TargetTalk

Michelangelo quote:
"The only danger in life is setting goals too low and reaching them." :))
Please do not discriminate Michelangelo on his thoughts I like him dearly. ;)

Ah, I get it!

Discriminate.

bwwaaaa wrote:Ah, I get it!

Discriminate.

Nope :( I’m done to arguing about it since it is not important.
Key words are : Set Goals ;) This is cohesion to the 20/80 rule. ;)

Russ wrote:Michelangelo quote:
"The only danger in life is setting goals too low and reaching them."

I disagree. How about setting goals too low and NOT reaching them. ;-)

Looks like this is our major disagreement for the last six years. ;)

Can I quote you in the future? I like it as much as a comparison of International pistol to Republican yoga. :)

How do you know at what level you need to set the goals, unless you have tried and found them too easy or unachieveable?
It is all a question of the fine balance between expectation and achievability.
Keep setting the goals, work hard to achieve them or re-define them as required as failure is a negative thought.

How do you know at what level you need to set the goals, unless you have tried and found them too easy or unachieveable?

This is a tough one. Let me tell you about my vision. About how to set goals. If you bought an olympic style pistol already, there is some reason behind this purchase on the subconscious level. For the same reason, you are here searching for information to improve your performance. This sport give us the opportunity to compete on the level where our age is not important. Our weight is not important also, but we are supposed to possess some important qualities. This is the ability to control your own emotions, the ability to make clear decisions, the ability to use our life experience and our successful experience to the hobby in which we are all involved.

It is all a question of the fine balance between expectation and achievability.
Keep setting the goals, work hard to achieve them or re-define them as required as failure is a negative thought.

In these two sentences, you are describing a long and tedious process. If you bought your pistols for the reason to socialize in your club, it does not matter what your goal is because you already achieved your goal; to be around people to whom you like, but there are different people who have a fire inside themselves. I would like to share what a 15 year old teenager wrote about his passion for running:

"When I'm about to begin a 45 minute run, I focus more on why I decided to join track in the first place instead of the pain and soreness. It wasn't for socialization or for health, it was to know that I'm actually doing something useful in my life besides focusing on more important goals, such as education. Track is a relief and a pain, and I will not regret it because the passionate sensation is worth it."

We are much more older than him, and we do not have too many opportunities to compete and have passions at the same time, but we still have hunger to have the same emotions as those kids do. Even if we are 40, 50, or 60 years old, our Olympic Style Target Shooting discipline has a record of a 72 year old olympic champion. The difference is: someone has a goal and passion, and someone who has not started to think about that.

My goal is to afford the budget needed to pursue Olympic Stardom....or maybe at least to afford to look the part!

Better stick to my day job.

Ownership of Olympic pistol newer was an obstacle to perform on the international level, but an idea to perform above the international level and to have an opportunity to have access to your tool (Olympic pistol) gives one an opportunity to craft or master one's skills by his own will at any part of the day or night. The question is: does one have a will, and what exactly does he want to accomplish? It has to be in writing in his shooting diary. It can be one's starting point to the road of success.

How will you get it if you don’t know what are you looking for?

Interesting quote by the runner, Russ. I have a similar mindset when it comes to shooting. It is fun to shoot, however, it is work to shoot good scores in a match. The pleasure for me comes when the scores are posted and I've reached or exceeded my goal and most especially when I win with that score.

I’m trying to convince this runner to become an Olympic style target shooter with no success, even if he has access to his mentor 24 hours a day. :(

Each of us has our own passion to certain type of activities. It is important to find out about it inside yourself. What is for me, what I’m passion about? When we can match those elements… magic starts happen. It is more than choosing the right pistol or grip for me. But if we don’t know why we are doing this…
Not too many tips or secrets and long boring description of “successful magic hold” or my system will matter.
Think about this:
It takes one year to get from ground zero to the international level of performance, and many years of hard work to" sharpen your sword", and to make you dream come true. Only one year!
One more "only." ;)
Only if you have the guts to do this, your dream needs to accomplish and mentor who knows the pass. Stop looking for tips. Ask yourself what are you really need, an not what you want now. Immediate satisfaction does not help you a lot to solve problems in a long range goal.

I hope someone can come up with a simple and logical decision. It is does not really matter which words we use: "not discriminate or qualify" ;) The
decision is yours, and time is yours as well; it does not matter who will "not discriminate" or who will "qualify someone"; the result will be the same. NO progress!
Because you are the designated driver who is pushing two pedals simultaneously gas and brakes. :)

Shall We Continue?
Let me explain what I mean about two pedals.
The first pedal; you don’t know what you really want from target shooting. In most cases, with the initial contact of my students, he cannot explain in simple words what his expectation is in the practice of Olympic Style Target Shooting (not score wise, not very specific, and no specific recognition such as example : to become a national record breaker).

The second pedal is your ability in the decision making process. He does not know how to choose, or his ability to choose is based on incomplete information. On top of this, the standard decision making process is based on old patterns; we judge the unknown by known.

The result of those of two confronted processes are hesitations to move forward (act) toward your goal. In simple words, I can explain this situation… If someone is asking you help for directions by phone, and if you are trying to help him, ask him where his final destination is and where he is right now. In most cases, if you cannot receive any specific information from your student, and if he does not know where he is and where he wants to go, how are you supposed to help him achieve what he wants? I hope this is understandable.

Wow Russ when you decide to teach you really do so, your words are crystal clear and have the conviction to move mountains. I now understand what you have been asking. I will reply more succinctly in the mail.


Regards,

Dev

Thank you Dev.
I’m not teaching here but only sharing what I’m thinking about at the current moment.
I’m glad you like it and found it helpful. I’ll check your e-mail.
Warm Regards.
Russ

This is the side of Russ that I have seen before and knew was there. Much better than the confrontational one. Keep it up Russ

Thank you Russ for a really positive and encouraging reply.
I am sure that we all have hidden dream goals and also realistic ambitions, irrespective of the overall level of the shooters actual ability.
Freepistol, I totally agree that the pleasure when a really good series of "10's" is achieved and the overall competition score exceeds your personal goal.

Russ,
It's a nice summary and useful as a reminder to both shooters and coaches alike. I always start when I coach a new person getting their shooting history and defining the 'now'. As you say we can then define where we're starting from, and adding in where we want to get to we can begin to build the route. One thing I'm not so good at is re-checking where we are at to the same level of detail on a regular basis.

Rob.

I'm not so good at is re-checking where we are at to the same level of detail on a regular basis.

It can be done monthly, quarterly, and it must be implemented in competition schedule.

Why is important to speak with you coach time to time? ;)

He (coach) can see problems not only on your target, not only by evaluating your performance as a position, hold, follow through etc.,but especially on your language.

Verbalization will direct coach toward understanding of real causes not symptoms and those "causes" must be fixed first.
Verbalization has unique personal value. We can read same books but way how we presenting value after reading are different. If someone really need help he or she must be understood first.

As I stated before 570 in AP can be achieved in three monthn, as someone who is reading this information done it already year ago.
But he acted differently in comparison with many TT participants.
He has less than 50 posts here. He is carefully analyzing information, asking question and taking action toward his goal. He knows exactly what he wants!
Is anyone can able do the same? Yes! But there are few ifs, IF you know WHY you doing this, IF you know WHAT to do and IF you know to WHOM address your questions.