Shooting | ‘Expectations put you in the future but it is important to stay in the present to perform well’

Shooting is perhaps the one Indian sport that garners maximum spotlight at the Asian Games, and rightly so.

At the previous edition in 2023, Indian shooters returned with an impressive haul of 22 medals and the expectations this time around are expectedly high.

For the men working on the men and women holding the rifles and pistols, however, performances take precedence over expectations.

“Our focus is always on delivering good performances but that doesn’t only mean medals, which also depend on what others do, out of our control. We know the strengths and weaknesses of our athletes and we are working on developing the former and reducing the latter.

“If every athlete is able to reach closer to his/her potential, that would be a satisfactory moment and if we are able to do that, it should translate into a lot of smiles and a lot of medals,” pistol coach and High Performance Manager Ronak Pandit told The Hindu at the squad’s preparatory camp at the MP Shooting Academy in Bhopal.

NRAI High Performance Director Pierre Beauchamp added that the important thing was to stay in the present.

“Expectations put you in the future. And we need to be in the present. If you go back to the previous Asian Games, you’re in the past.

“We only talk about the present, we don’t talk about future expectations. We focus on helping them manage their process in the best possible way, have the coping strategies effective for performance under pressure.

Belief

“We’re supplying education, we’re strong on sports science support. But at the end of the day, it’s the athlete that’s on the line.

“He or she needs to believe in themselves. And if they believe in themselves, usually good things happen,” he smiled.

Pandit agreed.

“At the end of the day, you have to stay in the present, stay focused on the shot in your barrel in that moment.

“You’ve got to remember your process and the steps that you need to follow, what you need to do to release that shot well. At the end of the day, your gun doesn’t know who’s firing it, where it is being fired, the occasion it is being fired. It is going to shoot where you point the barrel.”