What’s Manu Bhaker’s price for chasing the ‘beautiful shot’? Coach Jaspal Rana points out a bruise on her hand that will last lifetime

During the selection trials to pick the team for the Olympics, Rana stood in the stands with binoculars. Yet, when the bullet left Manu’s pistol, he didn’t even realise. “I could not believe it! I enjoyed that. I was smiling,” Rana says. The smile returns on his face by merely talking about it.

You made India Proud! 🇮🇳

By breaking a 12-year Olympic drought in her sport 🫶🏻

By becoming the first to win multiple medals for independent India in a single edition! ❤️

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Each sport defines beauty in its own way. In most, an outwardly visible movement, no matter how nuanced or exaggerated, generates awe. Think of Messi’s dribble, Kohli’s cover drive or Federer’s single-handed backhand.

Typical to this sport of jargons and intense complexities, where more eyes are on the screen on the shooters’ heads that displays scores than the shooters themselves, a ‘beautiful shot’ is the one that goes unspotted.

It’s what Anish Bhanwala, the pistol shooter who makes his Paris Olympics appearance on Monday, aspires for. The medal isn’t his obsession. He wants those watching him to go ‘wow’ when he shoots. “I want to be that level smooth,” Anish says.

The USA’s pistol coach Jason Turner says: “You want to see no movement on the gun when the shot is fired. That’s what would make me go wow — no movement and seeing the person in control, emotions-wise and with consistency.”

That’s what Manu has come close to achieving this week. For the wider world, her two bronze medals were a constant source of happiness. To shooting geeks, the magic lay in how minimalistic and non-existent her motion was.

Manu tries to take you to a place that athletes obsessively talk about but few can see: ‘the zone’. At these Games that demand athletes to be faster, higher and stronger, she has aimed to stay still.

It hasn’t come naturally to her. “Earlier, I was this very impulsive kind of person, I would punch the wall, do all kinds of things,” she says. “My sport has taught me so much patience. So many years of hard work and patience, that made me who I am today. Moods and zone, it just comes naturally when you’ve been doing something for this long. You know what’s the best zone to be in.”

Manu Bhaker is shooting for glory again at #Paris2024! 😍

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Zone she says is when she’s in complete control of herself. When she hears only the pop when the trigger is pulled, and sees just the bullseye. When the emotions are in check and the breath is in control.

Manu’s demeanour on the range was something everyone — including her fiercest of rivals — had noticed. “She has looked in complete control this week,” Turner, the American coach, says.

It isn’t something that happened magically upon landing in Chateauroux. Rana and Manu started preparing for this two months ago, replicating the routine of Olympic matches in their daily schedule. “We sent a report to TOPS and SAI. People had a problem but we stood by that. But the main thing was to come back to Luxembourg and train there. It helped that we were in the same time zone,” Rana says.

Rana set her targets — for every score of 9 or less, she’d have to cough up a fine. “Right now, she has to return 350 euros,” he laughs.

The badge of honour is the bruise on both her wrists. The constant holding of a gun in awkward positions has left ‘permanent marks’, something Manu proudly flaunts as proof of her everyday grind.

“Look at her hand! Kharab ho gaya hai. It won’t get better. Naasur hogaya hai (It’s become very sore) because there is no time for recovery. We practised six hours every day. And that mark will be permanent,” Rana says.

It’s the price, he says, of chasing that ‘beautiful shot’. That she missed her third medal of these Games by a whisker during the 25m pistol final will rankle both, Rana and Manu.

But the former world champion turned coach isn’t focussed only on the outcome. “Look at the way she carries herself. Everybody is under pressure, tremendous pressure. The way you walk, the way you stand, fire… that defines you,” he says.

She's made plenty of history at #Paris2024 #Olympics. But after missing a third medal by a whisker, #ManuBhaker has a message for everyone.

📽 via The Indian Express' man in Paris, @mihirsv pic.twitter.com/1upCMfiqtu

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“Did you see that Korean who won the gold?” he adds, referring to the eventual gold medallist Yang Jiin. “She was hitting the frame! Three shots of hers hit the frame. I am happy that Manu was much better than her.”

Once the euphoria settles on a historic week for Manu and Indian shooting, Rana will sit with her and analyse where she lacked in Saturday’s final. “The 9s cost us, but it isn’t the end of the road,” he says.

Rana is too much of a shooting nerd to linger over one or two poor shots. He’s the one to smile and reminisce about that one beautiful shot she hit three months ago. The shots that are a work of art, meriting a place in the Louvre.