Ronak urges joint-efforts to solve coaches' issue

Former shooter and National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) observer Ronak Pandit believes all the coaches need to come together and sort out issues troubling them for the benefit of shooters.

The involvement of personal coaches during the World Cup has peeved the foreign coaches. Pandit feels everyone has the good of shooters at heart and a concerted effort should be made to clear all confusion.

“It is important that all the stakeholders -- the coaches, NRAI, and SAI come together - and sort out all the issues. There is already a policy in place which just needs to be executed. But I agree exceptions should be made,” said Pandit, who will be filing his report to the NRAI.

“At the end of the day, it is an individual sport. If you see all the tennis players, even though they come together as a team for an event, have their own support staff. So why not for the shooters. So coordination between the coaches is very important. In the entire situation, it is the shooters who are at the loss.”

Pandit, who also coaches wife Heena Sidhu, said the matter should be resolved at the earliest.

“The next World Cup we have is in Beijing which is six weeks from now. This matter should be resolved in the next couple of weeks so that we have four weeks to prepare for the other three World Cups,” he said.

“Among the shooters, there is no problem. Now the coaches need to come together. Foreign coaches also must understand the local coaches don’t have bad intention and can help a shooter. If a shooter feels that a coach helps him perform better in a certain way, he should be allowed to listen to that coach. It is not possible for one coach to look after all the shooters.

Pandit has been giving personal training to Heena. “For that, I have taken permission from NRAI and pistol coach Smirnov Pavel is aware of it. I submit my updates to Pavel and other national coaches,” he said.

Meanwhile, Saurabh Chaudhary has also written to the NRAI to allow his personal coach Amit Sheoran to be part of national camps and competitions. he is yet to get a response.