TargetTalk

Hello, guys,
　I have been having a persisting question 'Is playing or practicing violin is harmful for pisotol shootin?' for many years. I have once asked this question to a Japan's national-level coach of pistol shooting and was answered 'Never heard of such thing.' But, today I have a confident that practicing or playing violin before(e.g., within 12 hours) 10m AP shooting can lower the score of the shooting.
I had been go shooting on Saturdays, practicing violin in Sunday morning and then taking violin lessons in the afternoon. Recently I have changed to
practice violin in Saturdays and go shooting on Sundays and seeing a very poor shooting scores since then.
Anyone here who both shoot handgun and play violin and think playing violin is harmful for shooting?
Thanks,

Masaki
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I am not the Masaki who is the gunsmith in Howaii
Masaki is my real first name. Sorry for the more famous Masaki's friends.

Fascinating issue- add one more activity to the "things that may interfere with shooting" list!

If you bow left/finger right/shoot right then of course it would interfere (same muscles, tendons, neurophysiology, etc used in a different way).

I would think if you finger and shoot with opposite hands then I wouldn't think the conflict would be as great . . . bowing and shooting should not create interference.

Steve,
Thanks for the reply. A nearest city to Denton I have ever visited is Richardosn.
　I am right-handed. I write, play the violin bow and shoot the pistol by right hand. But I use my computer mouse and ham radio morse key by the lelft hand.
My car is made in Japan and it's steering wheel is on the right, so the blinker lever is on the right, but I use my left hand to operate the blinker lever while I am going to the shooting rage to protect my right hand. Cars for UK, Autralia and Japan are not friendly for pinstol shoters, are they?
I was a left flanker when I was in a highschool Rugby team, by the way. I could kick by the left leg.

If the score is consistently and significantly lower, then it should be easier for you to isolate the immediate problem. Is it your shoulder that feels tired after bowing for many hours the day before? Problem controlling the wrist? Or the trigger finger? Unable to concentrate, or see the sights clearly? Feeling tired/sleepy?

Try to find out what exactly causes the performance to drop, and it may or may not be related to the violin practice.

P.S. Congratulations on being able to shoot in Japan!

Masaki,
I believe the answer to your question is: No, violin playing should have no adverse effect on your scores. By profession I am a classical guitar professor and have given a lot of thought and observation on the interaction of musical instrument technique and shooting. Have you received any formal training in either violin or pistol shooting? I'm assuming that you have. This is important as many people who are self-taught, especially in music, display abnormal amounts of tension and misuse of muscles in their technique. Naturally, if one is misusing their hands, arms, etc. with an inefficient technique this is bound to interfere with all sorts of refined muscle control when doing other demanding tasks. Think about sensations of tension in specific areas such as shoulders, wrist, elbow, etc. I think this is what AAlex is recommending.
Personally, I have found an hour or so of classical guitar practice early on the day of a match improves my hold and actually helps my scores.
Best wishes and much luck!
Jim

I tend to agree that this is NOT a physiological dilemma, but a mental dilemma. Are you playing/training with acommpaniment, whether live or recorded? Are you reading music during most practice times, or at a level where you have commited the music to memory and play ear, or more rarely by visualization of the score? These types of exercises use very different parts of the noodle (scientific word) and it takes some discipline to switch gears, whereby you become the sole center of an activity and where you purposfully attempt to eliminate external stimula and feedback (like your intonation or the tempo of your acommpanist) and emotion, such as that evoked by music (unless you are a musical technician and not a musician- I know both types.) Take some time before you practice your shooting skills to do some centering exercises and a few shot cycle visualizations and put yourself in a mental state condusive to shooting consistently, and you should see a difference.

Shoot good and play good,

toznerd

Please read TOZNERDs post carefully. You use different muscles in different ways. Remember he mentioned centering exercises. By using your muscles in a different way you effectivly change your natural point of aim and should do mild streaching excersises to streach the shooting muscles back to where your natural point of aim has returned to its normal position. Once this has been accomplished you should find that you scores have stablized and you can go back to planing your shots and executing them properly. Good Shooting Bill Horton

I think the change of time for shooting and violin practice has a lot to do with your lower scores.

The position of holding your head for the violin, and the neck tension would upset the body balance.

Your bowing arm is doing a totally different movement, and the wrist is relaxed, not locking in, like when you do shooting.
Wrist, elbow, shoulder, and grip are all different.
You will need to do compensatory exercises to realign the body for holding an air pistol.

My suggestion is to do very strong dry fire exercises - minimum 10 minutes , against a blank wall. Maybe mark a vertical & horizontal line and hold that position until you can find that line every time you come up.

Also check your footwork and stance. It is a slow process. It is up to you how much you are willing to try to improve your scores.

Can you reverse things, and do the shooting before the violin practice to see if this will help?
Good luck.
Alex L.

The first step is to tell yourself that it does NOT affect your shooting performance, 'cause I think this is just mentally in your head. My other hobby/sport is Downhill bicycling! That's pretty gruesome to the hands, elbows and basicly the whole body compared to playing a violin, but it didn't stop me from shooting 557 in a FP event a couple of weeks ago. ;)

So keep it up, the violin is a beautiful instrument!

Mellberg,
　I guess your cardiovascular function has been maintained by the bicycling. I believe bicycling has some positive effects for shooting.
I bought a street bicycle(neither a racer nor a mountain) a week ago to improve my cardiovascular function. It is shaft-drive one, by the way.

guys,
Thank you very much for the suggestions. I would like to made some tests in a few months to determine if playing violin shortly before shooting pistol is really harmful, not or even good based on your suggestion.
I play piano too, but I have never felt playing piano is harmful for shooting.
I always look at music while playing or practiciying violin or paino. I am a very poor sight reader.

ciao,
Masaki

Sorry I can't help since I can;t play a thing on the violin, However [ just a joke] I can't see amy problem as long as you don't do both at the same time, Good Shooting Biill Horton