Bindra trained for his event using biofeedback training to master control over the other skills, besides dead aim, that a shooter needs to excel in the 10 meter event.
Bindra, is a 25-year-old businessman and the world champion in the sport.
He trained with sport psychologist Timothy Harkness using biofeedback training to help him master a controlled breathing and heart rate, eliminate excess tension in his muscles, silence interior monologue, and develop sharp focus and good reactions for him to trigger at the moment when the sight image was correct for him to fire his winning shots.
Harkness was one of a team of shooting coaches that helped Bindra prepare for the 2008 competition, other team members included a physician, chiropractor, dietitian and physiotherapist, David Stumphm, executive director of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology & Biofeedback, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
"Biofeedback is a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance," according to a statement on the website of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.
This is done by using instruments that measure physiological activity such as brain waves, heart function, breathing, muscle activity, and skin temperature and then "rapidly and accurately 'feed back' information to the user," the AAPB says.
Over time, the presentation of this information, in conjunction with changes in thinking, emotions, and behavior, supports desired physiological changes and can endure without the use of an instrument, the association says.
For Bindra, the training resulted in more than a gold medal, he reportedly received monetary awards from various organizations back home, which include:
The Sports Authority of India gave him $71,000.The Board of Control for Cricket in India plans to give him cash award of about $60,000.The Minister of Railways gave him and a companion a free, lifetime rail pass to travel first-class in an air-conditioned compartment.Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal announced a $357,000 award from his London-based Mittal Champions Trust.
