David Levene wrote:In the modern game at world class level a coach is the figurehead for a team of specialists; sports psychologists, nutritionalists, biomechanicians, conditioning coaches, etc.
Maybe so, but with all those specialists "helping" out with the coaching, scores are no better than they were 10 - 20 years ago.
The additional people to the coaching staff, Most being speciallists in different fields would in MHO only add to the jumble of incorect information being fed to the shooters. Where are you Ragnar ? we need you more and more as this information overload is overwhelming us all Good Shooting Bill Horton
j-team wrote:Maybe so, but with all those specialists "helping" out with the coaching, scores are no better than they were 10 - 20 years ago.
It might seem that way subjectively, but that's not what the scores say. With the exceptions of 50m Pistol and Women's 10m Pistol, every olympic pistol event has had its current world record score set in the last three to five years meaning that scores today are higher than scores 20 years ago.
j-team wrote:Maybe so, but with all those specialists "helping" out with the coaching, scores are no better than they were 10 - 20 years ago.
It might seem that way subjectively, but that's not what the scores say. With the exceptions of 50m Pistol and Women's 10m Pistol, every olympic pistol event has had its current world record score set in the last three to five years meaning that scores today are higher than scores 20 years ago.
Oh really?
Mens Air: 593 in 1989, took 20 years to gain a point to 594 in 2009 (with a huge advance in equipment and popularity)
Womens Air: 393 set in 1998
25m pistol: 594 set in 1994
Free (50m) Pistol: 580 set in 1980!
Rapid Fire: Totally new rules in 2005, record of 591 set in 2006 and equalled once since.
And although not an Olympic event but how about Standard pistol: 584, that one was set in 1983...
Mens Air: 593 in 1989, took 20 years to gain a point to 594 in 2009 (with a huge advance in equipment and popularity)
Womens Air: 393 set in 1998
25m pistol: 594 set in 1994
Free (50m) Pistol: 580 set in 1980! (DL note:- actually 581)
Rapid Fire: Totally new rules in 2005, record of 591 set in 2006 and equalled once since.
And although not an Olympic event but how about Standard pistol: 584, that one was set in 1983...
Do you really believe that specialist support was not available to all of those shooters, even going back to the Russian team in 1980.
As for the Standard Pistol record, yes it's an extremely good score but remember that even the very best shooter only gets one match every 2 years to try to break it. If it had been an Olympic event, with several opportunities to break the record every year, I have no doubt that it would have been broken long ago. That however is another problem.
edit note: "one match every 2 years" should read "3 matches every 4 years"
(Ex) elite shooter or experienced coach of many (ex) elite shooters. I appreciate that there might be compatability issues but, other than that, I know which I would choose.
David Levene wrote:
Six Indian pistol shooters have however taken a different approach.
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The Indians had a plan at one stage to only employ "home grown" coaches after a certain date (some years ago). The idea was that local coaches would learn from the foreign coaches and eventually replace them. This obviously hasn't worked out for them!
j-team wrote:...The idea was that local coaches would learn from the foreign coaches and eventually replace them. This obviously hasn't worked out for them!
I got email from Poddubni 4-5 months ago. Seems that he likes there, in India. Capable fellas there...
First of all - he was impressed by own language skills - "It is amazing, I speak and they understand me... ", as Poddubni said. As I understood - it's first time he works together with English speaking shooters.