CHENNAI: "When I see him (her coach Jaspal Rana) around, I get courage," Manu Bhaker, one of the most decorated shooters in recent times, said. Rana, a former multiple Asian Games gold medallist, was walking bare-footed on the lawns of a plush heritage hotel in Bhopal. Even though she was not wielding a gun or at the shooting range, he was still keeping a close watch on his ward.
At the sprawling MP Shooting Academy, other personal coaches too were guiding their wards. Deepali Deshpande, one of Jaspal’s peers, was there as well. So was former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ronak Pandit, who is also a national coach. Some may not have envious CVs but they are coaches nevertheless. Take the case of Abhishek Rana who has been training Sarabjot Singh since the time Singh was an adolescent. Joydeep Karmakar, who finished fourth at the London Olympics, too spoke on this.
Personal coaches are not just a fad in shooting anymore, it's become a necessity. It's what the sport demands. Shooters are usually considered recluses; athletes who prefer privacy and revel in their solitude. Naturally, they are more comfortable with their coaches with whom they share a close bond.
Even when shooters are abroad or in a national camp, that invisible hand of the coach would always remain over their heads. With the sport evolving and the number of shooters swelling exponentially, there has been a growth in demand for coaches too. Over the years, they have become an integral part of a shooter's arsenal.
Yet, there have been instances when personal coaches and national coaches drift apart. There have been instances of tiffs, ego clashes and one-upmanship. There have been rivalries, both open and behind the scenes. Sometimes, it has turned nasty too.
Some of the top personal coaches felt that the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the governing body of the sport in the country, must accept the fact that personal coaches are here to stay. "One cannot ignore personal coaches," said almost all the coaches this newspaper spoke to during the Olympic Shooting Trials in Bhopal recently.
The solution, then, could be, that instead of working separately in a cocoon, national and personal coaches can work as a team. They also agreed that all personal coaches cannot be part of the national camp but expertise can be shared.
"They (officials and coaches) must respect the personal coaches," Jaspal put it bluntly. "If they respect, then personal coaches too will respect. Personal coaches also have credentials." Deshpande put it succinctly. "The NRAI cannot cut off the national coaches completely," she said after a discussion with her ward Arjun Babuta.
"One has to understand that NRAI is not just the office of the federation. NRAI means all the shooters and the coaches who are working on the ranges. So they are very much part of the ecosystem. When you talk about senior national camp, the shooters have come up with personal coaches. Whatever information the personal coach has about that shooter, why not use it for the better performance of the shooters? When a shooter gets out of the team, where do they go? They go to the personal coaches. You cannot cut them off. There has to be a coordinated effort. One cannot say that we should have only a national coach or a personal coach."
Despite being a personal coach now, Deshpande, like Jaspal previously, has experienced the other side too. Both had been part of the national junior/senior programme for a considerable period. "When I was the national coach, I used to be in touch with personal coaches. The personal coaches also would know what our plans were."
Pandit had another perspective. "The personal coaches must work together," he said. "They also must shed their ego. What is the primary objective of the coaches? That the shooters excel and win medals for the country. The same is the target of the personal coaches as well as the national coaches. Instead of working individually, it will be prudent for both to work together. They should respect each other. There should be harmony. One should respect the other."
He felt there should not be a case of one competing against the other. He felt personal coaches also should share details with the national coaches.
Jaspal presented an interesting allegory. "There has always been a personal coach and there is one with the shooters because one person cannot be travelling with the shooter all the time. So the national coach is like a principal. The principal is not involved with students all the time. So there is a class teacher. And a class teacher doesn't teach all the subjects. So there is a subject teacher. There is a team that works. If there is no coordination between the principal and the class teacher, the link is over. If there is no understanding between the class teacher and the subject teacher, it is finished. So it is teamwork. If the federation and the government cannot get it done, we pay the price all the time. Or we do what the Chinese do. You have to do it or face the music. Or let one person take the responsibility, accept the defeat and failure, or you celebrate the victory. That does not happen. Where are the 10-12 shooters who have been part of the last Olympics? Where are they? Did you look after them? Are they here at the trial? Where did your talent go? But nobody will take the responsibility."
The NRAI on the other hand said it's a non-issue. "There is no issue here," said Kanwar Sultan Singh, secretary general of the NRAI. "As far as personal coaches are concerned, we have a policy where the shooter has to declare their history including personal coaches. We keep a record. Our coaching system is a complete blend of mind and sports sciences support. We are focussed on the Olympics. We have a structure where we have national and chief coaches and there is a high performance director (HPD). If there is a declaration by a shooter and he or she needs the assistance of a personal coach, we have no objection. There are rules of engagement. This is training for Team India and not for individual shooters. Some of the top personal coaches have accepted the guidelines.
"They can sit down with the HPD and share their shooting plans and tell the HPD that this person has this problem. All of them sit down and chart out the path to excellence," he said. As to the NRAI's efforts bearing fruit, he said as long as the coaches are willing to file that undertaking, they are welcome. We have five or six of the coaches who are doing it.
"If you take tuitions, the tuition master doesn't become your class teacher," he said. "When they leave the national camp, they have to carry the training schedule. They are also being monitored in whatever way they can be monitored."
Jaspal agreed that all personal coaches cannot go to the Olympics or Asian Games but he felt there should be a system through which there is some kind of synergy maintained. "All 21 personal coaches cannot go to the Olympics (Paris)," he explained.
"It doesn't work out that way. At the same time, there has to be a system where they are involved. The national coach who is going should understand what is required. As a national coach, I had about 30 internationals under me. The entire youth team was with me. They were teenagers and it's the most vulnerable age. I was not teaching them everything. I didn't even touch their technique. I told my coaching staff to not touch the technical aspect that they have mastered to progress. We are there with them for 10-15 days. After that, they go to their coaches. You have to respect them and take them on board. You call somebody from abroad and they form rules and you follow. They don't respect our system or culture. You don't pay your coaches well and personal coaches spend their own money and travel. That's not fair."
Karmakar elaborated on the matter. "There is an embargo from the (ISSF) international federation that personal coaches cannot step inside the FOP (field of play), and here during trials or training where national coaches are present, you cannot step in. The current trend has shown that shooters prefer their coaches," he said. "Personal coaches know the shooters better. They spend more time together; some of them have been training them from when they were kids. There is not much of a quality difference between personal and national coaches.
"Here, most of them have come as personal coaches. I have a reservation here as well. If you are a personal coach, you should not be a national coach. It may be unfair for other shooters. They may have reservations. I am coaching 10 shooters in the national camp and I may be a personal coach of one (and) that is a conflict of interest. It is up to the federation to draw a line here."
With more and more shooters coming up, this matter is going to reach a tipping point soon. Like players, even coaches need to be preserved because they are the ones who produce champions. Perhaps, it's time all stakeholders come together and find a lasting solution for the sport.