Badminton sport, at one time was more popular among the South-East Asian countries (China & Japan), but today is played by people all over the world. The good news is that even India is considered a powerhouse when it comes to producing quality badminton players.
Badminton in India
Perhaps, after cricketers, its the Badminton players in India who seem to be quite popular among the masses. First, it was Saina Nehwal and now its Sindhu who are making the country proud at various international badminton competitions.
The introduction of the Indian Badminton League has also added to the excitement and the popularity of the sport in India.
In the past, India has produced great badminton players like Prakash Padukone (father of Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone) and Gopichand Pullela.
Gopichand was only 27 years old when he won the All-England badminton tournament, but because of injury, he knew he could not play for long.
That was when Gopichand decided to become a coach and setup a world-class facility that would ensure that the younger badminton players in India had access to the best coaching in Badminton. Gopichand runs the Gopichand badminton academy that has produced India’s top badminton players in recent times.
Top badminton players in India like Saina Nehwal, Sindu & Srikanth have emerged from the Gopichand badminton academy.
India is currently doing extremely well in the International badminton scene with the likes of Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu going great guns, defeating even the Chinese with ease now. No wonder, the number of people taking to badminton in India, and in metro cities, is growing by the day.
Longest Badminton Rallies: Ultimate Test of Fitness
Did you know Bollywood actor Aamir Khan regularly plays badminton to stay fit? One game of badminton (singles) is what it takes for one to realize that this sport requires good fitness levels.
But have you seen some of the top international badminton players battle it out? You’ll be amazed to see their rallies and the amount of stamina they have.
Check out these videos showing some of the longest badminton rallies.
A 2 minute long rally containing 108 shots, between Tien Minh Nguyen from Vietnam and Jan O Jorgensen from Denmark.
Another super collection of the longest Men’s Double’s Badminton Rally
Overhead shot from the backhand corner: Popular with shorter badminton players
The overhead shot from the backhand corner in Badminton is a favorite shot of players with a shorter frame. Japanese player Nozomi Okuhara uses that shot to her advantage.
In badminton, most players try to play the shuttle towards the backhand of the opponent as much as possible, because most players find it difficult to hit the shuttle a long distance with their back-hand.
Its easier to do so, especially when your opponent is slightly shorter. To avoid taking the shot on the backhand, players with shorter stature mostly play the overhead shot from the backhand corner (you basically play the shot with the forehand but you have to bend backwards balancing on your left leg).
Japanese player Nozomi Okuhara used that shot to her advantage while playing the finals against India’s Sindhu inthe 2017 World Badminton Championships (she eventually won the match).
Nozomi Okuhara is 155-cm tall (5 ft 1 in) and the right-hander’s signature shot is the overhead from the backhand corner.
She used the extra millisecond afforded by her short stature to get into a position that looks like a gymnastic pose (or a difficult Iyengar yoga pose). She bends to such an extent, at the point of contact, her racket is almost parallel to the floor, and her back fully arched.
And despite that difficult angle, Okuhara manages to swing her arm quickly and with ease. Okuhara’s proficiency at playing that shot (using that pose) means she plays very fewer backhands and is able to hit the shuttle very far on to the other side.
So if you are a badminton player with a shorter height, perhaps, its time to master this shot and get an upper-hand, or at least negate the advantage available to taller players.
PV Sindhu: Fitness & Diet Secrets
Shuttler PV Sindhu, winner of the silver medal in badminton at the Rio Olympics and first Indian to win a gold in the BWF World Championship, shares her fitness regimen.
“Her daily schedule consists of three sessions, with the first one beginning at 4am. It continues till 6.30 or 7am. We can go through as many as a thousand shuttles per session,” says Gopichand (during the final match, only 25 shuttles were used.)
And it doesn’t stop there.
“We come back by about eight for another couple of hours of group session. Then it’s back again around 11am for an hour and a half. In the evening she has a gym and court session or a gym and running session.”
So how many hours a day is that? “Six to seven.” And how many days in a week? “Six”.
Are you feeling tired already. Hold on, it gets more intense.
Sindhu does at least a 100 push-ups and 200 sit-ups a day. The latter are not of a single type but different variations (seven to eight) of exercises that activate the core and abdominal muscles. Thrice a week she does 600 to 700 abdominal routines. By a conservative estimate, she does about 600 pushups and 2400 abdominal exercises each week.
While Gopichand does all the planning for PV Sindhu, the fitness execution it left to the physio Kiran Challagundla.
“Sindhu is a tall girl. For her, balance and stability drills are essential. The routine has to keep varying and we tweak it each week. Graded loading is the key,” says Kiran.
The player has a blood test every two months so that her nutrition and supplements can be tweaked to compensate for any deficiencies. Her body weight and heart rate are constantly monitored to asses her physical condition.
Because of the nature of the sport, lot of legwork is involved. “We do different things. Like two to three sets of ten 400m runs or one 2.4 km run. Some days, we push for a 10 km run. The point is to keep the training varied, not let the body get used to it and therefore stop growing,” says Kiran.
