Badminton: After PV Sindhu's Olympic bronze, Park Tae Sang takes builds India's next gen

Two Super 300 titles. Two different players. Two consecutive weeks.

For Park Tae-Sang, offered a glimpse of his work that he has been putting in Indian badminton, building players who, he hopes, can become the next generation of Indian stars.

Last Sunday, 17-year-old Tanvi Sharma won the Taipei Open. Seven days later, 26-year-old Ashmita Chaliha made a stunning comeback from a career-threatening knee injury to win the Korea Masters.

"It’s been an amazing two weeks. Last week, Tanvi was also amazing. She is only 17 and won her first BWF-level title. Today, I was even happier because it was Ashmita’s first final and she won the title. As a coach, I’m really happy," Park said.

Park spent four years with PV Sindhu in Hyderabad, a stint that culminated in the Tokyo Olympics bronze medal.

After that association ended, he was approached by the Badminton Association of India about working with younger players.

"When I started working with Sindhu, she was already a world champion and had a group of good senior players around her. This time, I thought to myself, ‘Okay, let’s start from the beginning. I will build these players myself, with my own hands.

"The idea was to create a new generation of Indian players."

Bigger goal is Olympic qualifying race for 2028 LA Games

Three years in National Centre of Excellence, Guwahati and the results are beginning to show. However, Park sees the two titles as stepping stones to bigger achievements.

"I think winning two BWF 300-level titles in the last two weeks is a good achievement, but they are only 300-level tournaments. The players are now looking towards the 500, 750 and 1000-level tournaments," he said.

"Our bigger goal is the same for both Tanvi and Ashmita. From May 1 next year, the Olympic qualifying race for the 2028 Los Angeles Games will begin, so next year is going to be very important.

"We will start playing more 500-level tournaments, and they can also play 750-level tournaments. After today’s result, Ashmita’s world ranking should improve enough for her to enter some of those tournaments."

For Tanvi and Ashmita to genuinely challenge for an Olympic place, it's a tough road ahead.

“Yeah, 100 per cent. We will try. But we already have some very good players. Sindhu and Unnati (Hooda) are there, right? It will be very tough.”

The emphasis, however, remains on development rather than a wholesale change in approach.

"I don’t want to change my training style. Now Ashmita and Tanvi have to follow my instructions and train very hard. I will take care of their endurance and their mental strength. They also need more on-court speed training. These are the areas where I think they need to improve."

Look at An Se-young

Park also holds up world No. 1 An Se-young as the benchmark for the younger Indian players.

"Actually, An Se-young is at another level. I tell my players that she should be their target. They have to aim for that level.

"She keeps winning 750 and 1000-level tournaments. Look at her mentality and look at her physical strength. Both are really, really strong. So I tell my players, ‘You have to target all of that. You have to learn from her level.’

Tanvi and Ashmita have talent but need to learn how to manage the moments when momentum changes, he said.

"They sometimes take a big lead and then suddenly make an easy service mistake or an easy net mistake... At that time, I have to shout a little more, be stronger with them, and tell them to calm down.

"I always tell ‘Aaramse'. You are doing well. Why are you rushing yourself? Why are you putting so much pressure on yourself to finish the point quickly?’ ‘Calm down. Aaramse.’ It’s an Indian Hindi word, and sometimes I think it is a very good word for them."

Now, players such as Devika Sihag, Unnati, Tanvi, Ashmita and others are pushing one another, creating the kind of competitive environment Park believes can accelerate development.

"I think this is a very good system and a very good motivation for the players. Before, there were only a few Indian women’s singles players, mainly Sindhu and Saina.

"This year, Devika won the Thailand Masters. At that time, I told Tanvi and Ashmita, ‘Look at Devika. She worked very hard, trained very hard and finally won the title. So what are you doing? What are you doing now?’" he said.

"Of course, they also have the ability to win titles. But sometimes they train a little harder for a period and then relax. Their movement becomes loose and they lose that intensity. That is when I have to shout at them. I tell them, ‘You don’t have time now to relax when you are a little tired. You have to push more. You have to work harder.’"

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Bridge Desk. It is published from a syndicated feed.)