Killing Demons

For a while now, my prone shooting has gone to hell, and over the past few days, I've figured it out. Turns out you can't lose 35 lb and still shoot the same position. I'd previously had a fairly high left knee to allow room to breathe and to help control the rifle under recoil. However, analysis over the past few days illustrated that that was forcing me over onto the right hip. Consequently, and because I have a low right shoulder due to the long reach I use, that shoulder was going over and pulling the elbow with it, resulting in the drag to the right I was observing.

The answer, as I found it, was to drop the left knee right down. The left heel is relatively close to the right ankle now, so there's relatively little body behind the rifle. It's a little unconventional, but my hold is very solid now and the zero isn't moving around the place as I'm watching. I've also moved to the older Anschutz style rounded hook buttplate and found its simplicity excellent and its coverage more than satisfactory. In fact, in a couple of ways, it indexes better than the System Gemini I had been using, so I've already arranged a trade for an Anschutz one and some cash. It's a far better fit for me in kneeling than anything I have as well, so I might pick up a second one if I spot it for that.

I'm also playing around with sight raising blocks at 8mm. This is a rather nostalgic look at the feeling I had shooting a wooden stock. I kinda miss that. I wouldn't mind going back to one in the future either I must say. I like the raised, comfortable head position and the width of the stock in the hand is far more comfortable than what I'm using now. Ah well, all thoughts for the future. Right now, I've got a solid position, if a little eccentric, I'm comfortable, relaxed and confident. The releases are assured and very clean and consistent. There's work to be done but it'll largely look after itself as time goes on and I'll deal with problems as they arise.

I only fired twenty shots today, had all the information and reinforcement I needed. Fired about four or five shots on one diagram to confirm zero and sight settings, all tens, moved over one and fired five more, resulting in this group. The squeaky one at five o'clock was me, shading. Turns out the wind was doing feck all as that's exactly where I pointed it.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j111/David_Franklin/Image0083.jpg?t=1309703820

The prone is going nicely now. I'm going to spend another while just reinforcing the good prone stuff, then move onto kneeling for a while, doing the odd day of prone, then more standing with a little bit of prone and kneeling and proceed like that. I'm going to be changing my club at the end of the summer as well in order to make shooting more 3P a realistically feasible proposition, and once I'm back to college I'm going to shoot more 10m stuff as well. Looking forward to further progress.

Pause for Thought

When I first started writing this, and its previous incarnation, I envisioned it as more than simply an overview of my training and progress. Now, obviously, over the time period I've been writing it, enormous change and progress is visible, and of course, equally visible are the elements which are constantly deficient, probably due to not having a coach to iron out the silly stuff early on. We're getting there though.

This brings me onto this: Part of all good training is spending time reflecting on training as a process in order to plan future training, and part of training is finding your motivation to progress. On that thought, I've been away from the range for a week now, as I've been in Munich at a world cup, helping out with the Irish team. The trip has been all the kick I could ask for in terms of motivation to get back to training and to really direct myself. There's nothing like spending quality time with athletes above your own level to learn about the game on a level you can't experience yourself. I couldn't have spent the time so productively if I'd lived on the range here in a sleeping bag. The trip reaffirmed that I want to shoot internationally. I want to be part of that team. It also taught me a few valuable, practical lessons about shooting.

Probably the single biggest problem anyone who's largely self-taught has is that they can find themselves just shooting to improve, instead of concentrating on the elements which are deficient with a few to improving them. Certainly, this is an issue that plagued me for a long time. There is the other side of it, however, where you get obsesssed with details and while trying to improve individual elements, you can lose sight of the basic mechanics of shooting good shots, or worse, focus only on elements and forget that each shot is unique and distinct from what comes before and what comes after. In short, you just shoot strings of shots on autopilot while watching whatever your focus is for the day. I've been doing that so long, focusing on so many things, that my conception of shooting has switched from a series of processes to a single change of state: From not shooting to shooting, in short, rather than shooting each shot individually, distinctly and perfectly.

