Until you fall, you don’t learn: Rana

Gradually, she (Manu Bhaker) will get used to the pressure. It doesn’t happen overnight. The kids are ready for the challenge at World Championships JASPAL RANA, India pistol coach

PALEMBANG: No television and restricted access to mobile phones are some of the ways India pistol coach Jaspal Rana mentors his wards, many of whom are teenagers.

Jaspal, a four-time Asian Games gold medallist, knows the gamut of emotions a teenager can go through in victory and in defeat. He had looked somewhat out of sorts when, as an 18-yearold, he returned from the Hiroshima Asian Games with a gold medal.

So, when Jaspal’s prodigy, Manu Bhaker, emerged from the 25m pistol range bruised and shattered, he shielded the Jhajjar girl from the media and took her to the comfort of the rest room. Quite unlike the 10m mixed final where he seemed a bit angry with Bhaker’s performance.

“That was my way of telling her she had not lived up to expecchampions tations (in 10m event), but yesterday (Wednesday), she did a remarkably good job and I was proud of her performance even though she finished fifth in the nerve-wracking final, won by Rahi Sarnobat,” said Jaspal, who now has 60-odd shooters on his watch.

“My first lesson to them is, ‘until you don’t fall, you don’t learn anything’. So, they compete without baggage but absorb the experience for future competitions,” he said.

Time was when there was just one pistol shooter shouldering the aspirations of a nation and Jaspal is now happy that if one misses out, there is usually someone else backing up.

“What happened yesterday was a superb example of that. Manu got eliminated early but Rahi kept going and won gold. That was also a learning experience for the young girl. Seeing Rahi shoot in that pressurecooker situation was a lesson in endurance for Manu. Gradually, she will get used to the pressure. It doesn’t happen overnight. like Rahi, Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang .... or for that matter Sanjeev Rajput, who shot remarkably in that killing (50m rifle 3-position) competition to win silver have slogged for two, maybe, three decades. Those are lessons in endurance and mental strength for youngster.”

Jaspal was initially sceptical about the medals’ haul because the team events and a few individual events had been scrapped from the Games. “I thought, we’d return with frugal picking but these kids have been a revelation,” said Jaspal, who won three gold at the 2006 Asian Games.

“Now children from all crosssections of society are in the camp. They are children of businessmen, farmers, bureaucrats... those who make the top-10 cut in the National championships are absorbed in the junior programme.”

“After the pressures here, I’m sure the kids are ready for the world championships.”