Battle-rope exercise, Endurance Training And More: How Sergio Pagni Produced World Champion Indian Archers

Rigorous battle-rope exercises to build upper body muscles, endurance training and stress management were India's recipes for securing historic three gold medals in the recent World Championships, compound archery chief coach Sergio Pagni said on Wednesday. Pagni, a two-time World Cup Final winner Italian, was hired as chief compound archery coach in December last year. He had earlier conducted a programme for the Indian archers in the build-up to the 2018 Asian Games.

"My way of teaching archery is little more complex than others. My method is managing them in three phases -- physical which means a lot of workout sessions, technical and the mental part how to manage stress and emotions," Pagni told PTI in an exclusive interview.

"Playing matches after matches at the highest level, winning or losing, can be mentally very draining. Even if you are very gifted, but playing a final can stress you so much emotionally." Indian archers had never been able to cross the final hurdle in the earlier editions, but this time, they won three gold and bronze -- all in compound section - in a historic performance.

The women's team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur clinched the country's first ever gold medal on August 4. The individual archers followed suit with 17-year-old Aditi becoming the youngest player to secure the women's crown the next day, and hours later, Ojas Deotale became the men's world champion.

Pagni said some of the Indian archers have never been to a gym before coming to the national camp.

So, he, along with his personal trainer, introduced some core muscle building exercises like battle rope training at the Sonipat centre of the Sports Authority of India.

"In the last 10 years, me and my