This results in psychological fatigue to an extent which prevents good shooting over the period of time necessary to complete any ISSF rifle course of fire. Rather than relaxing, then increasing concentration to fire a shot, then relaxing mentally before firing the next shot, you go from not-shooting to shooting, increasing your concentration level without any rest in sight and subsequently fail to notice as it trails off gradually and the standard of the shooting process goes down. This is why we have a shot routine which comprises phases of low and high concentration, or so we think, at least. If I'm being honest, my application of my shot routine might be excellent for a few shots, but I certainly slip into the habit of throwing shot after shot down the barrel without proper attention to the process as I fatigue physically and mentally. This is the single most important thing I have to change. Initially, this shot routine will have to be comparatively simple until the habit is ironed in. It is quite apparent to me, however, that finding a way to consider shots individually is the single most important thing to allow me to develop coping mechanisms for stress and to achieve consistent results.

My focuses for the next while have to be some of the following:

-Relaxing and feeling for the inner position. Time must be devoted to this at every session, just feeling for balance, feeling the heart rate slow and soften. This must be consistent, shot to shot, and will help to conceive shots individually as well.

-Long follow through to help separate shots mentally.

-Mentally thinking through shot routine before physical performance of each shot. If necessary, talking through the shot routine as I go through it (I want to develop "triggers" as detailed in Mental Training for Shooting in order to define the sections of the shot routine for evaluation and consistent performance.

I'll be meeting with my coach next week in order to compose a training plan leading up towards my one year aim, which is to attend the world cups in Milan and Munich next year if exams allow. Certainly, Munich should be perfectly achievable as it's later, starting on the 20th of May. My goal is to qualify for that and to perform well at it. This means I have to greatly improve my consistency from shot to shot and concurrently develop coping strategies for stress and dealing with unexpected results. I'm optimistic, as ever, but perhaps there's more substance to this plan.

General Update at 13th June 2011

Lots going on lately. I was having conspicuous zero position errors in terms of drifting across the target. I couldn't get balanced, obviously, as the sight picture would slowly move across the target from left to right. I spent quite a bit of time trying to mitigate against this (I say mitigate because I suspect the combination of an ill fitting jacket and a sling that doesn't locate usefully on the arm and the consequent drag and twist down and around the arm to be the source). Ultimately, I've lowered the sling keeper on my arm, which seems to result in less drag and a firmer pull direct to the handstop. I've bought a MEC handstop which is more comfortable on the hand and can be offset to bring the rifle further onto my hand. More contact with the hand spreads the weight and pressure around more of the support area and makes it considerably more comfortable. I was still struggling however, and felt that I was subconsciously holding on target rather than staying deliberately relaxed.

One of the sensations I perceived was a turning effect from the buttplate in the shoulder however, resulting in the rifle not sitting comfortably and steadily in the forward hand and turning in it instead. To this end, I rotated the top of the buttplate towards me and turned the hook in towards my side. This has let the rifle sit right down into my hand, while the sling pulls strongly and directly from my arm and shoulder pressure is maintained strongly by properly positioning my elbow on the mat and carefully placing my hand high on the pistol grip. Triggering is improved, position feels solid and supportive, it drags slightly less overall and it feels positive. If there's a downside it's that there's now a rather strong cant, though it's consistent due to the reduced twisting through the stock. The comfortable head position and consistency should mitigate against any issues that arise, however, and recoil should be solid. I should get to live fire tomorrow and will know more then.

Another issue is that while I have typically raised and lowered the buttplate to compensate for angle changes from range to range, due to the rotation of the buttplate, any changes will have to be tiny, and augmented with handstop alterations. I don't mind this though as long as it sits still for me now. It feels much more balanced in any case and will hopefully yield big results. There's been a lot of fiddling done to get to this point however, so there now needs to be a huge amount of dry-firing and live shooting to reinforce the goodness.

Today I conducted an interesting experiment. We all know that there's no such thing as "the prone position." If you look at ten world class prone shooters, they'll have ten completely individual positions and methodologies. I decided to try replicate the positions of two world class prone shooters at opposite ends of the spectrum of positions to get a feel for what makes each work. I looked at Matt Emmons (High, flat, relatively straight on, lot of tension) and Warren Potent (Low, canted, less tension). As I suspected, the Emmons alteration suited me a lot more, as I've always preferred high positions for the stability benefits, though my left shoulder is considerably higher and my right somewhat lower than his corresponding shoulders. I couldn't get any proper stability from the very low position at all, but obviously they do work for Potent and others like him. This only served to reinforce that the way I shoot suits me better than the other end of the spectrum and that anything I choose to do will work, provided I train at it properly and take care to be consistent. Above all, it reminds us that a well practised mistake is better than the best position and methodology in the world enacted poorly and inconsistently.

