‘Follow your passion, regardless of those who object.’
As the shuttle fell to the floor, and the final whistle blew, everyone held their breath in anticipation – all but one. The victor inhaled a whiff of glory and exhaled a sigh of relief. But it wasn’t just the final, this was the level of intensity in every game held over the course of the Fiery Shuttles Badminton Tournament.
The first serve of the tournament
Did you know that Badminton originated in Pune? The Fiery Shuttles competition ignited the same fervour in the players as Badminton had originally in the late 1800s.
The second iteration of this pan-Pune event skipped ahead of the last -- in terms of competition, prizes and just the sheer number of participants -- by leaps and bounds! Available and accessible to the entire DLRC community as well as the general public, this Badminton battle has a moat of 130-140 matches between you and the sweet crown of victory. This edition of the tournament was held on the 20th and 21st of July, 2024.
First organised by DLRC in 2023, Fiery Shuttles intends to cultivate a sporting culture between DLRC and the larger community.
A quick explanation of the rules
The tournament’s format essentially consists of 2 different categories that are further split into varying age groups. The categories being:
Singles: Intense one-on-ones! A format that tests the pinnacle of individual skill, where your failures and accomplishments belong solely to you… or, you could just be there to have a fun time!
Doubles: Now, this isn't just any doubles format! Your partner in crime, trying to grab the number one spot, has to be either one of your parents or grandparents! Ahh, we’re glad you asked, this means your parents and grandparents could register together for this format! (We’re positive that your grandparents would wipe the floor with the toughest contestants.)
‘Although fierce in the later stages, it was an overall 5/10 difficulty.’ - Ishaan Mudgal, Men’s Open winner.
Ishaan Mudgal is an 11th grader (15 years of age) from DLRC who is an expert in the sport. His game is truly breathtaking. This is why we consider his difficulty rating to be a bit of an outlier, and we’re sure that you will too, once you find out the amount of time Ishaan spends practising.
He practises anywhere between 15-28 hours a week -- and this goes up to crazy figures like almost 10 hours a day in the summer!
As for what encourages him to practise so much, it is his goal to surpass his dad. That, and the satisfaction of victory.
Aadya Joshi, another student of DLRC studying in 10th grade, is the consecutive winner of the Women’s Under-18 category. Aadya has been practising for 5 years, 3 out of which she spent at the renowned NKBA (Nikhil Kanetkar Badminton Academy). She also cited the satisfaction of victory as a motivating force.
Ishaan and Aadya, both seasoned veterans of the game, appreciated the management and the fact that this tournament, unlike many others, was open to a lot of different people, young and old.
‘I wished they had set a more concrete rule structure that covered all the controversial nuances.’
- Aadya Joshi, Women's U-18 category winner
Another point of improvement was the long gap between matches, which in retrospect, was quite tedious for the participants in the upper brackets who played through the entire tournament.
Preparing for prize distribution
A learning that we had, while we were researching and interviewing participants for this post, was that in order to win, the first step is to be hungry for it; you can’t win if you don’t want to. The second step is to believe that you can win -- you can’t win if you don’t truly believe that you can. And the third, is working for that win.
There is no satisfaction in victory if you haven’t worked hard for it.
So, start practising now and be ready to win next year's Fiery Shuttles!
By Zidane Patil and Rishi Nigavekar (G9)
Well written article. Gives a clear gist of the event. It was good to read about Ishaan and Aadya's competence.