With international badminton set to resume early next year, H.S. Prannoy, the former World No.8, has intensified his preparations.
The 28-year-old former National champion has hired a personal trainer and is concentrating on his off-court fitness to stand up to the rigours of the hectic season ahead. Amal Manohar, the fitness expert who worked with Sanju Samson before this season’s IPL, is Prannoy’s new fitness guru and the badminton star has been following a tough regime for the past one month.
Customised programme
Amal has chalked up a customised programme for Prannoy to improve his core strength and endurance. It involves a lot of cardiovascular exercises, gym work and beach training.
Prannoy, who will be joining Gopichand's academy next week, said it was important to improve his fitness during the off-season as he would be left with little time to work on it once the season gets underway.
Long season ahead
“It is going to be a long season with lot of tournaments lined up next year, including the Olympics. There is little scope to work on my fitness once the season begins.
“I will be joining the camp next week in Hyderabad and the focus there will be mostly on improving my game.
“So it is important for me to work on my fitness while I am here in Thiruvananthapuram. Working with Amal was great and I am feeling really good about my fitness,” he said. Prannoy said he had closely followed the Danish Open and added that the tournament has set the template for the future.
Fresh challenges
“The pandemic has thrown up fresh challenges for players and organisers. Now, after the Danish Open we know what the protocol is and we are mentally prepared,” he said.
Prannoy said his aim was to improve his rankings and to qualify for Olympics.
