TargetTalk

Hey guys in a junior shooter at the age of 16 and I want to shoot rifle in college. I was wondering what kind of scores do I need to be shooting to accomplish it. I am shooting 520 to 540 in air and around 530 in 22 since I just got into smallbore. This is all in sporter. Another question is should I move to precision soon or wait? Thanks.

Start shooting 3P on the 50 foot USAS target. and the 60 shots air rifle course(standing). 550s will be the lower end, and 575+ is much preferred and will get you looked at.
Matt

Rifle in college:
60 shots 3P .22 with a precision .22 rifle (e.g. Anschutz 2013, 1907, etc)
60 shots precision air rifle

As many others have pointed out before, you will be attending college to get an education, not to shoot. Enjoy the sport, become as expert as you can, but never forget that. Look for a good school with an academic program that meets your needs. Shoot with the college club team or a local civilian team.

As Tom said .... your collegiate education should be #1 ... you won't be able to shoot if you you're grades are not up there.

Also, at 16 it is not too early to begin making sure that you comply with the academic eligibility requirements coming our of high school/home school, etc.
Go to this link and begin the sign in process and check that you are taking the correct core classes to be eligible at the Eligibility Center:
http://www.collegesportsscholarships.co ... center.htm

CRSSAteammember wrote:Hey guys in a junior shooter at the age of 16 and I want to shoot rifle in college. I was wondering what kind of scores do I need to be shooting to accomplish it. I am shooting 520 to 540 in air and around 530 in 22 since I just got into smallbore. This is all in sporter. Another question is should I move to precision soon or wait? Thanks.

What are goals for shooting on a college team scholarship or just shooting on a team. If your looking for scholarship opportunities the college coaches are going to be looking at your grades and ACT and or SAT scores first and then your shooting ability.

The coaches are going to be pretty reluctant to award somebody a shooting scholarship as the schools shooting team scholarship program gets penalized pretty hard if they don't graduate or their grades don't cut the mustard. The NCAA instituted rules long ago to make sure athletes graduate and learn something. These rules were a result from scandals that occurred many years ago when football and basketball players were given academic passes in their classes and some never even graduated and where cast aside when they were no longer eligible to play, so rifle coaches are under pressure to make sure you graduate.

If you want to see how your scores compare just look at the scores from some of the NCAA shooting competitions, particularly the freshman scores. I would guess that your scores at this time are a bit on the low side for now, but you have time to improve.

If you want to just shot with a team the school may have several teams were you can earn the right to be on the top team or just enable to shot with the team. For example, Nevada can have up to four teams, but the scholarship team members are shooting on their A Team with maybe some on the B Team. The other teams are deemed training teams were they are training to be on the A team, but receive no financial support.

For a reality check, A team scores in smallbore are going to have to be consistently 550 or above. Air will need to be 570 or above. That doesn't mean you can't be a walk-on, join the B team and develop your skills with professional coaching.

You might want to search for other similar posts discussing collegiate shooting as there were some good pieces of information mentioned a few months back.

Good luck, and keep shooting in the black!

Thanks guys just an update ive recently won state air rifle in 4 h this past summer. Im thinking of either trying to go to UT Martin or memphis state. My grades are pretty good i have around a 3.2 to 3.5 GPA. I have recently bought a kimber model 82g and my smallbore scores are slowly rising. Ive been shooting 545 consistantly in air rifle.Seeing i have two more grade years to improve im hoping i can reach my goal. I plan on moving to prescision the end of my junior year(next year).

Are spelling, correct use of capital letters and punctuation part of your academic curriculum?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. And I am a furriner. English is my third language.

Andrea

I just typed the reply up really fast last night. I actually take Cambridge University Classes at my high school. Its the same and higher than what used to be honors and Advanced.

jhmartin wrote:As Tom said .... your collegiate education should be #1 ... you won't be able to shoot if you you're grades are not up there.

Also, at 16 it is not too early to begin making sure that you comply with the academic eligibility requirements coming our of high school/home school, etc.
Go to this link and begin the sign in process and check that you are taking the correct core classes to be eligible at the Eligibility Center:
http://www.collegesportsscholarships.co ... center.htm

I agree from the shooters stand point the academic is the most important, but from the other side of the story the pressure being put on collegiate coaches (even rifle) to produce a winning team is becoming even greater, especially the one's being paid full time salaries. The ex coach at Ohio felt the pressure and maybe one of the reasons he was let go. All I have to say is that if you do manage to get a scholarship on a collegiate team you can't just look at it as free money. They are paying you to perform and just like any job you had better perform academically and shooting wise and if you don't you had better be able to stand the heat.

