With no prosthetic equipment for badminton, Para-badminton star Manasi Joshi adapts to succeed
The 2019 World Champion says para-badminton players have to make do with assistive technology developed for athletes, which has only forward motion
Science and technology has come a long way in empowering para-athletes, but there are still certain compromises these athletes have to find.
Para-badminton star Manasi Joshi, the 2019 World Champion, participates in the SL3 category, where the players need to play while standing. The players, in this class, could have impairment in one or both lower limbs with poor walking or running balance.
"The assistive device we use currently in badminton are only used for athletic events. We used the same equipment,” Joshi told the Olympic Channel.
“We don't have prosthetic equipment for badminton, we have to adapt. The prosthetics that are currently made in the market are only made for forward motion. But badminton requires sideways and backward motion also. Currently, I hope manufacturers think and change the devices.”
Currently in Dubai for the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum 3rd Dubai Para-Badminton International 2021 Championships, Joshi will return to play the women's singles for the first time, since her triumph at the 2019 World Championships.
She had decided to shift her focus to mixed doubles, where she is paired up with Rakesh Pandey, in a bid to qualify for Tokyo Paralympics.
"After one year of not playing competitive sport, it will be the first tournament for us. My body underwent a lot of changes during the time. During the lockdown, when we were not able to wear prosthetics or go out, our stump-size increased, our prosthetics changed," the Asian Para-Badminton Championship bronze medallist explained.
"This tournament will be like coming back to everything. It will be a big tournament for me and I'm hoping to do good things.”
Joshi, whose leg had to be amputated after she met with an accident in 2011, began her journey in competitive badminton in 2014. A day before PV Sindhu won a historic gold medal at the 2019 World Championship in Basel, Manasi had beaten fellow Indian Parul Parmar in the final to claim the world crown.
Ranked No 2 in the world in women’s singles SL3, Joshi believes her recent success is due to the fact that she has been able to focus solely on badminton.
“I was working full-time when I was playing my first World Championship (2015) as a software engineer and was also playing full-time which was really hectic,” the 31-year-old said.
“I was not able to completely focus on sports at that time. Now that I'm completely focusing on the sport, my game has improved hundred percent.”
Joshi started using the blade, only last year, and hopes that better assistive devices will be manufactured in near future.
"I've become more focused on sports science, nutrition, recovery and rest. I am making sure to think right, eat right and be right, in the process, not only change my quality of life but also change others with disabilities like mine.
"In 2015, I used to play with my walking prosthetic. I used to have only one prosthetic leg for playing and then in 2018, I got two prosthetic legs, one for badminton and then in 2019, I got three prosthetic legs. One for badminton, fitness and walking.
“I've been concentrating on equipment science also. The assistive device can change the quality of your game, quality of your life and I see a lot of change in the development of equipment.”
Para-badminton will make its debut at the Tokyo Paralympics and Joshi hopes to be there.