Lakshya ‘a little disheartened’ but shifts focus to recovery

Lakshya Sen admits the physical demands of modern men’s singles are forcing him to rethink recovery and preparation, even as the Indian badminton ace continues to feel “a little bit disheartened” after falling short in his second All England final.

Lakshya battled through a series of long matches during a taxing week in Birmingham before finishing runner-up to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-yi.

“It’s been a good week overall, but also an emotional week. Getting into the finals for the second time and not winning, it feels a little bit disheartened after the match. But overall, if I look back at the tournament, some good wins, a good run and the way I played the matches, I think something to look forward to in the coming tournaments,” the 24-year-old from Almora said.

Lakshya had spent more than five hours on court during the week, including a gruelling semifinal in which he battled severe cramps, before going down narrowly in the final.

The experience, he said, reinforced the importance of balancing tournament schedules with recovery and structured training blocks.

“It has been very physical in the matches and tournaments and also with the age, I mean, I’m not 20 anymore to recover as fast as I am,” Lakshya said.

“I’m not saying I’m old. I mean, there are changes that you make in terms of your preparations, your recovery towards the next matches and especially the diet. When I was 21-22, I would not gain any weight if I eat everything. But now there’s a slight difference where I have to be conscious about the diet a bit more. “And also with the recovery, a lot of the things I have to manage. Tactically also, I feel the better I can get in my overall game, I try to do that in training and play a certain game style that suits me.” Lakshya said managing workload has also become crucial as the calendar grows increasingly demanding. “I’ve had also some shoulder injuries that took some toll on the shoulder where I was playing the attacking shots better in the last few years. But yeah, over time, you are cautious about how much you can push, how many matches you can play and then you have to give it rest,” he said.

“And yes, there has been a little bit of a shift in that sense, where the recovery part I’m taking much more care in between tournaments to stay injury-free. I mean, that is a really interesting thing that I find. And I like to keep learning new things, new techniques to recover better, get back stronger in the recovery.”

With the Asian Championships and the World Championships among the major targets this season, Lakshya said the focus will now be on analysing the All England campaign with his team.

“I think those two are the major events that I will be playing this year. I will sit with my team and analyse a bit deeper how the (All England) tournament went and how the training programme in the last few months has been.

“Then I will try to sharpen things, especially on court and also focus on staying fit throughout the season because there are lots of major events coming.

“We will also be playing the other World Tour events, so the idea is to find good training weeks where I can improve my fitness even more and also give the body time to recover.”

Lakshya also credited mental trainer Mon Brockman for helping him develop a clearer approach to the pressures of the international circuit.

“It’s been almost a year working with him and I have learned so many things about mental training, even going into approaching big tournaments and approaching them differently compared to maybe a 500 or a 300 event where you know these tournaments are more for preparation,” he said.

“You don’t take those losses too seriously and just keep working hard every day on the court.

“Mon, the coaches and even my dad are all there to support me and help me get better. They have seen this process where every week you are winning or losing and towards the end of tournaments you are losing a lot of matches, but you don’t take it to heart and just keep learning from every match.

“The idea is to stay extra motivated for the big ones and perform when it really matters.”

Lakshya, who reached his first All England final in 2022, said his mindset was very different this time.

“I feel the first time I was probably still dreaming that whole week that I am playing in such a big event and have reached the finals,” he said.

“I was enjoying and playing without any expectation. But this time when I reached the later stages, the quarterfinals and semifinals, I was better prepared to know what is coming and how to play in these pressure matches.

“This time I had that belief throughout the tournament that I can win and I can win the tournament.”

Lakshya also revealed that injuries and the emotional aftermath of the Paris Olympics had made the last year challenging.

He had slipped out of the top 10 in rankings following the lull after the Olympic heartbreak, while injuries also affected his consistency before he bounced back to win the Australia Open Super 500 last year.

“The last few months have been good. Last year I had some injuries here and there and due to that I was not consistently playing all the tournaments with 100 per cent preparation,” he said.

“But the form in the last few months has been good and physically I feel I am in a better shape now. Skill-wise we still have to keep getting sharper, but I have got enough matches now and the flow has been good.”