If you want an example of a school were these metrics are very visible is TCU. The coach their has very high expectations from her shooters and she places a great deal of pressure on her shooters and I'm probably being very kind with my words. She has the reputation of being a very tough person and is probably why she has the championship team that she does. However, I suspect that if she wasn't winning she probably wouldn't have her job very long.

A few other bits of reality here:

For the teams that do have scholarships it is not uncommon to split a scholarship across two or more shooters. This way a few folks get some help but no one a full ride.

It has been mentioned before, there are not just NCAA programs but club programs as well. Just look at the programs very carefully before you commit to a school, club programs vary widely in quality with some being little more than social clubs that happen to shoot rifles.

Finally, it has been discussed on the forum before, give yourself the reality check for what you want to do with shooting in the future past college. Great sport, good people, lots of fun BUT equipment, ammo and travel get to be expensive. As far as I know the only way to make a living as a smallbore shooter in the US is to join the USAMU. Shooting with the AMU is likely very rewarding but the commitment to the service might not be everyone's thing. Which brings the conversation back to the part about graduating and having good grades to help keep your options wide open.

Good Luck
'Dude

education is my first priority. I plan on going into psychology fields. I understand the pressure becuase my coach pushes me and i seem to do better when pressure is high education and shooting wise. I thanl you all very much for the advice it has helped alot in some of my decisions for long term plans. Any more advice and discussion is great.

"The coach their has very high expectations from her shooters and she places a great deal of pressure on her shooters and I'm probably being very kind with my words. She has the reputation of being a very tough person"

True of successful coaches at any level in any sport...jr high and up

I can't speak to shooting in college, at the time I went I wasn't interested in shooting and the school I went to didn't offer it. I did however go to a Division I tennis school (and played for 4 years) under a pretty nice scholarship package. So I hope that my below advice for being a "student athlete" will carry some merit:

1.) The hardest part of the transition is going to be the first semester of your freshman year. I experienced it, the guys before me experienced it and I watched 3 years of underclassmen behind me experience it. You'll need to find the right balance of classwork, practice, the college experience and finding the "right crowd" that you want to associate with on campus. Balancing those can be difficult at first but you always want to make sure your class attendance and time for homework does not suffer.

2.) Several of my teammates valued "fun" over "getting work done" but still tried to fit everything in. It never worked. My freshman year I was expected to play 3rd or 4th singles (out of 5) and because I prioritized having fun more than focusing at practice I rode the pine the first half of the season. Once I got my head screwed on, I finished the season playing 4th singles. My coach made a few things very clear to me and the other incoming freshman right out of the gate (he had been the men's coach for 19 years):

- He's not here to babysit us. We're to show up to practice when it doesn't conflict with our classwork and we're expected to be ready to play at practice with no distractions or "screwing around."
- Be upfront with him when you need extra time hitting the books. He monitored our grades but he didn't go over them with a fine toothed comb. If we needed to show up late or leave early for a student group or get some extra help he was 100% on board but he just wanted to know about it with as much advance notice as possible. He also expected us to make up for missed practice with our free time. So rather than going to the frat's Friday night bash, I would instead hit the weights or the track for an hour or so because I didn't log the same hours earlier in the week due to course work.
- Enjoy college, enjoy all the opportunities it offers you. But find the right balance and learn to prioritize. For most student athletes their social life revolves around their team and/or their sport. Often times your social life is an off shoot of that versus in addition to as 95% of us valued our commitment to the team as our #2 priority (behind class).

3.) Get into a routine. Most of us had morning classes as practice was 3-5:30pm everyday. Some of us would take a night class but most of it started at 8:00am and went to about 1:30-2:00pm and then headed to practice. I wasn't a morning person so it took me a while to make sure I was awake enough in the AM to learn but still have enough energy at night (after practice) to put 2-4 hours in the library/study hall. This required a diet change, a sleep cycle change and most importantly the ability to remove distractions at night when I was in my dorm (girls, video games and beer runs). Thankfully my roommate was an athlete as well so we were on the same page some of my teammates were not so lucky and really struggled with fatigue as a result of this.

