The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Olympic medal hopeful shuttlers must dance the stress away
THE CLAMOUR for the Paris medal is going to get relentless by the day for Indian shuttlers. It's in this crucible of unreal stress and singeing expectations from the Olympics-bound shuttlers that one hopes the Super Seven headed to the Games don't give up on a very, very important ritual — Insta reels of them dancing away to their favourite numbers.
A happy medley before soppy medals, if you will.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Ashwini Ponnappa-tanisha Crasto, could do with the occasional prance, after a long, exhausting qualification cycle. A flimsy frolic, a trifle of a twirl set to music, would do no harm, even if it irritates the purists.
Satwik-chirag are most associated with dancing celebrations, after a title victory, and have spoken of giving Arabic Kuthu and Naatu Naatu a try, in the upcoming tournaments. Dance has united the two Indians in success in the past, including a special Gangnam jig at Korean Open. The duo shouldn't shy away from this jolly aspect of their personality — a release, a retreat from the encumbering pressure.
PV Sindhu had shot some dance reels when Arabic Kuthu and Gomi Gomi hit the airwaves. And there's really no reason why the double Olympic medallist, on whom immense expectations are hung for a third, shouldn't let her hair down once in a while.
HS Prannoy, a Thomas Cup champ, is stuck with a reputation of being too serious and cerebral, and he might well be both. But the seasoned shuttler can shake a leg and reel away the compounding pressure of making an Olympic chance count.
Lakshya Sen's father DK Sen, a coach from the hills, had once spoken of how he incorporated pahaadi dances in training to improve his footwork. Tanisha is an exuberant personality and Ashwini, though quite introverted, can be trusted to join in, and give her third Olympic outing a happy dancing preamble.
Dance in DNA of Indians
Indians dance; it's in their DNA of self-expression.
Olympics can turn into an athlete's version of deadly dull board exams. In such an environment, shuttlers should solemnly swear to pick their tune from India's many available film songs, and give it a go ahead of Paris, perhaps the only edition where
Breaking (dance) offers a gold medal and freestyle dancing is mainstreamed.
The world's most successful sporting nation USA, gladly celebrates its dancing-athletes. The greatest will always be NBA giant
Shaquille O'neal, a natural talent who combined American exhibitionism with a hoot of hip hop hooves. Check out his sideways moonwalking and the freestyle dance-offs with Justin Bieber. Steve Nash did it one better, and Dwight Howard was earnest in following O'neal's footsteps. But the basketball legends showed their sense of rhythm beyond the dunks and fadeaways, making sport merrier than stats, rings and cut-throat competition.
But it is the other breed of super athletes, who've done dancing justice -- the boxers. While Evander Holyfield pulled off a stiff shoulder variant of cha cha on Dancing with the Stars, Floyd Mayweather was seriously impressive cracking a Paso doble style ahead of his fight with welterweight Brit Ricky Hatton. "I look at dancing as part of my workout," Mayweather would say.
The greatest — Muhammad Ali —needed no rehearsing to dance in the ring. And he started the tradition of admiring pugilists' dancing feet in sneakers.
Holyfield truly put dance on the athlete's pedestal by hiring a ballet instructor as part of his training routine. Sport is more grace than macho, and the biggest eye-popping name to acknowledge this was Arnold Schwarzenegger who took ballet classes to perfect bodybuilding poses.
Famous footballer Rio Ferdinand had a ballet scholarship, and Kobe Bryant is known to have taken tap dancing classes to strengthen his ankles. But it's no secret that dance accords rhythm, muscular control and coordination to body movements in sport, and smoothens transitions as one move segues into the next. And while four months out is too late to get Indian shuttlers to include dance in their training, nobody ought to put them in a corner for a small jig here and there, that goes up occasionally on their social feed.
Mark Knopfler's Walk of Life was a good soundtrack merging sport with a little sashay. But the Indian shuttlers — they are clued in alright, and will find their own perfect EDM. Medals may or may not follow, but by god, there will be dancing.
The greatest — Muhammad Ali —needed no rehearsing to dance in the ring. And he started the tradition of admiring pugilists' dancing feet in sneakers.