I'm not updating regularly these days as daily updates will get information heavy and won't be particularly useful. It's easiest to just review progress intermittently and compare with previous updates. My daily notes in my training diary provide the substance for subsequent training sessions in any case. For now, just lots and lots of shooting to reinforce progress and get the method down pat. That's a fun short term training plan.

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.

Nice Confidence Session Before the Nationals

Always good to finish feeling in control before a competition. I've been listening to the Bassham stuff on mental management a good bit and the result is that I'm feeling my shot routine better in terms of a process and accompanying series of images. I've also been experimenting with a sling position on my forward arm, coming around the wrist rather than the back of the hand, and the results are very positive. The changes now are that I feel my head sitting better on top of the rifle, much more vertical sense of support, and my comfort levels are much better, from shot to shot and after finishing. Recovery time for comfort levels is greatly improved. My condition wasn't the best for shooting this evening. A long day hunched over a desk, staring at paper and screens wasn't doing much good for either muscles or eyes (I couldn't hold a sight picture for more than about three seconds) but the process was good, and it was consistent. Trigger control is greatly improved, though consistency still needs to be better. A couple of shots broke unexpectedly today for loose tens, but most were well controlled. It's an element of the process that's still developing. When my eyesight was proving troublesome, I trusted to the inner position and the hold, and shot well. I sighted in and shot two groups of ten, for a 197, and all the bad shots were well known. This is the final group. The 9.9 wasn't something I saw, but with my dodgy eyes, who knows... I'm happy that it felt controlled anyway. There were some looser tens where I might have overheld or was a little rough on the trigger, but it's all coming together.

Mental Training and Approach to Training for Next Three Months

I've finally gotten hold of the Lanny Bassham materials on mental training for shooters from a Friend after quite a long time of meaning to get them and never getting around to it. I listened to all of Mental Management for Shooting Sports yesterday, and far from feeling bored and lectured at, it was fascinating. I intend listening to this often to reaffirm my approach, but most importantly, I've taken his points on progressive training and have set myself a timeframe within which to work, over the next three months, on significantly improving the process of my shooting.

He advocates training in three stages: Dry-firing, group-shooting and live shooting, on both an individual session basis and on a larger scale, over a season. What this means is that the process becomes much, much more important than the result, as, ignoring groups, which merely provide a reference for the observer, perhaps only ten to twenty shots will be individually observed and remarked on out of perhaps a hundred processes. I am going to make this a feature of all of my training sessions from now on, and am going to condense a season's worth of progressive training into the next three months, focusing heavily on dry-fire for the next month or so (and moving the rifle home at the weekend to dry-fire against the wall, since it will help me avoid temptation to train in college before the exams), then shifting the emphasis towards group-shooting, and then live fire for the last month or so. I hope to see a significant improvement in my performance by then, and hopefully in time to qualify for the European Championships, the qualifications for which I expect will begin in May or June.

The other element I took from the lecture was the correlation of a mental programme with the physical shot routine. I've since sketched out my shot routine again and noted the stages in the mental programme of visualisation and positive reinforcement against their corresponding points on the shot routine. This is proving extremely interesting for my mental visualisation (What Bassham calls rehearsal) as I can see everything so clearly in my head now, while focusing on the process. As I'm loading the rifle I'm visualising the sight picture, the little hope of the foresight and the settling down on point of aim again, feeling the little thud of recoil. As I'm settling I'm noting the wind flags and the mirage and picturing them exactly as they will be when I break the shot. As I'm checking my natural point of aim and inner position I'm imagining dead calm, silence and the flat, even feeling of the trigger against the second stage. As I'm on aim, I'm visualising the ten as my finger sits on the trigger (An issue I've had is I've found myself taking a neutral approach to the shot. "Let's see what happens if I pull now" sort of thinking, rather than being dead certain and expecting the ten. This is what I want to change here.), imagining I'm teasing the aiming mark back through the foresight as I release the shot.

