Hard at Work - Progress Report

I've been working away since I finished my exams on the 12th of May. I've been working on solidity of position and some finesses in my trigger control, my follow through, my reading of conditions and being consciously relaxed throughout the shot. It's been productive. It's a process that's far from done, but I know what I've got work done on and I know what's important but is yet to do.

I'm being somewhat guarded, I know, because I don't want to try evaluate the proportion of individual chunks of work which are completed and what's left to do, lest I underestimate the latter. It feels good though. I'm much more consistent, relaxed and proficient. However, part of the result of that is that I have a much better understanding of the deficiencies of my technique and my process, which is a negative aspect. It's now important to focus on the good work done and to be proactive about fixing what's left to do.

Now, to that end, it's important to take the good first. My prone position is very solid, very comfortable, well balanced and efficient. My aiming process is excellent. I've adopted a good relaxation technique and blended it into my shot routine so that my point of aim is very natural and relaxed, meaning smaller groups. I read conditions better than ever. My triggering and follow-through are improving all the time. The former in particular is getting very good, while the latter needs good work.

The small fly in the ointment however is inconsistent reconstruction of my position from shot to shot and throughout strings. Part of this is an equipment issue. My jacket is too big and drags around at the shoulders, the sling slides down the arm as a consequence. This results in a position that sags and disturbs the balance of tensions. However, this can be mitigated against by repositioning the sling on the arm regularly. This can be done without totally breaking the position, by dropping the rifle out of the shoulder and twitching the sling up the arm with the trigger hand, before replacing the buttplate in the shoulder. The second aspect is twofold; a buttplate to shoulder fit that isn't immediately obviously perfect and a lack of a methodology to reposition the elbow and grip the pistol grip in order to establish a consistently natural and relaxed point of aim from shot to shot. Currently, the NPA can deviate relatively substantially from shot to shot, requiring constant rebuilding and re-zeroing. I may try a different buttplate to provide more uniform contact with the shoulder which will be more easily identifiable. The methodology will have to be developed in training.

So I'm not going to think about how much is yet to be done for sunday. It won't be perfect, I know that, but it'll be better than it would have been a month ago, certainly. My next programme of work on the technical side consists of the following:

Shot routine:

-Methodology of elbow placement and generation of tensions

-Assessment of position from shot to shot to determine the necessity of small alterations in sling position.

Technique:

-Better follow-through

-Consistent triggering and relaxation and NPA

Match tactics and routine:

-Greater self-awareness and ongoing self-evaluation to determine the need for alterations to sling position and tension as indicated in my plans for my shot routine

-Ongoing reinforcement of good shots and good technique.

Mental game:

-I really need to develop this, to be better at positively reinforcing good things that are done in training, feel them out better and make more of their identification.

-Mental programme to coincide with my shot routine. I worked one out, but now I need to improve my focus to make it consistent and apply myself to it.

-I need to practise my routine mentally more often and to set aside time to sit and feel my way through a competition programme.

I feel things are good now, but I'd like to get some more hands-on coaching, to get some time with an electronic trainer and to refine my process. The first step is to develop my shot routine, with the focus on the methodology of elbow placement after I load the rifle. I need to pay more attention to my mental routine also and to focus on developing that when the physical shot routine is more clearly delineated.

I intend to acquire a new sling and handstop. Might shop for those in Munich. I'd love to get a new shooting suit which would be a tidier fit around the chest and shoulders for prone and around the midsection for standing, but I need more physical work and, funnily enough, more money. That might be more viable at the end of the summer. I might also look into a new glove to better support my wrist and pad my hand, but it's not a priority. I can look into all those options while I'm in Munich anyway. For now, let's just say the outlook is positive, and I'm thinking of the current deficiencies more in terms of their representing a clear workload for me, which is distinctly conquerable. Will hopefully have something of use to say after sunday. I feel good about my shooting, so will be a question of my application of my hard work.

Two Matches and Significant Gains

I never got around to posting an update after the nationals, which I should have done, but nevertheless, I'll deal with the subject matter from that now as well as a match from today. Between the two of them they represent a significant advance in my competitive performance.

