Should unbridled rage be PV Sindhu's only way forward

While many would attribute her gold medal in the third attempt at the BWF World Championships to her “strong will”, the stunned and petrified look on Nozomi Okuhara, who kept flooring herself in desperate attempts to return Sindhu’s lightening quick smashes, told a completely different story. 

The body takes refute in it to reach the optimal potential it can attain that is fuelled by anger, hatred, and with a strange ruthlessness in watching others in pain. Adapting the rage would never be a choice but rather, a necessity, and it could be carried only by the chosen few who could call upon it to destroy the hopes and dreams of anyone on their way when pride and glory was in line.  

The incessant follow-ups to the net, microseconds after unleashing a fierce smash, was pretty much Sindhu’s only weapon in the last three rounds of the World Championships. And she didn’t do anything different this time either other than what she has been done on numerous previous occasions. The only difference was, she was doing it at such a heightened level her opponents never fathomed she could perform at.

While most Indians would familiarize Sindhu with India cricket captain Virat Kohli, whose on-field and off-field demeanor is totally different and who poses aggression as his biggest weapon, badminton fans have previously seen this uber offensive approach in Spain’s Carolina Marin. The flamenco dancer couldn’t just be a world beater with quick feet in short spaces and strong focus; hence she resorted to a maniac rage that accompanied her strengths just perfectly.

After getting beaten by the 22-year-old in that match, the then World No. 2 Saina Nehwal had said, “I did not know it will be so fast. Yesterday I was playing with someone (Lindaweni Fanetri) who is a stroke player and that match was a bit late in the evening. Within few hours I had to play someone who was so fast. [Marin’s] game was too quick for me to even think what to do next.”

However, so much power doesn’t just come without a cost and just like Compound V induced paranoia with unstable abilities, rage comes at the price of deteriorating health – both physical and mental, and inconsistent form. For Marin, who dominated a good two years, 2014 and 2015, where she won two BWF World Championships and five Super Series titles amongst innumerable other trophies, inconsistency and recurring injuries engulfed a glittering career full of promises.

The Spaniard’s path-breaking playing style, which took the world by storm initially, was seen cracking by Okuhara at the Dubai World Super Series Finals 2015, following which Marin found it difficult to overcome the Japanese – losing three of their seven encounters. Not only Okuhara but Wang Yihan also understood her ploy almost immediately, and quite interestingly, the Spaniard didn’t have to face either of them in her run-up to the Olympics final.

There has been a very good reason why the Chinese have always focused on their age old proven traits of good speed, brilliant deception and a robust defense to excel in the sport – longevity. All the above shuttlers, who eventually cracked Marin, have excelled in these traits in some way or the other.

Marin could still have won a fair share of titles to maintain her legacy, but repeatedly resorting to her animal instincts meant she suffered a hip injury in 2017 and a deadly ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the 2019 Indonesia Masters final. The Spaniard’s current recovery today doesn’t only include long hours of rehabilitation guided by physiotherapists, but also two psychologists, and two Dogs to keep her emotions in check.

If Pullela Gopichand has already identified the hidden weapon then its best he asked Sindhu to learn and control it and, quite hopefully, not to overexert herself before the Tokyo Games for while an angry mind might give you temporary physical strength, a calmer mind is still the only source of conviction that a victor needs.