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Someone needed to tell PV Sindhu that her goal in life should be an Olympic gold, not be content with a silver and a bronze, resting on her laurels. Someone also needed to tell Sindhu that to even dream of said Paris gold, his fitness wasn’t perfect six months ago.
Prakash Padukone did not mince his words.
If he had to travel with a player again after 25 years, he needed that player to meet his standards of excellence.
“Mr Prakash told Sindhu (and Lakshya Sen) in very clear terms that he demands that they take responsibility for their careers. He told them that they were privileged to have a good team, but that they shouldn’t expect everyone to do things for them. Sindhu and Lakshya were never in the best of shape. But now they are in incredible shape,” reports Viren Rasquinha, who while heading the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) projects, brought together the Sindhu team in Bengaluru.
It was a difficult conversation with Sindhu, Rasquinha reports, after she asked Padukone to be on the court. “His physical condition was well below Mr. Prakash’s standards, although to a layman he might have appeared in good shape. He told her: ‘I will agree to work with you if you get fit and pass all the sports science exams,’” Rasquinha recalls.
Data-driven results
Sindhu’s game is traditionally fitness-based and her coach during the first Olympics, Pullela Gopichand, always insisted on micromanaging her strength and endurance markers as she won her first medals at the World Championships and the Rio Games. But Padukone simply laid out the rules: Every claim would be backed by data. “And we have amazing results. Sindhu has returned to her Rio 2016 weight, like when he won silver,” Rasquinha reports. “She is now at her ideal weight, but she needed to work on body fat percentage, maximum power and muscle mass.”
Completely reorganizing his team, he was assigned a new nutritionist and strength and conditioning coach in Bengaluru. “Sindhu remains very humble despite her two (Olympic) medals and trusts his team. Plus, the data doesn’t lie. We needed her to be able to push harder and play 3 sets,” says Rasquinha.
There is no doubt that she has improved: she managed to take sets from An Se Young, Chen Yufei and Carolina Marin. But wins against elite names are still not in the distance, with recurring instances of losing steam in the third set, although it gave Yufei quite a scare at the French Open.
Padukone had said at the beginning of their partnership that being able to beat Tai Tzu Ying, Se Young and Yufei would be the best. Still, there is now more variety to his game and an attacking intent that had disappeared while his career stalled under defensive-minded Korean coach Park Tae Sang for two years.
At 28 years old, no one claims it will be easy. But Padukone was only going to come out of his contented semi-retirement if Sindhu set her sights on him in the unlikely top position.
Practical training
Saina Nehwal reached the World Championship and All England finals after moving to Bengaluru, and a lot is expected from Sindhu’s move. “No, but Prakash sir was not involved in Saina’s tournament training. He was mainly Vimal sir. With Saina, he sat in the back and gave advice. But with Sindhu, he is back on the field. For the first time I see so much enthusiasm and he is on the court every day. He is 68 years old, but his approach is surprisingly modern,” says Rasquinha.
He places a lot of importance on ideal body weight and needs daily updates on blood tests and tests in the sports science laboratory. Padukone, known for his deceptive stroke play and magic at the net while maintaining incredible fitness levels, is under no illusions that simple racket skills will be enough. Sindhu’s aggressive game will always depend on his power and his long range, but while those aspects are reinforced, his shot selection has improved, gradually. But his team believes that he is fit to fight for the decisive match. As a marathon runner, the training mileage is only 35 km, down from 42,195 km at the moment. “He will improve more, but he will come down to physical condition during those two Olympic weeks,” says Rasquinha.
The results are not at all surprising against the Fab Four and Furious Marin. And the knee injury was a big scare, but he is giving himself an opportunity to improve his physical condition.
“You’ll have to walk a fine line between peak fitness and injury prevention: when to push yourself and when to recover,” Rasquinha says. Nehwal’s overtraining before 2016, when she was in excellent shape, is a warning.
With Yufei, Tai Tzu Ying, He Bingjiao, Akane Yamaguchi and Se Young walking the injury tightrope, Paris could well become interesting and be decided solely by who gets there in their fittest avatar.
But Sindhu’s team is hoping for better seeding, even though she is No. 11 at the moment. “We have to get Sindhu and Lakshya’s ranking up as high as possible, at least in the top 8, so that they don’t have difficult opponents at the beginning,” says Rasquinha. The Paris seeds dictate that they will manage this tense scheduling balance until the end of July.
Before Tokyo, Sindhu had imitated the conditions of the Tokyo court. However, simulating Paris opponents is not high on Padukone’s list, and he doesn’t really believe in aligning training partners with the styles of his rivals. “Sindhu has enough male players to train with. We had that discussion, but Prakash sir believes that no one can replicate the exact style. (The Tai Tzu cannot be cloned in a laboratory). It can’t be an excuse. We won’t give it too much emphasis,” says Rasquinha. Sindhu 2024, however, can be upgraded.