Competitive shooting

A New Competition Year

Well, a new competition year has commenced and it is time to see if you can reach some of the performance goals that you have set. This issue will discuss some general thoughts on technique and introduces some technical considerations for the rapid fire match.

Thoughts on Technique

Shooters lives revolve around perfecting their technique. Many shooters work on perfecting their technique before and or during their competition season. Be careful when commencing the competition period that you do not to change or adjust a newly acquired technique too quickly. Give any new technique that you have been trying to master in training time to achieve competition success. Any new technique will take time to develop. So give it some time! I have seen shooters give up on perfectly sound technique only because it did not work at the first competition. Be careful to understand the concept of good technique. Good technique is technique that works for you! It may not work for others and what works for others may not work for you! The underlying principle in deciding what good technique actually is for you should be based on you being able to perform under pressure on demand. ‘Perfect technique’ that does not work under competition pressure is useless.

I spend my entire working life coaching elite athletes across several sports. In many of these sports good technical execution is regarded as ONE of the important variables in optimising performance levels and expectations. Despite the technical demands of our sport I feel that many shooters tend to spend too much time trying to achieve “perfect technique”. Please realise you can become a great champion without perfect technique! Ask swimming great Janet Evans, tennis great John McEnroe and or ex-world record holder and Olympic free pistol champion Alexander Melentiev.

Rapid Fire Competition

Approach each competition with a plan for best performance and concentrate on the positives. It is important that you can eliminate distractions that occur either before or during the competition. During the competition period, you must remain focused on the task at hand. After the competition scores have been posted you can allow yourself the luxury to be distracted as much as you like. In fact, often the distractions don’t come via an external source but are self generated for example self-doubt and or monitoring scores and targets of other shooters. Ultimately, being able to control distractions either internally or externally is a key component in shooting good competition scores. After every match, assess systematically what went well and what needed improvement. Draw out the important lessons and act upon these in coming practice sessions. The key to proper analysis is having good quality data to analyse. So collect match data purposefully and accurately. This will allow you and your coach to discuss the match afterwards, identify problem areas, to adjust and plan your trainings program accordingly. Rather than dwell on errors, pull out what you learned to move on to higher levels. Concentrate how to shoot well rather than how not to shoot badly. Some of the key attributes that will allow you to reach optimum performance include:

Excellence

Strive for excellence in everything you do.

Commitment

Be committed to your cause. Society demands quick fixes, however sports performance comes from being committed in achieving ones goals.

Quality practice

Do more with less. If you trained 16 hours per week and your trainings time is suddenly reduced by half your performance may not necessarily suffer. In fact, you may even find that your performances may increase. Why? Because the less time you have the more you are forced to achieve during your training sessions. This forces you to increase the quality of your training! Achieved through developing purposeful sessions that are linked to a particular outcome (a goal).

Practice plan

Have one! Just don’t turn up! Stick to it!

Competition plan

Develop strategies on how you approach the competitions. Try different approaches and see which one works best for you. For example, do you like turning up well before competitions to soak up the atmosphere or do you like to spend some private time relaxing and to remove any possible distractions.

Ensure that your equipment and ammunition has been tested and is competition ready as there is nothing worse then being unsure on how your equipment will perform under competition demands. This in itself will free up unnecessary distractions and will assist you in optimising your performance levels. Ensure a positive outlook prior commencing the match. Concentrate on the front sight prior to the turning of the targets. The reason for this is that it takes a person with normal vision approximately 3/10ths of a second for a person to focus on any given point. Watch your alignment and when the targets turn have a controlled arm movement with a firm movement to the rear of the trigger and let the shot beak. Keep your eyes focused where they should be and recover quickly and resist the urge to jerk the next one. Wait until the sights are back in alignment and start the squeeze the trigger while you keep your eyes on the front sight. Remain calm and composed. Don’t look down range, just follow the same procedure as on the previous shot. Concentrate on completing the string before contemplating what may have happened!

Slowly load your magazine before the next string. Stays focused on the task at hand and methodically remember what went right and what wrong. Concentrate on the positives and don’t allow yourself to get distracted. If you receive a high score, great, but remember it will require a good score if you are to become a winner. If it turns out to be a poor score, don’t get distracted. Stays focussed and remain calm and positive. Remember the match is not yet over. You still have a task to complete. A poor string may not take you out of the running however, a negative attitude after a poor string may certainly end your chances. Part of “good technique” may not necessarily be “perfect technical execution” but may be maintaining a calm positive attitude whilst facing adversity.

Technical considerations include:

Deliberate and consistent thought process prior to each string.
Consistent grip pressure throughout strings.
Breath control
Sight alignment
Focus

Good Shooting

Dieter Wilhelmi