TargetTalk

Hello my fine friends,

After hammering all of you for tips, training secrets and all for two years, I managed to do well. Shot 541 in the State competition in air pistol. Must be in the top ten out of the 200 or so who competed in air. My friend returned from a vacation and shot 550. He missed a medal by a whisker.

It is amazing how many of your tips worked David, Lastman, Russ, Ron, Brian and luftskytter and a whole load of you guys. Brian's tip about how he used the good feelings from the last vacation to control his mood and shoot better. Worked for me, visualizing Brian having a good time :-) ha ha ha not.

Need to shoot with even more rest breaks and patience. Had finished 20 sighters and 50 scoring shots in one hour or so. Had 45 minutes left for the last ten shots. Wish I had stuck to my plan of taking all that time for the last ten.

Have two more competitions coming up, the funny part is that the wife thinks that I can easily shoot 550/560. And the eerie part is that I am beginning to believe it too :-).

Much joy to all of you.

Regards,

Dev

Congratulations on your satisfying result! I've yet to compete in real life, only postal matches so far, so I'm very much looking forward to my first match in November. A consistent calm does seem to be so important, doesn't it? No good feeling calm and confident at the first shot, hitting a nice 10, then getting stressed out about hitting the next 10... only to hit a 7 and start all the psychological running around to find one's way back to that first mode of being. Training the mind is the hardest, and most rewarding element in AP.

Hi Gerard,

One thing that the gurus here taught me is not to look at the score. Over the past few months I concentrated on dry firing and shooting tight groups.

You will know by the size of the group how you are doing. In my practice session at the range I shot very badly. Often forsaking the follow through to steal a glance at the monitor.

During the competition I had told myself not to look at the monitor and concentrate on my follow through and the trigger. The effort was really tiring and my legs hurt from the stance that I had developed for core stability. Couldn't sleep well that night, but it was worth it.

Can't tell you enough about how conceited and smug I feel now. But my standard pistol score is so low that it forces me to come back to earth.

Regards,

Dev

I don't know why there is such a drive to curtail the follow through to get a look at the target. I understand that it is there, but it just has not afflicted me yet. Perhaps it is because I have not shot any competition, only practice. I figure the hole is in the paper and isn't going anywhere. My drill is to fire, hold for a full second or so while I think about and call the shot, reload and then look at the scope. Maybe putting in the reload step gives me the mindset that I will not see the paper right away so I may as well hold the follow through.

Dev, I've always felt that shooting is a sort of meditative practice. One of the mantras I learned early on is "No Stinkin' Thinkin'!" and Buddhist meditation is all about clearing the mind of any thoughts. I wonder if in India, where meditation is embedded deeply in the culture, it has an effect on your technique or the technique and training of shooters there in general.

Roger

Dev wrote:Often forsaking the follow through to steal a glance at the monitor.

What I normally recomend if this is a problem is to move the monitor (if possible). For a right handed shooter move it to the front (nearest to you) right hand corner of the table/bench. It is then not possible to see it until you lower your arm, so the rush to see the "hole" appear is negated.

I do appreciate that not all firing point designs will allow this.

DO NOT try to turn the monitor off, turn it round, cover it or reduce it so much that it is unreadable. The range staff should jump all over you if you try that.

6.11.1.2.1 It is not permitted to obscure the shooter’s monitor-screen or any part of the screen. The whole screen must be visible to the Jury and range personnel.

At home I shot quite a few sessions with a monitor back in March or so. Used a tiny wireless camera I mostly use for inspecting the interiors of doublebasses, and a receiver connected to my tablet PC which sat on a stool near my firing line. Tried it in various positions, from right under my pistol so I could just glance down, all the way to the right side (I'm right-handed) so that my arm blocked seeing it while shooting. I did not find that it interfered with my follow-through... but only because I don't really have a follow-through. Oh sure, I've tried, but the longest it seems I am able to hold is less than half a second after the shot. Perhaps with time I'll develop enough stamina to hold longer. If I'm interested enough to do that, that is, because frankly I'm not. I know it's widely held to be a good thing. I've read lots of coaches' essays on this and other subjects. It just seems not something which I can do, so far.

And looking at the location of the latest shot seemed helpful to me at the time. I was using my normal reading glasses to shoot with, and various plastic irises I'd made in experimenting with visual focus, but at +2 diopters I could not see the scaled 7metre target well enough to get any idea where the shots were landing. Then I switched to a pair of +1.25 reading glasses for shooting. With these, and an iris, I could easily see the target and also focus on the front sight with a slight focal adjustment in my eye. So I stopped using the monitor, as it was easy to make small sighting adjustments to the pistol if needed (I was using a modified Gamo Center pistol, and the sights were highly prone to changing while shooting - no such problem with my 46m purchased in mid-April) during a session without it.

