For Abhijeet Dalvi’s family in Ahmednagar, archery has become a source of bread and butter

Archery, an Olympic discipline, has become a source of bread and butter for Abhijeet Dalvi and his family in the Maharashtrian district of Ahmednagar.

Dalvi’s three-year-old archery training center, being operated from a rented agricultural land on the outskirts of the main Ahmednagar city, supports the family of six.

Abhijeet stated:

“The academy is just three years old. At the moment it might not be economically viable but in the long run we to get good reward of our time and energy to run the project. There is satisfaction in sharing our knowledge with upcoming athletes at grassroots level.”

While the 46-year-old and his wife oversee the coaching aspect of young archers at the academy, Abhijeet’s mother and cousin take care of the food and accommodation of the athletes.

The family has rented accommodation to house 20 archers interested in polishing their skills to excel at national and international levels.

The enterprising archery coach explained his project:

“Our main goal to set up an academy was to encourage more youngsters to follow archery. The fact that we are able to live a good life, we are happy with what we are doing.”

Abhijeet's 13-year-old son Soham is also a state-level archer. Even Abhijeet’s father, 80, is contributing to the family-run archery training center.

Abhijeet added:

“My father is 80 years old, but he is quite active and keeps us guiding. He keeps a close watch of the activities at home and updates us on how to improve things."

Setting up a training center for an event like archery was a daunting task as Abhijeet didn’t have had enough resources. He rented a small piece of agricultural land measuring 100m long and 13m wide for a monthly rent of ₹6,000 on the outskirts of the main city.

The 46-year-old archery coach said:

“The area 100m long and 13m wide was good enough to have five targets for practice. Since archers come in shifts in the morning and evening, there is enough time for all to practice.”

According to Abhijeet, 40 to 50 students are regulars at his academy. Each student pays a nominal fee of ₹1,000 per month for coaching. Archers availing boarding and lodging facilities will have to pay ₹6000 per month, including training.

Abhijeet revealed:

“We have adopted the concept of Gurukul. The archers are like our family members. We have meals together. It’s like a big joint-family of 20 to 30 people.”

Abhijeet, a former state-level archer, switched to coaching in early 2000. Initially, he worked at a school in a rural area of Ahmednagar as a coach. In late 2018, thoughts of setting up his own project pricked his mind. Enterprisingly, he accepted the challenge of building a new setup and quit his job.

He explained:

“There were challenges like having no monthly income in initially stages of setting up an archery training center. With family support I kept on working. I’m happy that the response was good. There are 40 to 50 archers regular for training at our center.”

Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years was another challenge he had to overcome.

While the morning training session is generally for archers who practice Indian round, compound and recurve archers practice in afternoon.

The project was set up three years back and has started delivering goods. Compound archers Parth Sunil Korde and Rituja from Abhijeet’s stable were among the leading athletes at the sub-junior national Archery Championship held last year in November.

Parth claimed three gold medals, including individual gold, in the compound event at the 2021 national junior archery championships held in Ahmednagar. Rituja was fourth in the individual event and paired with Parth to win mixed team gold for Maharashtra at the sub-junior national archery championship.

The Indian archery squad might have missed a podium finish at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, but the discipline is growing in Maharashtra.

Abhijeet said:

“I’ve observed youngsters are hungry to make an impact at the national level. With a good coaching system they will surely make a big impact in future. Ahmednagar is one of the pockets of archery in Maharashtra. Our main goal is to churn out archers who will be able to excel at the world level in the future. We are working hard to achieve that goal.”

Youngsters generally start with the Indian round as the cost of equipment is less and ranges between ₹5,000 to ₹7,000. But the cost of compound and recurve equipment is more than ₹2 lakh.

Compound and recurve are more popular among the archers as international competitions are organized in the above discipline. Recurve competition features on the Olympic agenda, while compound events are included at the continental and world levels.

Abhijeet said the basic training sessions at his academy are mainly focused on eye and hand coordination. Physical fitness training is done thrice a week.

He added:

“The competition has become tough at the national level. Perhaps that’s why sometimes the practice sessions for national level archers continue for more than three hours a day. That is the only way to become a successful athlete.”