The nationals last week, I felt reasonably good, the position was solid and my hold and release was good. The primary problem I found in my main match, which I only diagnosed in the sighters for the final, was a tendency to roll my head ever so slightly onto the point of the cheekbone, which compromised my sight picture a lot. Scores weren't all predictable as a result. However, I eventually settled and got stuck into the match, and despite the problems with my sight picture, I managed a 580, enough to make the final in joint third place on the day (though some notable absences would have left me rather further down the list had they been around. The result will be better next time).

In the sighters for the final I realised the issue which would cause my sight picture to blur and distort and which would give the impression, likely from the edge of the lower eyelid, of a straight line through the centre, and made distinct sight pictures difficult to achieve and consequently, I shot a lot of perfectly executed nines, which is about as much use as the proverbial underwater hair dryer. Calls in the final were much more reliable, and though I wasn't perfectly sighted in early in it, with a group around the bottom of the ten ring, I eventually managed a 102.3 and took the bronze. I was happy enough, but there's a lot more to be done.

And now onto the match today, which shows further interesting developments.

I had specifically intended not to go to this match, as I'm in the middle of exams, but I made the decision on friday, and having shot a brutally difficult match in awful switching light conditions and winds that would pick up and back off gradually so that changes were difficult to spot, but large in magnitude. Essentially, it's hard to imagine more difficult conditions to get the hang of. However, I sat down and observed the wind and light patterns for some time before the match and developed my plan.

Starting the first card, I was reasonably comfortable, but the conditions were quite tough to spot accurately as the wind blowing hard from right to left would back off slowly until the first you saw of it was a bullet dropping in the nine to the right of the ten. It was genuinely hard to spot on the flags as they were blowing flat out and let offs were near invisible. There was also an angle change that threw shots quite a chunk along the axis from 1 o'clock to 7 o'clock. I mean to bad nines. This was something I never managed to spot as the match went on. the first card turned out a 190. Inner tens were rare, as conditions were so mobile that I tended to catch the ten loosely as they moved.

The second card, I was about as comfortable physically, but stronger from the point of view of my condition understanding, and I began to shade slightly to better grab the shifting conditions. The light got harder here as well, but I played with the iris and remained comfortable and consistent, not losing any points to it. Eventually, it finished with a 193. The shots that went out were my fault, either holding badly or in one case, overholding and letting off a shot I really should have abandoned.

The third card, I was not comfortable. I wasted a lot of time adjusting things to settle in the sighters, eventually taking my sling in an extra notch (The downhill angle seems to mean that the position slackens and stretches out the longer I shoot) and was pressed for time to finish the card. It finished a 189, all but one of the diagrams having a tight group, though I was starting to find it hard to keep up with constantly flickering conditions, with groups either slightly low or to one side and losing points as a result. The other diagram presented an eight at 7 o'clock which I called a good shot and seems to have represented a violent condition I didn't see on the flags (I had a seven in my sighters in the exact same direction which I also thought was a good shot)

So 572, in truly difficult conditions. I came second in the match, only two points behind the leader, and I know I should have won it as there was so much left in me in terms of my technical shooting. I was focused on the conditions and just wasn't as clean and strong and tidy as I might have been. I'll have to work on the subconscious skill level so that I can devote that much mental energy to condition reading without coming off the boil technically. However, I've always considered my ability to read conditions, interpret them and adjust accordingly to be a personal strength, and to beat Conor, who I consider a technically much better shooter (for now), by four points and to have held it together better leaves me pretty happy with my own performance. The focus on the academic stuff meant my shooting wasn't that great. Had I had my head in the technique to my customary level, I could have shot 580+ today, which would have been a good achievement.

In any case, the next match is the DURC 50m Open in MNSCI on the 29th of May, and it's a qualifier for my big goal for the year, the European Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. I'm finished my exams on thursday so will have had two weeks and sixty-odd hours of solid training time between now and then. I think I can pull myself up to a comfort level significantly above that I felt today, particularly on the better and more comfortable range. I'm happy with my condition reading and my shading and tactics. The technique is great when I can focus on it, but that's not always easy in conditions like today, so provides a useful focus over the next while to increase it to subconscious perfection and consistency. I'm optimistic about coming at least very close to the qualifying score on the 29th, and I expect to achieve it in time to qualify if not then. I'm going to earn it. For now, two weekends, a bronze and a silver. It's getting better and better.