[MENTION=7]Cheung[/MENTION] Sorry, I don't know the exact time spent at each academy. But Ajay spends more time with Tom John. He pays for training with Tom John. His training at Prakash Padukone Academy is free.
Impressed with Ajay's performance against Simon Santoso at PBL. If I have to pick an Olympic team right now, I will pick Srikanth and Ajay.
https://sportscafe.in/articles/badm...t-all-england-is-my-biggest-goal-ajay-jayaram Our lad has a great attitude. Coming back from injury and aiming for high goals. Really great attitude, very well expected from him. Him and Srikanth are heading for a great future.
AJ surely is the most calm personality.. A perfect blend of hit and melt material!! He can smash just like any other Indian but what's the cherry on the top is he can go on playing the rally forever. He is currently most composed and patient Ind MS a wish him luck to get better and better..
Link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...himself-ajay-jayaram/articleshow/74307177.cms A player returning from injury should be allowed to prove himself: Ajay Jayaram V Anand | TNN | Feb 25, 2020, 22:08 IST MUMBAI: When Ajay Jayaram reached the semifinal after beating Kidambi Srikanth at the recent Barcelona Open, a tweet from the Badminton Association of India media handle congratulating the player and wishing him more success, drew a sharp response from him. "I certainly can, if I can get some support from you guys!" tweeted Jayaram. Back in Mumbai after that exploit, Jayaram says the tweet was largely due to the struggles he has had to face due to injuries and the troubles he had to undertake to arrange for funds. "The last two years have been a struggle in terms of arranging funds. I was injured in 2017 when I was in the top 20. I had to take a 7-8 month break. It has been pretty hard in that sense. If you are in the top 20 and then you have an injury, you feel if you had some kind of support it would have been good," explained Jayaram. He is not piqued with the BAI and understands their situation. "BAI will not be funding everybody. In recent times lots of Indians have done well and I understand that it will be difficult for the association to support each and every player. But if a top 20 player comes back from injury there should be some provision to prove themselves," says the 32-year-old. Jayaram’s share of luck with injuries has often not allowed him to have an extended run. "I was injured in 2014 and came back strong. Yeah, in the last one or two years it has been a little harder. When I came back in 2018 (from an injury) I kind of played well. I got back into the top 50 but again I was out for 4-5 months due to injury. "But 2019 to this day I am kind of injury free. I found my mojo by the end of the year especially in Lucknow and followed through with good performances in the PBL . The current phase of my career is on how I am managing my recovery. That is what I am focusing on and will be doing in the near future. The experience, the stroke play and game sense is obviously there. If I can maintain fitness at an optimal level, the performance will take care of itself," he says. Jayaram has always loved the sport and the pleasure that he derives from playing is so great that the lack of media attention has not bothered him. "I love the sport so much that I do not mind that the likes of Srikanth, Kashyap or Praneet or the others have been in the media of late. At this point in my career, I am enjoying playing, I am enjoying competing," he insists.
Shuttler Ajay Jayaram steps into B-school as life away from court beckons The former World top-15 player scored 710 in GMAT; will study at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. https://indianexpress.com/article/s...hool-as-life-away-from-court-beckons-7843303/ But the 34-year-old chose a campus he had crossed hundreds of times in his life, at Hyderabad, picking one of India’s finest B-schools, Indian School of Business to transition out of a much-loved sport. “Yes, going abroad was an option. But since my eventual plan was to be in India, it made sense to study here. Also, given my age, I was looking at diverse profiles, so this made more sense,” he says. And he also got a scholarship. The lockdown had led to an interesting vista. “I was always academically inclined in school and college, so studying was more fun than pressure,” says the Mumbai shuttler. Having completed his B.Com after Ruia College, he’d lost touch with classrooms, but had pleasantly discovered a flair for Math (and logical reasoning trick questions). He chuckled at how it was similar to badminton. “I was naturally a fairly deceptive player with good game sense who could create openings. Training under Tom John, I learnt the ability to change speed and play aggressive,” he reckons. The Verbals half of GMAT had been a tad challenging. “Maths was absolutely fun though it’s tricky and twisted, but my concepts were strong. But I had to brush up on English basics. I don’t read excessively, and the colloquial English we speak doesn’t quite wash,” he chuckles. “It’ll be great to come back to sport, but I’m keeping my options open,” he says, having only to decide on electives after the 4th term. sport taught him to move on with clean breaks. “It teaches you to move to the next thing quickly. Accepting that losses are not the end of the world. And even if you win, you’ll be forgotten in a week and fight the same time next week at another tournament,” he says wisely. Ajay would find for himself quite a reputation as a talented artist post 2016, the first of his successful diversions. “I used to draw as a kid. But in 2016 I decided to spend my free time productively. Sketching was a good de-stress.” In the lockdown, he took to painting with passion. He sings too. “It’s just humming,” he says in a conservative estimate, though a guitar hangs on the wall like a prized possession. For his parents and sister, the emptiness of his wound down and now retired career will be as big a challenge. “Even if I was playing in the US, they’d be up watching at 3 a.m! They lived my career,” he says. Ajay also ties the knot with Soumya Ravi next week. Slated to start as a product manager with a Bangalore startup, Soumya will help him ease into this transition, he says. “It’ll be impossible when I start college and work to train 5-6 hours a day. But I intend to give it at least a couple of hours a day. I’d love to try out squash and tennis now,” he says. Badminton that Ajay reckons continues to dawdle in its amateurish bubble could do with a revamp along tennis lines. “I know it’ll take a long long time and it’s probably hard to change the system. But I’d love to take on that challenge,” he says of a future dipping of toes into sport from the other end. As of June, he’ll take the right along the Hyderabad highway, rather than the usual left to the national academy, where he must’ve competed as a player a dozen times. The shuttle court will have fewer of the geometric strides, the angular backhand whips at the net and the suave half-smile of a cerebral takedown on court.
Another year old article. Ajay Jayaram writes about Indian Thomas Cup victory. https://thebridge.in/players-speak/...sh-part-badminton-thomas-cup-dream-team-31629
