Some of the top district badminton stars have been sweating it out both morning and evening at the Officers’ Club courts here for over a week.
The idea is to bring out their best in the senior State championship scheduled to begin at Karur on September 8.
The boys were thankful to the newly-formed Coimbatore Badminton Association (CBA) for bringing them together to train before the big championship.
“It’s a different kind of experience for all of us. Earlier, we used to practice alone but now playing with some of the best in the district can help us in many ways. From understanding each other to picking up ideas, everything matters,” said P. Suryaprakash of Officers’ Club, the four-time singles champion in the district.
“I must admit that there is a lot of unity between us now. This is the first time that we are coming together to play under one roof before a championship. If one wants to go to the next level then one has to play quality stars. So this camp was pretty much useful for me,” said Arun Brun, last year’s open district singles winner from PSG College of Arts and Science.
P.T. Harshath, the under-17 and 19 district champion and a Plus-Two student of Vidhya Niketan, is the youngest in the camp. “I got to learn where I made those mistakes. The senior players also guided me quite nicely.”
S. Subramanian, the senior-most player, was pleased to be part of the camp.
“Each player, be it junior or senior, has a different approach to the game. Playing alongside will help us in battling better with new players during the championship.” Subramanian, who works as a Postal Assistant at the Coimbatore HO, has represented Indian Universities at the 2010 Worlds in Chinese Taipei and has also secured the team bronze at the National Games in 2011.
“All of us have been playing each other for over a week. We play a lot of strokes and I have now learnt the art of dealing with match situations,” said P. Naveen of PSGCAS, the singles and double specialist. S. Mutharasu, the CBA president and Swetha Krishnamurthy, its secretary, are doubly pleased to have organised the camp. The CBA takes care of the camp expenses (shuttle and courts) for the players.
“They come from different academies and bringing them together at least once or twice a month will shape them even better,” said Swetha.
