Pressure can make recovery in crucial matches difficult: Gagan Narang | Tokyo Olympics News – Times of India

Mental pressure has many ways to trouble shooters, especially at a stage as big as the Olympics, feels London bronze medallist Gagan Narang.
Indian rifle shooters, who didn’t look in their elements, failed to make the finals of their respective events. Narang, who mentors Elavenil Valarivan, said the shooter is yet to find out the reason for her low scores.
“When I spoke to her, she said that she technically did her best. Technically Whatever was needed to be done, she said she did and gave her all. But she said that despite doing everything right, when she was expecting to shoot while releasing the trigger at a proper time, and follow-through, she was no getting that kind of result,” Narang, who is a part of Sony Sports’ panel for the Olympics coverage, said.

“Now that happens when the body is not giving you the right kind of feedback. The sync between mind and the body is missing,” he added.
The Commonwealth Games champion explained how even a small thing at a big event can lead to a vicious cycle of frustration and inability to recover.

“When we shoot and something goes wrong, we go back to the basics like check our standing position, our breathing, lifting the rifle, triggering, follow through. These are the 10-15 things that we try to do again after hitting a low score. While doing these 10 things right, we still have to be on the target. Now if we are not on the target, we will not shoot a 10.9 and hit a low 10 or a 9 or 8, something that Manu saw. It happens when you do five things right and two things wrong. This is what pressure does to you,” he said.
“You can have a technical error, which will induce frustration in your brain, and you will continue to think negatively and try to stop yourself from overthinking. But this time it just didn’t happen despite them trying to give their best. And when things didn’t go as they wanted them to be, it must have frustrated them more. And once the train leaves the station, it becomes very difficult to catch.”
However, Narang said it wasn’t only our shooters, as top shooters from other countries faced a similar fate.
“The Germans didn’t win, the Koreans failed. This is unbelievable and unimaginable. Istvan Peni, the world No. 1 finished fifth.”