4.) Identify where you stand going into the program. Before I even applied to the college where I ultimately ended up I evaluated my skill set in Junior/Senior year to see if I had what it took to be a Division I (or whatever) athlete. I use to try and hustle the local college guys for some court time on weekends or weeknights as often as I could (they were Division II). I quickly discovered that I was the one about to be hustled but it made me work harder, focus on different game improvements and really push myself. It also made me realize that I was not going to be the best on a Division I team but that if I worked hard enough I could hang with them enough to hopefully get the coach to notice me. Summer of my Junior year when I made the college my first choice I reached out the coach via film, monthly score updates or whatever relevant information I thought was valuable. I also made a long weekend trip to the university (twice) during their peak season I asked to work out with the team. I wanted to run with them, train with them and scrimmage with them so I could see if it was a "fit" for me. Were these guys jerk? Were they cool? Could I be friends with any of them? Etc.

5.) Last piece of advice and this was the tough one. Learn to admit defeat. While I wish you all the best in your collegiate aspirations, I'm frequently reminded of the popular tagline of NCAA commercials. "There are more than X hundred thousand student-athletes and most of them go pro in something other than sports." Towards the end of my Junior year I realized that while I loved tennis, was pretty good at it and had a lot of fun it was time to start focusing on internships, putting myself in the best possible position for a job/career upon graduation and what was also a great relationship with my girlfriend. I began to value all of these things over my success on the court as such did not play my Senior year. I essentially (with the approval of my coach) "red shirted" myself. I practiced, trained and scrimmaged but I never played in matches and never traveled with the team. But I boosted my GPA up a bit, landed a great internship and ended up with a minor I wanted but wouldn't have been able to get if I played. The result? A career opportunity waiting for me immediately upon graduation.

All the best.

Having shot at the collegiate level, I can echo every point made by softreset! Very well said.

To SoftReset ... Please flesh this out and submit to Brad Donoho at CMP. This is a fine article that is worth many junior athletes should read.

I swam in college and I too found out quickly that I would not be making many of the travels .... competition at the collegiate level does indeed require a mental transition to reality

I just "signed" with the Murray State Rifle team a few weeks ago. When we were still talking, he said he was looking for scores in 60 shot air to be around 585 and scores in 3P smallbore to be around 575. Keep in mind, though, Murray State is a top 10 team.

I also heavily looked into UT Martin, and the coach was absolutely amazing. Their scores aren't as good, but to be competitive on his TEAM (not the NCAA) you would need to shoot 565-570 air and 555 smallbore. This would probably put you around the middle of his team.

To answer your question about whether or not you should move up to precision or not, I say go for it as soon as possible. I started shooting period at 16 and didn't move up to precision until I was 17, and I have only been shooting smallbore for about 4 months. The more experience you have, the more likely they are to look at you. Because of my single year of experience, it took a lot of pushing to get the Murray State coach to look at me, and even after that I still got red shirted for the first year (mainly because I only shoot 577 air/565 smallbore and because of my experience level). Also, like most of the other people have said, you go to school for an education, not for shooting sports. If you think you can keep up with school AND a minimum of 20 hours per week of practice, then go for it. If you can't, I would rethink your decision.

Well after my first year of competitive shooting and starting my freshman year of college, I raised my SBR scores 200 points and my AR scores 145 points. SBR is currently sitting at 510, AR at 545. Still struggling with kneeling, and oddly enough my most stable position is standing.
I believe I could easily hit 550 in SBR by the end of next season, and I hope to get to 575 in AR.
However I will caution you that school can come up and bite you square in the ass if you're not careful. I have almost failed a class due to exhaustion from shooting, and also due to going to nationals. However if you know what you're doing and can balance your schedule and work your butt off, there is nothing more fun in the world.

I shot on an NCAA team from 97-01. As a junior precision shooter, my dad religiously documented every match score I shot. When it came time to start contacting schools I presented the coaches with my match results over the years (showing improvement) as well as the camps I attended (showing the willingness to learn) and the camps where I later served as a coach (showing the ability to teach others). If you really want to pursue collegiate shooting, transition to precision as soon as you can.

Try to attend precision camps offered by the CMP and the AMU if/when you can.

Good luck!

Steph