The 22-year-old from Almora, who came close to winning an Olympic medal in Paris before finishing fourth, will undergo a series of tests at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre in Salzburg to get a detailed assessment to improve his fitness and game.
“Lakshya is going to Austria for a physical assessment. There is a good sports institute there where he wants to do some physical exercise. He left today and will return in a week,” Vimal told PTI.
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Lakshya is accompanied by his coach, Gaurav and a 15-year-old junior player, Nishchal Chand from Uttarakhand, to help him keep up with the game during the week.
“The tests will basically focus on specific aspects of strength. A lot of elite athletes go there and get tested. We had consulted Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala for all their ailments and injuries.
“Right now he is fine but before he starts playing at full capacity, it is important that he gets proper physical training and unless the strengthening and conditioning programme is really right, he can get injured. So we have to find the right things to do.” Lakshya is likely to play the Hong Kong Super 500 and the China Open Super 1000 in late September this year.
Badminton is a physically demanding game and Vimal feels that Lakshya needs to keep working on his overall fitness, especially considering the kind of game he possesses.
“He definitely needs to improve in physical aspects, especially speed, endurance and other things he needs to work on.
“Because the game he plays is very fast. He has to defend a lot and then he turns defense into attack.
“When you play against the wind, you need to constantly lower the shuttlecock, go into the net, do somersaults at the net, go up and down… those kinds of things take a lot of energy. So you need to get in shape or develop the skill to control the drift.”
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