Badminton is an intense racquet sport played in 21 points, best-of-three sets format for all disciplines. In BOSM, the competition is conducted in a team-based format, with each tie comprising of two singles and one doubles match. The BOSM English Press sat down with Adya Pathak, captain of the Girls’ Badminton team to talk about the team.
The badminton team began to practice during the first week of the semester and have maintained a rigorous practice session. They held evening training sessions which went on for two-three hours and also began morning session since the arrival of the coach, on 21st August. The initial training sessions focused more on training and getting back on track with the game and in the week leading up to BOSM it has shifted to match practice. The fitness regime for both the singles players and the doubles players are the same. The game training, however, is modified for each player to cover different gameplays and try different strategies. The captain believes that this BOSM is going to be challenging with squads like SRCC and Venkateshwar college being the biggest competitors. So far, It has been pretty smooth sailing for the team with resources aplenty and a quality coach.
The team has won back-to-back gold medals in the Badminton competitions held by IIT Roorkee. When it comes to BOSM, despite missing out on a medal last year, they have consistently performed well. The captain also added that the team is looking forward to maintaining tradition and put up a strong showing just like in the past.
The team has four players-two third-year students and two second-year students. One of the second yearites is a new recruit. The selections take place in a day since very few girls turn up for selections. Girls who show a knack for the game are taken in and are dedicated to turn up for training are selected. The new recruit is showing great potential despite nursing a few injuries. So, the primary focus for her, as well as that of the captain, is to get her fit and running for the matches.
The team captain, Adya Pathak, started playing badminton in the 9th grade but had to stop playing in the 11th and 12th grade because of the academic grind. She found a sense of peace playing sports and also added that she can never give up on it. In badminton, she found her perfect sport and says that despite being a dualite and having academic stress, she is not going to part with the game. She used to train and play in the stadium during her high school but it is only after coming to BITS that she has ventured into the competition side of things. She does admit that it might be a little too late to take up the sport professionally even though her passion for Badminton is immense.
On being asked how the experience has been captaining the side, she says that it has been comfortable with the players highly motivated and determined. Captaincy hasn’t added extra pressure to her. It has, in fact, increased the team spirit as well as her motivation levels. She treats every game equally and the main objective for her is to win. The Institute and the COSSAC have been extremely cooperative, particularly the Controls and PCR departments when it comes to scheduling events. When it comes to balancing academics and sports, she is pretty honest about the fact that there are unannounced tests in both her Biology as well as her EEE class. They sometimes have 8 am tests and it gets hectic for them to manage after the rigours of training. Breaks in the day are mostly to recover from the daily training.
In the end, she requested all BITSians to participate in all sorts of activities during BOSM and also invited the people to be an audience for the Badminton tournament and cheer the baddies on.