How to Move your Performance to Level 570 in AP in 3 Months

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Russ
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How to Move your Performance to Level 570 in AP in 3 Months

Post by Russ »

How to Move your Performance to Level 570 in AP in Three Months.

Join me in Cancun, Mexico, December 21-23, 2011 for a one day seminar:
" Perfect Single Shot Development Process."
Get your Moleskine notebook and Montblanc pen ready for an exciting discovery of hidden treasures of how to move your performance to level 570 in AP in three months.

You do not need to bring any olympic style pistols to this seminar!

It will be strictly conversational. During this seminar, you will learn about the 5S (System, Strategy, Support, Structure, & Success), the Integrated System, and how to build confidence with your New Model of Performance.

More details: http://midwestacademyconsulting.wordpress.com/
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Last edited by Russ on Sat Nov 26, 2011 7:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Brian M
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Post by Brian M »

Do you think it's a smart idea going head-to-head with a major holiday? I don't know anyone willing to fly Home the day (or two) before Christmas for something optional. Heck, it's miserable enough doing a 2-hour flight from Denver to Atlanta at that time of year to visit my wifes family.

Best of luck, but I think you shot your foot clean off with the timing and location.
Russ
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I have few inquiries about my class outside the USA.

Post by Russ »

I’ll be there anyway. I need to develop my scuba diving skills. It is kind of cold at this time in Michigan. ;)
I have a few inquiries about my class outside the USA. I think it will be easier to meet somewhere in warm weather and the nice Caribbean Sea atmosphere for a week.
Greg Derr
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Post by Greg Derr »

Wow let's just talk about shooting, that will get you there. I need to write off this vacation somehow.
Russ
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Next buyin idea ;)

Post by Russ »

If someone fails to use a simple pencil during a drawing project, it isn’t a nice idea to buy something more sophisticated and start to talk about it for years while a project remains unfinished. :)

I’m just trying to bring some sense in this buying and talking process. And remind people about the main idea of purpose to all of those activities and enthusiasm around it, such as achieving certain score performance where 565 or 570 in AP just represents basic knowledge in Olympic target shooting.
If someone has competitive aspirations, he or she should start searching for knowledge first, not for stuff (like which pistol to buy).
I’m still open to discuss in private: how to help to achieve the most desired score in the least possible time.

Graf Von Faber Castell Graf Von Faber-Castell Brown Perfect Pencil Set only $495.00
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dlinden
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Post by dlinden »

Announcing one day seminar on December 28th, 2011 in Irkutsk. Learn everything you need to know about shooting. You will be shooting 580 by end of seminar or you will have been eaten by the local wildlife. Must bring your Olympic firearms because this can be a dangerous environment. Escape the warm and sunny lands further south for something much more relaxing. Fees collected at registration.


http://www.fws.gov/home/feature/2008/po ... ilarge.jpg
Greg Derr
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Post by Greg Derr »

The patented Ronco method of shooter, with every seminar you get a pocket fisherman and a flobee!
Russ
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Post by Russ »

Dear dlinden, you are pretty much close to the truth. I have a story to tell. I graduated from the sports school in Belarus and the requirements to transfer to the next class (year) was I had to achieve a certain sport level requirement. 565 in AP was the first adult sport classification and it was the requirement to pass from 7th to 8th grade. For 9th grade, you have to be KMS, the apprentice to the Master of Sport (MS). Long story short, we who were accept to study in this school were afraid to lose our status and forced to quit this nice environment with competitions all around Russia and international events where you are not obligated to pay for travel, food, hotels, ammunition, and etc...
Everyone who came to this school successfully passed this level: 565 - 570. Our age was around 14 years old.
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This is a win/win situation

Post by Russ »

Besides the force to lose certain privileges, I developed over the years the system that allowed me to teach and achieve a specific score performance in limited amount of time where 565 or 570 AP is only the basic level of knowledge and performance with one exception where you will not be eaten by a wild Russian bear :)).
Instead, someone will lose a certain amount of money (much less than one piece of equipment with a value of a $2,000.00 investment in unperforming assets).
My asking price for the class is a joke in comparison to what anyone can achieve with my support over three months of the class.
You just need three things: 1.desire to achieve your expected performance 2.be in good health & 3. Be able to follow my directions.
I have to protect my time if someone will change their mind and choose not to follow their own dream to get to 570 in three months. I think this is fair deal. It does not matter in which country you live, if you chose to work with me for three months, you cannot avoid this score performance. This is a win/win situation.

