TargetTalk

I normally write about digital technology and the Internet. But just now I'm writing a piece about collegiate pistol shooting sports and wanted to get more information from an expert. Can anybody around here help me out? Please ping me back ASAP. Thanks much and Merry Christmas.

Hiawatha Bray
Boston Globe
Recent writings: http://tinyurl.com/ypuyt5

Fair warning.

The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times. They are equally ultra-left-wing liberal, anti-gun newspapers.

The story has nothing to do with politics or gun control, one way or the other. It's actually about the fact that MIT, best known for being one of the world's leading scientific universities, has a very active athletic program--and one of its most successful athletic specialties these days is pistol shooting. MIT took national NRA championships in 2005 and 2007, and came second last year. How'd that happen, especially after the sport lost its varsity status due to budget cuts? That's the point of my story. Personally, I don't care if people own guns or not. None of my business, unless they're criminals or nuts.

Hope this clears things up.

I was Captain of the Imperial College Pistol Club in the UK.

Its important to have a diversion from the pressure of study, and also to learn teamwork, organisation, will to win etc which no college course can teach.

Pistol shooting is also a mind-game as much as anything, where an understanding of the mechanics is also key. So its ideal for intelligent, scientific minded people.

The Imperial rowing team invariably beat Oxford and Cambridge too.

JamesH, fascinating insight. Are you a scientist by training? Do you still shoot? Thanks.

Go to the source. Contact Coach Will Hart at willhart@mit.edu.
The club also has a website at http://web.mit.edu/pistol/www/

Hap Rocketto wrote:Go to the source. Contact Coach Will Hart at willhart@mit.edu.
The club also has a website at http://web.mit.edu/pistol/www/

Unfortunately, Will is retired and not the official pistol coaching at MIT any longer, but if there is anybody you want to talk to about the Pistol sport at MIT it is Will.

His email is will2245@verizon.net and phone 401-274-9571. He has given interviews to the Globe years ago.

While I no longer coach on the intercollegiate ranks, I am happy you have noted that MIT has returned to the fold. This time with a new coach who replaced the brilliant a$$hole that coauched there 10 or so years back. This guy selected targets from three different disciplines which he assigned to his team for SP, WSP competition. He argued ad infinitum ad nauseam of his correctitude in these matters. Even when confronted with the facts he still refused to accpet, withdrew---got on the bus and headed back to Massachusetts with a team of bewildered students who had just driven yeah many hours to arribe at Kings Point. I can possibly supply you with some information if you get strapped. "Doc"

Bob -
I have read many of your articles in the past and I remember them being respectful even in opposition. You need to know that the person you mentioned died several years ago and cannot, in any way, defend himself or comment on the authenticity of your rant. I have no knowledge of the incident and cannot comment.

MIT never left 'the fold' of collegiate shooting, although it was close. The student team members and alumni stepped up and bailed out the program and they are still very competitive.

Mr. Bray has contacted me personally and I will oblige him. He worked with MIT rifle coach Jerry Mulloy at the Globe and Jerry says he is a pretty good guy. I even made him sit down, laughing, when I first met him and referred to target shooting as "Republican Yoga", a term I learned from shooter Brendan Foley.

And, any newspaper writer who actually says, "Merry Christmas" in print has my attention!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Will Hart
MIT Pistol Coach 1996-1997, 2001-2010







[quote][/quote]While I no longer coach on the intercollegiate ranks, I am happy you have noted that MIT has returned to the fold. This time with a new coach who replaced the brilliant a$$hole that coauched there 10 or so years back. This guy selected targets from three different disciplines which he assigned to his team for SP, WSP competition. He argued ad infinitum ad nauseam of his correctitude in these matters. Even when confronted with the facts he still refused to accpet, withdrew---got on the bus and headed back to Massachusetts with a team of bewildered students who had just driven yeah many hours to arribe at Kings Point. I can possibly supply you with some information if you get strapped. "Doc"

Harvard has an active shooting club again - see viewtopic.php?p=141844&highlight=#141844

I'll toss in my two cents here...

Shooting isn't like football, basketball, or any of the other money-ball sports. The budgets are small, the competitors frequently provide their own equipment, and there is no lucrative professional sports career after college. Which makes it possible for a non-varsity team, running on a shoestring, to perform well.

And James H brings up a good point. Shooting demands mental performance far more than physical strength. There are top-flight shooters in their 60s and 70s - indeed, the oldest Olympic medalist was a 74-year-old rifle shooter. It's a sport in which MIT students can be expected to excel.

watha wrote:JamesH, fascinating insight. Are you a scientist by training? Do you still shoot? Thanks.

I'm a mechanical engineer, started pistol shooting at university, still shooting at 40.

JamesH wrote:I was Captain of the Imperial College Pistol Club in the UK.

Its important to have a diversion from the pressure of study, and also to learn teamwork, organisation, will to win etc which no college course can teach.

Pistol shooting is also a mind-game as much as anything, where an understanding of the mechanics is also key. So its ideal for intelligent, scientific minded people.

The Imperial rowing team invariably beat Oxford and Cambridge too.

And our rifle team beat them all :D Well in recent years anyway.

For some reason, shooting as a whole attracts scientists and engineers en masse (well, rifle and pistol. Clay pigeon/shotgun is a different demographic).

At uni, our rifle club was dominated by mechanical and electronic engineers, physicists, computer science students and for some reason I was one of 4 Ocean scientists out of 20 regular shooters, which is a fair old percentage.
"Humanities" subjects were represented by a single fine art student, a history student and a language student (who was really interested in linguistics, which is a science, so she barely counts. And she did A-Levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, so a scientist at heart!).
This was a few years back mind.


It's a very methodical sport, high on skill and in that it shares a lot with Archery, as well as certain field events.

Aside from the technical side of setting up the equipment, there is a very powerful and systematic mind-game you must play, repeating a process for each and every shot, making calculated adjustments for wind and other effects. I guess that's what attracts scientists and engineers. A constant strive to perfect and refine the process.

Plus the fact that it's darn good fun and in my experience, shooting brings together a lot of really nice people and a solid social circle.