Shooters can’t play mindgames

Everyday when the shooters set out to practice,they have limited ammunition to pick from,as most of the stock at the range’s storage room is rusted. The shooters refuse to use rusted ammunition as they feel that can damage the barrels of their guns. A large number of ammunition boxes are stacked aside because they are unusable. “We have to look out for clean cartridges. A huge number of boxes are rusted and that takes up our time. Many boxes have worked upon cartridges. But we realise that only later. Our main concern is that our guns are expensive and we can’t take a chance shooting with damaged ammo. The guns can’t be cleaned everyday,” the shooters of the CWG and Asian Games squad training at the Karni Singh range say.

The shotgun events are being held at the Tughlakabad range. The trap and the double trap event has been entrusted with an Italian coach. But the most difficult event in the shotgun category — skeet — lacks a coach.

The skeet team practices alone at the range with no one to monitor their training. Even trap shooters like Mansher Singh,who have a lot of experience under their belt feel that the presence of a coach would have would made their life easier. “Undoubtedly,skeet is a difficult category in the shotgun events. Also,sometimes during training minor flaws can creep into our technique,which a coach would be able to spot. Small things matter a lot in shooting and I feel if they are not spotted in time,they could prove to be costly during competition,” Singh says.

Other skeet shooters feel the same but with a few days left for the competition,they know that their plea for a coach will only fall on deaf ears. “It is not the right time to request for a coach. Even if we get a coach now,he will not be able to help us much. We all have developed different techniques and mindsets before the CWG. And changes in it would mean that we have to start from a scratch,” says Mairaj Khan. The Asian Games are scheduled in November and most of the skeet shooters feel that a coach must join the camp.

Simultaneously,camps are being run at Pune as well. The rifle and pistol event shooters train there. There they are also given a psychologist who analyses the mental status of the athletes. The Delhi camp has so far been denied the services of a psychologist.

“Should we understand that we are not affected mentally? In fact a shot gunner’s real test is the mental one. There is hardly any difference in targeting the clay birds but controlling pressure is what is important at crucial times. With 10 days at hand,there is no mental trainer to prepare us for our events,” says Mansher Singh.

For the second day,the shooters were at the receiving end of the accreditation mess. They had to miss their training as the accreditation cards were not received til date. Moreover,the shooters are not even provided drinking water during their training sessions.