In a bid to develop more talented shooters like Manu Bhaker, the NRAI has launched an innovative initiative to create a new strategy for training aspiring shooters alongside the country’s top athletes.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is preparing to reinitiate the junior shooting programme. 

Kalikesh Singh Deo, NRAI president is focusing on rookie potential, before the start of the three-day ISSF World Cup in New Delhi on Tuesday. He emphasised the significance of the Men's and Women's 10m Air Pistol and Rifle events. 

The NRAI president is highlighting the need for a successful strategy and framework to make a seamless transition of junior talent into future prodigies. After introducing talents like Manu Bhaker, and Divyansh Singh Panwar.

Deo, while speaking about the vision stated - “A majority of our shooters have emerged from the junior programme. Several have come through Khelo India, which the government runs. We’ve proposed that the NRAI work with an ecosystem to support junior shooters transitioning to the senior team,”. 

“This ensures junior shooters are exposed to our high-performance team, foreign and national coaches, and national shooters.”

The NRAI considers unique tactics to increase the engagement and challenge between the junior shooters. They let the juniors compete with the senior shooters, which equalises the competition in the final stage. NRAI's strategy ensures that the best in-form shooters would routinely challenge themselves by competing with each other. 

Further highlighting the ISSF World Cup, he stated - “Combining the junior and senior teams creates a unified approach. We appoint coaches for development and ensure juniors compete well with seniors. Previously, the junior programme helped juniors push senior team members out of the national team, which is healthy competition.”

“Today, our bench strength is strong, and competition is about who performs best on the day. That’s a philosophy and policy we emulate in training and selection,” 

Deo, further probing to solve another glaring issue. He emphasised the healthy relationship between the shooters and personal coaches.

While talking about the issue he stated - “When I took over as acting president, the first thing I did was try to create a platform where we recognise personal coaches in the system. It’s a fact that 60 to 70 percent of the time, shooters train with their personal coaches. National coaches come into the picture during national camps, or for competitions.” 

He further said -  “We know in the real world, things don’t always go smoothly. There are clashes of egos and philosophies, but the NRAI has to create a successful working relationship, where personal coaches are recognised by the system and work seamlessly with national coaches.” 

“We need seamless transitioning for athletes because we can only have one coach sitting behind the athlete in a competition.”