Oly shooter and India’s high performance coach at Tokyo Games, Suma Shirur on what sportspersons must do to stay mentally strong in challenging times
Naomi Osaka. Pic/Getty Images
Tennis player Naomi Osaka pulled the spotlight on the difficulty elite sportspersons face when overcoming personal mental health issues by pulling out of the French Open women singles.
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Gymnast Simone Biles did a similar act on a bigger stage, the Tokyo Olympic Games, withdrawing from the vault event after a failed first attempt, publicly stating that twisties (mind and body not synchronising during the airborne twist) as the explanation for her drastic decision.
Olympic shooting finalist at Athens 2004 in 10m air rifle, Suma Shirur, high performance rifle coach for India at Tokyo 2020, feels that sportspersons were always dealing with mental issues, now people are talking about the problem.
Pressure inevitable
“Every sportsperson at some point feels this heat. Tournaments have increased so it takes a lot more to keep yourself at that level, plus stress from the sponsors, stress from the family after failure, the intensity of competitions adds up.”
Founder of the Lakshya Shooting Club (LSC) in Panvel, she stressed on the problem of younger sportspersons confined to their homes during the pandemic as the right time to address this mental well-being issue.
“I started shooting at 18, more mature in tackling the issues along the way. Now very young kids pick up the sport, combine that with expectations from parents with no idea of what it takes to do well in sport. The other part is the pandemic.”
Suma Shirur
She added: “Children starting very young are under competitive stress, don’t know how to deal with it, pressure from parents and then the pandemic. Two years of no sport, no competition…most kids are still locked up in their houses, little outdoor activity. Teenagers and youngsters need kids of their age to share emotions, anxieties. Feeling lonely, with no idea where they are headed is tough for those just stepping into competitive sport. You take that away, they don’t know how to handle it.”
Sad situation
Reacting to a query on few young shooters in India reportedly taking own lives for reasons not clear, Suma said: “The sad cases of youngsters who could not deal with situations is a wake-up call for everyone in sport, in whatever capacity. Parents need to be more understanding of what lies beneath what you see. As coaches, it is important to hire experts in dealing with the mind.”
She was speaking at the 12th RR Lakshya Cup, an annual invitation rifle shooting event, held by Lakshya SC.
Talking from own experience of coaching during the lockdown months, she said: “During the 18 months of online coaching to stay connected with the club trainees, we realised that nothing is going to have an effect [on kids’ mindset]. We had to hire a psychologist. Trainees may not be frank with me, but share their feelings with a pro who knows how to approach the issue. The need was always there, the pandemic made us sit up and take notice.”
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