Shooting from the pen

Every time reporters try to look into the minds of a competitor, trying to recreate match-eve emotions, preparatory solutions and the thought-train during the competition, they come up short. There are elements of cut-throat competition that cannot be recreated in third person, cannot be elucidated through observation.

When The Indian Express’ Navneet Singh decided to take part in the 51st national shooting championships in Ahmedabad (from December 28, 2007 to January 7, 2008), we decided to collect his experience for a first-persona account: the nearest to the real thing.

Over to Navneet Singh:

The warm-ups

• The first thing I needed was tips. Plenty of tips.

Tips from top shooters came in handy. Melbourne Commonwealth Games best athlete Samresh Jung of Delhi is always ready to help. Then there was Harveen Srao.

They eventually helped in improving my score by more than 11 points. That’s how I broke the 560 ‘barrier’ in the men’s air pistol category.

The tips

• Match-eve, ace pistol shooter Jung, explains the fundamentals. I have been shooting for two years now, but talking to Jung made all the difference.

“A shooter must prepare himself properly (mentally and physically) before releasing the shot. Follow the procedure throughout the 60-shot match.”

That is scary, and exhausting. He said more: “Preparation includes proper stance, triggering and follow-through. All the points are vital for a good card.”

I go to Srao, women’s air pistol star. “Focus on scoring a 10,” she says. Easier said that done, for me. Want if I can’t? “Take a break after a bad shot, helps in coming back to scoring a good shot.”

Bad shot?

• Well, let me explain. A bad shot for an international shooter means any shot outside 10. For a beginner, like me, though, it can mean a lot of things.

Off to battle

• Keeping those wise words of the top shooters in mind, I began. First shot just outside ten, yet I wasn’t under any kind of pressure. Is this what we write as “underdog advantage?”

But the relaxed mode helped. I must share a secret tip here: don’t calculate the score, go ahead and shoot. Quite like Sachin’s not looking at the scoreboard, you see.

I saw the scores later. Next shot, a perfect 10. Wow! First card, seven out of ten good shots (all ten), two eights (good for me, poor for the top shooters): an average of 95.

... contd.

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.