Book Review | ‘Shuttler’s Flick: Making Every Match Count’ offers peek into mind of Pullela Gopichand-Sports News , Firstpost

Pullela Gopichand, Chief National Coach for the Indian badminton team, is one of the most passionate badminton players that India has produced. Shuttler’s Flick: Making Every Match Count (2021) is a book that celebrates his achievements, and gives a peek into how he became a world champion and earned the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Arjuna Award, Dronacharya Award, and Khel Ratna. It has been published by Simon & Schuster India.

The book has been authored by Gopichand in collaboration with Priya Kumar, who is a writer, motivational speaker and firewalk instructor. It is a cross between a biography and an autobiography. We get to read about Gopichand in the third person from Priya, and we also encounter Gopichand’s own voice in first-person narratives throughout the book. This experiment works well. We experience how he views himself, and how others see him.

Bookstores usually classify titles based on the subject or the content, and place them in separate shelves so that readers who gravitate towards a specific genre can find them easily. This book is difficult to slot into one genre. I think that it would appeal to various kinds of people – those who enjoy reading about sports, those who like books on leadership, those who are curious about the lives of famous personalities, and those who thrive on self-help.

I have not followed Gopichand’s career but I enjoyed this book immensely. It does not demand a prior knowledge of the game, its history, rules, and the politics surrounding it. It is mainly about the inner life of a sportsperson, and the kind of mental training that is needed to stay calm and focused when an entire nation’s expectations are riding on your shoulders. This aspect of fitness is often overlooked as it is the physical preparation that gets emphasised.

In this book, Gopichand shares, “I attribute a great deal of my success to the time I spent with myself. In hindsight, I believe that all answers lie within. Too much dependency on external sources and resources will dim your innate instincts to create solutions and to achieve successes. I am glad that I found my way within.” He writes about his daily meditation practice, and how “those few minutes of solitude and peace” help him face challenges.

He began to appreciate the value of meditation while recovering from a major knee injury on January 25, 1994, at the Pune National Games. He was badly hurt. In medical terms, he had “an acute anterior cruciate ligament tear with a lateral meniscal tear (rupturing of one or more fibrocartilage strips in the knee)” and “a hemarthrosis (bleeding between the joint spaces).” It took him five months to start walking on his own, and nine months to return to the game.

The book reveals that, during this period, he heard snide ableist remarks from the same people who once praised him to the skies. They called him “langda” (lame) and a “has-been”. They said that his career was over, and that he would never get back to his glorious days. Apparently, he proved them wrong without getting into arguments or confrontations. He says, “I have learnt that when faced with criticism and cynicism, your best response is success.”

Gopichand went on to win the 2001 All England Men’s Singles Championship in Birmingham. This was 21 years after India’s badminton superstar (and former World No. 1) Prakash Padukone won it in 1980. As Priya mentions, “It took over two decades for an Indian player to have shattered the myth of Chinese supremacy and Indonesian dominance.” Few would have imagined that a player who was so terribly injured would accomplish this feat.

Priya provides further details about Gopichand’s healing process. She writes, “Depression is quick in finding its way to bedridden candidates with no definite timelines of their full and complete recovery. Gopi had to keep his mind focused on the game and use this downtime to study yoga and Ayurveda. He spent a lot of time reading spiritual books and scriptures.” His parents – Subhash and Subravamma – also played a significant role in boosting his morale.

‘Shuttler’s Flick: Making Every Match Count’ (2021) has been authored by Pullela Gopichand in collaboration with Priya Kumar.

The book is enriched by brief interludes where we get to read their thoughts about their son’s career. Their unconditional love for Gopichand can be felt in each word of theirs. They do not pat their own back, or talk about the sacrifices they made but their son is full of gratitude.

Indian parents are often caricatured as overbearing. Subravamma, however, says, “It’s not that we supported him because he had the potential to be a world badminton champion or that we had a dream for him or that we wanted something from him. We supported him because we love him and we would support him in whatever choice he made for his life…Maybe in that love the passion for badminton has emerged, but it started out as love for Gopi.”

We learn from this book that Gopichand’s parents did not pressurise him as far as his studies were concerned. They were happy as long as he got a passing grade. They did everything they could to channel their resources into nurturing their son’s passion. They did not go out to restaurants. They did not watch a movie in a cinema hall for 15 years. His mother used to walk instead of taking public transport so that she could save some money for her son.

Subhash says, “Money had never been a part of our decision making when it came to our children. We would find a way; we would do anything and everything to ensure that they were happy and looked after. The happiness of our children was our top-most priority and we would do anything to ensure that.” This unflinching sense of care has guided Gopichand’s own journey as a father. This is evident when he writes about his daughter, Gayathri, a badminton player who made it to the 2018 Asian Games and 2019 South Asian Games.

In this book, we also get to see Gopichand through the perspective of his wife PVV Lakshmi – a national badminton champion who represented India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won a bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. She is proud of Gopichand but also worries about him because of the long hours that he keeps, and how hard he tends to push himself.

Lakshmi, along with Gopichand’s parents, have been huge pillars of support in helping him establish and run the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. This institution has trained and introduced to the world some outstanding badminton players including Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu, Chirag Shetty, Srikanth Kidambi, Gurusai Datt, Arundhati Pantawane, Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap and Arun Vishnu. Some of them appear in this book.

Gopichand notes, “At my academy, I ensure that my players get an all-round development in an array of sports to give them a greater understanding and control of their game in badminton.” What is the rationale behind this training regimen? As a child, he played cricket, gilli danda, pithu and football. He says, “The unorganised sport that I played on the streets actually allowed me a wider scope of physical and mental development that helped me greatly in badminton.”

Saina remarks, “He made sure that all the hardships that he had gone through in his career, were eliminated in our journey. We owe him the medals. We owe him the victory. We owe badminton to Gopi Sir.” This might sound excessive but it seems justified given the tremendous dedication Gopichand has towards the people he coaches. He also speaks of his own coaches – Hamid Hussein, Xiao Ming, SM Arif, Ganguly Prasad – with great respect.

I was struck by Gopichand’s thoughts on coaching. He says, “You need to have a coach, a mentor or a senior who pushes you, who demands more from you, who does not allow you to settle for less. You need someone who has stakes in your success and so will not let you fall into the comfort zone. You need to be in the company of those bigger and better than you.” It is this hunger to learn, grow, improve and excel that reverberates throughout this book.

Chintan Girish Modi is a freelance writer, journalist and book reviewer.