Focus On Nutrition, Tailor-Made Training For Specific Opponents Key To HS Prannoy's Success

A battle with injuries and health issues made HS Prannoy realise that understanding his body and crafting a tailor-made training programme for specific opponents are non-negotiables to keep alive his dreams of winning medals for India. On Saturday, the 31-year-old from Kerala signed off with a world championships bronze in Copenhagen, Denmark, becoming only the fifth Indian men's singles player to win a medal at the prestigious event. The result was the culmination of a good season during which he bagged the Malaysian Masters title and finished runner-up at the Australian Open, besides managing a semifinal and three quarterfinal finishes.

"It is a mix of a lot of work that coaches have put in. On court, there has been a change with Gopi (Pullela Gopichand) sir and Guru (RMV Gurusaidutt) bhaiya making training and plans for specific players, whom I might play. So, it has been tailor-made in that manner," Prannoy told PTI before leaving for Copenhagen.

"Off the court, I have been training for the last 2 to 3 years with Rohan George Mathew, my strength and conditioning coach. So, it is about understanding the body, hence it is a mix of all these things, which has reflected in good improvement in the game," he said.

When Prannoy was diagnosed with a digestive reflux issue, he started working with Bangalore-based Invictus high performance lab to sort out his diet.

The man from Thiruvananthapuram, who was also infected with COVID-19 in November 2020, started monitoring his glucose levels with Ultrahuman M1 patch, while wearing the Ultrahuman Ring AIR to track his training and recovery.

"Over the years, training keeps changing. There is no perfect standard in training. It is about exploring different things and keeping what