New Shooting Activities/ Exercises

[Saw]

I wanted to discuss the practice activities used to work on different aspects of shooting such as; Team development, mental strength, specific parts of a shooting shot plan. Currently I assist an Air Rifle/ Smallbore youth program and choose the activities as needed. I will provide examples of what we currently use to give some ideas to those who haven't seen these activities yet and to give a better idea of what I am looking for from this post.

Bingo (12 Bull targets)
-Shooter shoot 1 shot in the bull chosen by the coach/announcer/RSO
- Call out the bull by naming the Column x Rows i.e. 123 x ABCD

Lights Out!
-Shooters get into position, pick up the rifle, hold without looking down the barrel; then turn the Lights Out for 5-10 seconds then turn them back on and have each of the shooter call out their shots to what they would have shot if they pulled the trigger (score and clock position). This helps show their NPA and bring them out of the normal visual routine, making the body's position more noticable in new shooter who may be muscling onto the bull when they see they are off the bull.

Fox and Hounds
-Splitting the shooters on the line into two groups, one the hounds typically smaller of the groups 1 or 2 shooter and the other shooters are the foxes.
-The Foxes are given a lead ahead of the hounds either a set point i.e. 3 points or shot(s) to decide the distance of the lead (If they shoot 2 shots one being an 8 and the other a 5 they would have a 13 point head start that the hounds are going to need to gain that amount of points in as little shots as possible.
-If the time is limited you can put the pressure for the hounds to catch the foxes in 10 shots or less.

OldFinals
Ten Shots with 50 second individual shot relays, 5 second load time, highest score wins.

War (similar to the card game, paper targets)
-In pairs shooter compete against each other they each shoot a shot or small group<5, calling their shot out of the other and the person with the lowest scoring target hands the target to the higher scorer. The shooter with the most amount of targets collected is the "winner"

Seven Seconds
-Announce "Ready"
-Shooters get into position, pick up the rifle, hold without looking down the barrel.
-Announce start and begin timing 7 seconds.
-Shooters approach the bull and decide in 7 seconds if the shot should be taken or to put the shot down.
-Announce "Stop" at the end of the seven seconds.

Up Downs
-Shooter alternate between getting in and out of position after taking one or more shots.
Can be used to build up stamina for the kneeling position.

Strings
-Shooter goal is to continuously hit above a given score, typically a shot scoring 10.1+ . If the goal is broken by shooting a shot below the given goal the string is broken and they start back at zero.

"Amazing Shooters"
-Shooters set a goal (9 or 10) that if they shoot below they shout "I am an amazing shooter" if they fall below.

10 Point Activity
- Working in pairs, shooters try to earn ten points in as little shots as possible.
-Each shot scoring 10 is worth 1 whole point 9s are worth half point (.5) and anything below is 0.
- Partners can save each from a 0 by by shooting a 10 following their partner for a score of half point (.5)
-Shot time is decreased after each relay. If starting with 50 second shot the next round time limit is 45 seconds

Team Match
- A team shoots in an arranged order across the line, each taking their shot independently however, the next shooter cannot take their shot until their team mate has fired and called out their score.
-Scores are combined for the team score

Pig (Similar to basketball)
-Shooter selects a score that they and their opponent must meet or exceed to not receive a letter, if the shot falls below they shooter is given out a letter spelling out a word such as pig.

Guts
-Finals run with the audience making as much noise as possible. Shooters cannot be touched, items thrown or breathed on as a distraction and cannot be bothered by their own blood relative.

Breathing/ Mental Meditation
- Shooter finds a comfortable place to use imagery to practice their breathing pattern while using imagery to recreate a shot, outside of holding position.

Focus on the How
- Typically used with new shooters to develop knowledge about body position.
-Give the shooter a shot, let’s say 5 at 10’, ask them to describe 5 or more different ways they can adjust their body to change the location of the shot to score to a ten without adjusting the sights.

Change of Seasons
-Precision shooters will have larger impact, but may be used with sporter shooting.
-At the beginning of a session have shooters approach the line with the minimum equipment ie: glove, off hand stand, or mat if in prone, shoot a group of 5 shots then put on 1 additional article of support. Working from the boots up; Glasses, sling +Handstop, boots, pants, sweater if worn, jacket, hat, ect. This is used to emphasize the importance of each item we use to support our positions to the best we can and show appreciation of the equipment if provided by the club, family, friends.

Please comment anything you may use to develop skills as a shooter, coach or team. This is greatly appreciated not only by me but all whom I assist. I also hop this gives ideas for other coaches to use with their team.


Thank you for the time to read this post and reply.

[redschietti]

One i came up with reciently to work on changing NPA is to shoot double 12 bull targets in the order shot in a match. They must shoot a 'deep' ten on each bull before moving to the next bull. Some bulls they shoot once and others they shoot multiple times with pressure and frustration building. I really like it. Like anything it must be addapted to the skill level. A nine might be approiate for some.

Single shot matches are great. Everybody shoots a single shot and deepest wins match or everybody with a ten shoots again.

All time highest pressure match is hang a $100 bill and challange them to win it by shooting a perfect 100. Hard to do!!

40/60/80 shot final

[Ryan Anderson]

I actually just made a podcast about this topic a couple weeks ago! Here is the link so you can access it via youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcnLuO4 ... jbka2AL4Zo. The first half is about setting up weekly and daily training sessions and the last part is where I detail some games and drills that shooters can run either by themselves or with others. Hope this helps!

Ryan