Lakshya Sen has a better yo-yo test score than Virat Kohli’s, but that is just half his comeback story | Badminton News

Lakshya Sen was returning from the US Open last April, but was so beat up and knackered from two weeks of tournament play, that he struggled to lug his own kitbag through the airport on his slouching, hurting shoulders. His close team of coaches, trainers and family knew he was a terribly broken piece.
Almost a year on, Sen has made semifinals in back-to-back weeks at Paris and the All England and almost secured the Olympics quota. He hardly had any taping around his knee or shoulders, just some protective tape on the back. He’s flying like before in defense, but more importantly landing stably and has a jump and hit that’s fairly effective late in the third set.
In May of 2023, a month after the slumping trudge from the airport, he started on ‘shock training.’
The ‘shock’ is just 6 jumps, twice a week — only what’s needed for his sport, and he was initiated into them after he was at an advanced stage of strength conditioning. First employed the legendary biomechan trainer Dr Michael Yessis, who passed away at 90 last year, these were made famous American world champ shot putters who weighed 130 kg, preferring ‘shock’ to squats in their plyometric training. They are intense on the knees, in that the impact is more neural than muscular. Such is the impact on the brain (head), that in 10 days of training on shock jumps, Sen’s jaw tightened.
But it’s how he could counter Lee Zii Jia in the quarters in the third set smash-brawl. Zii Jia smashes at 390 kph with barely any recoil, Sen staggered him with a bunch of jumping 320 kphs, but timed for the clutch.
There are other impressive numbers — Sen clocks 22.4 on the yo-yo test; Virat Kohli, with lesser demands in his sport and much older, is usually on 17.2. It shows Sen’s progress in lactic endurance — he can jump and hit when he wants, with strength and stamina in the third set.
On a treadmill, he can go for an hour, with 5 repetitions of 30 second spurts of Level 16 or 17, that’s trained him for a thumping heart rate. He climbs double ropes for shoulder strengthening. There’s bicep curls for arm power, because he isn’t naturally a hard-hitter like the Indonesians or Malaysians. And he’s put in work into calf strengthening for relentless attacks in the third set. He played 7 in the last two weeks, and won 6.
Viren Rasquinha, head of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), who helped put together Sen’s team with the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy sports science centre, recalls Sen not being in great shape when going through a tough phase last year. Even after his injuries healed and the lab numbers were good, it took Sen another three months for results to show. “The drop in form with first round exits was perplexing because there was no injury and he was in the best shape. He was ticking all boxes on dedication, sleep and recovery. But we knew Lakshya was too good to not come good finally,” he recalls.
Getting 3 wins at the Badminton Asia Team Championships gave him confidence after losing to big names — meeting them early after his ranking slackened. But that was after his team had to convene to sort out his issues. “The group got together, and we had quarterly reviews of everything. None of us were confident of his qualifying then,” Rasquinha recalls.
Prakash Padukone demands excellence
It’s when Padukone demanded excellence in strength-stamina parameters on sports science test results, backed daily data. “Lakshya’s peak power is now beyond elite levels,” Rasquinha says.
He would also train in 3-point shooting on basketball courts and a spot of kick boxing, but just for fun. Sen is not known to lift insane weights in the gym, and the treadmill is his go-run-to. And the major difference since last April is how the explosive jump is supplementing endurance. Vimal Kumar’s famous yells of “pace injection” in rallies now looks more seamless and stable on court, rather than the wild diving defensive retrieves all the time.
Now he flies when needed, but can arch, rotate, flex and extend without breaking down with injury. His speed and reflexes are as good as ever, despite the power injections.

He left his qualification till the end, but Rasquinha says it wasn’t planned that way. “No one wants it that way.
Everyone wants to seal it as quickly as possible. But 6 months after CWG gold were tough,” he says. “The nose surgery didn’t go well, and he had back and shoulder injuries,” he adds.
Sen would pivot back to Vimal Kumar as coach, moving from Anup Sridhar. “You cannot fault Anup for commitment. It was his bad luck that Lakshya couldn’t get results then. Maybe it’s Anup’s hard work back then that’s showing results now,” Rasquinha says. “For someone of Lakshya’s calibre, we left the decision to him. He decided to go back to Vimal Sir, whom he started with and fully trusts.”
Sen will need to remain injury free in coming months, and beware of over-training, though Instagram reels oftentimes push youngsters to hit the gym harder. He can get 10 percent more fit, according to his team. Rasquinha also warns of the training FOMO, where athletes live with daily worry of if another athlete is training harder, and err on the side of saturation.
Rasquinha is happy with Sen’s endgame fitness now though. “Like in hockey, when you might want that one last chance in the D on 59th minute, or that one tackle. In badminton, if it goes to 19-19, Lakshya is prepared to play at a high tempo in the decider.”
He tends to struggle to find good sparring though at the PPBA, with other elite shuttlers Kiran George and Mithun Manjunath having their own schedule to take care of. “We are thinking of sending some academy boys abroad with him when he plays because it gets tough for Vimal sir. But we have to look at costs, arranging visas, etc,” he says.