'Her Defence Was The Only Problem': PV Sindhu's Coach On How She Overcome Her Flaws

"Her defence was a problem but now she has improved a lot in her defence as well. Her endurance on the court is also good," said Park Tae-sang, badminton coach.  

New Delhi: Tokyo Olympics 2020 are set to begin from 23 July. The Olympic Games were postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. This break gave many athletes time to work on their weaknesses. India's current badminton ace, PV Sindhu also did a lot of hard work in this Covid-19 affected period. As per her coach, Park Tae-sang, PV Sindhu was weak defensively but she has worked immensely to get better during the quarantine period. 

Park Tae-sang was appointed as coach in 2019. He has previously worked with the Korean team from 2013-2018. “Sindhu’s defence is weak compared to her attack. So I have been focussing on her defence training before the Olympics,” Park told PTI.

“When Olympic was postponed, I thought it was an opportunity to work on her motion skills, and net training. All top players like Akane Yamaguchi, Tai Tzu Ying all know that Sindhu has got a strong attack, so they wait for her powerful smash.

“So we have tried to work on her defence which has been her weakness. So the idea was to help her get some variation from the back of the court, like playing more drops or tosses or half smashes," he added. 

Sindhu had a forgettable year in terms of her individual performance. The only silver lining was her entry in the Swiss Open final where she lost against her arch-rival Carolina Marin. 

Returning from the Covid-19 break was not easy for Sindhu as she lost in the first round of Super 1000 event and also failed to reach the knockout stage at the World Tour Finals.

“I know a lot of people felt there was something not right with her physical strength when she lost in Thailand Open but it wasn’t so. She reached the Swiss final, and All England semifinal and fitness has not been a problem,” Park said.

He stressed the fact that Sindhu had a problem with defence and opened up about how she overcome it. “Her defence was the one only problem. (Carolina) Marin and Pornpawee (Chochuwong) are good attacking players, they were using a lot of half smash and straight smash, and when Sindhu’s defence goes down on a day, it affects her other skills as well, she gets nervous.

“But now she has improved a lot in her defence as well. Her endurance on the court is also good," he said. 

Park has not been home with his family in Korea since February this year. He says that his family misses him but his aim is to make Sindhu win a gold medal at the Olymipcs 2020.