Behind the rise and rise of armless archer Sheetal Devi: Lifting dumbbells with toes, improvised trigger and clay to strengthen grip

Behind the rise and rise of armless archer Sheetal Devi: Lifting dumbbells with toes, improvised trigger and clay to strengthen grip

There’s no shortage of stories about Sheetal Devi’s ingenuity, but Aalaap Jawadekar likes to begin with one from the Paris Paralympics. One afternoon inside the Athletes’ Village, the physiotherapist found himself locked out of the sports science office – keys in hand, door refusing to budge.

That’s when Sheetal Devi walked in. Without hesitation, she took the keys, missed once, then again, and finally, with disarming calm, turned the lock open – using her toes. Jawadekar still marvels at the moment. “The more you think she can’t do something,” he says, “the more she’ll prove you wrong.”

Born without arms, there’s little Sheetal can’t do. She eats and writes with her toes, once climbed trees with ease, and now shoots arrows with them.

Defying physics, the 18-year-old is stepping into uncharted territory for an Indian athlete. Last week, she finished third among 60 archers in the compound women’s trials for next month’s Asia Cup in Jeddah. In doing so, Sheetal became the first Indian para archer to earn a spot on the able-bodied national team, a feat forged through natural core strength, frugal innovation and cutting-edge sports science.

The release aid

Until four years ago, when archery coach Kuldeep Vedwan first took her under his wings, there wasn’t even a mechanism in India that would enable her to shoot, let alone hit the bullseye. “She asked me, ‘Even if I lift the bow with my legs, how will I let the arrow fly?’” Vedwan said.

The moment he saw her, he had a plan. The veteran coach had seen how the OG armless archer, USA’s Matt Stutzman, released the arrows with the help of a release aid.

Able-bodied compound archers wear a strap that goes around their wrists and has a trigger, similar to a rifle. The moment the trigger is pulled with their fingers, the arrow is released.

Sheetal DeviSheetal Devi in action. Credit: World Archery

Stutzman improvised this technique. He first wrapped a strap around his chest. The strap had a release aid positioned over his right shoulder, and he used it to hook onto the bow string. He then used his jaw to push the release aid’s trigger, letting the arrow fly. “He designed this all by himself. I studied the equipment and made a similar one for Sheetal,” Vedwan says. “There was no other way for her to shoot an arrow.”

However, Sheetal developed a wound on her chin because of the relentless pressure. “The chin is not used to that kind of load since it has a softer muscle structure,” explains Sheetal’s physiotherapist, Ayushi Tomer. “So, whenever she shot, she would get hurt. Because of the pressure, the recoil used to hit the chin, and it really pained a lot.”

Improving toe grip

The release is the finale of Sheetal’s poetic action.

It begins with the teenager using her legs to load an arrow and lifting the 53-pound bow with her toe and the second digit, before letting it fly in one seamless motion. Many muscles are in play simultaneously – the right leg first goes up to lift the arrow, then the bow; the hip movement as she draws the arrow; the slight movement of the shoulder to get the release aid closer to the chin; and then applying slight pressure to release the aid’s trigger.

“If everything moves as a log, then you can’t really differentiate between those tiny movements,” says Jawadekar. “So, there is a lot of isolation required between your trunk, hips and feet. That’s where the accuracy element also comes in.”

Anukool Bharadwaj, head of the Paralympic programme at OGQ, who look after Sheetal’s day-to-day training, says ‘a lot of what she does comes from her natural strength.’ “But she has also built up her power through strength training. She’s far stronger now than she was four years ago,” he adds.

One unlikely exercise involves clay – a tool borrowed from shooting to refine control. “In shooting, it helps manage trigger pressure,” explains Tomer, who has trained her for two years. “I knew it would help her steady the bow.”

The first day Sheetal was given clay to work with, she made a snake out of it. “She is constantly making one thing or another with it,” laughs Tomer. “Even now, I make sure she carries it whenever she travels… it is simply holding the clay and putting consistent pressure on it, even if we are moving the leg. Because if there is a slight change in the pressure, it could have an impact on the actual shot.”

Lifting dumbbells with feet

The trainers improvised on many fronts to make her strong, but Jawadekar says he is still left jaw-dropped watching Sheetal pull off some of the exercises. Like the time when she sits on a bench, lifts a 5kg dumbbell, and stretches her toes.

“Imagine her sitting on a stool and holding a bow; in that exact position, she holds a 5kg dumbbell with her feet; she actually grips it between the toe and the second digit,” Jawadekar says. “First of all, it is tough to straighten the knee and then, your body shakes… but she does it with ease. It’s insane how she manages to hold it for like a good 2-3 minutes. It’s impossible!”

By now, he knows better than to underestimate the girl who can unlock any door – with her feet or her sheer will.