SINGAPORE – The Singapore Shooting Association (SSA) has signed a partnership with SIM University (UniSIM) that will see the educational institution’s psychology department conduct a four-year study on our national shooters, with the aim of improving their performances at major competitions.

More than 20 shooters, including elite level athletes from the national training team such as Martina Veloso, Tessa Neo and Jasmine Ser, will participate in the study, which began last week and will run till the Olympics in 2020.

And with this partnership, both SSA and UniSIM have set the target of winning one gold medal at the Tokyo Games.

The study, which is led by by UniSIM Psychology Programme lecturer Emily Ortega, will track the psychological and physiological state of the shooters before and during each shot to determine how these factors impact their performances at the range.

The data collected will then be used to produce an individual profile for each athlete, which will then allow each shooter to better prepare for and handle the variables that affect their own performance prior to training or competition.

“Shooting is a very mental sport, so you need to focus for up to two hours, and yet at the same time have to control your emotions,” explained Ortega. “The moment you emotionally react to a single shot, it'll put you off balance for the rest of the shots.

“So the idea is to establish what optimal ranges – both psychologically and physiologically – are needed for the shooters to have that perfect shot in any situation.”

SSA president Michael Vaz expressed his hope that this partnership and study would help his shooters fulfil their undoubted potential.

“You can bring a shooter up technically to a level where they are world class, and we have several of them now,” said Vaz. “The problem is, shooting at a top level on the day of the competition is very much a mental issue as well.

“Shooting under stress and shooting without stress is different. If we can identify the factors that sets these two scenarios apart, we can work on it. Right now, when we shoot at home, we shoot like world champions. But once we go away (for competitions), we have problems.

“So we're hoping that this collaboration will help us out with the mental aspect of the sport and in turn improve our results.”

Ser and Teo Shun Xie represented Singapore at last year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Ser competed in the 10m air rifle and 50m rifle three positions, while Teo was in the 10m and 25m air pistol. Both did not advance beyond the preliminary rounds.

(Singapore Shooting Association officials and athletes and UniSIM officials at the MOU signing.Photo: NOAH TAN)

But the shooters will not be the only beneficiaries of this partnership.

Psychology students at UniSIM involved in this study will use this opportunity to apply the theories learnt during their course in a real world environment by working with the shooters, with opportunities to intern at SSA also made available.

The two main data that will be recorded by Ortega and her team are the shooters’ heart rate variability (HRV) – the variation in the time interval between heartbeats – as well as their emotional state.

Before training, each shooter will be connected to a heart rate monitor, which will track the HRV of the athlete. The recorded data from the HRV will then be collated and tagged to the shooter’s score during training.

These data will be collated over time, after which an ideal HRV range for optimum performance will be established for the individual shooters.

Shooters will also have to constantly report their state of emotions to Ortega and her team before training, which will give them an indication of how their emotions affect their performance.

Explained Ortega: “We'll also look at their emotional state...this can range from their passion for the sport, to anger, anxiety, and how satisfied you are in life. We'll look at all these different emotions and see how it impacts their shooting performance. But for emotions, this has to be something which is self-reported by the shooters.”

However, due to international competition regulations, which does not allow shooters to don a heart rate monitor, UniSIM will only be able to record data from the shooters’ training sessions or when they take part in local competitions.

Meanwhile, Vaz revealed that he is seeking to get at least four male shooters to be granted partial release from their National Service (NS) duties in order to allow them to train for the Tokyo Olympics.

Three of the athletes – See Jun Ren, Sean Tay and Royce Chan – entered NS this year, while the fourth shooter, Keith Chan, is expected to be enlisted next year.

This comes after the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) announced plans last month to introduce mixed events in air pistol, air rifle and trap for the Tokyo Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will evaluate the ISSF proposal before deciding on the final 2020 Olympic shooting events programme later this year.

And Vaz believes it is crucial for Singapore’s male shooters to be able to get enough practice during their NS-stint in order to be ready for the Olympics.

“We have a problem today with the new shooting rules, which requires mixed doubles,” said Vaz. “Unfortunately, for our (male) shooters here, when they turn 18 or 19, they go to NS, and they can't practise.

“So we're working on trying to get our shooters more time to practise in NS...I don't want them to get deferred, all I want is for them to get released to train in the afternoons, maybe once or twice a week at least. If that does not happen, and we have no male shooters, we'll be throwing away many events at the Olympics.”