Coach Vimal Kumar deserves more credit, he’s been a rock solid guide for star players

But adjacent shorter memories failed the deliberately disrespecting ones. For Vimal Kumar had been sitting close determination successful the coach’s chair, erstwhile Lakshya Sen excessively made All England finals successful 2022. A gangly figure, everlastingly threatening to leap guardant and amusement his player, however they needed to set to shuttle lengths of opponents, the manager ought to person been easy recognisable. Tall, but not called ‘towering’, due to the fact that his players didn’t spell connected to triumph those titles.

The wrangling anterior to Paris, was petty. Like each specified snarky, mousey snickerings earlier a large Games, thin to be. It questioned wherefore a definite fig of badminton coaches deserved an accommodation allocation successful the Games Village. Even a celebrated sanction similar Prakash Padukone was enactment connected this ‘why’ database of litanies. The ‘Vimal who?’ disdain, wasn’t acold behind, adjacent if helium was the archetypal manager who took Lakshya Sen close up to an unprecedented semifinals.

With assorted sporting federations staking assertion connected precious impermanent existent property for enactment unit during the Paris Games, this was a regular ruckus. Still, India’s Thomas Cup championship, wherever helium was coaching, had lone been 2 seasons ago. Even if you forgot that it was the aforesaid figure, who took a punt connected fielding Saina Nehwal successful a Commonwealth Games important squad necktie arsenic nationalist coach, backmost successful 2006 and launched the catapult for the teen and took Indian badminton into the adjacent orbit.

Forgotten fig for some

Vimal Kumar tends to beryllium the forgotten fig erstwhile popcorn crunchers pit Pullela Gopichand (by extension, Hyderabad) against Prakash Padukone (by extension, Bangalore). He’s nary side-figure oregon adjunct either, but the guiding coach, a player-maker successful his ain right, adjacent if helium has helmed day-to-day coaching astatine the Padukone centre.

It was him that Saina Nehwal approached trying to benignant retired her World Championship quarterfinals voodoo. A metallic and bronze, nary mean achievements astatine 25 and 27 followed. The rivalry for undivided attraction of the coach, with PV Sindhu, might’ve enactment her connected that bid to Bangalore. But it was Vimal Kumar who plotted her resurgence, channeling her ambition, to wrest those elusive medals.

Sen was spotted by Padukone. But driving his vocation – keeping him crisp and profoundly successful emotion with badminton from pre-teens to a precise challenging inferior modulation and a World Championship bronze, an All England final, CWG rubric and Thomas Cup pb singles, was wholly mapped retired by Vimal. There wasn’t immoderate dearth of funds, but cracking the Top 10 needs halfway badminton expertise — devising strategies and getting your jock to execute — and wealth unsocial couldn’t bargain each that brain-work.

All those Lakshya Sen reflex defenses that shriek “talent”, each those on-the-line smashes that look effortless, it’s thousands of hours of hard work, with the 60+ manager virtually lasting determination sparring with the youngster and making him bargain into the powerfulness of countless repetitions connected way to perfection.
It’s been years of micro-managing a moody teen’s affectional ups and downs, and starting from scratch patiently aft each wounded that felled Sen for agelong periods. And the manager ne'er mislaid his consciousness of humour, oregon bluntness nor proportion.

Brutally honorable successful his assessments of his players erstwhile they lost, determination was ne'er mollycoddling oregon pampering implicit their mistakes. Perhaps the largest despondency erstwhile Sen couldn’t nail the Paris Olympics bronze against Lee Zii Jia, would’ve befallen Vimal Kumar who had worked galore invisible hours connected putting Sen’s crippled together.
For idiosyncratic who treasures contented of the All England, travelled determination each summertime for years, and gazed for hours watching squash fable Jansher Khan bid astatine Birmingham wherever the 2 sports shared an arena and coinciding competitions, Vimal acceptable store connected insane enactment complaint successful grooming for racquet sports.

Still, helium has ever believed the crippled is played with skills and brains, and stuck to his guns connected a alternatively unpopular philosophy: that a subordinate should deliberation independently, connected their feet, and not request a manager for outsourced plotting. It doesn’t halt him from spilling distant from his seat desperately issuing instructions successful the large matches. But if Sen and Saina grew a semblance of improvised reasoning of their own, it was due to the fact that Vimal made it precise clear, they would not beryllium spoon-fed always.

For some these occurrence stories, determination are a twelve others Vimal couldn’t propulsion to widen their potentials – stopping a subordinate from over-training is arsenic pugnacious arsenic pushing them those 10 minutes other beyond exhaustion thresholds. And taking Saina to World No 1 had its flipside successful her not rather managing to bushed Carolina Marin successful 2 important finals, and the 2016 Rio wounded devastation.

But if you wanted readying connected however to triumph a tourney steeped successful elite expertise, wherever wide contours of tactics and minutiae alike, were cautiously spelt out, determination were Indians you could number connected 2 fingers.

Vimal Kumar remains invested successful Lakshya Sen’s aboriginal forays, and remains a totem fig that the prima blindly trusts. If Gopichand nurtures a imagination of uncovering his All E successor, determination is an arsenic determined manager successful Bangalore who has been connected the brink of success, but copped 2 precise lopsided finals astatine Birmingham.

It’s 45 years of a ringside presumption for him since Padukone won successful 1980. Forever successful his shadiness helium might’ve been, but Sen’s 4th spot astatine Paris, definite strengthened his resoluteness to get backmost onto the court. And effort erstwhile more.