A home on the court

“So I’ve always been into sports, and I’ve tried to various I’ve tried a lot of sports over the years ever since I was young,” Gupta said. “So starting in India, I tried soccer, cricket, and then eventually I got into badminton because it was another sport I wanted to explore.”

He’s been playing badminton for five years, but this is more than a backyard passion. Gupta is a nationally ranked badminton player.

“It takes a lot of effort,” Gupta said. “You need to need to maintain your physical condition. You need to analyze games. You need to watch professional games, be able to take in how they’re playing, and what strategies they’re using. It’s definitely a lot of effort and I feel very proud to see my national rankings.”

His rise to the top wasn’t luck. His commitment and dedication to the sport is what got him to where he is today says mom Tamanna Jindal. 

“He’s very hardworking and focused, and from the beginning he’s been interested, really interested in sports,” mom Tamanna Jindal said. “It’s his keen interest. He doesn’t shy from waking up at 4:00 or even playing till 12:00. So he would just continuously work to play the whole day.”

For coach Chen Hao Puah, Gupta’s rise towards the top started at the bottom with the basics. 

“So I think usually when you start mentally, then the kids are we teach them how to hold the grips, then I think you need to figure out how to position,” Chen said. “You train like usually last time trains like three or four times a day, so roughly maybe 8 hours.”

There’s more to the sport than training and drills. According to Gupta, the game has a strong mental component.

“I find it really fun to like play games and it’s almost like playing chess with your opponent,” Gupta said. “You’re trying to get them into certain position and then you’re trying to finish the game. I also just really like the adrenaline rush I get at the end of the game, and no matter if you win or lose, obviously it’s just a really nice feeling to be able to play right.”

However, in the United States, badminton has yet to really take flight. More than 200 million people in the world play badminton, but in the US, Badminton only has 4-thousand active members. Despite being an Olympic sport since 1992, Gupta believes the sport won’t take flight in the US until the perception changes.

“The perception also needs to change in order for this expansion to happen where badminton is not just like your backyard sport that you can play once you get into the higher levels,” Gupta said.

“It is actually pretty physically taxing and it does take a lot of skill and technique.”