When the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Delhi World Cup was initially postponed to May, the Indian team had already begun training in the pre-tournament camp. We still continued practising for the trials we had and once we were done with those, I came back home in Chandigarh on March 19.
I was happy I was back home and also thought initially that the lockdown announced because of the coronavirus crisis will be in place for only a few days. It will be a good break for me because all the shooters had been facing some tough competitions since last December. However, it became quite predictable shortly after that all competitions at least until July are set to get cancelled.
When at home, I usually don’t go out much except for going to the gym. So maybe, for me, it was easier coping up. Workouts indoors are much more fun because I like my space. I’m actually working on my physical training a lot more, during the mornings and evenings. I push myself to train every day and then also make some of my meals so that I can stick to my diet.
With my training, I didn’t face any problems as such. When I started shooting after a 10-day break, I had to make a temporary place where I could shoot. Mine is not exactly a 10m range but it is of 9m and I had to do dry training. Not having a proper range at home is a disadvantage, but lately I have resumed training at a nearby range.
I have a joint family, and it feels really good spending time playing dumb charades, cards and Ludo. I also started learning different dance steps from my sister and juggling from my brother. I started painting a lot and then signed up for online courses in sports psychology, exercise physiology and sports nutrition to keep my mind in the zone. It was kind of finding time for things I couldn’t pay much attention to earlier.
I don’t think anything will get affected much once we come out of this. Only the training plan we made, keeping in mind the Tokyo Olympics, will drastically change with major competitions now cancelled. Otherwise, whatever we learned stays with us. It is just about refining our technique and getting better every day. Nothing is lost. The game remains the same. However, now, we don’t even know when the competitions will resume. The main thing would be to follow all the norms – social distancing, wearing masks and sanitising everything – at shooting ranges and gyms. Travelling will be different, too. The rest, I guess, I’ll start experiencing once I start venturing out.
As told to Santadeep Dey
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