“Actually, I should have quit.”
Lee Won-ho (24-KB), a South Korean competing in the 10-meter air pistol event at the Hangzhou Asian Games, is right-handed but shoots with his left arm.스포츠토토
That’s because his right arm, which he used to shoot when he was in high school, suddenly started to tremble for unknown reasons.
“The extreme stress I experienced when I started shooting with my left arm made me want to give up,” Lee told reporters at the Hangzhou Asian Games Shooting Team Media Day at the Changwon International Shooting Center in Gyeongnam on Friday afternoon, adding that he hopes to set a new personal best at the Asian Games.
Lee’s story is not unique around the world.
“I should have quit,” he concludes when asked what it means to switch arms as a shooter.
“When I first noticed the tremor in high school, I thought it was a simple injury caused by not exercising enough,” he admits.
He was diagnosed with shoulder impingement syndrome, which is common among shooters, but the ‘rattling’ tremor got worse every day.
The cause of the tremor has been attributed to neurological, muscular, and psychological issues by different doctors, but he hasn’t been able to find the exact cause yet because he missed the right time to see a major hospital.
Lee Won-ho thought to himself, “I should quit,” but then he heard a voice from the stands.
“Isn’t that Lee Won-ho? Why is he shooting like that?”
With his pride firmly scratched, Lee Won-ho became determined to keep shooting.
The idea of shooting with his left arm became a reality when he met his middle school coach at university.
He said, “Try it with your left arm, I’ll help you a lot,” and in the summer of 2018, when he was a freshman in college, he started shooting “head on the ground”.
In order to accurately aim at the target, the arm and shoulder must remain in a stationary position while holding a pistol weighing about 1.5 kilograms.
Whether he was training or not, Lee trained to hold a 3-kilogram dumbbell in his left hand until he could hold it.
Gradually, he started doing things with his left arm that he used to do with his right, such as spooning, and now there’s nothing he can’t do with his left hand except write.
Still, I can’t help but be right-handed.
It’s hard for him to move his left hand as freely as his right, so it’s hard for him to fix problems as quickly as he wants to.
He also worries that his left arm might suddenly develop problems, like his right arm that trembles inexplicably.
That’s why he hasn’t had a premonition that it’s going to work out since he started shooting with his left arm.
“I felt like throwing it all away,” he says of the extreme stress he experienced during his training, and he has no hesitation in saying that he would “shoot with my right arm again” if he could get his right arm to stop trembling.
“I’m just focusing on my training,” Lee said, and now he hopes to pull the trigger on gold in Hangzhou.
“I want to shoot at least 85 points, which is my personal best in international competition,” Lee said.
“This is the biggest major competition I’ve ever shot in, and I want to be more helpful to my older brothers who will be competing in the team event,” he said, adding that if he achieves his goal, a medal is within reach.