Being a dental surgeon by profession, this Indian pistol shooter is breaking all records with her ground breaking performance. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Heena Sidhu won a silver medal in the women’s 10 metre air pistol event, and a Gold medal in the women’s 25 metre air pistol event. She broke the Commonwealth Games record of 38 in winning the gold medal.
Women Fitness India recently got the wonderful chance to speak to the Arjuna Award winning shooter about her journey in this sport, how her husband is her biggest supporter and some things that she has never spoken about, ever before, so stay tuned.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You are the first Indian pistol shooter to reach number one in world rankings by the International Shooting Sport Federation. Share with us your journey in the world of sports. How did it all start? Girls have to overcome a number of obstacles both on personal & sports level to achieve recognition, do share some moments of struggle to serve as an inspiration for others sports person?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
My journey in pistol shooting has been for twelve years now and what started out as a hobby later turned into my profession. I choose shooting over dentistry because I thought I can be a better shooter than a doctor, I can serve my country better as a shooter than a doctor. During this journey I learned that in a sport like shooting which is such a mental sport has evolved me as a person you take wins and losses with a pinch of salt. This journey has been the most beautiful part of shooting and my quest for perfection .It was this quest for perfection that helped me reach world number 1 ranking , I was the first Indian pistol shooter. I never planned for it but it was part of the journey that I worked hard every day to make my tomorrow better than today.
It was the same in world number 1 ranking it came to me as a surprise, I was told by the reporters. It came because of my world cup final medal and world cup silver medal later. You can never decide you want to be world number 1, You just have to go by the rules of the journey and get better
Shooting has taught me many things that you can apply in your everyday to get better at everything. It is a never ending process you can never say that I am world number one or I know everything. The journey keeps going on and on and that’s the beauty of it.
As a girl I had to overcome some obstacles on my way, there were not too many. I have seen girls fighting against all odds, fighting against the society, their parents, their in-laws, husbands, brothers and all sorts of people to be what they dream of. Some girls even leave their dreams midway because the fight was just too hard and people trying to pull them down were stronger. In the past 12 years, as a woman I feel I was able to reach this level because I was always a very independent girl. That is how I have brought up to take my own decisions and then work very hard to give your best, be it my medical studies or shooting. I have always told myself that if someone supports me it’s like a bonus, but I will not wait for someone. If you get support in life that’s good, but if you don’t that’s good too. I feel that God doesn’t give you problems that you can’t handle, you are stronger than you think you are. The day you decide that I will not let a problem stop me, it can never stop you. It is harder for women because we can take that, we are much stronger than the men, we can still move on and still make a difference in the world and show them what we are capable of and for this spirit we will always be remembered for a movement much bigger than us.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You were a member of the Indian team to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where you competed in the women’s 10 metre air pistol event, becoming an inspiration for thousands of women who look up to you. What is a day like in the life of Heena Sidhu both while training for competitions and on a daily basis?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
I wake up in the morning, I do some meditation, get my breakfast and get ready to go to the range. The training starts from 9 to 1 p.m. After lunch I come back have a nap and then I go the gym, do another round of mediation or visualization for mental strength. Till I get finished it’s already 7 p.m., so I have dinner and go to sleep.
If I’m on a break, I go the gym in the morning around 10 and I like to go out to restaurants, try new things. I love reading and wildlife. So I take trips to forests, jungles or tiger reserves and click pictures enjoy wildlife and photography. Or I would go home and enjoy time with my family, which I rarely get time to, so I go to Punjab. I also have a house in Pune, so I go there for 1 or 2 days to relax and play my play station or do cooking, which I really enjoy. I like to cook for rejuvenation. I like to bake and grill, and trying new cuisines. Sketching and painting is also something I used to love doing when I was younger, but now since I‘m travelling, it’s difficult to travel with your paints, brushes, etc. I have also done an interior designing course online, so my house in Pune has been completely designed by me, specifically for the purpose of shooting, training and so that the house feels relaxing whenever I come home. I’m very passionate about art as it’s such a good way to relax yourself, it can really touch your soul.
