The adrenalin factor!

The best part of my everyday life is the two hours from 6 AM to 8 AM that I spend in paying Badminton in Lal Bahadur Stadium. LB was not too long ago the most prominent badminton center in the country outside of Prakash Padukone Academy. But since the setting up of Gopi Chand Academy it has lost a bit of its prominence as a lot of the established players moved over there but nevertheless LB continues to be a critical center in the Indian Badminton Scene.

The number of young players who wake up early in the morning to be here for training is absolutely heart warming. Hailing from Hyderabad, these guys are certainly not short on inspiration, what with Saina Nehwal, Chetan Anand, Jwala Gutta and Gopi Chand being household names here. I always reach the venue a good half an hour before my slot just so that I could watch the young kids practice with refreshing passion. It sort of takes me back in time when I used to dream of making it big as a cricketer – a dream which remained just that!

Today I was watching a singles game between two very young boys who must be no more than 12 years old. The match was played with hardly anyone watching as others were busy playing their game. Since I had a wrist injury I chose to be a spectator for today and I am so glad I was. One of the two boys (since I don’t know his name – let me call him the “the little champ”) was playing such exceptional badminton that I wish I could have taken his autograph! He was a natural athlete who covered the court like a gazelle, hit the gaps with the precision of a surgeon and carried himself around with the attitude of a guy who’s so sure of his skills. If I was so impressed after watching him for 2 games, what followed later made me a little wonder struck.

When these two boys started the 3rd game, a group of 5 coaches came and sat near the court. While discussing their next state tournament itinerary, they also kept a keen eye on this game. They were observing the mistakes that the little champ’s opponent was making – “doesn’t have the power to consistently hit the back of the court”, “doesn’t hit the gaps”, “keeps feeding him on the middle of the court” and so on.

When all this was unfolding I just noticed that the little champ upped the ante this game as compared to the previous 2 games by a few notches. As all the coaches were here, a lot more people gathered near the court. The more the number of people watching the game, the more the little champ raised his game. Oh boy was he loving the attention! In a matter of minutes he was able to make the coaches shift the topic from the opponent’s weakness to this guy’s all round game. I wonder if he would have pushed himself so much especially against an opponent who he could have beaten comfortably even otherwise, if not for so many people watching the game! It's unbelievable that such is the effect of adrenalin rush that a live audience can fill a sport with.

If the adrenalin can get to the young guy when 10 people were watching the game, imagine what must be going through Sachin’s mind when he enters the crease and the whole stadium erupts, singing that famous “Sachin, Sachin” Slogan! It must be insane...