Not just a good eye, shooters need physique too

Bindra’s back injury has brought to the fore the need to provide shooters with fitness experts at major events.

MUMBAI: Shooting as a sport has always been associated with qualities like a good eye, concentration and mental toughness. But there is one more essential quality which a shooter must possess, and that is physical toughness. No, they don’t need to have a Sylvester Stallone-like chiselled body. What they must have is enormous strength in the backbone, shoulder and neck.

World 10m Air Rifle champ Abhinav Bindra’s severe back injury has exposed the fact that shooters are as susceptible to injuries as any other sportspersons. “Shooting puts enormous strain on the backbone. The back muscles take an enormous amount of beating. There is a need to relax the muscles after a training session. For seven-eight hours, we have to carry a huge weight, and end up putting extreme pressure on one point,” says veteran shooter Anjali Bhagwat.

Agrees double trap ace and Olympic silver medalist Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, “Shooting has its own share of injuries, and shooters are as prone to injuries as anybody else.”

Since shooting is turning out to be perhaps the only sport in which India expects a sure shot Olympic medal, it is imperative that top marksmen like Bindra are protected from such severe injuries. Indian shooting coach Sunny Thomas, who spoke to DNA from Zagreb, Croatia,  believes “the common perception is that shooting involves no major physical effort”.

“So where is the need of a physical trainer?” Sunny asks. “It’s a wrong notion. Shooters need a full-time physical trainer, and a masseur, just like the Indian cricket team have, who travel with the squad during major competitions.”

Bhagwat agrees with Sunny. “We definitely need a physical trainer and a masseur with us at major events. At the moment, shooting coach Laszlo Sczusak does his best to help us, but other teams don’t rely on their coaches for physical conditioning of their shooters.”

“When you talk about competing with China, the US and Australia, that is a basic requirement,” sums up Rathore.

The tragedy of the whole scenario is that even if the National Rifle Association of India wants to send fitness experts with the shooters, central guidelines would prevent them from doing do. And that is because of an age-old rule that states that any Indian sports contingent cannot comprise of more than 20 percent officials. Shooters, with the kind of laurels they are bringing to the country, deserve a full-fledged support staff to help them give off their best.

“I have always placed a high emphasis on fitness. I train for two hours everyday,” adds Rathore, who was, incidentally, working out in the gym while speaking to DNA. Lack of awareness about sports injuries has taken its toll on many disciplines in India. It would be a tragedy if shooting becomes the latest addition to the list.