This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar, President womenfitness.org and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2018 Women Fitness Org
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You are a proud recipient of the Arjuna Award. No doubt this is a matter of great honour to be invested upon with such an individual. When were you informed and what was your first reaction? Do share your family’s reaction too?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
I got the Arjuna award in 2014. The feeling that I felt after knowing that I have been selected for it was great, my family was very happy. I had waited long enough for it, my family came to see the function, my grandparents came. The most fun thing was that the Arjuna award was given on the sports day which was 29th of August, which is also my birthday, so it was really great. So afterwards we went to a really good restaurant in Delhi and had a great party, so I will always remember it. Getting the Arjuna award was a great achievement since it meant that the government and the people of this country recognize you for the medals you have got for the country. So it was a very satisfying feeling to receive the award.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Winning in any sport involves a lot of determination and hard work, more so in the life of a sportswoman. What exercises comprise your fitness regime when you are preparing for competition? Elaborate on your training to achieve focus which is a must in your sport?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
Winning in any sport involves a lot of dedication, hard work and sweating so shooting is no different. People sometimes think that shooting is a sport where you just have to stand and aim, so there shouldn’t be any fitness required. But if you have ever seen a shooter, the posture that we stand in, for hours, is a very unusual posture. Human body is designed to move, to run, it’s not really designed to stand still that you can shoot at such a small target. For that the exercise that a shooter does are very different from an athlete.
As a pistol shooter, it is very important to have very disciplined muscles that are trained to have the tone but also stay very still. At 10 or 25 metres, one movement from your side can land your shot in a 7 or 8 on 10 which is a disaster. So we really have to take care that the muscles are supple, they can maintain the tone and they can hold the posture comfortably and also you have to make sure that they are injury prone. Shooting is a sport where athletes have long careers, so even if you don’t see an injury on the first day, you will see a lot of changes that will appear over the years. Our core needs to be extremely strong. The stability in a shooter has to begin from the feet. The ankle, the knees, the pelvis, the core, the back, the shoulders, the neck, the elbows and the wrist is very important. All these joints have stabilizing muscles, which a physiotherapist or trainer would target while training a shooter. These muscles stabilize how we hold and aim. So the exercises that we do have very controlled movement. Even in the gym, we have a very good neuro-muscular co-ordination with fine movements. A lot of physiotherapists enjoy training shooters because there’s a lot of mental work required on their part to understand the shooter’s intricate movements, which you don’t find in any other sports, so it’s a nice challenge for them.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Sports-specific nutrition is an integral part of a sports person. Share with us the diet pattern that you follow to stay healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
As a shooter the diet which I try to follow is basically a no sugar diet because sugar gives you an insulin rush and increases your heart rate and later you also feel irritable. So anything that gives a high or low in your mood and in your physiology should be avoided so sugar is one, coffee, tea are another so try to avoid these things green tea can be good, green tea has very low amounts of caffeine as compare to the black tea and the coffee which have high amount of caffeine. You need to have lots of roughage, proteins of course are good, proteins are good for any athlete in fact for the general recovery of the muscles for post training.
Hydration is very important, hydration is something which everybody knows drinking three to four litres of water is a must, especially if you are travelling you tend to forget drinking water, and I’m using the word forget because if you are drinking water when you feel thirsty it’s basically you have already dehydrated and that is why you feel thirsty so we try to never reach that point where you start feeling thirsty and then if it’s a hot day you need to have even more water. Other than that I think it’s very important to keep your vitamins level in check to have your general blood check up every three months so that you know if you’re good at vitamins.