In the fitness industry, this is known as Progressive loading.
Sindhu’s schedule is also tweaked on a weekly basis.
Anand Mahindra recently shared PV Sindhu’s extensive workout video, says “I’m exhausted just watching this video”. He stumbled upon the video after Sindhu won the BWF World Championship.
Brutal. I’m exhausted just watching this. But now there’s no mystery about why she’s the World Champ. A whole generation of budding Indian sportspersons will follow her lead & not shrink from the commitment required to get to the top… pic.twitter.com/EYPp677AjU
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) August 27, 2019
PV Sindhu wins 73-shot rally against Nozomi Okuhara in World Badminton Championships
Watch PV Sindhu win this 73-shot rally against Nozomi Okuhara in women’s singles final of World Badminton Championships, Sindhu lost the match.
Even though India’s PV Sindhu lost to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the final of the 2017 World Badminton Championships (in Glasgow), if you take a look at the final scores, you will realize that there was hardly anything that separated the two, and it could have been anybody’s match. Unfortunately for Sindhu, the match did not go her way.
Okuhara won the match 21-19, 20-22, 22-20 thus becoming the first Japanese woman to win a Singles World Championship Gold.
Here’s the epic 73-shot rally from that match which lasted almost one and a half minute.
#bwfworldchampionship2017 longest rally for the 2nd game’s game point finally taken by @Pvsindhu1 ….. India… India… Sundhu.. Sindhu pic.twitter.com/goBsc5CnWH
— Ashwani K Goel (@itsashwanigoel) August 27, 2017
The match itself lasted for an hour and 50 minutes (most women’s matches gets over well within an hour) testing the fitness levels of both the players.
Kudos to Sindhu for raising her fitness levels, she fought till the last point (and for close to two hours).
PV Sindhu Diet
Gopichand banned junk food and sweets from Sindhu’s diet before the Olympic Games. “The sugar hampers recovery, it causes inflammation,” says Gopi.
So if you have a child and nurture dreams of Olympic glory, “There is nothing like what she prefers. She eats what she is told to.”
“A challenge that we have with Sindhu is that her appetite is very less. We monitor each meal and give her high calorie food when she’s not feeling hungry enough,” says her physio Kiran.
That’s also why supplements are key in her case.
“Even during the Games she has been carrying three types of nutrition supplements in her bag. These vary – high energy, protein-based or recovery inducing.” They can be fluid based or energy bars.
My day starts out with a hearty protein-rich breakfast of eggs and milk.
Lunch is usually green leafy vegetables and chicken that helps pack in the carbs.
I keep my energy up between sessions with Gatorade that helps build endurance.“Ice cream and chocolates are kryptonite (bad) for an athlete. Ditto for anything with too much oil in it. Swearing off junk food altogether is scary though; indulge yourself once in a while to avoid an ungodly binge later.”
After the six or so hours of training, the day is still not done for Sindhu. There is always recovery. “There are three bits to that. Post practice, at night and then next morning. It comprises active recovery which is yoga, sleep, relaxing in the swimming pool and light fitness. Passive recovery is icing, massage etc,” says Kiran.
Gopi is not too happy that Sindhu does not like pranayam (yogic breathing routines) too much. “Yoga is very good, but they have to believe in it. I do and I hope one day she will too,” says Gopi.
“Practice really doesn’t seem like a burden when you love every minute of it. I just give my body one day to detox after returning from a tournament, and then take to the court again the very next day,” Sindhu
P.V Sindhu on the cover of Grazia magazine
Top Badminton Coaching Academies in India
Though Hyderabad may be the Badminton Capital of India, courtesy Pullela Gopichand’s badminton academy (has given us several Indian badminton players like Saina Nehwal, Sindhu, P. Kashyap, and Gurusai Datt), there are other places in India where you can play & learn the game of badminton professionally.
“Badminton in India is at an inflection point wherein many youngsters have started to take the sport seriously to make it their career choices. These academies help in scouting young talents, nurturing and training them to be the best-of-the-best. These coaching academies churn out talents who can compete with the best in the world and win India many international accolades.
- These badminton coaching academies in India have state-of-the-art facilities for coaching badminton.
- These are built to international standards and provide players with the best facilities so that they can compete with the best at global tournaments.
- These academies send the “right talent” for foreign exchange programs and also host national camps within its premises.
- The aim is to identify talent at a young age and to help them build skills using modern techniques.
Watch: Badminton Practice Kit
Badminton Rules
Badminton is basically a racquet sport played using racquets where you have to hit a shuttlecock across a net. The most common forms are singles, doubles & mixed doubles. A match has three games; a game is won by the player who first scores 21 points. Read more rules here.
Badminton Equipment and Supplies
- RACQUETS
- SHUTTLECOCKS
- COMPLETE SETS
- EQUIPMENT BAGS
Fancy a game of badminton? Most clubs/gymkhanas let you play badminton on their courts, but its best to book the court in advance because there’s always a mad rush for the courts, especially during peak hours.
So it’s wise to book the badminton court well in advance to avoid any disappointment!
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