"Some day, if/when I am asked to join the national team, I will of course have a coach and other resources."
It is not correct assumption.
Let me explain "why" it is not correct assumption.
At the time when you and a few more guys will be selected to join National team, it will be no time for coaching.
You will be obligated to perform your best to make the National travel team, which must participate at International level. This is simply selection process.
There is not too much time left for real coaching; this is why you must have your own coach last winter.
Your expectations and responsibilities of National coach functions have different points of view.
His goal is to bring more International awards to own country and one of the ways to do this is to manage limited available resources.
To coach someone "NEW" is time-consuming venue.
If you wish to wear your own National team uniform, you will be responsible to perform requested score at any asking time.
Last edited by Russ on Thu May 03, 2012 9:22 pm, edited 9 times in total.
Russ wrote:There is not too much time left for real coaching; this is why you must have your own coach last winter.
Well that's certainly simplified my life, hasn't it Russ! Since I didn't have a coach last winter, and I "must" have a coach last winter, and since that's obviously impossible... it's equally obvious that there's no point having a coach now, right? Since you've instructed me that it's too late for a coach, you are now free to focus your attention elsewhere and stop bugging me to get a coach. Alright?
Greg Derr wrote:Gerard: An elephant really does not feel the flea on the thick skin of his rump. Be the elephant to the flea. Fear of failure and lack of confidence are usually the root cause of confrontation. Like dealing with a child that cannot get attention, the child yells louder and louder. All the while losing some dignity and respect or friends. Sooner or later they either modify their behavior or they self destruct. We are witnessing the latter here.
But he's just such a durable little thing, isn't he? Like a flea I guess. Ever try to squash a flea?
"Well that's certainly simplified my life, hasn't it Russ! Since I didn't have a coach last winter, and I "must" have a coach last winter, and since that's obviously impossible... it's equally obvious that there's no point having a coach now, right? Since you've instructed me that it's too late for a coach, you are now free to focus your attention elsewhere and stop bugging me to get a coach. Alright?"
"bugging me" Please be positive!
"bugging me" is wrong expression. :) Stay strong and positive! It is like running hurdles.
If you wish to wear your own National team uniform, you will be responsible to perform requested score at any asking time.
Check this score with your National Coach.
Do I have your attention, now?
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Last edited by Russ on Fri May 04, 2012 5:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
I shoot about 555 on average in training, 540 in competitions and have done for the last 2 years looking back at my results. In fact I'm shooting better on average in practice matches 555 average but my competition scores at Nationals and Regionals have got worse. Over the last 2 years I've tried everything - more shooting, read every book out there about Pistol shooting, tried more physical training - gym, tried NLP (mental training). Then I tried a more balanced approach of all 3 - still nothing - yes a small jump from 540 to 555 but the elusive 560+ required (not just once but everytime you shoot) to make a National final and perhaps a chance to make the National Squad eluded me.
At Xmas my wife bought me some more golf lessons as I was not hitting the ball well or consistently. Cost was £225 for 6 for the US that's $360 or $60 a lesson on average. The lessons are 1 hour long. The first lesson my new coach went right back to basics - we worked on my grip, for half and hour I never hit one ball I just learnt how to grip the club correctly and consistently. After the lesson he recommended some specific reading. He had watched me hitting golf balls at the driving range he had spoken to me and consequently he has given me a personal development plan and specific drills relevant to my issues. I still have 3 lessons to take and today is my 4th lesson. I now consistently hit the ball better.
The point of this conversation about golf?
Its similar, very similar to shooting. There is no point going and hitting 100 balls everyday and hoping you'll improve when your probably reinforcing bad swing techniques. You can't emulate Rory with this approach. We pay for golf lessons, tennis lessons, Karate etc.. and all the other sports so why not pay for a shooting coach? Reading golf magazines is not the answer - although I did buy shiny new expensive clubs after reading these when in fact my original second hand clubs were good enough but I thought the clubs would help. Its not the clubs - its the swing fundamentals.
Last edited by A74BEDLM on Fri May 04, 2012 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
I realise of course that in this context you're not about to write everything you've tried in the past two years, but might I ask anyway; is it the case that your experimentation with training has been limited to a) shooting more along with doing the other routines more, and b), a more rational combination of NLP, fitness, and shooting more? I ask as it seems rather minimal in terms of range of experience. What about testing a number of different approaches to hold duration, trigger technique (and position of the trigger relative to the hand), aiming at different areas, shortening hold duration as suggested by Anatolii Piddubnyi such that you never shoot after 3 to 4 seconds, putting the gun down... And there are a lot more variables you could try, keeping a journal of all experiments and results so as to track individual changes which are of benefit, then attempting to combine the best results of each experiment into a new whole technique. It's complicated, requiring considerable discipline to properly track such detailed things in ways which allow repeatability and accuracy in your descriptions of such changes, but surely more useful than hammering away and shooting more and training harder. As has been stated many times, repeating over and over what does not work is one practical definition of insane behaviour.
Of course there's nothing wrong with going to a coach. But knowing yourself is at least equally important, and what better way to know yourself as a shooter than to test the parameters of your approach in every conceivable way?
I've got to put my two cents in....A74BEDLM has a good point. Yes, you can use trial and error experimentation, but the learning curve will work a lot faster with a good coach. And at 48 (49 in a month), I need to improve my performance FAST to win a World Muzzle-Loading Championshp. I'm very good, but need to move from 94s to 97s - equivalent to moving from a 540 in AP to 570. FWIW, I was shooting a very consistent 538 in AP matches this winter.
About what Russ is claiming.
