Yoga’s the way for jr shooters
Chief coach Jaspal Rana says yoga is the need of the hour for shooters.
Yoga was the catchword for the national junior shooters, who are geared up for the 5th Asian airgun championship beginning at Nanchang in China, on Wednesday.
A total of 24 shooters, undergoing preparation at the Karni Singh range before their departure for China, took special classes in yoga and meditation to help prepare better.
Asian Games gold medallist and Arjuna awardee Jaspal Rana, who is the chief men’s coach, said the introduction of the yoga programme would make the shooters disciplined and competition-ready while also helping in expressing themselves through movement, breath and body to rejuvenate and transform on every level.
“It’s been long overdue. Yoga is the need of the hour as in a sport like shooting, you need to be mentally tough and require high concentration skills. The shooters will definitely benefit from it,” Rana was quoted as saying.
“The yoga classes started a few days back. We are not stressing too much on the physical aspect, it’s just the basic classes. We have two sessions, one in morning and another in the afternoon. We needed to start this system somewhere, sometime. When the whole world is benefiting from it, why should we be left behind?”
The move came on the insistence of the Sports Authority of India, who tied up with the Morarji Desai Institute of Yoga in the capital.
Women’s coach Deepali Deshpande, who was among the country’s best shooters before she went off the radar following a disastrous outing in the 2004 Athens Olympics, was hopeful that the practice would help the players in the Asian meet.
Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga director Dr Ishwara V. Basava Reddy said the SAI had approached them to provide experts for the shooting camp.
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