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.
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