Ace shooter Abhinav Bindra hit gold with it and you can too. The health benefits of air rifle shooting can certainly help you cope with life’s everyday chores.
Other than making you proud with gold medal wins at the Commonwealth Games this year, the sport of shooting comes with numerous health benefits and is open to anyone who is passionate and aged between 9-70 years and above.
According to Jawahar Joshi, chief instructor at the Academy of Air Rifle Shooting, Mumbai, who has been instructing since the last 25 years, the sport of shooting acts as an unbelievable stress-buster. “The sport can be beneficial to everybody. These days I have also observed more number of working people in their 30s and 40s showing an eagerness toward learning to shoot,” he says.
How it helps
Shooting requires you to concentrate hard on the
target with the focus of achieving it accurately. “In terms of concentration required, this sport is at par with yogasana or any other form of meditation. It eliminates your fears and makes you confident. It helps you get sharp reflexes, stronger grasping power, correct decision making and perfect mind and body co-ordination,” informs Jawahar.
Rajan Singh, 35, and Amit Sharma, 30, account advertising executives, got addicted to the sport when they were looking for an extracurricular activity during their work schedule. “It involves logic, mathematics and creative thinking and gives me peace. Shooting is a thinking man’s sport; it has helped me perform more efficiently at my work,” says Rajan.
For Amit, shooting taught him endurance. “I used to be a huge task for me to concentrate on the target but gradually I learned to control my thoughts and zero in on the target. I felt some extraordinary power within me when I could then control my mind and shatter the target in two pieces,” he says.
Cost and more
Air rifles have a longer range of 35-100 meters and cost from Rs 2,500-Rs 5,000. Pistols usually have a small range from 15-30 meters and are cheaper than the rifles. They cost between Rs 1,000-2,000.
Where to learn
In Mumbai, several rifle clubs offer the basic course for a fee of Rs 1,000-Rs 3,000 per month. These include Maharashtra Rifle Association, Worli; Youth Rifle Club, Santacruz; Academy of Air Rifle Shooting, Dadar and Goregaon Sports Club, Malad (W).
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