Preparing for the top league

A review of the Thomas and Uber Cup camp

Bangalore : One small fact distinguished the latest Thomas Cup-Uber Cup camp at Bangalore before the team set out for Malaysia -- a quiet team prayer before and after every training session.

The players would stand in a row, and facing them, the coaches would stand in another row, and everyone would pray for half a minute.

This is perhaps the most interesting practice that one has seen in an Indian training camp in a long, long time. Standing together to pray reflected not only on the one-ness of purpose, but also a certain spirit that Vimal Kumar and his team of coaches -- consisting of Indonesian Hadi Sugianto, Bhaskar Babu, Madhumita Bisht and Leroy D'Sa -- have introduced.

The prayer session was Sugianto's idea. "In Indonesia , we always pray before and after training because we always ask help from God," the soft-spoken 31-year-old said in halting English. "With only hard work and training, without blessings, we cannot do well. We pray to God to keep us safe; to avoid injuries."

Brought to India specifically to improve our doubles teams, the former world No.11 has been slowly infusing the team with his work ethic. Having closely observed the Indians only since the Nationals in Hyderabad in late January, he's still working out a system to make our players among the best in the world. The camp was a good start, for it gave him 14 days to assess the players' strengths and weaknesses. The way the team performs in the preliminaries (during February 16 to 22) will give him further ideas on how to proceed.

With Sugianto (with help from Leroy) in charge of the doubles teams, the other coaches concentrated on the singles. Doctors from Sports Authority of India helped with fitness tests, and on the penultimate day, were invited for a meeting with the coaches. These were further indicators of the methodical approach that chief coach Vimal Kumar has focussed upon.

The camp itself proceeded along conventional lines, but the training was stiff. Vimal, asked if they had tried anything new at the camp, said: “This was not really different from past camps, but there is more intensity – some of our drills have focussed on improving endurance and reflexes.”

The results of the tough regimen showed in the fitness tests. Vimal himself seemed surprised by the results of the 'beep test', which measures fitness and endurance. "The general fitness has improved. The players did very well on the beep test. Vidyadhar was the fittest, followed by Sachin Ratti, Sanave Thomas and Arvind Bhat."

Arvind was happy with the way the camp had gone. “This is just my third camp. One of the big differences is that the shuttles are very good, and we get to change them frequently, just like in a match. In practise, we usually play till the shuttle is worn out, and that might affect the strokes.”

One of the special features of this camp was the entry of two debutants: Madhumita Bisht as coach for her first National camp, and Saina Nehwal, at 13 years and 11 months, the youngest Indian to enter the Uber Cup squad.

Madhumita herself was just 13 when she created a record as the youngest Indian to enter the National team, for the ABC Championship in China in 1978.

Now, looking at another promising 13-year-old, Madhumita was reminded of her own early days. “It brings back memories,” she said. Interestingly, Madhumita was almost through with her playing career when Saina was just picking up the game!

Posted on: 14 Feb 2004