Both groups in this argument are talking past each other. The precision pistol shooters in the United States are so accustomed to having no coaching available that the idea of paying for coaching is completely foreign. Which means that foreign-born coaches like Russ are having a hard time...especially since the level of improvement that Russ is claiming to be possible seems outlandish to many of us. We're used to clawing up a few points per year, not half the difference between where we are and a perfect performance in six months or so.
What's perplexing is that the idea of paying for courses is accepted for just about every other shooting discipline. Probably because of availability.
I might take Russ's course, just to see what he has to offer.
I'll add that I think Russ has a good point about many shooters being more concerned with buying equipment than training. It's a common characteristic with American shooters. Everybody is trying to buy points...especially since you can, if you are upgrading from low-end hardware.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered before (can't imagine that it hasn't) but what are your credentials please Russ? Have you competed nationally, international level, significant wins/high placings, and years teaching, how many students have you tutored?
toddinjax wrote:Forgive me if this has been asked and answered before (can't imagine that it hasn't) but what are your credentials please Russ? Have you competed nationally, international level, significant wins/high placings, and years teaching, how many students have you tutored?
It will be better if you will tell me by PM about your current level of performance and what are you looking to accomplish in Olympic pistol, or NRA International pistol during next year or two.
"like Russ are having a hard time...especially since the level of improvement that Russ is claiming to be possible seems outlandish to many of us. We're used to clawing up a few points per year, not half the difference between where we are and a perfect performance in six months or so. "
Mike, actually I am having good time.
I do not claiming anything. So far, I’m offering. (20 points up from the level of 540 AP)
NRA Basic Pistol book, 8 hours of my time and support over three month.
I’m expecting claims by my students only.
Confucius say " It is the second mouse that gets the free cheese"
Russ wrote:Free cheese
By the asking for advice on the forum, you will receive 5-7 positive charged opinions. At least you will read it.
Implementation of them will take time and efforts for you to develop new habit.
Some positively charged advices could be not the real treatment for your actual problem.
Therefore, instead of one of your own problems, you will “positively “inherited two or three more.
You cannot be cautious about reading.
Too much information is also big problem of correct selection as well as lack of correct information.
Free cheese eh? Is that what forums are about? I'm just really puzzled about the statement:
Russ wrote:You cannot be cautious about reading.
The younger of my two kids is almost 6. He's been treating me to his analyses of the Hollywood children's movie ethos lately, offering incisive and at times startlingly astute thoughts on common themes between most films. He's begun this month doing similar thinking about the books I read to him. For instance, we're just about done with the 'Chronicles of Narnia'. He's been stopping my reading to take a turn reading for himself now and then, and also to ask me about various contradictions and dependence upon magical turns of events to sort out awkward corners Lewis has written himself into. I recall saying similar things to myself about 20 years ago when reading Lewis' 'A Grief Observed', finding myself groaning a bit when the thought experiment which is the concept of the book suddenly twists upon itself, loses all intellectual rigour, and falls into dependency upon pure faith, abandoning the supposed mission of 'proving' God. My boy's already a critical reader.
So how is it that anyone can so blithely suggest that critical reading/thinking is not a possibility? Cannot be cautious about reading? What an absurd concept. Our minds are wonderfully equipped with tools for filtration and prioritization. Hence my suggestion that experimentation - something which Piddubnyi, Russ' countryman, exhorts all shooters to pursue! - is one of the tools in our arsenal. Try, mostly fail, find what works and keep it, abandon whatever doesn't work. It's not that difficult, is it?
Also with all due respect to Confucius (though I don't really agree with much of his thinking on human nature) as a quotable being, it was not he who coined the 'second mouse gets the cheese' but a musician named Jon Hammond, at least according to a great many sources. Some also place it with a newspaper columnist in 1998, or with an English lord, but those sources are fewer. 'Confucius say' is a colloquial shortcut when a speaker either wants to be funny or cannot recall the originator of a saying, and if I'm not mistaken (probably am) 'Confucius say' was an oft-used prefix used in the old Charlie Chan mystery movies.
"What an absurd concept."
My life experience is different than yours; I know what I am talking about. Take a time.
Try avoid to criticize everything from your own point of view. If you do not know something it is not automatically indicate it is not existed in different place.
It is not a part of your current knowledge yet. The same thing is with a target shooting. With different level of your performance you will use different ways and words to express your current experience. You cannot see it now, but it is possible you will see it someday.
I’m not here to teach you or oppose you. Try to use appropriate forms of language if you do not understand something.
If you have a medical emergency probably you will choose go to the doctor who has specific knowledge of the subject or disease. Will you chose go to the library of Congress instead?
Last edited by Russ on Fri May 04, 2012 4:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Russ wrote:"What an absurd concept."
My life experience is different than yours; I know what I am talking about. Take a time.
Try avoid to criticize everything from your own point of view. If you do not know something it is not automatically indicate it is not existed in different place.
It is not a part of your current knowledge yet. The same thing is with a target shooting. With different level of your performance you will use different ways and words to express your current experience. You cannot see it now, but it is possible you will see it someday.
I’m not here to teach you or oppose you. Try to use appropriate forms of language if you do not understand something.
Again I'm left bewildered by such wisdom. You're just so full of this stuff Russ! Are you suggesting that critical reading, critical thinking in fact, is impossible, and that the 'fact' I do not understand this is because it is 'not part of my current knowledge yet'? 'Current' and 'yet' in the same sentence making for a redundancy equivalent to a double-negative notwithstanding, this statement strikes me as an exhortation towards non-awareness, that we ought to aspire to stupidity and acceptance if we are to become successful in our pursuits. Is this truly what you suggest, Russ? A sort of Zen for zombies?
How critical reading & critical thinking you will use in this case?
If you have a medical emergency probably you will choose go to the doctor who has specific knowledge of the subject or disease. Will you chose go to the library of Congress instead?
