Bellary (Karnataka), Feb 17 (PTI) India's Olympic-bound shooters recently underwent a training-cum-conditioning camp that had nothing to do with rifles and pistols, aiming instead at helping them better manage the rigours of elite sport.

As part of the High Performance partnership between the JSW Group and the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), 11 members of the senior squad underwent a five-day camp that concluded on Sunday at the renowned Inspire Institute of Sport.

A record 15 Indian shooters have secured quotas for the 2020 Olympics.

The shooters, who are preparing for the ISSF World Cup beginning next month in New Delhi, attended a series of workshops and practical training sessions.

The shooters in attendance included a mix of experienced hands like Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil and Mairaj Ahmad Khan along with talented youngsters including Manu Bhaker and Divyansh Singh Panwar.

Other shooters at the camp were Deepak Kumar, Abhishek Varma, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Rahi Sarnobat, Yashaswani Singh Deswal and Chinki Yadav.

The team was accompanied by pistol coach Ved Prakash Pilania and junior national rifle coach Suma Shirur.

"Initially we were all a little confused when we were told that we would be spending a week training without our weapons and anything related to our sport. But when we reached here, I was blown away by the positive training environment at the institute...," said Bhaker.

A 2018 Commonwealth Games champion and winner of five 2019 ISSF World Cup gold medals, Bhaker added, "I have never stayed at a hostel before, and the discipline followed by all the athletes here was my biggest takeaway from the week."

The camp followed from the strategic partnership signed by the two organisations in December 2018 under which JSW would fund NRAI's high performance requirements to develop Indian shooters ahead of the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

During the course of the week, the shooters underwent testing by the IIS physiotherapy department and attended sessions on aspects such as injury prevention, diet and nutrition, sleep management and jet-lag, and received support from the team of expert physiologists along with strength and conditioning coaches at the institute.

The camp also included sessions from experts on managing pressure, handling the media, social-media management and the importance of athlete interest in the face of commercial and sponsorships engagements.

"This camp was a great introduction to the team to understand the various facets of high performance training, the shooters could interact with specialists in their fields, so overall, they benefitted from this exposure," said Suma Shirur, high performance coach of the junior national rifle team.

This was the second instance of a senior national team visiting IIS after the Boxing Federation of India hosted the Elite men's boxing national camp at Bellary for two months earlier this year.

The state-of-the-art institute is India's first privately funded High Performance Training Centre established by the JSW Group and as a Khelo India-accredited institute, has hosted a number of professional teams and athletes on its campus for training, rehabilitation and conditioning camps.

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