I also liked his ideas on rehearsing the whole shot process mentally before beginning. I'm going to make a point of starting every training session kneeling on the mat, feeling my way through the whole process mentally at least ten times before I get down to shoot at all. I'm going to be positive, relaxed and focused. I'm more than capable of the 587 for Belgrade. I'm capable of 600. I shoot good, deliberate shots. Shooting good shots is what I do. It's my routine. Shooting good shot after good shot is just exactly what I do. I'll update later.

Following On...

... from the last update, where I mentioned issues with trigger control which had gone unnoticed during a match and which had been commented on by others afterwards, I was determined tonight to make good on that and to drill the bad habits out. What I wanted to do was to underline the stage in my shot routine at which I sit on the first stage of the trigger, check my inner position and sight picture, and then squeeze through the trigger slowly.

It was rough at first, very rough, with the routine difficult to make consistent, but it got smoother as I went along. I started with the intention of a forty shot match, but the difficulties in the routine mandated that I ignore everything except the technique issues and drills. At first, there were issues with inner position and zero, which meant that even when the release was good for a string of shots, they weren't as tidy as they should have been. I also discovered that any slightly long hold would cause me to flinch at the shot, which threw strange fliers in unpredictable directions. After some time and a few breaks, I got the feeling for the position solid enough that I could focus on the shot release and group tightly. It still wasn't perfect, as subsequent group photos will show, but it was an improvement.

After that, I shot some sighters and four groups of ten, with the intention of scoring it out of 400 in the back of my mind, and a focus on good shots and strong mental focus at the forefront of it. Initially I thought the score worked out at 392 or 393 ex. 400. However, on closer examination it appears to be 391. It's not amazing but it could be a lot worse. Particularly at the end, I shot a nice, round group of ten shots with good control of inner position and a good shot release. Slightly rough releases earned me 10.1s and 10.0s, good releases earned consistent 10Xs and one quite poor release earned me a shot that could be either a 9.9 or a 10.0. I'm inclined to think it's a 9, but it's trickier to call looking dead on it than it seems in the photos. I feel the control is improving. The forty shots I scored feature plenty of tens, and some bad shots, which were, barring one sight picture error, universally down to sloppy trigger control. This shows how good things could be if I perfect this, which makes it my project for the next while.

First Group

I scored this as 97, and it features the shifting inner position problem hanging over it, with small sight changes not overcoming the strange shift from ten o'clock to four. Releases were okay, with the looser shot at five o'clock the only issue, and the other shot out at four down to the shifting zero and inner position problem.

Second Group

As we can see, the inner position tightened up and stayed on the right hand side. The elongated group shape isn't a major problem as far as I'm concerned as it's within the ten ring. A problem for another day. Judicious use of the sights got the last few shots comfortably in the ten ring and a few clicks at the end meant a good start to the next group. I scored this as 98.

Third Group

This highlights the flinch issue I mentioned, accounting for the eight at eight o'clock. This was in the middle of a good string of tens, and as you can see, the group is developing nice and roundly. I make this another 97, but something of a tragedy. The two shots were down to trigger control and over-holding, with the eight on a flinch.

Fourth Group

Here we see it's coming together. The group is nice and roundly formed, the shots are good, with even the slightly noticeably rough trigger control shots going in the ten, and the roughest of all the ambiguous shot at six o'clock. I make this either 99 or 100 and it's tougher to call in the flesh than on the card. This is where I think it's all coming together, as the position set up well each time, the correct tensions were generated, and I was reading each shot perfectly. Hopefully further training sessions will build more on this last group and we might yet be on track for Belgrade and the European Championships.

A quick note worth mentioning is that all my training lately has been with Eley Sport. I'm finding I'm comfortable to know when a shot was bad and when it was the ammo and the price allows me more trigger time, which is the most important thing to me at the moment. I think I'll probably buy two or three thousand of it to last me over the summer and it won't break the bank too badly. Quality is certainly good enough to be readable, and if there's the odd weird shot, so be it.

