Training day

Published>Fri, Sep 03 10 05:47 AM

Tugging at the shoulder straps, he pulls down the traditional blue singlet to his waist in one quick motion, without breaking the stare from his reflection in the cracked mirror. The early morning sores don't show to the naked eye, only the beefed up, set-in-stone muscles. Narcissistically, the eyes stop drooping as he smiles at the product, his upper torso.

It's six in the morning and the sun's rays have barely begun to filter through the blanket of smog in the outskirts of India's capital. But like all hazy sunrises in the past few months, Sushil Kumar is locked inside a tiny room of a gymnasium, readying himself for the first step of his day-long ritual: getting inspired. For Sushil and thirty other wrestlers preparing for the Commonwealth Games at the SAI Centre in Sonepat, it's training day.

Crunching his biceps and flexing the lats below his arms, Sushil takes his first mental step into the zone, a place he visits everyday. Crouching at the knees without taking his eyes off the mirror, he picks up a pair of 5 kg dumbbells, strategically placed by Arvinder Pal Singh, Team India's trainer. Swiveling both iron rods in oscillatory motions around an invisible path of a sleeping 'eight' (or infinity), Sushil draws every straw of energy to kick his body back into action. He treats his reflection as an imaginary opponent, mentally pinning the image down to a foot-lock.

Although he is currently running on empty, Sushil knows how quickly his body responds to pressure and intensity. His life-size poster adorning the back wall of the room is a result of those two factors ? pressure and intensity. "Sabaash bolo," he screams while nearing the end of a set. The thud of the dumbbells hitting the padded floor is drowned by Sushil's groans, before the trainer steps forward to stretch and massage the overworked muscles.

The late-comers stroll into the room at a quarter to seven. By that time though, Sushil is more than just warmed up; he is raring to go, prancing around like a wild animal. The junior wrestlers touch his moving feet for blessings, while the shy ones just bow to the wall hanging: Sushil clasping a bronze medal in the Beijing Olympics. For the men in tights, life is all about aspiration, and tradition.

7:30 am If you ever want to know the real worth of an Olympic medal, then just ask the people staying on the campus. Sonepat's world and its subsequent eco-system flipped around for good after Sushil stood on the podium two years back. "Nothing has been the same since," says Yashveer, India's assistant coach, while watching the grapplers spar at the massive six-mat training centre. Along with head coach Jasminder Singh and Vladimir from Georgia, Yashveer nurtures India's current and future fighting stars. "Facilities came very late in the day for this centre. I cannot even start explaining how different things are. Today, we have foreign mats covering this floor, but just a couple of years back, we had nothing. Sonepat was a punishment centre for coaches. There were 54 of us here and no wards or buildings. Just one room covered with a tin roof. After our morning chai, we used to go on long walks, in a queue," he says, blowing his whistle to constrict the wrestlers into his regimen. Sushil, though, continues to fight, both against the whistle and his heavier opponent. "If you have to be someone special, then you got to do something special," Sushil says, defying the coach's code. The 66kg category grappler follows his own routine, one that consists of training with breaks. The two-hour-long sparring ends just before 10 am and the wrestlers return to their rooms. Not Sushil though, he is now busy sparring with a lower weight category opponent. Just like an antelope, Sushil locks horns with fellow hostelers, checking his various moves all the way back to the ground-floor room.

11 am Sushil's eyelids grow heavy as he watches repeats of prime-time soap operas on a 14-inch television screen placed on a parapet. Special privileges, apparently. "Yeh aurat bahut khatarnaak hai," Sushil says to his brother and full-time caretaker Amarjeet, as he points at the vamp in the serial. Amarjeet nods without noticing, busy grounding badaam (almonds) and milk together with a neem stump. It's breakfast time. A large glass of the aromatic concoction, followed first by a whey protein shake, then finally by rotis and fresh vegetables transports him to his siesta, a necessity before the evening session. The recently installed air-conditioners fasten the process. "A good sleep means a good evening session. It is crucial because if they are groggy in the evening, a crucial workout is ruined."

5:20 pm Alarm clocks go off in unison, waking the wrestlers up. But even before Sushil can look at the world around him with half-open eyelids, abdominal crunches are automatically triggered off in bed. Tirelessly, he follows it up with push-ups and pull-ups against a rod in the dormitory, even as saas-bahu programmes blare in the background. The wind flaps against his 'cauliflower ears' after a few rounds of a patchy grass field, which terminates at the main hall of the gymnasium.

Standing in the middle of a large, state-of-the-art structure that includes every compound machine a toned physique could crave for, Sushil and the rest wait for Vladimir's whistle. As a local radio station hums out romantic Bollywood songs, the wrestlers are a picture of concentration. "We don't require cardio music to train. Those who want to train can do so under any circumstances," says Sushil, before lining up with his colleagues to begin their intense workout. With each whistle, Sushil shifts to the right of him, fighting the next obstacle fearlessly. An hour or so of 'maximum weight training' (the heaviest weight the machine has to offer) later, the 5'4" Sushil now resembles a pocket Hercules.

Back in his dwelling at half past seven, the neem branch doubles up as the tool for wrist curls. Sushil constantly tangles and untangles the suspended 10kg iron disc in cycles, to-and-fro his knotted fists. The other wrestlers cool off by watching him. If you have to be someone special, then you got to do something special. The sun has set deep beneath the training centre at SAI, but as he wraps up his warm-downs, Sushil knows that the next day awaits him with a greater ferocity.

9:30 pm Well versed with Sushil's daily routine, Amarjeet opens the creaky room door ajar with patience, knowing that the slightest sound will wake his famous brother up. Although he doesn't need to look, the mirror on the open steel door of the cupboard reflects Sushil's sleeping state to the outside world. It's a 'do-not-disturb' equivalent. As the mirror stares at Sushil, his brother puts an end to the day's ten hour routine by switching off the tube lights. In a few hours, it will restart with Sushil staring right back.

Greco-Roman style

Primarily use their upper-body strength. In this style, wrestlers are not allowed to use their legs (i.e. tripping), and nor are they allowed to grab their opponents' legs. This method continues to be a male-only discipline.

Freestyle is a full-body wrestling style. A wrestler of this discipline uses their own legs for an advantage and also inhibits their opponent's legs for holds and break-downs. Upper- body strength is most crucial to this style. Women's freestyle wrestling became an Olympic event in the summer of 2004.

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