply searching for a spot within the Olympics, or are you attempting to have a practical probability of profitable a medal?”
Lakshya responded: “I need to win a medal. So Prakash sir mentioned, ‘then first you need to present us which you can win a match. You don’t must go in all places and attempt to attain the quarterfinals’. Though I didn’t win a match in Europe, I managed to drag off two actually good weeks with confidence-boosting wins. And as soon as my qualification was confirmed, I realised that it was time to extend my coaching depth.”
That’s when he took the initiative to achieve out to a well-known face. Lakshya will make his Olympics debut in Paris, and within the final stretch main as much as the Video games, he has introduced again Yoo Yong Sung, the Korean coach who labored with him in 2022.
Yoo is a two-time males’s doubles silver medallist on the Olympics, and it’s this side that made Lakshya and his crew take the decision: so as to add the doubles depth to his singles coaching routines.
“Singles sequences are essential. However for enhancing tempo of play, particularly in the direction of the top of video games, doubles coaching helps. The sheer monotony with which the singles routines are accomplished can typically get boring. When the doubles side is launched, they take pleasure in coaching extra, I really feel. The tempo will increase, racket preparation, reflexes, all the things is taken care of,” coach Vimal Kumar instructed The Indian Categorical on the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.
As Vimal defined why Yoo returned, Lakshya was present process multi-feed coaching with Yoo. In badminton coaching, there’s single shuttle coaching which is how common rallying would occur in a match. Whereas in multi-feed coaching, a coach on the opposite aspect of the web has a stack of shuttles that they preserve peppering at excessive pace, not permitting the athlete any respiratory area to react. It’s not a practical match simulation however practising at that tempo, makes match conditions look slower compared. And Yoo’s pace of multi-feeding is a sight to behold, as he bombards Lakshya with shuttles standing over a desk first mid-court after which from shut vary.
“The depth with which coach Yoo operates may help me with my flat sport and the drives and likewise, I feel with the protection when somebody is attacking, after which methods to counter it. And likewise loads of fast, tight, talent work, like faucets on the web. I feel doing these double drills makes you much more alert and sharpens the singles sport. And primarily, for the multi-feed drills, the depth is admittedly good, I wished so as to add that to my sport,” Lakshya instructed The Indian Categorical on the finish of his coaching session.
Taking inventory of the place his sport was after the European leg, Lakshya took the initiative to ask Yoo if he was out there for a brief stint with him, dropped him a message, and regardless of a short delay in arrival, joined up with the crew put up Indonesia Open. “Everybody was on the identical web page and OGQ made it doable inside a really quick time period. We simply wished to go all in,” Lakshya added.
The 22-year-old’s subsequent cease is in Marseille, France the place he’ll practice at The Halle des Sports activities Parsemain from July 8 to 21 together with the Olympics-bound Popov brothers, Christo and Toma Junior. Indian shuttlers Kiran George, Ayush Shetty will even be travelling as sparring companions. The similarities are aplenty between the Sens and Popovs. Brothers who play badminton (Lakshya’s brother Chirag is the nationwide champion now), coached by the fathers (DK Sen and Thomas Popov), and the same age group.
Lakshya grew to become fairly shut with the Popovs when badminton resumed after Covid cancellations, with back-to-back tournaments in Bali the place the gamers stayed in resorts. Conversations have been taking place ever since about collaborating, and it was deemed that earlier than Paris, coaching in France was going to be useful to all events. Coach Vimal added that the Indians will take turns sparring with Toma Junior (who has certified in singles) whereas Christov (who will play doubles) will do the identical for Lakshya.