Park Tae-Sang points to two Super 300 titles as payoff for long-term work with Indian players

India coach Park Tae-Sang, speaking from Asan, Korea, said two Super 300 titles — 17-year-old Tanvi Sharma's Taipei Open victory last Sunday and 26-year-old Ashmita Chaliha's Korea Masters triumph seven days later — reflected the progress of players he has been developing, Park told PTI.

Park spent four years working with PV Sindhu in Hyderabad, a partnership that ended after Sindhu's Tokyo Olympics bronze medal, and was later approached by the Badminton Association of India to work with younger talent; he described his aim as starting from the beginning and building a new generation himself. "When I started working with Sindhu, she was already a world champion and had a group of good senior players around her. This time, I thought to myself, ‘Okay, let’s start from the beginning. I will build these players myself, with my own hands. The idea was to create a new generation of Indian players.'"

Three years at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati preceded the recent results and Park reacted to the back-to-back wins with immediate pride. "It’s been an amazing two weeks. Last week, Tanvi was also amazing. She is only 17 and won her first BWF-level title. Today, I was even happier because it was Ashmita’s first final and she won the title. As a coach, I’m really happy," he said.

Park called the two Super 300 trophies meaningful but framed them as stepping stones toward higher-tier events. "I think winning two BWF 300-level titles in the last two weeks is a good achievement, but they are only 300-level tournaments. The players are now looking towards the 500, 750 and 1000-level tournaments," he said.

On immediate ranking consequences and the depth of competition, Park said Ashmita should move up in the standings and acknowledged the challenge of Olympic qualification amid established Indian players. "After today’s result, Ashmita’s world ranking should improve enough for her to enter some of those tournaments," he said. "Yeah, 100 per cent. We will try. But we already have some very good players. Sindhu and Unnati (Hooda) are there, right? It will be very tough."

Park set out his training priorities for Tanvi and Ashmita while emphasising continuity in his methods. "I don’t want to change my training style. Now Ashmita and Tanvi have to follow my instructions and train very hard. I will take care of their endurance and their mental strength. They also need more on-court speed training. These are the areas where I think they need to improve," he said.

He pointed to world No. 1 An Se-young as the standard he asks his players to target and highlighted moments the youngsters must manage better in match play. "Actually, An Se-young is at another level. I tell my players that she should be their target. They have to aim for that level," Park said. He added, "They sometimes take a big lead and then suddenly make an easy service mistake or an easy net mistake... At that time, I have to shout a little more, be stronger with them, and tell them to calm down. I always tell ‘Aaramse'. You are doing well. Why are you rushing yourself? Why are you putting so much pressure on yourself to finish the point quickly? ‘Calm down. Aaramse.'"

Park highlighted the internal competition among Indian women’s singles players and cited recent domestic success as motivation for his charges while warning against lapses in intensity. "I think this is a very good system and a very good motivation for the players. Before, there were only a few Indian women’s singles players, mainly Sindhu and Saina. This year, Devika won the Thailand Masters. At that time, I told Tanvi and Ashmita, ‘Look at Devika. She worked very hard, trained very hard and finally won the title. So what are you doing? What are you doing now?'" he said. "Of course, they also have the ability to win titles. But sometimes they train a little harder for a period and then relax. Their movement becomes loose and they lose that intensity. That is when I have to shout at them. I tell them, ‘You don’t have time now to relax when you are a little tired. You have to push more. You have to work harder.'"

Park concluded by thanking the Badminton Association of India and the NCE for their support and noting a wider group of players he works with, while stressing the next major timeline for Olympic qualification. "I want to thank the BAI and the NCE because they are supporting Ashmita, Tanvi and also Ronak Chauhan in men’s singles. He won a bronze medal at the US Open and he is also my player," he signed off. "Our bigger goal is the same for both Tanvi and Ashmita. From May 1 next year, the Olympic qualifying race for the 2028 Los Angeles Games will begin, so next year is going to be very important."