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Ramji Srinivasan, the man who keeps India's ace athletes fit, aims to work with olympic team

Ramji Srinivasan is India's one of the most renowned high performance coach who holds many a first in the history of Indian sports physical fitness coaching and also the founder of Sports Dynamix(High-performance centre).

By Vishal Sharma
Ramji Srinivasan, the man who keeps Indias ace athletes fit, aims to work with olympic team

New Delhi, June 24: Ramji Srinivasan is India's one of the most renowned high-performance coach who holds many a first in the history of Indian sports physical fitness coaching and also the founder of Sports Dynamix(High-performance centre).

Highlights of his career as S&C coach:

• He was the first ever Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coach of the 2011 World Cup-winning Indian Cricket team.

• 1ST Indian S&C coach to win IPL and Champions League Trophies.

• 1ST Indian S&C coach to train Formula One Driver Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandok.

• First Indian S&C coach for A1 GP Formula Racing-team India.

• First Indian S&C coach for Indian Rally team.

Ramji Srinivasan is an old hand at strength and conditioning with an eye for new training methods. He is the man who is behind the success of many cricketers but not only limited to that, he is the one who keeps several Indian sports top notch professional athletes fit too.

The 51 year old has served many a major sporting teams and individuals as Strength and Conditioning coach, having a huge experience of 24 years in his career of sports training so far.

Be it Sharath Kamal or G.Sathiyan of the Indian table tennis team, or current India's ace tennis player Ramkumar Ramanathan, Ramji is keenly looking after their fitness training sessions even in difficult times amid Covid-19.

Meanwhile discussing more about his passion into sports and hard work in athlete fitness training, Ramji discussed his thrilling journey with Vishal Sharma in an Exclusive chat.

Question: You are one of the country's best strength and conditioning coach. Can you take us through your journey so far?

Answer: I believe miles to go before I sleep and a huge amount to learn every day. Yeah it's been an exciting journey so far in last 25 years and has learnt and experienced so many things like all professionals do in their respective profession. Met many amazing personalities and earnt a lot from them.

One thing which I am happy and elated is, am doing what I love and enjoy the most. My hobby is my profession, it all started in 1993 when my friend and me were discussing my future since I am not for pen-pushing job or any other profession. I have been an outdoor person throughout.

By sheer accident, we zeroed on gyms, which were few and far between in India and Chennai. Amazing experience and learnt loads through trial and error, since there were no certifications available in India and also expensive to go and do it abroad.

Since I had a sports background, it was relatively easy to adapt to exercise mode and patterns and improvise it within my knowledge base. I had to be very careful in not injuring anybody through trial and error and out of the box thinking too. Careful planning and execution of exercise were done.
From there I wanted to specialise into sports training, which was my passion rather than general fitness or celebrity fitness.

Ramji Srinivasan, the man who keeps Indias ace athletes fit, aims to work with olympic team

It all started with Ramesh Krishnan tennis centre (KTC) in 1996 and Chandra TT Academy. My first stint as a fitness trainer for any professional club. I was in cloud 9 when they selected me as a trainer for the foundation. Always wanted to be part of MRF Pace Foundation and It was a great pride to be a part of it and KTC.

Things slowly evolved and I went to Australia and did my course in strength training and Swiss ball training. I started with Tamil Nadu Ranji team in 1998. Introduced fitness testing for the team for the first time in India.

2005, I joined the a1gp team India formula racing team till 2009 with Narain Karthikeyan.

Whereas in 2006 I joined the Indian rally team with Narain Kumar. Been an awesome journey so far and relished each and every moment.

Q: What sort of struggles do you face in your life to be a successful sports professional? How did you overcome out of those situations?

Ans: Hmm I cannot lie and spin a story for the effect sake. I never had any bad struggle in my profession. Working hard for at least 16 hours a day, which is nothing new or revolutionary for any professional.

Only the major hurdle I had to face always was my parents' illness constantly. Since I was the only child, I had to manage taking care of them and my profession, which was a real challenge and back-breaking. I worked smart with good guidance and kept learning and kept my mind open to all information and then use it prudently.

Me struggling alone for treatment for my parents and make a big centre with the latest equipment in the earlier stages of my carrier. Life has moved on since their demise. Now I have some of the best cutting edge equipment's in the world for testing and training at Sports Dynamix. My biggest asset were my trainees and their motivation kept me in the right path to reach where I am now.

I always see half-cup full than empty. When people say -it cannot be done, I would go ahead and try to do it. Unless we try we would never know whether we would succeed or not. People made fun of me constantly of having a pipe dream with no knowledge and personality.

Many trainers and coaches too mocked at me, but I derive loads of inspiration from their negativity to make myself strong and made more determined to reach my desired goal. My will to win was stronger than peoples criticism. It's not only cricket but with racing and table tennis I have represented India as S&C. Finally, I had the last laugh.

Q: What were the biggest challenges you faced in your sporting career?

Ans: During my athletic days in the '80s, everything was a challenge. We did what we knew the best and coach gave his best to make us perform. From facilities to information, mostly all were missing.
Looking back-we are far behind time on all aspects of the sport. Still, in many ways, we are far behind than many developed nations but the gap is narrowing. Things have changed drastically in the last few years, but loads to improve on many fronts for comprehensive overall development in the country.

Q: Who is your inspiration and why?

Ans: There are few major ones: Shivaji master-my school coach in athletics, who unearthed my talent and supported me throughout is my first source of inspiration.

