Typically, sport is a behavior that must be cultivated from a really younger age, when the thoughts and physique are nonetheless unencumbered and ripe to choose up on the nuances and technicalities {that a} explicit sport requires. The self-discipline, the eagerness and the acclimatisation required could be pushed in with relative ease within the case of younger ones.
Then there are organic constraints that set in with the take a look at of time which strengthen the case for sport from an early stage.
But, the great thing about sport is that it has the power to supply late bloomers. The component of uncertainty and the potential of a triumph nonetheless late it is likely to be in a sport, may be transposed to actual life.
So in sports activities as in life, ‘now’ is thought to be good a degree to begin as again then and a few folks function examples for a reasonably simply thrown round phrase: ‘Better late than never’.
Himani Punia, who bagged the gold in 40+ girls’s singles and the silver in 40+ girls’s doubles within the Yonex Sunrise forty fifth Indian Masters (veteran) National Badminton Championships, is one such testomony to the truth that it’s by no means too late to choose up a sport.
Born and introduced up in Jaipur, an Alumna of Maharani Gayatri Devi School, Punia found her love for what serves her professionally now, at a reasonably late stage than can be sometimes possible.
“I started playing at 30, so it has been about 10 years. But I did not play badminton as a child. I have always been into sports I used to be an equestrian; I love horse riding. I learnt it as a child. But, never competed as such,” Punia begins.
“But, in badminton, my first coaching class was at 30. And I started competing at the national level at 35, as that is when the veteran category starts”.
“I started playing for fun, playing badminton as a hobby with a few friends at a local club in Jaipur, then I started improving steadily and the interest in the game increase and I wanted to take it up professionally.”
“I fell in love with the sport and worked very hard in learning the game. I wake up with sore muscles and aches and pains everywhere. This sport is hard on your body as you age more and more.”
“But I just love the sport so much that I am willing to take the pain.”
With a stint of garden tennis coaching in her arsenal, from her days of education, Punia was shrewd to level out the variations between the 2 racquet sports activities and shared how she tailored to her new love by taking away positives from tennis, that might serve her effectively going ahead, but in addition mirrored the issues she needed to unlearn to outlive the change.
“I used to play a bit of tennis back in school, and when I got into badminton there were a couple of things for me to unlearn as you use your whole arm while playing tennis but the wrist is more crucial for badminton. I tend to use my entire arm initially and had to get into the habit of using my wrist more,” she defined.
“Certain things did feel similar though, such as the hand-eye coordination.”
“It is very hard to unlearn actually. I still tend to use my entire arm a lot of times, but I keep telling myself consciously to use my wrist.”
Equipped with a grasp’s diploma in lodge administration from a college in Brig, Switzerland, Punia labored with the Oberoi group of motels in Delhi for a bit earlier than quitting company life to give attention to badminton.
“I did not feel the push work in a corporate environment. I just wanted to play badminton, so I quit and concentrated on improving my game.”
“I got inspired to take up the sport professionally when I moved to Gurgaon, and we have an indoor court within my complex and I used to play with my friends”, she defined.
“We got in a coach, Gaurav Kapoor, who has played nationals, for the kids. He spotted my game and pushed me to compete. I had my doubts because I was 30 and wasn’t sure I could keep pace with the young girls in the game. But he believed in me and pushed me.”
“The first time I played a state championship, I wasn’t yet 35 and couldn’t play the senior category. So, I was clubbed in the general category, where I was the only 30-year-old woman there and the rest were all 18,29,20 odd-years-old. It was tough to keep up with them, but it was my first experience in the states,” Punia mirrored on her early outings on the courtroom.
“I was waiting to turn 35 so that I could compete with people my own age.”
Her perception would come to fruition on the twenty third of March 2023 as Punia bagged the gold in Goa.
“He told me, ‘One day you will win a gold’, and it happened over the weekend,” she mentioned with glee.
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Picking it up from children
Mum of an 11-year-old son, Punia mirrored on the great thing about watching children play and choosing up on stuff the unadulterated minds excel at.
“I started training with the kids, so what I learnt from them was the uninhibited interest in the game and that willingness to learn,” she mentioned.
“If they learn a drop shot one day, they’d like to practice it till they get it right.”
“I was inspired, and I think I get along better with kids than people my own age”, she joked.
“Kids have that glitter in their eyes, the eagerness to learn and when they get it right, they get excited.”
“My son is 11 now, he also plays, he’s been taking classes and he’s getting good at it. Right now, I can beat him. But he gives a good fight and maybe in a couple of years, he’d be able to beat me”, she mentioned in a jovial tone.
Multiple sports activities require the functioning of various muscle teams and numerous varieties of skills. These necessities would possibly range primarily based on the nuances or the technicality of the game itself, however one factor that would seem along with most sports activities is self-discipline.
And breaks, compelled or in any other case, might hinder the set routine one must excel in sports activities. Backslides or pauses aren’t unusual on this planet of sports activities, however what defines a profession is the way wherein the athlete decides to react to it.
“I had a two-year break in between as I had my son. I got back into the game after the delivery. I worked hard to get fit and dive back into the game.”
“It is difficult getting back into something after a break as your body isn’t the same. You also get a little rough around the edges because you haven’t played for a while,” Punia defined.
“It was hard, but I was willing to put the effort into gaining back my fitness and game.”
“There have been times when my maid used to take my son around for a stroll and I’d sneak in that half an hour or one hour to practice and I’d run back to him quickly. It was hard when he was a baby, but then as he grew up and developed an interest in the game. Now both of us enjoy the sport and he accompanies me to all of my tournaments,” mentioned the 43-year-old.
“My son and I train under the same coach, we train at the same time, but at different levels at the moment.”
Recover is as essential to improvement as coaching. This notion would possibly most likely take a while to settle in for athletes beginning out of their commerce as children, because of the virtues of blissful ignorance and the organic ideas of a better fee of therapeutic and restoration. But turns into reasonably painfully evident as one grows older.
“I train twice a day. I do a lot of shuttle drills in the morning such as smashes and tosses. And I do a lot of agility and footwork training in addition to that.”
“And I alternate between strength training and running in the evening.”
“Noons are for recovery. I relax a bit and take it easy. I need to rest properly so that I’m prepared for the next session of exercises, so I try to get in a nap at noon,” Punia shared her coaching regime.
“As kids, you do not require as much rest, but as you grow older, your body demands that rest. Otherwise, you just get burnt out over time,” she emphasised.
Punia is a part of the Indian contingent taking part within the BWF World Senior Badminton Championships, 2023 in Jeonju, South Korea, slated to happen in September.
And she is definite to hold her expertise from her final abroad match in Spain into the competition in Jeonju.
“I had been to Huelva to play the 2021 World Masters in Spain. It was just post-COVID and there weren’t that many countries that were in competition. It wasn’t the ideal situation to travel considering the times. Also, we were in a bubble,” she recollected.
“I played the women’s doubles there. We did not get too far in that tournament as we lost to South Korea, who were a very strong team. But I hope for better luck this time around.”
“You have to learn the defeats in your stride, cause otherwise, you’re not a complete sportsperson. Losing happens more than winning,” Punia concluded.
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