India’s top paddler G. Sathiyan is making optimum use of his time at home in Chennai. The 27-year-old now has started playing table tennis, not with any other player, but with an imported robot at his residence.
“It’s a remote-operated robot (Butterfly Amicus Prime for advanced players). I got it from Germany under the advice of my coach S. Raman in November last when Shen Yaohuan of China came to the Raman TT Academy.
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Now with the lockdown in place, I took it back from the academy so that I can practice,” said Sathiyan, who is the top-ranked Indian in the world at 31.
The robot was funded by the Go Sports Foundation and with help from Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu which took care of the import duty and customs clearance.
The speciality of the robot, according to Sathiyan, is that it can give the ball at different speeds, trajectory, frequency and spin.
“Of course, the imported robot can never replace a human. It gives one shot for a backhand and another for a long forehand whereas a normal robot will put the ball only at the same speed.
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“It can send 120 balls per minute, which is two balls per second and 300 balls can be loaded into it. I feel in these times it is extremely helpful,” he said.
Sathiyan stressed that the robot is valuable for those paddlers who want to improve on their technique, sharpness and reflex.
“It’s the best robot I’ve seen,” Sathiyan added.