Match Report to Coach

Just going to copy this from an email I sent my coach regarding a match yesterday, as it has all the data in it.

Hi Geoff, just firing you off an update on progress from yesterday as I think there's a lot of good data from it.

I had a couple of intentions going into the match, some based on my observations on the day before the shoot and some which I'd intended beforehand.

The objectives were as follows:

-Consistent construction of position

-Confident releases on good sight pictures

-Shade strongly and break shots determinedly (This was determined on the day as conditions were switching very fast)

-Consistent, strong shot rhythm and good pace

The shot rhythm and pace was excellent. Finished in about 55 minutes, having fired thirty sighters on top of my match shots as conditions were very hard to get a proper handle on. Quite happy with this as I maintained focus throughout the match and finished comfortable, without strain or pain.

The position was good. It had the proper tensions and balances, the hold was good and while I only broke position twice, once in my sighters and once after twenty shots in the match, I was able to get down in exactly the same way each time and immediately begin shooting tens. My routine for establishing the position is good.

The second and third objectives I'd like to deal with together, as I think this is where the work needs to go in. I was focused on getting shots off quickly due to the switching conditions and to a certain extent, this compromised my delicacy on the trigger. It was remarked on by those watching that (Probably due to the extra pressure on my mind from the competition) I was neglecting the part of my shot routine where I sit on the first stage, and was going through the trigger in one movement, and not at a consistent pace, resulting in wider nines, typically but not exclusively low. I'll be using a camera to monitor my consistency of trigger release in training over the next while and will be focusing on the first stage in order to develop a more consistent, gentle release which doesn't compromise my ability to get shots off quickly where required by sitting on the first stage with some weight applied to it and relaxing, repeating to get a good feel for it and to add it to my muscle memory.

A note on conditions and how I managed them:

Conditions were tricky, with fast changing winds which regularly switched direction at an instant. This made me focus on shading and breaking shots quickly, and this was quite a success. While I got caught out several times where the condition would change as I'd break the shot, the shades themselves were always perfect, exactly where they needed to be, and I got a lot of them perfectly. The tube has been a big help in getting the clarity of sight picture to give me real confidence in that.

At one point, the wind changed magnitude without showing up on the flags and resulted in a group of five or six nines out at 3 o'clock. A spotting scope might have shown something in the mirage which wasn't visible on the flags. They were a limited resource yesterday with so many DURC shooters or I would have used one, but this is one possible explanation.

Subtle oscillations of light levels meant that on occasion the top or bottom edge of the bull would become indistinct and quite a lot of shots dropped low into the nine ring as this phenomenon occurred. Judicious use of the iris and filters allowed me to correct for this, but the effects were so subtle that typically the first indication I'd see would be a couple of uncalled nines low. In other words, I was responding to results rather than anticipating them. This is something I'd like to improve on, but I've no idea how to combat those switches in light levels. Personally I intend to focus on stronger shooting so that perhaps the warning shots are low tens at 6 o'clock rather than mid nines.

Extra focus will definitely win me more tens. When I spent more time focusing, I almost inevitably shot tens unless conditions changed quickly, so the extra focus and attention to shot routine will allow more good shots, but the compromise is to get those shots off without compromising attention to switching conditions on a day like yesterday. More shot routine drills focusing on the first stage of my trigger release, follow through and maintenance of good inner position form the basis for my technical training over the next while, coupled with as much time spent reading wind, light and mirage on the outdoor range as possible.

On a positive note, I was quite disciplined about taking good shots (compromised technique aside). There were only two shots which I over-held and was disappointed at having taken. I would hope that in future I could avoid these altogether, and it's a lot better than the half dozen or so which used to characterise my matches.

Training - DURC - Air Rifle

Further progress with the air rifle tonight. Still throwing weird shots, but the methodology of creating good shots is getting more consistent and consistently tighter. Strange shots tend towards vertical, but are all visible. It seems to be an inner position and elbow position combination which causes sudden relaxations to drop the shot low or twitch it high, more often the former. I expect a few hundred more repetitions of good shots will drill out the inconsistencies. Another training session or two between now and the nationals and a decent score should be possible, though not hoping for anything particularly special. I won't pretend these groups are representative of my shooting but they do show how the good shots tightened up over the night, while the fliers remained bad. The first one was shot relatively early on, while the second one was the last ten shots of the match. Both are ten shot groups. It's getting there. I'm more concerned with getting the shot release and follow through down than anything else. That'll eliminate weird shots and get more deep tens and less scratchy nines all in one go. Most productive thing for now is to go ahead, focusing on getting good shots consistently.