http://midwestacademyconsulting.wordpress.com/
william
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Post by william »

PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 1:25 pm Post subject: Styer LP 10 for sale Reply with quote
Purchased new from Pilk. Like new condition, black with large grip and two barrels. Purchased for a junior shooter in Massachusetts who has lost interest. Asking $1500 or bo.
Isn't this more or less what Russ is talking about?
Greg R
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Post by Greg R »

Has anyone on Targettalk been to one of Russ's courses. I would just like to know in general out there have they had the results that Russ talks about. Lots of people offer great results but do not deliver. Just my scepticism, love to be proven this is all above board.
antispar
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Post by antispar »

I can hardly imagine someone so sarcastic and overly self-confident to be a good coach. Or it is simply the internet forum effect, being real you when not facing the collocutor.
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RobStubbs
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Post by RobStubbs »

Greg R wrote:Has anyone on Targettalk been to one of Russ's courses. I would just like to know in general out there have they had the results that Russ talks about. Lots of people offer great results but do not deliver. Just my scepticism, love to be proven this is all above board.
I believe there are folks here who have attended some of Russ's classes and that they were positive about them, but they'd need to speak up to elaborate more. I can't personally comment because I haven't but Russ has been around here for quite a few years.

Rob.
Russ
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I really appreciate the healthy skepticism

Post by Russ »

I do remember we had a few years ago similar inquiries and my past students replied to those topics. Also, if someone is highly interested about the effect of my class, we can arrange this in a private manner. The reason is I do not want my students to become publicly involved in the subject of marketing instead taking care of the issue of why they came to my class initially.
I really appreciate the healthy skepticism because this is the first stage of the learning process.
My overconfidence is based on the knowledge and experience that 565 and 570 must be and can be reached by a motivated, healthy, and matured individual in a timeframe of approximately one year from the starting point of the introduction to the sport.
This has been done many times. If this score is not reached for some reason, most issues are related to a lack of motivation, incomplete structure of basic knowledge, and health related problems. What we can see here (TargetTalk) is most people are talking about technical problems related to devices and this issue is overrated.


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Last edited by Russ on Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Gerard
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Post by Gerard »

Regarding Russ' points above, I'd concur. I started shooting 10m AP about 9 months ago in February, using a Gamo Center spring air pistol and scoring in the low 400's at the beginning of that month. By mid-March I'd shot a 512 with that pistol, reading a lot of coaching information and having made a slightly better grip for that awful pistol. Bought a used 46m SSP in mid-April and started working on the grip, then made a new grip wish some significant corrections in various angles and a much larger size to fit my hand... and my average went to about 540. Within a month I'd shot over 550 a few times, continuing to work on all aspects of the 'basics.'

Then work interfered more with my training - hey, at least I have lots of work - and scores flatlined, and in mid-summer I managed to injure my shoulder quite badly doing a dumb lift with light weights. Still working on a long, slow recovery from that, so my first competition earlier this month saw only a bronze in the expert category with an 88.1% total for the three rounds. Charting my progress up to the point of that injury it looked like I was going to break 570 by the end of the year, after less than 11 months of focused effort and no direct coaching, though I do credit a LOT of good people online for offering great help through reference materials and direct suggestions. My shoulder is strengthening, my weight training and running are getting back on track. My pistol sessions are more focused and definitely productive as I refine aspects of my technique. It seems likely that the setback will be about a 4 month delay in achieving such scores, provided I take good care of my fitness and don't injure myself again.

So yeah, while Russ has a sometimes 'interesting' manner of presenting his ideas, I agree with the basic point - a score of 570 is achievable within a year given commitment and health and good training... and it does seem likely that good coaching would accelerate this, perhaps to the point of reaching such a goal within 3 months as he suggests.

