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amarinder
Posts: 66
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:46 am

Need help from experienced shooters!

Post by amarinder »

HI to ALL memebers..



I am facing an issue with my 10m pistol shooting.Over past few weeks I have gained more in technique but whenever my session goes well(like tight groups in 9 and 10 circle) ...I am not able to maintain the same shooting technique even though I do imagery in between the sessions...How do I solve this??

One thing more,My schedule is like this:
Get up in morning, get to the range (on my terrace) within half hour. I dont do meditation before starting my morning session. Then do some warm up for 2 mins then do 10 mins technique recalling and then its just LIVE FIRING for next 1.5 hour and no dry firing in between. After session, do some 15 min imagery of any specific thing that I learnt in the session. Then whenever i get time during the day, I do 1-2 minute imagery in between.

Then, I evening I do another 1.5 hour session of live firing.

My doubts are is I am doing to much of live firing. I fear that if I dont do live firing, my brain would forget the important aspect of technique that i learnt in previous session. But my performance after a good session always go down in the next session.

I am developing shooter, what should be my strategy in training sessions?? Like I learnt an important aspect of grip handling which has increased gun stability and scores in the morning session. What should I do evening session??

Regards
User avatar
DLS
Posts: 179
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2013 8:42 pm
Location: Pacific Northwest

Post by DLS »

Hello,

First of all you are overtraining if you are truly approaching 4 hours per day of concentrated effort at shooting. Fatigue and overload will greatly hamper you success. I would suggest you are also spending way too much time in live-fire, thereby losing the valuable feedback and learning one can gain from dry-fire practice.

Secondly, you need to understand that any process improvement (not just in sports) is cyclical in nature. Except in very rare cases, you will always have a decline in performance after you have an increase in performance. What you need to focus upon is the overall trend ... not individual performances day by day. This is why you set your training schedule in such a fashion that you "peak" on the day of an important match.

Review your shooting diary (you are using one correct?) and note the overall trends in whatever aspect you are working on (hold, trigger manipulation, focus ... etc.) Plot those trends on a graph and you will see that you not only have your ups and downs, but those cycles will also cycle in themselves. This is valuable information.

I'd suggest you read an older book by Lanny Bassam called With Winning in Mind. It does an excellent job detailing this as well as other important things.

Thirdly, I think you put too much emphasis on visualization (by what you post). It's a valuable technique, but like any type of practice it must be done perfectly to gain perfect results, and you can over-do the mental training just like you can over-do the physical.

Lastly be aware that you can really only focus on one thing at a time when improving a system (otherwise you magnify the losses elsewhere). Say you are training this week to truly improve your trigger manipulation. You would expect your hold to deteriorate somewhat, as too your sight alignment etc. It's going to happen, so be prepared for it. After your intense work on the trigger, you will lose some of that gain when you move your attention to another part of your shot process.

But you will not lose it all ... unless there is a significant amount of time allowed to lapse until you return to focusing on the trigger. So after you cycle through all the different aspects of your shot process, all of these will be at a higher lever of performance than they were prior.

And you continue this process as long as you are a shooter. Always refining and improving / maintaining what you have developed. But understand that you will, except in rare cases, have a performance drop anytime you change something. It takes time to adapt to the new method and have your performance settle in on where it should be. The Bassam book does well explaining this as well.

What happens when you take a few days off? Don't trust your memory, go back to your diary and see. I'll bet you will see an improvement. It may not be an improved individual score, but rather it may be a change in the cycle that is positive, but it will be an improvement nonetheless.

What is your coach saying about your training frequency and methods?

I hope this helps, I'm sure others here will have an opinion as well.

Lee
amarinder
Posts: 66
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:46 am

Post by amarinder »

great reply.thanks.
yes i am maintaining a diary and also reading with winning in mind....
i am into shooting for 7 months now and have no coach as the range is being upgraded and the process is very slow...hopefully by march i practise undersome coach...



regards
David M
Posts: 1675
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 6:43 pm

Post by David M »

One of the hardest things to learn is the difference between practice and training.
Most people just practice bad habits.
Set goals and train just one small thing at a time.
pistol champ
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Dec 25, 2008 4:35 pm
Location: Eastern PA

amarinder

Post by pistol champ »

Your dedication to the sport is fantastic keep it up and you should become a great shooter. Get a great coach to guide you away from bad habits and help you develop a style that fits your body and mind. Everyone is different and you need to find out what works for you and what does not, a experienced coach can speed up this process.
Buy the best equipment and shoot top ammo so that you will know that the score you shoot is the best it can be. I is hard to qualify how well you doing or what is and is not working when you hold a 100 and your gun only shoots a 89.
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