Training - DURC - Kneeling and Peashooter

Got called down to the range tonight to help out as another range officer was going to be late. Figured I'd get some kneeling training done while I was there using the mirror. Had been ages since I'd shot any so needed to spend a while tweaking a setup for myself. Got fairly comfortable with a thicker kneeling roll. My old one was causing immense discomfort for some reason and generating no push into the front foot. Grabbed a big, thick club roll and the pain subsided to normal kneeling discomfort. It still feels balanced with the tube on the end, which is nice, and if I get a live fire session or two in now it'll be pretty well good to go for the 3P nationals once I've ironed out any faults that show up. Will try get three or four sessions shot before the thirtieth of April and should be in good stead then. Would like to average over 92 kneeling, with the intent of getting it up past 95 over the summer. Lots of work, but I'm well capable of that.

Standing training went particularly well. Never have managed to crack air rifle, despite feeling like I have on a number of occasions, so I'm hesitant to say I've done so tonight, but I have a workable system which merits a few notes.

In the beginning, I had two distinct problems. The shot would drop dramatically as I squeezed it off and it would veer left or right as I let it off. The first issue pointed to an inconsistent and inefficient elbow position on the hip. This I solved by making a point of pulling the elbow around to the front of my hip, with the index being that the outside of my elbow would be touching the inside of my hip, holding the arm in place.

The rifle sits on the front of the palm of my hand, which is turned back, so the backs of the fingers face me. This is slightly more uncomfortable long term than using a fist to support the rifle, but serves the dual purpose of getting the rifle very close in and providing superb, stable support for the gun. I shot for over an hour like that tonight without feeling real strain, just the soreness which is typical of match-length shooting in standing. I can feel a real difference in the strain on my legs, due to the physical training I've been doing, though feet were certainly sore at the end of it. Need better socks. May look into the compression fabric ones, see how those feel.

The horizontal issue stemmed from two things, slightly poor balance indexing and awful trigger control and follow through. The follow through is still terrible. Lots of work needed there anyway. The improvement there came from very slightly raising the left elbow until the hand had a better position on the trigger and until the position balanced consistently. The horizontal movement died down a lot, the trigger releases were smoother (They still need work, little bit more aggressive than they might be) and the shots were not unpredictable. Shot a few groups at the end which were nice and tidy. The rifle came down, the foresight buzzed around the aiming mark, the trigger was taken up and squeezed through and the shots went into a nice tight group, culminating in a final three shot group that looks like this.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j111/David_Franklin/Image0047.jpg?t=1301354233

Now, considering how rarely I shoot standing or air rifle, I'm happy to think that's a good few problems ironed out. Obviously need to spend a lot more time actually shooting it, get some groups and some cards in, but that looks good to me.

General Update at 14th March 2011

I've left this alone because due to academic commitments and lack of consistent training opportunities my shooting results have not been usefully progressive lately. Since I've had a bit over a week of solid training sessions now though, I feel justified in doing some writing up.

In the first place, the new position I've been developing so long has been battle tested and has come through with flying colours. It's solid, stable and comfortable for the length of a match, which is something I've never had before. I played around with a couple of variations on it over the last while to refine it and the following are the results.

1. A straight wrist, at the expense of some hand contact (it sits slightly more into the V of the thumb and forefinger than along the base of the thumb is much more solid, and doesn't compromise the comfort enough to make it a bad idea as I can still comfortably get twenty or more shots off quickly with no numbness or discomfort.

2. The left shoulder is slightly cocked. This allows for very strong contact between the trigger hand elbow and the mat, allowing freedom of movement and grip strength from the elbow down.

3. A slight cant allows a comfortable head position and a good attack on the trigger with a strong grip.

4. A high left knee gives plenty of pressure behind the rifle in the left shoulder, good ability to breathe and locks the right hip solidly in place, which seems to give a distinct feeling in the right elbow and leads to the left elbow dropping comfortably and consistently into place and locking the structure together.