I don't really see the excessive focus on equipment he's so often talked about in these forums. Perhaps that's because when I see a thread title about some gun or other I usually just don't click on it, as those don't much interest me. My Baikal 46m is more than adequate, my grip and other modifications have adapted the hardware to suit my tastes very nicely and the gun works perfectly. If I'm missing the 10 ring, it's my fault, can't blame the pistol, as it is able to nail a 10 every time if I just put it in the right place and don't mess up the shots. What else could a shooter ask of a pistol? Lightness, I suppose, but I've held a couple of lighter pistols now and find that they wobble around too much, for me anyway, so no thanks. Anyway, in the forums I do see a lot of attention being paid to technique, and that continues to provide food for thought. If some folks want to talk hardware and spend lots of money on more pistols, good for them, consume away. People do that in all other aspects of our society so why should AP be any different? Has nothing to do with shooting better scores, just as owning a Ferrari has nothing to do with being a useful and competent person. A Ferrari driver might be those things, but a Prius will get from point A to point B following the same traffic laws, and without the distraction of being terrified of scratches and fender benders.
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Post by toddinjax »

Gerard,
Could we (I) impose upon you to give us some more in depth insight into the path of your first year in AP? What books and/or articles were most helpful to you. How did you break down your trainging time, identify and eliminate errors on your own. What were your biggest obstacles and how did you overcome them? Any insight you can offer would be appreciated by myself and I'm sure many others here.
Congratulations on your success, and throw us a bone!
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Gerard
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Post by Gerard »

Sure, I can give that a try. It'll take some back-tracking to put it into order and present in a useful manner. I'll try this evening. But for starters, the single most important collection of materials was put online in one place by 'V76' who is a member here and on Canadian Airgun Forum, here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?z99adcfay43md
A phenomenal collection. There are many hours of writing for study available there, and while there are a host of contradictions between various authors' insights and recommendations, I think this helps in the individual practitioner building his/her own chosen path.

As for my 'success' I'd hardly call it that. Nowhere near where I wanted to be at this point, but I will soldier on and hit the books again and again as I seek to build the skills into muscle memory so I can eventually forget them and just focus on the mental game.
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Gerard
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Post by Gerard »

Thinking it over, I'm nore sure there's so much I can say which might directly translate into someone else's routine. The link above provides access to a few dozen files which are perhaps the best library of AP study material available online. An individual's approach to those materials will be necessarily influenced by their own choices, random or biased by the way the titles are interpreted. Any attempt to order the readings and practices would involve the experience and skills of a talented coach who was familiar with every bit of that material. It'd be foolish to claim ownership of even a tiny part of that kind of wisdom.

That said, I'll add that I've not read everything there... more than half of it, but time isn't all that free for me, so some time later... And of course I've picked up many useful tips in forums. And another incredible resource has been V76 himself, a fellow Canadian with whom I've exchanged many emails regarding all aspects of training and practice. That has been a huge help in working through various stages of the process as we've each refined our skills, if on different schedules at times for a few reasons.

So it's a complicated thing for me. A lot of inputs, so much information. But my basic outline is about like this:

November 2010:
Started shooting at targets a little, drawing some, printing a few from online sources, trying to figure out how to scale them for the 6metre line of fire I'd figured out at home. Not a lot of sessions, just tried to learn not to miss the paper so much at first. Didn't know whether or not to close my left eye, nor whether to wear reading glasses or not, as I didn't know if I should be focused on the front sight, rear sight, or target. Tried each in turn and generally shot badly, couldn't break 300 for a while.

December-January:
Began thinking that the hobby was becoming more than just glorified plinking, worked on stance a bit as I read more in the CAF. Started making clip-on irises for my reading glasses, experimenting with Kydex plastic and various distances and aperatures. Brought groups into the black more and more, with about 30% of my shots being well out in the white due to holding too long and twitching with the effort of firing, in just about any direction. A couple of pellets even found its way into the wall beside my trap. Practised breathing, consistency in stance and grip. Scores crept up into the low 300's.

February 2011:
Made a more practical grip for my springer, and while it turned out to be nothing like a proper target grip, it helped give me stability far better than the stock plastic grip. Started keeping a journal. Most sessions I noted that jerking or yanking the trigger persisted as a problem, largely due to the very stiff, awkward trigger of the Gamo.

March:
Settled into a stance with a lot of weighting onto my toes, gripping the pistol more fore-aft than the handshake grip I'd mostly used until now. Still playing around with different pellets, some not really working well at all. Very active reading period, and I tested new (to me) ideas in just about every session. Scores improving rapidly towards 500 then past it to 528 as all this practice lead to ever greater concentration. Reducing extraneous thoughts seems to have been the most important single improvement, as the process became more and more like a meditation. Continued making different irises, trying a couple of focal lengths of reading glasses.

