How democratic decision making helped ‘overtrained’ Lakshya Sen get his mojo back

Deckline Leitao believed Lakshya Sen needed serious saving – saving from overtraining, when he resumed as his Strength & Conditioning coach in May this year.“The loading was all off when I started with him. It was way too much, and I was frankly scared to take him on,” he recalls of inheriting what he calls was then a broken piece. “The physical was scary with his previous Korean coach. It was a typical fixed program which led to knee pain, back pain and shoulder trouble,” Leitao says, of a program where the athlete was never consulted. It immediately led to democratising decision making where Sen was asked about every aspect of designing his S&C workouts, and results are there to see with the Canada Open title.

“He used to have pain in the triceps prior and we worked on it. This time he reported no pain,” Leitao says, happy to jog Sen back on track to pain free fitness. “They say injuries are part of sport. That’s nonsense. It’s like saying accidents are part of driving. It shouldn’t be so. You should know how much load an athlete’s body takes,” he says, adding he threw the idea of mindlessly clocking crazy mileages on the treadmill out of the window.
“Running, skipping insane times is what I call the Instagram workout. It’s not about how many runs and skips. Program should be effective, not impressive,” he adds, noting he asks his trainees to refrain from posting workout videos meant to merely wow.

Sometimes, the hardest battles lead to the sweetest victories. The wait is over, and I am delighted to be crowned the Canada Open winner! Grateful beyond words 🎉🏆 #SenMode #BWFWorldTour#CanadaOpen2023 pic.twitter.com/u8b7YzPX01
— Lakshya Sen (@lakshya_sen) July 10, 2023
Leitao prefers talking about what he isn’t doing – putting wards on insane workouts – rather than what he does. “We’ve not done any running, the stamina bit comes from on court workouts,” he says, adding that despite not getting on the treadmill, Sen’s endurance parameters are up.
“The knee pain which was troubling him and ruining his game is gone completely. I believe competition is greater than practice and athletes should be saved for competition, not driven to limits in practice. We built his endurance up so he plays the same game, but can play it longer. The explosive power comes after base endurance,” he says.

Li Shi Feng 🇨🇳 and Lakshya Sen 🇮🇳 spare nothing to win this point.@HSBC_Sport#HSBCbadminton #BWFWorldTour #CanadaOpen2023 pic.twitter.com/6JljlzNbDB
— BWF (@bwfmedia) July 10, 2023
For someone who has worked with Sen ever since he was 10 years old, the complaints of knee and shoulder breakdowns would pain Leitao, which is why he came on board seeing that overtraining was breaking Sen’s body needlessly.
The elbow extension is stronger, which has seen him hit more smashes. “The shoulder is now 8 out of 10. We are just keeping him safe and the triceps that used to be sore aren’t (hurting) anymore even when he’s smashing hard. September he will hit his physical peak,” Leitao says, adding he has an even more ambitious target without breaking his body.

He adds: “My next plan is to get him legs that can outlast anybody in the world. Quadriceps that can take lactic acid where he isn’t thinking ‘what if it’s three games’”. He gives Sen three months until October to get there, all riding on online S&C workout sessions, so the travel and tournaments continue.
Leitao works with top swimmers as well as doubles shuttler Ashwini Ponappa, who’s going strong at 32. “Lakshya has five more years of peak fitness if he is handled carefully. But if he breaks down now, he won’t be able to come back which is why we are treading carefully. If an injury happens on court it’s bad luck, but it’s immensely stupid if my athlete ends up with back spasms lifting weights,” says the trainer who’s learnt his trade in South Africa and the UK.

Heartfelt gratitude to the supporters who stand my side, rain or shine. Your unwavering support gives me strength and motivates me to give my best. Thank you for being my rock! 🏸 pic.twitter.com/w1IuBWKsWc
— Lakshya Sen (@lakshya_sen) July 8, 2023
It’s why he shall be writing to the entire team to not go bonkers with the Canada Open title in terms of setting ambitious physical targets.
“Now is not the time to get excited and push his body even further. I always say after wins, shaant ho jao, calm down, have some coffee, don’t say, ‘we got to this point, now what more should we do’. This is not some movie like Rocky where you bhagao, bhagao the athlete. It’s this Asian culture to keep training harder, where they teach you you can’t be too happy. Aur mehnat, aur mehnat! No-one says how hard one should work before the body breaks down. It should be smart training, not hard training.”
Positive reinforcement though is recommended, Leitao says. “I keep telling him he’s a great player, because we often forget to say those things. He’s already a big athlete, now we need to keep him safe,” he adds. “And we take his opinion on designing the program.”
Another of Leitao’s pet peeves is when people philosophise “in sport, it’s all about the mind.” “No sorry, it’s all about the body. It’s like in a car, if you have a tyre puncture, you can’t pretend as if it’s not there. If the knee is hurting, you have to deal with the pain.”
Ideally, prevent it in the first place, Leitao says. It was when Sen went on the treadmill early in May and complained of knee hurting at speed Level 8 that Leitao was alerted to the problem.

“I was actually worried. If it was too late. We know he’s a good player. But if the body goes, everything goes. Once pain free though, power can be unleashed. Right now he’s on 6 out of 10, but we’ll build that confidence,” says the coach, with a 30-35 year background in martial arts, riffing off it for teaching Sen breath control and toughening.
“Irrespective of the results, we ask him how his body feels. The knee, back are good. Tomorrow again he’ll train, travel for 8 hours, then train again,” he says, happy to get into the groove again after working with him last when Sen won the World Championships bronze. “The only rational mindset is one must not get injured in practice. Other things don’t matter. If you are not strong, what are you going to recover from? Our plan is to keep him confident and unleash him on courts,” Leitao ends.