5. A head position which is solid without being forceful complements the other elements of the position to give a firm clamp around the rifle, leading to small recoil and tight groups. A firm clamp around the rifle also makes good trigger control easy.

There are some tricks to this new position, which I'll outline now for future reference and to give voice to the process.

When I get down on the mat, I pull the corner of the right side of the jacket under me down towards the groin, then let it slacken very slightly as I settle on it.

I clip into the handstop and push my right elbow forward in a straight line until it rests naturally on the back of the elbow. There must be no tension in the tricep and the position should feel relatively high at this point.

I make sure the right side of me runs straight to the foot by extending the leg so I can feel the straight extension of the spine. I then turn the heel of the foot outwards which digs in the edge of the foot and locks that element of the position in place.

I raise the left knee until the sensation of the right hip digging into the mat is experienced and breathe deeply to confirm that the ribcage is limited in contact. The knee remains in place and the leg from the knee down can be used to very slightly tweak zero position.

When placing the rifle in the shoulder, the top of the buttplate should be drawn in until the hook cannot be felt contacting under the arm. When the rifle is loaded, the cheek is located on the cheekpiece, the shoulder is rotated until the buttplate sits without tension, the cocked shoulder is flattened slightly and the left elbow is leaned into, with the final check being a relaxation to feel the delicate pressure balances between the shoulder, the elbow and the pistol grip. A breath will confirm that the zero position is good and if not, this last step is the most likely source of issue and can be easily repeated until satisfied.

While delicacy is required to construct the geometry from the left shoulder to the hand and to ensure proper placement of the buttplate and hook, when achieved, fast shooting with an extremely good hold, good recoil and an easy follow through is readily achieved. This can only be built on, so I'm happy.

Scores have fluctuated quite unpredictably lately, but I'm beginning to get to grips with my consistency and comfort and expect good things in future. I shot fifteen quick shots tonight, and dropped two I called and one I didn't, which could be something I didn't see or might be the cheap ammo. It's not important in any case. Far more significant is that I buried almost all of the rest in the inner ten, including those I shot rapid, without a scope, to check the flexibility of the position under pressure.

I hesitate to be too optimistic when the position still needs a successful match to advocate it, but I do feel I'm on the brink of a useful step forward. There's a match in Midlands on the 3rd of April which will hopefully verify this.

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.

Training Update

It's been relatively quiet on the training front here the last while. The extreme cold precluded outdoor training until now. One session in the cold weather left me quite disheartened. Constant spasming of muscles initially prevented the establishment of a strong and useful zero position, made clean trigger control impossible and eventually led to the deterioration of focus and follow-through. After this, when I couldn't live-fire, I spent a lot of time dry-firing onto a dot in front of a mirror. The outer position was constant, solidly composed and comfortable, though there's some minor refining to do around the trigger hand arm in terms of elbow positioning, but it felt alright. The problem was that after that live fire session, any time spent dry-firing created doubts with regard to the inner position and its consistency, and I'm certain that it was a counter-productive experience in terms of creating self-doubt, with no possibility of reassurance in the form of the feedback live fire provides. I managed to fit in a live fire session at the range this afternoon however, only a handful of shots, but enough to reassure myself that the inner position wasn't a huge issue and that provided I could get a good sight picture, the hold and zero would be solid enough to deliver good shots. I have a club match on sunday, an informal event which will hopefully provide solid reaffirmation. Following that, I have a training session with my new coach, with whom I intend to discuss my plans for the year and my current approach. I'll update with the results of that meeting. I expect it will be very interesting. There is one dramatic failing in the technical aspect of my shooting at the moment and it's in the aim. What I think of as a good sight picture still delivers nines and I'd like to see the movement more clearly. To this end, I'm going to order a sight extension tube as soon as I get a micrometer to measure the barrel. I'll be ordering it from Eric Upragrafft. His are low-profile and don't require sight raising blocks and are lightweight. I'm looking forward to seeing the results it brings. The extra small weight at the muzzle might also be beneficial in terms of controlling recoil movement. Hopefully this is going to be a good year now.