TargetTalk

hello my friend
happy new year
I hope you are well
I am rifle shooter from Egypt (3*40 – air rifle – prone )
Thank you for all information in your site
It is very good and excllent and useful
And we need the more and the new in2006
I have important competation after 2 month
If you please
I want to know :
1- My breakfast in competation
2- How many hours I must sleep all the day
3- How I can get ready psychic
4- How I can manage my competation
5- What is the good advice in match
Thank you
Amer
Egypt

What the heck, I'll take a crack at it.

1- My breakfast in competation

I eat whatever, I just avoid coffee and heavy sugar and I try to eat two hours before the first shot. During the match if it is possible I drink water and eat things like bananas or PBJ sandwiches, not much but some every chance I get. This is much more important at an outdoor event in the summer.

2- How many hours I must sleep all the day

Regular 8 hours is great for me. Try to do it every night though.

3- How I can get ready psychic

Don't sweat it, its just a match, the outcome has little impact on anything really important. Your boss is not going to fire you if you don't shoot well. This is suppose to be a fun past time, don't turn it into a life or death ordeal in your mind.

4- How I can manage my competation

If I start getting edgy during the match I close my eyes and relax and think about "the white room", that is I empty my mind of all thought. When I do it right there is just me, the bulls eye and my sight alignment and trigger pull, no thought at all.

5- What is the good advice in match

Have Fun! Your spending most or all of your disposable income to be there, it had better be fun. I keep a log of all my scores, I shoot against myself and as long as I'm headed in the right direction I'm happy. If I'm not getting it together properly that means I need more practice. It has nothing to do with the other guys in my mind, heck, if all the guys that beat me that day had flat tires and didn't show I'd be the winner! Theres always a faster gun, its just if he's there that day or not is the question.

I'm sure others have different answers to your questions, these are just mine. Hope this helps.

What to eat for breakfast:-
Avoid anything containing caffeine or sugar. I tend to eat cornflakes or porridge, or if neither is available then toast or a bread roll or something.
Don't eat within an hour of your match.
If you do usually eat during your match, then don't just suddenly stop because I say so, keep doing it, but eat things like bread which aren't high in sugar. The previous poster suggested bananas, but I don't think that's a good idea because bananas require a lot of digesting and so diverts your blood supply from your brain and eyes to your digestive system, which makes your digestive system move more. Things like tuna or peanut butter are good.
Also, if your match is in the morning, what you ate the previous evening could also be minorly important. Don't eat anything too fatty, sugary or greasy, stick to 'healthy' things, and don't eat too much.

How much sleep:- the right amount of sleep you need before a match is the right amount you normally need to be wide awake the next day, without being tired from too little sleep, or sleepy from too much sleep!

The mental stuff:- just get on and shoot. It's easy to shoot, you've been doing it for how long? Just get into your normal shooting rhythmn and you'll be fine. And if, on the offchance, a negative or scary thought appears, stop shooting until it's gone away again.

Manage your competition:- well, for a start make sure you know where it is, when you're shooting, and get there well in advance to get yourself sorted out. Once you're shooting, you're fine. Just make sure you get into your normal shooting rhythmn (this is what sighters are for), and it should flow.

Good advice:- err. Haven't got a clue. Just trust yourself to know what you're doing. ALWAYS do your best, no matter how well, or badly, you are doing. Every single shot counts, so if you feel you need a break, even if it's before your last shot, take the break. That lesson I learned the hard way. Make sure you have a clock or timer with you so that you know when the match ends - you don't want to have three shots still to shoot in the last 30 seconds!
And most importantly, enjoy it. Shooting is supposed to be a hobby, and hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable. It's your free time you're using to shoot, and free time is there to be enjoyed. So enjoy it!

And shoot well.

Anonymous wrote:What to eat for breakfast:-
Avoid anything containing caffeine or sugar. I tend to eat cornflakes or porridge, or if neither is available then toast or a bread roll or something.
Don't eat within an hour of your match.
If you do usually eat during your match, then don't just suddenly stop because I say so, keep doing it, but eat things like bread which aren't high in sugar. The previous poster suggested bananas, but I don't think that's a good idea because bananas require a lot of digesting and so diverts your blood supply from your brain and eyes to your digestive system, which makes your digestive system move more. Things like tuna or peanut butter are good.

Bread is high in carbohyrdates - starch - which is glucose units stuck together - and they start to be broken down before even being swallowed. Bread is therefore high in sugar and will give you a sugar rush in the same way sweet foods will. Bananas are always advocated as a good 'in match' food and I'd agree with that. They are not quickly digested hence no sugar rush and as long as you aren't eating tons of them, they won't cause the blood diversion mentioned, to any significant degree.

Wherever possible I try to do the same thing in matches as training. I will eat typically between 1 1/2 and 2 hours before a match and try to make it something not too greasy or big. I will sleep as normal etc.

Mentally I disagree with guest, you need to practice the match mentally or at least parts of it - i.e. rehearse the routine for releasing a single (perfect) shot in your mind weeks or months ahead of times. You will get nerves sometimes and you need to develope coping strategies. You can't just expect those thoughts to vanish if you haven't worked out how to cope with them ahead of times. One thing is to concentrate on just each single shot and making it technically good. Don't allow extraneous thoughts to enter your mind and don't think of your surroundings. You may find thinking of somewhere nice and 'safe' helps you calm down.

Overall though remember you are shooting because you enjoy it and keep that in teh back of your mind.

Rob.

Hello, rifle-ero in Msr (Egypt).
Got some 8 x 57. 198 gns fmj stuff some time back. Egyptian manufacture, lovely acrylic headstamps. Made in ´59 as far as I could tell.
Most accurate military 8 mm fodder I have fired in my customized M98 bolt action so far! Decent groups all the way out to 500 yds.

Ammo made for the Jungman 8 x 57 semiauto rifles formerly used by egypt, I recon. Designed by a swede, mr. Jungman, I was told.

Have you ever fired the Jungman rifle? I tested an 6,5 x 55 model once. Very soft recoil, fast recovery.
(Umph, I got off topic here for a while, - "perdone".)

All the above diet suggestions are good but one very important one was left out, don't make any sudden changes to your diet. For example if you drink 5 cups of coffee everyday don't stop just because of a match, you will have problems. If you want to change your diet introduce the changes over time. As shooting is not an aerboic sport, eat what works best for you, you want to stay in shape, and be comfortable, so eat foods that don't bother your digestive system (gas, heartburn, indigestion). There is no magic food that is going to make you shoot better.

>>>The previous poster suggested bananas, but I don't think that's a good idea because bananas require a lot of digesting and so diverts your blood supply from your brain and eyes to your digestive system, which makes your digestive system move more. Things like tuna or peanut butter are good. >>>

really?
tuna easy to digest compared to bananas?
I will take a can of tuna and an opener on my next bike ride then....and a barf bag.