Ramesh Krishnan and Ramanathan Krishnan-he gave my first job with full trust when I was just a beginner. Freedom and trust he bestowed on me to grow.

Narain Karthikeyan- who helped me to learn and experience the training protocols in f1 racing and a lot in the world level. Sharath Kamal-brilliant at this age with amazing commitment and a true champion.
Sachin Tendulkar-Jedi master of world cricket-i always wanted to serve him, that made me take up cricket as a sport to train. major influence as a person too.

MS Dhoni-enigma personified. Absolute superstar talks less, but when he does he nails it.
WV Raman-brilliant and astute mind in analysis and thinking on a different angle. Learnt a lot of things from him. Learnt a lot about cricket which helped me in designing a specialised program for each player.

My friends and off course my parents and family-without them nothing is possible at all. They are the pillar of support on all my endeavours and failures.

Q: How do you motivate the athletes? How important is it for you to attend practices and games/competitions and why?

Ans: An athlete is already a motivated person to a large extent. To take them to the elite level of high performance need a different approach at every stage of their growth. Be it physical or mental.
Every stage of an athlete in their carrier their goals may be different both physically, mentally, technically and tactically. The support staff have to adapt to their needs to get the best out of them. Each profession will have a different approach to a player from the coach to the therapist.

Support staff must attend all the session from training, practise, game, and competition to understand and absorb the players need at each stage. It helps in designing a highly specialised program for them, leaving no stone unturned.

Individual exercise, diet, prehab or rehab, mental conditioning etc. has to be mandatory to all players. One man's food is another man's poison. Have to be mindful in understanding the exact need of each player. Each player is an entity by themselves within a team sport too. Its laborious process but that has to be done for the desired results. All need to be addressed at every stage for sustained performance. Its laborious process but that has to be done for the desired results.

Q: What do you feel makes a Strength & Conditioning coaching most successful?

Ans: There are many factors to make them successful professionals if they adhere to a certain philosophy of training. Many soft skills are not taught by anyone, one has to be like a sponge in absorbing good attributes to make a successful and well-rounded professional. Amazing knowledge alone not sufficient to be a successful S&C coach.

Well rounded knowledge on the subject, be humble in the process. Adaptation of knowledge and skill to the sport and specific skill of the player. Keeping things simple and basic is always the key. Educating the players on the subject. Updation of knowledge constantly. Putting the head on the block and taking responsibility for the failure if it happens. Never pass on the responsibility to other support staff. Knowledge of program manipulation and periodization techniques is the must.

Q: If you get a chance to work with the Indian Olympic team as S & C coach, which sports you would like to?

Ans: Definitely, without a doubt. What else is more important to train the Olympians. Would love to and love to put my head on the block for performance and am sure would make a difference with hard work and commitment with sincerity and honesty.

It's an ultimate pride for any professional to train the India team, i am no less. I would grab it with both the hands for sure and give my best make the difference. Would definitely like to be a part of a team training for Olympics next year.

Q: From how long India's leading table tennis paddlers G.Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal have been training under you? Do you feel with proper fitness session they will be able to achieve the Tokyo 2020 target?

Ans: They have been with me for the past 5 years since 2016 onwards. They are one of the fit players in the world TT circuit and an amazing level of commitment and dedication. Both of them have been in ship shape for Tokyo 2020, unfortunately, Covid happened. I am sure they would be ready for the next year Olympics for sure.

Their fitness level matches up to any TT players in the world currently. Though there are many factors apart from fitness can make it happen. As far as fitness is concerned they are right up to the elite level, fitness is not their concern anymore.

Q: India's top-notch professional athletes used to train under you, can you name some along with their respective sports?

Ans: Cricket, most of them from many states and those who played for India: MSD, Virat Kohli, Bhajji, Yuvi, M Vijay, Shikar, Chawla, Raina, Deepak Chahar, Ashwin, Nehra. And many state and national players-many still train with us

Racing: Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok, Aditya Patel, Yash Aradya, Gaurav Gill, Naran Kumar, Karthik Tharani, and other drivers in UK circuits currently racing.

Table Tennis: Sharat Kamal, Sathiyan, S.Raman, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, Arul Selvi, Bhuvaneswari, Prayesh, Aparna Mohan, Rajesh Ramanathan and many junior players training with us

Tennis: Somdev Varman, Jaco Mathew, Ravi Shankar, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Rushmi Chakravarthy, and many juniors training currently

Sailing: Rohini Rau And Ajay Rau

Fencing: Bhavani Devi

Gymnastics: Meghna

Shuttle: Loads of Juniors players currently training with us

Q: Any message to the current top Indian sportspersons regard their s &c training?

Ans: Many are well equipped with S&C professional in their respective association and clubs. One advice is to keep asking questions about why and what? Since no question is trivial. Be an adaptable athlete with physical and mental intelligence and knowledge. This is the key for top class performance.

As the popularity of the sport and athlete increase, it also brings in loads of good and bad professional into the system. One needs to be aware of these elements in the system. Self-belief and perseverance with smart work is the key for elite performance.


Vishal Sharma is a Delhi based sports journalist. An enthusiast who loves to travel and explore things around. He analysis sports and observe in-depth manner. He is a news and features writer on several online publications. His life is all around sports. Some of his hobbies are blogging, singing, research, travelling and meet geeks. He is a Wikipedian too.

Story first published: Wednesday, June 24, 2020, 17:57 [IST]
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