So these are certain things that are known for every athlete getting the blood work done every three months so that the doctors can up and down the dose of your supplements. So as a shooter these are the only steps I take as far as my diet goes and on an individual level I think I have never enjoyed sweets as much as the others do. I see people loving desserts and they love gulab jamuns and it’s very hard for them to give up these things. Whereas for me I naturally never had the intention of having too many sweets so giving up sugar was easy for me just giving up tea was difficult. I was always a tea person (very addicted to tea) so later when I came to know that this is how it’s effects your brain and your mood plus the effects of sugar in it so I had to give up but I took my time giving up slowly. I still have tea now and then but usually when if I’m taking off from shooting, when I’m travelling.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Being a professional athlete, you are a role model for many striving to make their dream come true, provide us with words of inspiration to help others climb up the ladder of success in this field?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
I feel if somebody has internal motivation to achieve their dream that is the best sort of motivation you can hope for. I don’t think words of inspiration can actually motivate somebody to do something that they don’t want to do. Yes, sometimes hearing other people’s theory gives you strength and makes you believe that you can also get out of that situation. So from my personal experiences I can say that you really have to keep doing it day in day out, giving up should not be an option in your hook.
When you have the option of giving up, of stoping the learning process, if you have the option to just stop and quit or a take a break or take rest or not to come back to this sport, you already are giving yourself a lot of vigil root and honestly women don’t like to push themselves too much we like comfortable life and if you give yourself reason and you give yourself so much vigil root you are never going to achieve it. So never take it easy, never give up, you always just keep doing it. Following your dream and doing what it takes to reach that certain level is important, if you don’t reach there that’s another thing just keep doing day in day out, as everything in life is a journey nothing is a destination that is something I completely believe.
Life is a journey, people who say I’ll work thirty years then I’m gonna retire I’m gonna work for another few years and I’m gonna retire and have a nice life. So I don’t like this word retirement, life is such a beautiful journey! Why do you wanna retire? Yes, there are certain things you can do when your fifteen years old which you can’t do when you’re forty-five years old but they are so many other things you can do in your forty-five. So you need to keep finding a reason to wake up in the morning, finding a reason to get better, finding your problem areas or areas of improvement which you want to improve and to work on. Be quitting smoking and be quitting alcohol. These are the simple things that common people don’t want to do. For an athlete winning that medal, trying to get better, trying to improve my scores everyday. So it’s always a journey and if you actually look at this way, life will unfold itself in front of you and you will just enjoy this process. So just keep doing it, don’t even think about quitting it, don’t even think about giving up that shouldn’t be in you dictionary.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You have also spoken about how your husband has been a constant source of support and motivation for you. Tell us more about how has he supported you to give your best in shooting?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
I can give you a small example on this, this was after getting married to Ronak, before getting married I had never given it a thought if I would change my name or not after getting married. But when I got married I became very protective about my name, because I thought I had left everything behind, my family, friends, language, food, everything changed. So when you see so many changes happening, you feel you have only your name that you don’t want to change. As a woman I felt so many changes were happening around me at a young age of 23, and with all these changes I felt it was only me name that I could recognize about myself. So I and Ronak never had a discussion about this, I never said it but he understood it, but not so much the other people. I used to go for these government functions and they would call me Heena Pandit or Heena Sidhu Pandit, like as if they had a right to change my name.
Sometimes people asked me and even my father-in-law that why haven’t I changed my name, which was very offensive. It was such a small thing, but for them they would not understand why a woman would not want to change her name. So the way they perceive you is very different from how you perceive it. I didn’t change my name because I felt protective about it, while they saw arrogance.
This is not a matter of just a name but it has a deeper meaning. I always feel that women who have achieved something great in life are looked at as a role model. We are expected to do everything very well and what happens in your professional career is your problem. But luckily because of the support that I have got form my husband and my in-laws that has helped me, but this thinking of the society needs to be changed. With your medium, this is the first time I have talked about this small little story or experience that I had after getting married, which I hope helps other women to stand up for something that they really believe in. Don’t be ashamed of yourself or your thoughts if you know they are just pure, harmless and a reflection of your soul, stick with it..
