ISSF World Championships - Munich

Well I said I'd do a post on this trip, so here goes. It won't be a long one, just a short bit to state things which for the most part I've said elsewhere but which are the key elements for the trip.

I went out to the World Championships as a spectator for a number of reasons. On the one hand, I had some spare money and quite wanted to take a holiday for myself. On the other I wanted to go out and support the Irish shooters competing out there and help out with the team where possible. On a more personal note, I wanted to see the place, because obviously this is somewhere I want to compete and an environment I want to be immersed in on a continuous basis.

It has to be stated outright: An ISSF World Championship is the single biggest shooting event on the planet, many times the scale of the Olympics, and with a host of events not featured in the Olympics, such as the centrefire pistol and rifle events. While an Olympic Games has a pressure and an aura all its own which distinguishes it, it does not compete in terms of sheer scale. Now, that having been said, and knowing the size of event it was, it's still mind-bogglingly huge. The complex of ranges is just bafflingly large, from the cartridge rifle range, which comprises nearly a hundred firing points for 50m rifle and forty for 300m rifle, along with crossbow facilities, to an airgun hall which features nearly a hundred firing points back to back, either half of which is difficult to appreciate on its own as an Irish shooter, who sees UCD's fourteen firing points as huge. It's a magnificent atmosphere, with no personalities interfering with reverence for the competition, which creates a truly electric atmosphere. I fell in love with it, frankly. All I wanted was to go home and start training. While I was there, I started feeling that I was wasting time and should start jogging laps of the compound to get started! Anyone who's thought about trying to compete internationally *needs* to see something like this in order to appreciate what it's really all about. It's just not possible to comprehend unless you've done so. Since I've come home I've been full of renewed vigour. I've been making notes, dry-firing and live-training regularly, developing my prone position and kneeling position, with standing yet to go. I genuinely feel like shooting has gotten better, easier and more enjoyable since I got home. There's been something more obvious about it. Perhaps it's a personal breakthrough, but it's all seemed more simple since.

Congratulations to the Irish team who went out, who acquitted themselves admirably to a man. It made me very proud to see, and I hope the next time I see Munich's hallowed hall, it'll be with kit in tow and as a competitor. If you're reading this and curious at all, or have ambitions of your own, please take the opportunity to travel next June for the World Cup there. It will change how you shoot and how you think about shooting.