Less than three months ago Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, two of India's most successful wrestlers, were sitting together in protest against the Wrestling Federation of India in New Delhi. Now, they are training together at the Sports Authority of India centre in Sonepat.
It's a unique development in Indian wrestling, where the athletes rarely have mixed-gender training sessions and should enable skill-sharing between the country's top male and female wrestlers. It is something that wrestlers themselves have been pushing for, and Vinesh and Bajrang are already comparing notes and enhancing their skills.
They should have been in top-level competition - the Asian Wrestling Championships began in Kazakhstan day before yesterday - and it could be months before they are competing again. It's a huge risk at a critical point in their career but there's a silver lining in these mixed training sessions.
"Training with Bajrang has helped me a lot mentally - I've learnt from his training regimen, how he handles his diet and what he eats, how he trains mentally and this has helped me a lot. I am the one learning more. Every now and then Bajrang helps me out during training sessions too. He motivates me to push myself more, in the gym and on the mat, and it really helps me go past my limit. Even in training on the mat, when we practice techniques, he tells me positions and I've learnt 2-3 moves from him because some are very hard (to learn by yourself). Different people say it differently, but when someone is at the top, no one can explain it better than them. He makes those small changes which can end the bout in quick time," Vinesh tells ESPN.
.@Phogat_Vinesh: "Training with @BajrangPunia has helped me a lot mentally - I've learnt from his training regimen, how he handles his diet and what he eats. Bajrang motivates me to push myself more, in the gym and on the mat". https://t.co/gp2sHMfyue pic.twitter.com/EP5VVEl341
- Shyam Vasudevan (@JesuisShyam) April 11, 2023
"There's a huge difference [training with Bajrang]. We've been fighting for so long to have the men's and women's camps together because we women wrestlers don't have as much knowledge as our male counterparts. The women benefit a lot because we can learn so much from them," she says.
Coaching has been a major bone of contention between wrestlers and the federations with the accusation that Indian coaches are incompetent and in the pocket of the administrators. With their main foreign coaches gone and them opting out of the funded foreign training stint, this combined training is an added benefit.
The difference in coaching standards is quite stark, Vinesh says. "[The usual] coaching quality is zero. In the national camp, the coaches stand with their hands crossed. They know a few things, but none of them knows it all. And that doesn't help us. In any country, separate camps are never held. We requested them to have the freestyle camp together since it's the same style and we can push and learn from each other. It will help everyone do better in progress."
"There's a day and night difference between foreign coaches and our coaches. If I am being honest, I learnt what wrestling really was only after the arrival of the foreign coach. He had a strategy for every opponent, every training session, how to train mentally, how to manage load and that's when I learnt that top-level athletes do all of this too. We just eat and sleep at home once training ends. (laughs) The coach would come home and give inputs and also have weekend sessions to study our opponents. That's how you get to the top."
Bajrang, meanwhile, is working on increasing his strength and conditioning. Dr Anand Dubey, Bajrang's physiotherapist, says the wrestler is using this period to increase his power. "Bajrang's explosive power and strength have shot up over the last few months and that has been our focus. We've worked extensively on his leg power and his squat has increased from 120kgs to nearly 140kgs now," he tells ESPN.
That's nearly two times Bajrang's body weight - he currently weighs around 68kg and competes in the 65kg division. An increase in leg strength is particularly vital for Bajrang as his leg defence has been the weak link in his otherwise solid game. Anand adds that the idea is to maximize Bajrang's lean muscle mass while keeping his weight in check so that the weight cut before competitions doesn't become too difficult. Their target is to remain within 69kgs and pack on as much muscle as possible, which is aided by his 4000+ calorie diet.
Vinesh, Bajrang and Tokyo silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya, who is currently nursing an injury, were the most high-profile active players in the protest in January. The wrestlers laid allegations of sexual misconduct, financial irregularities and administrative lapses against the WFI.
Bajrang and Vinesh had openly stated they would not compete in any domestic or international events until an inquiry was launched into the WFI's misdeeds.
They are now targeting the rankings tournaments. "We will come back in June, there are two ranking series tournaments left. The three of us are running on rankings and will play the next two events to improve our rankings which will make a difference at the Worlds," Vinesh says. The next competition will likely be the Ranking Series event in Kyrgyzstan in June for the trio of Vinesh, Ravi and Bajrang, before the trials for the Asian Games and World Championship, to be played within weeks of each other.