Now that I've figured out a way to shoot 10metres at home, at least when no one else is around the house, this is no longer possible; the distance is just too great to see some shots, though good tight groups do become visible after 4 or 5 shots. I'll likely go back to using the camera and tablet again, at least for some sessions. I found that it inspired me to shoot a bit better, perhaps as I took those sessions more seriously, 'pretending' to shoot in a match more effectively. The dynamic seems related to suspension of disbelief, as when watching movies. If I allow myself to become immersed in a film, my attention, even sense of participation in the film becomes quite deep. Similarly with shooting, if I put together the trappings of a match and ensure all is prepared, shutting off my phone, generally developing the anticipation and manner I might feel in a match - including use of a monitor - that I am better able to immerse myself in that experience and feel every single shot as being more deserving of my full attention. And hey, if monitors are going to be there at some matches I might as well get used to it!

What I found to be very important is to use the range on the practice day before the match. I neglected this on the last pre-national qualifier and paid the price. One must go and have a session and make all the mistakes.

So my friend accompanied me to the range for a practice session and I did all the stupid things then. During the match I would check the monitor only after finishing the follow through. And yes David I had turned and placed the monitor to my extreme right corner. I did not obscure it but looked at it after every five shots, since I can call a good shot most times.

Roger I meditate twice a day, I have been learning Transcendental Meditation for the last four years. My problem had always been about zoning out during the match. My teacher had insisted on proper breathing (I monitored it during the match) and remembering to focus in the moment.
I could at times also totally blank the mind of any thoughts. Oh I also skipped the morning coffee on match day, drank tea instead, seemed to help.

When I got everything together the result would be a 10.5, I at times manage to shoot some consecutively. Gerard you must shoot some real matches just to experience the way your nerves can act. Your score with the Baikal is fabulous. I just about shot 89% with it and then switched to the LP 10.

Out here people have just got the best pistols and rifles, not one shooter in two hundred used anything else. In the old days guys would come in with Indian springers and Co2 rifles but no more. I used my regular glasses (multi-focus) as the lighting in the indoor range was fabulous.

May not be so good in the next tournament.

Regards,

Dev

Thanks for the compliment Dev. When I'm fully there, not distracted in any way, it feels almost easy to shoot 10's. So this Baikal pistol should take me a lot further. I do expect a significant difference psychologically when shooting a match. In my first try at a club last week, standing beside Allan Harding while he practised, I was nervous enough to miss the black a couple of times. It did not help that I had run to the club from the bus as I'd missed the earlier bus. Gave up coffee a couple of months ago, so that is not an issue. Eliminating most caffeine (still drink the odd cup of Dilmah tea but only before bed, never during the day when I might shoot) seemed to give me about a 1% improvement in my average.

On March 28th I shot my best score with my previous pistol, an old Gamo Center spring pistol with many problems, only some of which I could mend. At 528 after two previous 60 shot rounds that day, 81.83 and 85%, it seemed I was approaching my limits with that pistol. Might have been able to press onwards to 90%, but at 88 I felt satisfied with the effort of a few months and decided it was time to upgrade. The 46m arrived 3 weeks later, and since making it 'mine' with a good grip and trigger and other modifications I feel that it presents no serious barriers to my shooting success. When at the club last week I had several comments from other shooters there, two asking "is that a Pardini" since it doesn't much resemble a stock 46m now, and one fellow saying "Did you modify the cocking effort? It seems you have no difficulty with it. I've seen a lot of shooters struggle with that pistol." I actually shortened the cocking lever so it's about 2 pounds harder than stock, around 20 pounds. But I'm fairly strong and do find it quite easy to do, so not at all fatiguing to shoot 100 shots within 90 minutes. I had to change my bad habit from home though; I'd been cocking it directly in front of me in a symmetrical fashion, always conscious of doing things in a balanced way. Turns out that's illegal (and unsafe, obviously, had I thought about it) at a shared range, where a silly accident could cost someone an eye. So I cock the lever with the barrel pointed down-range now, at home as well as the club. Don't want anyone jumping out of their seat and catching me again like that first time!

Anyway, I see no reason this pistol can't carry me as far as I want to go with shooting, which is to the highest level my body and mind will allow. I'm hoping to participate in ISSF matches at least, the Olympics being a fond thought at this point which I hope to make into a distinct possibility. Pre-compressed air doesn't interest me so far. I doubt that will change. I'm something of a purist in such things.

Your practice of meditation is interesting. I've practiced yoga at times since my teens over 30 years ago but have never managed to persist more than a few months running. Something about it does not sit well with me. Or I just don't sit well, that might be a more appropriate way to put it. I took from it what I could, and enjoy the improved breathing awareness. Still do the odd hour of postures... mostly when I go for a run, something to cool off with and avoid injuries. Meditation itself simply won't work. Mind is too busy, something inherited from both parents who had extraordinarily, frustratingly busy minds. I'm happy enough to call it genetic and live with it. But 10m AP has brought me a form of meditation I'd not expected. I become so thoroughly involved in the task that not much can approach it in importance in my mind, so most of that blur of activity sits somewhere below full awareness and I just let it percolate away while I shoot. Being rather obsessive in my pursuit of 10's seems to offer sufficient motivation for my subconscious to stop pulling me away into other tasks, at least for a few hours per week.