Match and Coaching Update

Had that club match today, which wasn't too bad. Had the highest overall score at 386/400, and the second card was a 197, with a very nice 100 to start, which looks like it would score 105 or very close, in decimals. The first card was obviously quite poor, but for a first return to live fire after so much dry-firing over Christmas, I'm happy enough with it. What I take from it is to have faith in technique and not to stress over relatively easy shooting, and in physical terms, that I have a minor consistency problem with left elbow placement, which is easily solved by taking the pistol grip, straightening my forearm to the elbow, and dropping it straight. I'm also finding that a less tight grip provides more consistent results. While it is not slack, it is far from tight. It gives better release and makes the follow through and recoil more consistent.

My coaching session with Geoff today was extremely positive. While I didn't learn anything new I should be focusing on in terms of expected results, we did discuss the methodology and I now have a clearly laid out path towards improvement, which will provide solid foundations to enable me to tolerate the stresses of larger competition. My current workload is to draw up a shot routine and break it down into its component parts, then to focus training sessions on each individual miniscule aspect of the routine in order to perfect it and develop a feeling for it, then write out how each aspect is achieved, in order to provide that information in textual form for revision. This saves that sensation of making it up as soon as I hit the floor in an important match. I'm looking forward to the results. While aspects of the process will certainly be dull, its benefits should be conspicuous. Since I'm looking for a ten to twelve point improvement over the course of a match, I'll be hard pressed in the next four or five months, but it's well doable.