Eddy having a blast with new coach’s training methods

KUALA LUMPUR: Pistol shooter Eddy Chew has described training under South Korean coach Park Cheol-wan as “a blast”.

Eddy claims that he’s in the best shape of his life after training under Cheol-wan for the last two months.

The National Sports Council (NSC) hired three South Koreans – Park Sangsoon (chief coach), Cheol-wan (pistol) and Kong Hyun-ah (rifle) – in January for the Kita Juara programme.

The 22-year-old Eddy said that he liked Cheol-wan’s tough training regiment.

“The coach focuses on so many aspects ... like discipline, physical, right techniques of pulling the trigger, how to overcome our emotion in competitions and how to shoot consistently well.

“I have been representing the national team for five years, but this is the first time I’ve been told that I cannot show my emotions when I am in competitions as it can affect my performance,” said Eddy.

“I also have to undergo gym training one hour a day and skip 500 times a day to build up my physical strength.

“This is also the first time that skipping has been included in my training.

“I am enjoying the training as I’ve learned so many things in two months that I even improved on my personal best in training,” added Eddy, who will be featuring in the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi from Friday.

Eddy, who has a personal best of 577 points in the 10m air pistol event, shot 587 in training two weeks ago and 589 last week.

“I’m making steady progress in training ... I hope to continue improving in New Delhi.

“This will be my first competition this year and my mission is to finish in the top 20.

“With the guidance of the Korean coach, I hope to get good results in competitions,” said Eddy, who returned home empty-handed from the 2015 Singapore SEA Games.

The other national shooters featuring in New Delhi are Johnathan Wong, Choo Wen Yan, Hasli Izwan Amir Hasan, Alia Sazana, Joseline Cheah, Bibiana Ng (pistol); Zubair Mohamad, Zul Haziq, Lufti Othman and Hadafi Jaafar (rifle).