National coaches course strengthens grassroots shooting coaching in India

The NRAI, along with the Jharkhand State Rifle Association, concluded a seven-day national coaches course focusing on sports science, technical skills, and athlete development, aiming to strengthen grassroots coaching and improve performance standards in shooting across India

Hyderabad: The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), in collaboration with the Jharkhand State Rifle Association, successfully concluded its seven-day National Coaches Course today, reinforcing its commitment to strengthening grassroots coaching and building a scientifically driven ecosystem for shooting sports in India.

The course witnessed participation from 33 coaches representing five states, including a strong contingent of 19 coaches from Jharkhand.

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Designed as a comprehensive and intensive training programme, the course integrated technical excellence with sports science, coaching methodology, and practical application, ensuring a holistic learning experience for all participants.

The technical sessions were led by Olympian and Indian team coach Sanjeev Rajput and Indian team coach Vidya Jadav. These sessions focused on core aspects such as weapon handling, shooting techniques, error correction, and competition preparedness, providing coaches with direct insights from elite-level experience and international standards.

A key strength of the programme was its sports science integration, where expert-led sessions provided coaches with practical tools to enhance athlete performance.

The sports psychology session by Nanaki Chadha focused on the mental dimensions of performance and well-being. Coaches were introduced to concepts such as performance profiling, goal setting, anxiety management, confidence building, and effective coach-athlete communication, along with creating psychologically safe training environments.

The nutrition module by Charvi Bajaj provided insights into fuelling strategies, hydration, and recovery, helping coaches understand how nutrition directly impacts consistency and performance.

In the strength and conditioning session, Vijendra Pal Singh emphasised stability, posture, muscular endurance, and fatigue management, along with practical routines for warm-up and cool-down tailored to shooting athletes.

Human anatomy sessions by P N Vineel Kumar provided coaches with a deeper understanding of the human body in relation to shooting performance, going beyond basics to cover biomechanics, muscle engagement, posture alignment, and joint stability. The session helped coaches understand how different body systems contribute to precision, balance, and endurance in shooting, enabling them to identify technical errors linked to physical limitations and improve athlete efficiency through better body awareness.

The communication skills session by Salil Srivastava focused extensively on building effective coach-athlete relationships through clear, structured, and empathetic communication. It emphasised the importance of active listening, constructive feedback, conflict management, and motivation techniques, helping coaches create a positive and high-performance training environment. The session also highlighted how communication plays a critical role in athlete confidence, learning speed, and overall performance consistency.

The course concluded with a formal examination to assess participants’ understanding. As part of the next phase, coaches have been assigned a practical field project, where they will work with athletes and submit a presentation over the next two months.

The second phase of the course will be conducted again in Jamshedpur, where participants will present their work and continue their development under the NRAI education pathway. Upon successful completion of both phases of the course, participants will be awarded an official NRAI certificate.

JSRA President Diwakar Singh said that such sessions will be conducted regularly in Jharkhand to further enhance the quality of coaches across the region.