April:
Gradually bringing up general fitness (which I'd neglected too much, and recurring lower back problems since childhood don't help in this regard) and starting to focus weight training on specific stability-enhancement for shooting. Averaging still in the low 500's. Finally got the Baikal pistol in mid-April, and set to work on the mechanical aspects, using putty and carving to figure out a grip which worked properly for my hand. Scores near 540 became almost automatic as this progressed, though my 'hold' was still only about the 7 ring so still picking my moments to shoot rather quickly and hoping for the best too often. After increasing the grip angle about five degrees this settled somewhat to about an inner 8 ring hold, the wrist locking much better. Starting seeing improvement in area hold and steady trigger pull rather than so much sudden sniping. Strings of 4 or 5 good 10's in a row becoming more common... then the excitement of that getting in the way and strays jumping all over the paper. Start to realise that boredom, or something like it, will be essential in enabling 60 decent shots in a row. So began really working to disassociate my emotional self from the results... which seems likely to be a life-long process.

May:
Began taking dry fire more seriously (though this remains difficult still) and saw some improvement as a result. 540+ scores start becoming fairly regular as I continued experimenting with all aspects of stance and grip and sighting practice and timing. A couple of 550+ results are reassuring that the path continues in a good direction. Adjusting sights through centre-aim, 7 o'clock aim, sub-6 aim... tirelessly playing with all the variables seems to have helped, oddly, in making for consistent scores. Rather than settling into one pattern I kept digging for the best practice, for me, in each element. The intense focus required to score well in spite of these changes seems to have been key in my improving results. Shooting at home fraught with interruptions from family, clients (I work at home, and musicians call for my help at all sorts of odd times), whatever. Try to make this part of the process, accept distractions and let them roll off, just focus on results... At this point shooting about 100 shots per day with the odd day off due to lack of alone time. Made a new trigger with more slope to the right, allowing for more consistent finger contact.

June:
Due to a major project approaching completion (a doublebass) and a big trip to take that to a competition in San Francisco (ISB convention, nice train trip with doublebass and my my little boy besides) this month doesn't leave a lot of time for shooting practice, and certainly none for study. Results flatlined, not much experimenting. My attention just wasn't available.

July:
As some more time for training and fitness becomes available, if not a lot more, my scores began to creep up again over 90%. Confidence was good. Started shooting at 10metres at home and joined a club in a nearby town, though my family schedule doesn't allow for more than Wednesday evenings, and I still can't make many of those. Habits in all aspects of the basics have more or less settled, though I continued playing with the odd variable as the mood hit me. Then at the end of the month I did a really silly new lift - leaning slightly forward while lifting 10pound kettle bells above the shoulder, lots of reps - and a couple of days later my shoulder started to scream. Seems I just strained a small muscle in the rotator cuff, but wow, haven't felt that much pain in a long time. Lots of ice and anti-inflammatory medication for a week helped settle the acute pain and allow me to work a little. Only a couple of short shooting sessions in August.

It's been a long, painful recovery. Not there yet as my shoulder is only at about 70% strength on a good day. Theraband routines are helping now better than anything else I've tried. In mid-September I began going to the club again, and worked on basic stability and concentration so as to get in somewhat useful shape for the upcoming competition in early November. Not a lot of shooting all through the fall, just enough to keep my hand in. Fitness gradually improving, but work is taking most of my time. I hope to be back to 100% in the shoulder by late winter. Already the lighter dumbells are back to where I was in July, but I'm being a lot more careful about over-doing the reps. Running is back on track.

But my scores haven't been improving much lately. Concentration isn't really available as my work demands so much attention, too many promised deadlines for restoration work have me stressed a bit much. I'm only practising with the pistol enough, dry and live fire, to keep the basic stuff in shape as I sort this work stuff out. I'll begin training more seriously for the next competition come January and see how that goes, but don't really expect to be giving the sport much more focus until later in 2012. Too many irons in the fire I guess. But it'll come. I really want to see how far I can take AP, and plan to break 570 sometime in the coming year.
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Just curious

Post by Russ »

Indeed it is a nice collection of information.
Also, each individual has their own way to success or to disaster with the same source of information. It will be interesting to monitor your success.
What is your next competition?
When can we see your performance and score?
Are you coming to Canadian Air Guns Grand Prix?
I noticed you have some kind of injury related to your training routine. It is a sign of something inappropriate has been done in the wrong approach in your way of doing things. Just curious.
Last edited by Russ on Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Greg Derr
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Post by Greg Derr »

Gerard clearly says it was not a sports related injury. Did you read his post?
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