PALEMBANG: Wunderkinds in shooting have made the country sit up and take notice of them. Their success at the Asian Games has contributed to India having two finalists in the same discipline five times over the last week. The corresponding statistic in Incheon? Zero. But ever thought about what goes on in the minds of Anish Bhanwala, Manu Bhaker et al? National coach, Jaspal Rana, who knows India’s teen hotshots like the back of his hand, lifted the lid on what those kids are going through. “They have grown up very fast,” he told Express.
“They do not know who or what is a teenager. They have no friends around them. Every month they are travelling, they don’t see their parents for 2-3 months at once.” The pressure, though, is so insane they can’t even harbour thoughts of wanting to meet parents or loved ones outside the realm of FaceTime or Skype. “If they complain of burnout, I have three or four talents waiting to take their place. So the shooters do not really have an option.” The 48-year-old, who was originally talking about Manu before branching out into youngsters, also asked people to back off from expecting too much from her. “Don’t you think we are expecting too much from a 16-year-old?” he queried.
“Although there is nothing wrong in expecting, accept the way she is performing now. She has loads to learn. She has to shoot in many more competitions before she is ready.” How Manu will react to her first major disappointment will be the next chapter of her career. Over the last week, she lost two finals (one of them, 25m women’s pistol, after setting a Games record in the qualifiers) and was heavily scapegoated for seemingly letting the mixed 10m air pistol team down. On Friday, she missed her last chance, after finishing fifth in the 10m air pistol final.
Most shooters would be content with two finals. The problem with the prodigiously talented 16-year-old is that she doesn’t fall into that category. Till landing in Palembang, she hadn’t known the tastes and sounds of regret following a competition. Now, thrice in a week, the likes of Rana and Raninder Singh, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) head, have had to walk up to her and pat her on the back to help her deal with defeats, a lexicon she is still not familiar with.
How does Rana help cope with failures? What has he told his prized ward over the last week? His reply is fascinating for it reveals not only his style of athlete management but what kind of athlete the Commonwealth Games gold medallist is. “What do you tell 15-16 year old kids? You just tell them what they want to hear. You tell them good things in such a way they do the things you want them to do.” From Indonesia, Manu, along with most of the other teens, will depart for Korea for the World Championships.