Paris 2024 Olympics – Shooting – 10m Air Pistol Women’s Qualification – Chateauroux Shooting Centre, Dols, France – July 27, 2024. Manu Bhaker of India in action. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) wants to restart its junior shooting programme, that has found talents like Manu Bhaker and Divyansh Singh Panwar
NRAI president Kalikesh Singh Deo stressed on the need for a framework that facilitates the transition of talented juniors into the senior set-up.
“A majority of our shooters have emerged from the junior programme. Several have come through Khelo India, which the government runs. We’ve proposed that the NRAI work with an ecosystem to support junior shooters transitioning to the senior team,” Deo said on Monday. “This ensures junior shooters are exposed to our high-performance team, foreign and national coaches, and national shooters.”
The NRAI believes that allowing the juniors to compete with seniors would increase competition faced by established shooters and in a playing field where technique is largely level, the best in-form shooters would consistently compete against each other.
“Combining the junior and senior teams creates a unified approach. We appoint coaches for development and ensure juniors compete well with seniors. Previously, the junior programme helped juniors push senior team members out of the national team, which is healthy competition. Today, our bench strength is strong, and competition is about who performs best on the day. That’s a philosophy and policy we emulate in training and selection,” the NRAI chief said ahead of the three-day ISSF World Cup beginning in New Delhi on Tuesday with the Men’s and Women’s 10m Air Pistol and rifle events taking place.
No war with personal coaches
Deo, who has recently been elected to the top post of the NRAI after being acting president over the past year, wants to improve relations with shooters’ personal coaches that have often been cool in recent years.
Each of India’s three medallists at the Paris Olympics attributed their success to their personal coaches, with two of the three coaches being part of the NRAI set-at one point.
“When I took over as acting president, the first thing I did was try to create a platform where we recognise personal coaches in the system. It’s a fact that 60 to 70 percent of the time, shooters train with their personal coaches. National coaches come into the picture during national camps, or for competitions.
“We know in the real world, things don’t always go smoothly. There are clashes of egos and philosophies, but the NRAI has to create a successful working relationship, where personal coaches are recognised by the system and work seamlessly with national coaches. We need seamless transitioning for athletes because we can only have one coach sitting behind the athlete in a competition.”
