After Paris, it has been a good learning process: Lakshya Sen

HYDERABAD: The way Lakshya Sen fashioned his campaign at the All England Championships in Birmingham this year has been nothing short of inspirational.In some ways it was similar to what had happened to him at the Paris Olympics, where he lost the bronze medal to Lee Zii Jia after leading 21-13, 7-2.

He found himself in familiar territory in the All England semifinal against Victor Lai, when up 14-9, he started cramping and blisters hampered his mobility. Lai won five of the next seven points to make it 14-16. Old questions surfaced: that Lakshya can’t close out matches. But the Indian refused to give in and played through the pain barrier to prevail.It was clear a lot has changed in the last 20 months. “Mentally it has been quite challenging to come back from such a big loss, returning to the circuit and playing well in the last few months.

It has been a good learning process. After Paris, I have grown as a player and tried to take things in my stride. I tried to keep things very simple, just focus on one match at a time and not think of winning every tournament,” Lakshya said on Tuesday.The Paris loss affected Team Lakshya and the family too. “He always had a steely resolve. Vimal ji and others got a good team to support him,” said his father DK Sen, who is also an important member of the training team.

Mental conditioning coach Mon Nimrod Brokman of Israel came on board. “I’ve been working with him (Brokman) for a year. I learnt so many things about mental training. We started approaching tournaments in a different manner. I started playing 500s for preparation and did not take those losses seriously. Dad and I discussed a lot about them. Going into the big tournament the approach will be a lot different,” Lakshya said.The mental conditioning helped Lakshya in the All England semifinals. “The semifinals (against Viktor Lai) was tricky as I started cramping very early in the third set. I had to lock all those things that were coming into my head, like ‘whether I will be able to finish the match or not, whether cramps will get too bad for me to finish’. But I was trying to test myself that day, just play one more point and see how far I can go,” Lakshya said.Lakshya admitted that post-match recovery and preparation have become important components of the modern game. “Matches have become very physical. I am not 20 to recover fast. I’m not saying I’m old. There are changes that you make in terms of preparation, recovery for the next match and especially the diet. When I was 21-22, I would not gain weight even if I ate everything. But now there’s a slight difference...A lot of things I have to manage with regard to recovery,” said Lakshya, adding that workload management has also become crucial.“I also had shoulder injuries and it showed because I was playing attacking shots better in the last few years. But over time, you become cautious about how much you can push, how many matches you can play and then you have to give it rest...I am taking more care in between tournaments to stay injury free,” he added.Only the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to reach two All England finals, Lakshya said this tournament has a special place. “It’s a special tournament to play. As a young kid, I always wanted to win many titles starting with All England...I play well here,” he said.With the Asian Games and the World Championships at home coming up, Lakshya said he will analyse the All England campaign with his team. “Those are the two major events I will be playing this year.”