PUNE: For the last three decades, Ajit Patil's life has been confined to closed shooting ranges, mostly 10m, and sometimes 50m. Yet, the shooting coach has always lived in the most spacious place - an open mind.
In the field of coaching, where even most celebrated names fail, the once rookie from Kolhapur has produced three World shooting champions - one junior, two senior. And without much fanfare.
Other than the recently crowned 10m air rifle World Champion Rudrankksh Patil from Thane, Patil has been instrumental in training former 50m rifle prone World champ Tejaswini Sawant and junior 10m air rifle champion Navnath Fartade, both from Kolhapur.
Considering he himself never trained or competed as a shooter or has got any formal training in coaching, Patil may appear lucky with his accomplishments. However, the success is not just earned well, but has also been planned properly.
"I have never felt inferior for not going through a formal training programme. On the contrary, shooting and coaching is something that has given me a lot of confidence, something that I am able to instil in my shooters," Patil, 49, said.
Patil's journey as coach started casually, when he started assisting his uncle and a known name in the sport Jai Singh Kusale in Kolhapur. The turning point came in 1995, when American coach David Layman came to Kolhapur for a 15-day workshop. "The coach had prepared a programme, but due to some health issues, he couldn't be there at the range for most of the time. He used to ask me to overlook the implementation of course. That is when I started liking the process of shooting," Patil said.
He joined the state-run Krida Prabodhini in Kolhapur as a clerk, where his uncle used to train shooters. Kusale passed away in 2000 and Patil started doubling up as coach in the evenings. "I was officially appointed as coach only in 2007 when my student Fartade became junior World Champion in 2006," he said. Patil feels his biggest achievement as a coach is learning about the things a human mind can do.
"I have never trained my shooters at a very high-tech range. All my shooters have come up from very basic infrastructure. It has been possible because I always ask my shooters to focus on what they can do to shoot well, rather than on thinking about what facilities they can get to train. I ask them to think about ways to improve their ability and it has always worked," he said. "Power of mind is stronger than high-tech facilities."
Patil was bestowed with the Shiv Chhatrapati award. "That was because my student Rahi (Sarnobat) and others filled the form to nominate me. I never believed in doing that myself," he said. Rahi, who shoots in 25m pistol event, is the only Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold medal.
