Lakshya Sen has felt an Olympic bronze and an All England title, both well within reach, taken out of hands by the same element: drift.
For Sen, the invisible, uncontrollable winds have injected one lesson into his marrow: court conditions can kill the flicker in any match if he doesn’t control the shuttle’s whims. It happened at January’s India Open in Delhi too, when he lost to Lin Chun Yi.
So, ahead of the BWF World Championships, Sen has camped at the National Centre in Guwahati to get acclimated to big halls like the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. For a week, he is trying to work through wavy winds, with A/C blowers operating from the front, rear and sides.
“We will change blower directions mid-rally even, and plan for everything,” says father DK Sen.
‘Everything’ is the operative part. For, counter-intuitively, a slow, dead, windless IG Stadium will open up the game for both Sen and his opponents – and he can be blitzed out. In short, Sen needs the wind, but he needs it to be tamed his way. Where his game of hyper-controlled net strokes give him the points. And also, where his backhand corner judgments are accurate, for that’s where opponents tend to attack him.
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Hard work, Sen’s go-to after losses, is not the panacea. Coaches can’t help much beyond the broader idea of which shots to avoid in drifty conditions. Navigating court windstorms comes down to the player alone: whether he can control the shuttle.
The Olympics highlights are not something Sen would want to revisit. 8-3 up to 8-12 against Lee Zii Jia. When he refused to still his jangling nerves, slow down, take a break or reset. When he became the confused storm himself, rushing through a phase he couldn’t control. When Lee manipulated the winds in Paris, sending lifts and clears he knew wouldn’t fly out. From the slower end, instead of high clears, Sen tried to overhit against the wind. Attacking, without smashing. Winds can weigh heavy in many ways. And they don’t show up in video analysis. Hence, Guwahati.
Shuttle control in drifty conditions goes beyond being discerning on the lines. These are vernier-calliper adjustments to find the right length, that come with standing in the eye of the storm, reading trajectories and speeds, a hand-eye-ear coordination that demands alertness on every shot. And then some more, to judge where the opponent’s returns land.
Thinking on his feet
It’s not that Sen has never learnt to read drifts. One doesn’t reach two All England finals, an Olympic semifinal and win the Thomas Cup without battling winds. But the simulation needs the mind and limbs to get accustomed to playing, or holding back from, certain strokes.
Massive arenas are mini-typhoons, and conditions change with the crowd size, from court to court, morning to evening, mid-rally even. The net dips on serves are tougher still to tame. Talking about it isn’t something shuttlers think of as cool. It has the whiff of an excuse. But preparing for it is a must.
Sen’s preparation this time has centred on speed. Dealing with drifts also means knowing when to decelerate, slow down and find sluggish pauses in the storm so he’s not blown off by the opponent’s accelerations.
What the Indian has never shied away from is tough opponents. His appetite for a scrap is unlimited. He thrives on the big stage: Worlds, Olympics, noisy crowds. And he knows how to peak for the Majors.
The World Championship draw was hardly a flutter. He has avoided match-ups with ambushing speedsters, and Kunlavut Vitidsarn and Alex Lanier are in his path, testing his patience which wears thin with endless retrieving. Kunlavut brings deception at the net; Lanier plays orthodox-weird from the back court, another irritant.
Kunlavut hasn’t had the best of times – losing at the crunch in recent tournaments. He hasn’t titled since January, though he might well be holding back. The familiarity though can work to Sen’s advantage – the H2H is 5-8 currently. The Indian doesn’t fancy the shuttle coming back in endless rallies. So, he is most likely looking to make winds his disruptive ally.
Father Sen explains that fans and players look at draws very differently. He uses the word jhujhna: contending with a difficult situation, and calls it a player’s job description.
“Kaunsa bhi draw aaega khelna hai. Even if it’s a top player, you have to deliver. Draw leke baith gaye toh ho gaya kaam, jhujhna hoga,” he says, dismissing any dread over Lakshya’s 15th seeding. One has to deliver irrespective of the draw, so why fret. Just prepare.
Jhujhna mode is switched on. At big events, Sen’s a moth to the flame. The only vents permitted are on the air-cons.
Ahead of the World Championships, Lakshya Sen has camped at the National Centre in Guwahati to get acclimatised to big halls like the Indira Gandhi stadium. (BWF) 
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