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, you won a silver medal in the women’s 10 metre air pistol event, and a Gold medal in the women’s 25 metre air pistol event, breaking the Commonwealth Games record of 38 in winning the gold medal. How do you feel about this incredible achievement?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
Both, the medals that I won, the silver and the gold. I think they came to the very good performance in the finals especially the twenty-five meter finals because this is my new event and my first individual medal in the event which is also my first Commonwealth gold medal. So I was improving very slowly everyday and I believe that my best output comes on the day of the match and the score of thirty-eight actually one shot broke the records also.
So the performance that I gave I’m very happy with that, the way I kept shooting well in the end even though I had a margin, even then I kept shooting well, other then that for air pistol silver medal I started of a little bit slow that’s how I lost my gold medal. Otherwise I was very hopeful of getting gold medal when I went for the Commonwealth games. But even for the ten meter match the way I came back after almost getting eliminated I kept adding point and I kept increasing my rank that is something I am really proud of and me and Ronak actually worked a lot on the finals to improve my technique in the finals how to handle the pressure and everything and I’m very happy that all that training helped me, perform under pressure and get two medals from this Commonwealth games.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
In 2016, you qualified for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in the women’s 10 metre air pistol and the women’s 25 metre pistol events. Having performed so well throughout your career, who is your role model(s), inspiration, and motivator in your career as an athlete?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
A lot of people ask me this question about role models but I’ve always told them that I’ve never had a role model and I never believed in role models. If you see everybody comes with their own set of weaknesses and strengths and everybody have to face their own challenges in life and no two people can have the same life, no two people can have the same set of talents. So everybody has to find their own way, yes some people can inspire you but in the end everybody has to find their own way in this life and the key is to keep working hard not to give up and see what life throws at you and give it your best shot.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
In a recent interview you said “The plan for 2020 has already begun.” Please elaborate it for us. How is your preparation for the future games going?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
Training for any Olympics starts the moment you end the last Olympic. So it’s always a four year cycle and every athlete to break those four years into time frame of working on specific problems or technique or anything you want to work on so it’s not that training for Olympics starts just one month before the Olympics. It’s a four year plan, long-term plan and it keeps going and as I have already told you it’s the journey which is important and the journey is never ending. It is not like if you have remedied one mistake not come back again, you always have to keep manoeuvring, keep finding new challenges and keep getting better. So that is what I meant when I said that the training for Olympics has already begun. So right now the whole team is concentrating on getting the Olympic quota which will be in world championship in the coming world cup next year so we are all concentrating on that.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Women Fitness works with a goal to reach out to women all over the world providing them with best in health, fitness, nutrition, beauty & fashion. What do you wish to say about the website (Womenfitness.org) and a message for our visitors?
Ms. Heena Sidhu:
I think WomenFitness.Org is a very good initiative. Even the sentiment and the emotion behind the magazine is great to support women facing challenges in their career and giving them advice regarding fitness, nutrition, etc. It is very important to stay fit, it’s very important to stay healthy especially in today’s world with changing time where we have pollution and adulteration in the food. It’s very important to get the correct advice. So If women fitness is doing that then I think I’m very proud of it and helping women achieve their dream that’s another area that society needs to work on and I’m sure women fitness is providing all sorts of right advice to the women and as I already told you my advice to the women out their is to believe in yourself and don’t go by the norms set by the society of what an ideal woman needs to do, you need to find your own set of talent, you need to find your own way of life and if you get support in life very good that’s a bonus but if you don’t do or not do things because you got or didn’t get the support. So everybody is on their own you have to find your way and I think as I told you god doesn’t throw anything at us which we cannot handle, you are much stronger than you think and just go for it and believe in yourself.
Follow her on:
- https://www.facebook.com/HeenaShootingOfficial/
- https://twitter.com/heenasidhu10
- http://heenasidhu.com
- https://www.instagram.com/heenasidhu10/
This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar, President womenfitness.org and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2018 Women Fitness Org