Setting Goals

[David M]

Pistol coach Dina Aspandiyarova: “Each shooter must have goals”
What have you set as your goal ?
Is it achievable ?
Most goal are set too High.... " I want to win the Olympics, Break the world Record"
or have you set a training goal..." to shoot a match 9 ring or better"
Maybe to "dry fire everyday"

There are three types of goals:
– Process Goals, executing the actual training steps to improve your performance. Process goals are our bread and butter, the realistic means to train.They are the short term small steps.
– Performance Goals, goals that track your improvement in the score. These are measurable, showing progress and add motivation. Set over a longer term.
– Outcome Goals, keep you focused on the big picture. The successful result of process and performance goals. These are the prize at the end of the tunnel.
Each will have a defined time period... Week, Month, Six Months, Year or even 5 Years.

Whats your goal......

[VonKasta]

I dont really have a long term goal, but I always want to improve my mean score in practice and competition for every dicipline. Up until now it has worked out.
It would be fun to grab a medal at national championchips tho so I guess maybe thats my long term goal, achievable or not

[JamesHH]

My goals
- Train regularly

- Trial different training methods - see what gets results

Setting specific achievement objectives doesn't work for me personally, doing my best and seeing what happens works better
If all goes well - great
If it doesn't go so great - try another strategy

Results can be variable, then again pounding away with one system with one fixed objective can lead to frustration and boredom

So much about shooting is counterintuitive, you need to be flexible and adaptable.

So you can have the objective to be world champion, but the path to get there might not be a straight line, or lead to the exact objective you had at the beginning, and the timing might not fit your expectations.

[emre-nur]

To properly fire 60 shots in a competition (postal, online whatever) and score higher than 520.

[charliemow13]

I'm very much a beginner in 10m AP so just finding my feet. Think I'm setting myself goals at an appropriate level to strike that balance between being a challenge and requiring effort to achieve but at the same time neither too hard or easy.

Process Goals - maintain regular program of weights and stretches, dry fire at least 15mins everyday, shoot each series with focus maintained completely on the foresight throughout with a consistent sight picture / area of aim, recognise when to put the pistol down and start again (still have a few shots every series where I persist and pull the trigger when I should have aborted).
Performance Goals - once all the above are sorted, hold the black for every series, then tighten things up to hold the 8 ring every time.
Outcome Goals - longer term, qualify for and compete in the British open.

[nmondal]

Given the sad state our infra is in ( India ) - we would not have time to prep before any competition.
So my goal is very simple.
If I were to shoot in 1 minutes notice, without any prep time - any time in the 24 hours -
I should score more than 94/100.
That is it. That is all there is.
After spending so much time in this forum I have realised nothing else can be a goal.
It has to be a minimal score - ones worst score - that has to be taken really high to be a shooter.
Best never matters ( unless some happy dispositions ) - only worst does.

[nmondal]

To properly fire 60 shots in a competition (postal, online whatever) and score higher than 520.

Really nice, start with 40 shots.
That is one good thing about Indian way of shooting - 40 makes sense initially.
Keep the same avg score. 87, right? So just make it 88/100 any time.

[David Levene]

So my goal is very simple.
If I were to shoot in 1 minutes notice, without any prep time - any time in the 24 hours -
I should score more than 94/100.

IMHO that is not a good goal.

You would do better to have process goals e.g. To have a smooth trigger release (not disturbing my sight picture) on a greater percentage of shots, or to call more of my shots to half a ring and in the correct direction, etc.

Get the processes right and the score will come.

[emre-nur]

To properly fire 60 shots in a competition (postal, online whatever) and score higher than 520.

Really nice, start with 40 shots.
That is one good thing about Indian way of shooting - 40 makes sense initially.
Keep the same avg score. 87, right? So just make it 88/100 any time.

I did 40 today in a rather loose manner, not caring for the time and leaving my PoA to check the score almost each time. Scored 343, way below the target :)

[emre-nur]

I'm very much a beginner in 10m AP so just finding my feet. Think I'm setting myself goals at an appropriate level to strike that balance between being a challenge and requiring effort to achieve but at the same time neither too hard or easy.

Process Goals - maintain regular program of weights and stretches, dry fire at least 15mins everyday, shoot each series with focus maintained completely on the foresight throughout with a consistent sight picture / area of aim, recognise when to put the pistol down and start again (still have a few shots every series where I persist and pull the trigger when I should have aborted).
Performance Goals - once all the above are sorted, hold the black for every series, then tighten things up to hold the 8 ring every time.
Outcome Goals - longer term, qualify for and compete in the British open.

+1

[Pat McCoy]

Lots of nice "wishes" here, but all lack one thing to turn them into goals. A date by which they should be accomplished.

Goals need to be Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time constrained (SMART). Without the time constraint they are just "someday" wishes.

[dontshootcritters]

I like Pats reply.

But...
Having read all the above sometimes goals are not needed..I used to shoot smallbore and a lot of the folk there came for the social interaction more than the shooting I think... Shoot a couple of x10 shot cards,have a cup of tea, a non chocolatey biscuit talk about the state of the nation,then fix said nations issues over the cup of tea and then disappear into the night...rinse and repeat next week..same bat channel,same bat time!

I do believe setting unrealistic goals is quite the wrong thing to do personally. Be realistic with expectations. Sure stretch yourself out a bit but the goal needs to be reachable.

That's me done.

[charliemow13]

I'd maybe think about setting a time for my goals and objectives but given at my level of ability and understanding of the sport I dont know what I dont know, if that makes sense, so I'm not really best placed to decide how long some of them may take me. So rather than place an arbitrary time limit on something without much idea whether it might be possible for my to achieve, and then be disappointed if I dont achieve something in a certain time, rigthly or wrongly I'm content to make steady progress at my own pace.

Setting time limits on objectives and goals is possibly something where beginners such as myself would benefit from having an experienced eye look over things once in a while. Clubs and ranges have opened up over here again and the guys at the club I've joined have all been very much of the opinion that I should take my time and not expect too much too soon. Enjoy the shooting and with good preparation, good practice and reflection on that practice, the improvement will come.

[B Lafferty]

IMO, one can have general goals that are not necessarily date dependent and specific goals that are date dependent.

General Goals: Having now gone 14 months post major cancer surgery with no sign thus far of residual or recurring cancer, my general post surgery goal of being alive to pick up the air pistol is being met daily for which I am thankful every day. That said, surgery took a bit more out of me strength-wise than I anticipated, so my second general goal is to continue gradually rebuilding strength and stamina for a variety of activities such as air pistol and hiking. To that end, a simple daily goal of exercise and strength training is there for me.

Specific Goals:
1. Reduce mean grouping size for each ten shot target to 13mm or less by the end of 2021.
2. Greatly reduce fliers (7 ring and the great beyond) with every shot, every day.
3. Seeing intelligence and science prevail in our society putting an end to this dreadful Covid pandemic so that I can attend an air pistol competition at either Fort Benning or Camp Perry in 2022.

[nmondal]

I did 40 today in a rather loose manner, not caring for the time and leaving my PoA to check the score almost each time. Scored 343, way below the target :)

If you are scoring 340+ now, after 2 months you would cross 360, mark my words.