P.V. Sindhu makes it a point to visit Suchitra Badminton Academy for her regular fitness session with trainer M. Srikanth Verma on Monday evening, a day before she completes one year as the world champion.
On August 25, 2019, Sindhu won gold at the World Championships in Basel, Switzerland.
In a way, the 25-year-old Sindhu says she was actually revisiting memories of all the planning and execution which went into her journey to scaling the summit in the world of badminton.
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“I repeat that my success story is the result of team work. And, here at Suchitra, it has been a fabulous association thanks to the wonderful support of the Rajus – Praveen (founder) and Pradeep (director) – who make it a point even now to ensure that everything is in place for me,” Sindhu informs Sportstar .
And, Pradeep, director of Suchitra Academy, reveals it was part of their strategy to see Sindhu skip the Thai Open event before the Worlds last year that eventually helped her focus on all aspects of the game, including fitness.
“There was lot of criticism then about that move, but Sindhu proved everyone wrong showing the focus she was expected to be in to play to her potential,” says Pradeep.
“It was also decided then that she should play her natural attacking game with subtle changes in strategy like taking on the shuttle a bit higher than she was doing before. Emphasis was laid on stroke selection by showing lot of videos of her previous matches. For, she earlier felt that her game was being decoded successfully by the opponents,” he says.
“We drilled the fact that if she showed stability on court, she could be explosive. We were in constant touch by contributing in our own way to help her realise her dream of being a world champion,” he added.
Sindhu recalls, “I remember vividly how thrilled I was when seeing the draw of that Worlds, which suggested that I would playing Tai Tzu-Ying in the quarterfinal for I was aware it would be difficult for her to cross that hurdle.
“Well, the tag of being a world champion for the second year does help me as I prepare to chase another goal – to win the Olympics gold next year,” she says.
“I take the pandemic break in a very positive way for it will be the same for all the players. Fortunately, I am able to maintain the desired fitness levels to be back on court whenever the competition is on,” Sindhu said.
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“The biggest plus on being a world champion is that my confidence level is on a high though there were a few disappointments after winning the World title,” she said.
“I am working with my Korean coach Park Tae-Sang. I need to work harder to learn new strokes. I also need to learn from mistakes, try to rectify them to be better players,” she concluded.
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