How does a young athlete who had seen the highs of success very early in his career come back from the depths of a confidence crisis to qualify for his first Olympics? One can train the muscles when it's recovering from a physical injury, but how do you force-reset your mind into believing again when it's at its lowest point?
For Lakshya Sen, the magic potion was the presence of childhood coach Prakash Padukone, his mother's home-cooked food, and sessions with India's 2011 Cricket World Cup winning mental coach Paddy Upton. And a very non-magical but crucial ingredient: never giving up.
The turnaround has been incredible - from seven straight first-round exits on the BWF Tour to back-to-back semifinals in two of the biggest events (the French Open and the All-England Championship) in the first half of the year.
Up next is the big Thomas Cup defence, which starts on Saturday, April 27. When India won the title two years back, Lakshya was on a roll on the BWF Tour and the India No 1. Now he comes in having weathered the toughest time in his short career so far with the hope to recreate the same magic with the Indian team.
The change, he says, has mainly been in his approach.
"I was taking every match as my last match," Lakshya told ESPN in a recent lengthy conversation. "Right from the beginning I was playing against opponents ranked higher and in good form. So I was ready to fight every point and every match, not thinking too much about what will happen the next day. I was just focused and always ready to give my all."
This mindset helped him beat players like Li Shi Feng, Loh Kean Yew, Anders Antonsen, Lee Zii Jia; all from a game down. He may not have trophies to show for it, but what Lakshya did in the European swing is an impressive feat of mental strength.
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January, New Delhi - The 2022 India Open champion has slumped to a first-round defeat against a comparatively inexperienced Priyanshu Rajawat - his 7th straight first-round loss on BWF World Tour. Last month, he had lost to an unheralded junior at a domestic competition too. Lakshya looks quite lost in the mixed zone, trying his best to answer the many home journalists all around him. Someone asks how he feels about his Olympic qualification chances now. He answers honestly that his head is still in the match zone, and he has not even processed his loss to think about Olympic hopes. They are not very bright right then.
Constant losses where he lost the plot midway through matches, parting ways with his latest coach Anup Sridhar with no one new on the horizon, and being told by his childhood coach Vimal Kumar that his problem is all in the head was not a good place to be in.
How did he bounce back from that?
"It was a combination of a lot of things," Lakshya said. "There were a lot of mentally tough matches in these last two tournaments... long ones, coming back from a game down and still performing well in the next. So, yes, a lot of the things went right for that."
"From last December, I changed a lot of things. I was not feeling very confident on court, especially after losing all the first-round matches. So I decided to spend more time on court because the fitness levels were good but still there was something lacking and the results were not coming."
That meant not just "heavy physical work" but "some skill work, trying to sharpen my strokes. That also gave me a lot of confidence to just stick in there and play."
Bangalore, February 2024 - The Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy on the outskirts of Bangalore is where Lakshya learnt his craft as a child. It's where he returns after finally breaking the first-round loss streak at the Indonesia Masters, only to lose in the second. He is doing his fitness and practise drills with diligence at 9 am. Towards the end of session, he plays a doubles match alongside his brother Chirag. It's a bid odd, given both are primarily singles players. His body language is much better than in Delhi, but how is his mindset?
Later in the month, he goes on to win all three of his matches at the Badminton Asia Team Championship. Back-to-back wins feel like a big step at this point.
"One thing that was lacking is match practice because of the early exits," Lakshya explained. "So in training, one thing that we changed was playing more matches every day. Even after a long training session we ended it with a few games. And then when I played the Asian Team Championship [in February], I could really play all the matches and do well. That gave me a lot of confidence."
Confidence is the key word here. It is what Vimal said was severely lacking during that slump. This is where Coach Padukone's decision to get on the road after a long, long time - prompted by new, also struggling ward PV Sindhu - made the difference.
March 2024: The European swing begins, an important one this year because the French Open is at the same venue as the Paris Olympics and because the back-to-back Super 750 and Super 1000 tournaments offer the most points as the Olympic qualification period nears its end. Lakshya has no choice but to do well here. He reaches the semis both, knocking out seeded players in gruelling three-game battles.
Lakshya was quick to identify what helped him. "Prakash sir being there for the matches from French Open, I think it really made a difference. We were playing tough matches every day, so it was important for me to come back, reset and then, prepare. In that way, it really helped me having them there for the tournament."
"[Padukone and Vimal Kumar] have a lot of tactical experience and I try to follow what they said on court. But for me, what changed was the way they motivated me even after I was down. They always motivated me from behind to really push myself and not hold back anything. I think just the motivation factor made a big difference."
"They were telling me to just not look back too much," he said with a chuckle, "and play whatever you are feeling comfortable with on the court."
What Lakshya is comfortable with, what made him the rising star of 2022, was his sensational defence and quick-footed counterpunching, enabled by his elite physical fitness.
Lakshya Sen has just made our weekend LIT ��#Badminton ��
Clinching a thrilling 22-20, 16 -21, 19-21 victory against Lee Zii Jia ����, the #TOPSchemeAthlete has secured his spot in the semis
of #AllEngland2024 ����Congratulations brother! It's time to rock the SF���� Good... pic.twitter.com/c1H5ZP2W1J
- SAI Media (@Media_SAI) March 16, 2024
When he was not able to bank on this, like when he was struggling with fitness issues and some aftereffects from nasal surgery for a deviated septum in early 2023, his form dropped. He had a good middle period, including winning the Canada Open in July, but the long barren patch began right after in August.
"The way the Olympic qualification started [in May], we didn't get much time to prepare because we were constantly playing," he said. That led to a drop in fitness that they could only address in December.
It took time but he credits that intense training at the end of last year for his current results. Physically, he returned to his peak by January, but the mental shift needed more time - and a new learning curve about mindset in sports. That's when Paddy Upton, famous for being India's mental coach during the 2011 World Cup win and now working with the men's hockey team, came in. Lakshya was already working with psychologist Gayatri Varthak and Upton joined in January.
"There was a lot of work around mental strength, especially finding answers in the game-like situation... you can train as hard as you want but the game situation and the pressure of a match is different," he said, referring to the mental demons he was facing on court.
Lakshya is also candid about his current level, saying there is a lot of scope for improvement, from here to the Olympics. He may be playing better, but he knows he's still nowhere near his best. After the two semis, he lost in the second round at next tournament and pulled out of the final one in Europe because his body needed rest.
The key point, though, is that his belief is back, and he is no longer looking lost on court. Indeed, he called the All England semi-finals lost to Christie - the eventual champion - a heartbreak, which speaks volumes of his current frame of mind.
Once again, he's living out the 'believe' and 'never give up' mottos prominently tattooed on his skin.