IMAGINE doing something for more than 20 years, only to be told that you have been getting it wrong all along.
Now imagine finding that out barely 17 months before the biggest competition in your life.
That is what national shooter Lee Wung Yew had to contend with for the past year and a half.
'It was quite a scary thing because I had to unlearn and re-learn everything in a short span,' said the 42-year-old, a physical education teacher in Innova Junior College.
'I have been so used to my own style for more than 20 years.'
Lee's marksmanship skills were self-taught and refined through trial and error over the years.
'It's that kind of situation
where you learnt the wrong things when you were young and you didn't change until you got professional coaching and assistance,' he said.
'Basically I forced myself onto a firearm,' he added. 'It didn't suit me, so I didn't have a natural feel for it.'
As a result, the trap shooter used to injure his face quite a lot during his earlier shooting days, before adapting to his gun.
Despite that, he managed to win 16 SEA Games gold medals, and compete at two Olympic Games, albeit via wildcard entries.
Lee finished 20th in Atlanta96, and 21st in Athens four years ago.
Ahead of Beijing08, he linked up with sports psychologist Zhao Junhong and Italian coach Marcello Dradi, who overhauled everything, right down to his gun.
Lee is currently using a Perazzi MX2000, acquired only in May last year, after using another rifle for the past few years.
'It is a marriage between the person and the equipment,' he said. 'In shooting, the firearm is a fixed element, but you can do a lot of things with the shooter.
'With that in mind we spent a lot of time getting things right, down to the most minute details - like the balance of the gun, how much it weighs and if it should be shaved to suit my face.'
EFFORTS
And these efforts have paid off, as Lee became the first Singaporean shooter to qualify for the Olympic Games on his own merit.
He achieved this feat last December after finishing third in the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait.
From then on, Lee was based in Emilia Romagna, Italy, where he followed a strict training regime in preparation for the Beijing Games.
A typical day started at 7am, when Lee woke up for breakfast, and reached the shooting range by 9am.
For four hours, he refined his shooting under the watchful eyes of Dradi before breaking for lunch. Lee returned to the range for another 90 minutes of shooting in the afternoon before winding down with a run in the evening.
The three-time Olympian eventually finished 28th out of a field of 35 competitors in Beijing.
While the result is worse than his previous two outings at the Games, Lee is not throwing in the towel just yet.
'Looking at the whole journey to Beijing, I guess there are some positives,' he said after his competition.
'The primary goal was to earn a quota place, which I achieved. The second was to equip myself with the skills to make a final.
'I guess it's something that I still have to work on,' added Lee, who is planning to qualify for the next Olympics in London.
