TargetTalk

I do really aprciate that you are spending the time to reply, and by making fun of i didnt mean to make him sound like a asshole. id almost go as far as saying that he is one of the quiest kids at the shoots he usually points it out when where standing around "do yall really gotta have someone else load yer gun, or ya' needa' have 'em shoot it too?" (Typical Teenager...!) And, i do like the Peronsonality shot, gives me a good thing to say when he gets one in the white thankyou, and when i get a little bit more time on my hands im going to read up on those websites, and about the County Fair, we had a place to shoot in for... maybe 4 weeks, then they boot us out (or the county leader stopped having meets, i dont know for sure) but, they dont have practices tehre anymore. To bad. Anyway, thankyou again for helping. and id lke to have other people chime in too.

jhmartin wrote:Learning to handle 5-7 10's in a row is sometimes as hard as learning how to handle a "personality shot" .... out in the white part.

Another $0.02 here .... until the emotions are under control, there will be quite a few out in the white. The shooter must decide how they will react to any situation ... right then ... it is totally up to them.

Whew ... anybody else want to comment? The above works for me....
I know my "mentors" occasionally monitor target talk ... If Im out in left field ... chime in.

You have to learn how to mentally handle the game of shooting - there's hundreds of posts on here if you do a search. However, shooting is about shooting one shot and repeating that process. The only thing you can control is the shot in the gun. Treat a competition as 60 1-shot matches, once the shot's gone praise the good shots, forget the poor shots.

You need to encourage your shooters to stay calm at all times. They cannot afford to react to things no longer under their control - like the shot they just fired. Simply put if they don't learn to keep positive and focus on good shot execution of the current shot in the gun, they will lose points, and probably go into a downwards spiral. If that happens, then walk away from the firing point and relax for 5 minutes. Recompose and start again from afresh.

Rob.

The ol coach going out on a limb here, but let's see if I can get a point or two across ...

I would say that the fact your son is looking at the other kids that are getting lots of "help" from their parents, & he is showing disdain for that, means that your son is an independant sort who is showing that he wants to be in control of his own shooting and setup. This is a good trait for a shooter to have, since, already mentioned, they are on their own on the firing line, and may as well get used to it!
That also means that he is ready to do a bunch of thinking on his own, about how he shoots, and I'd say that it was more important for HIM to be reading books about shooting & mental preparation. Start him with the basic International 3P booklet) from the US Army Marksmanship Unit (a digest version is avail from CMP), Krilling's "Shooting for Gold", Pullum & Hahnenkrat's "Three Position Shooting" & "Rifle Shooting"?, and if he is gobbling them up, then introduce "Ways of the Rifle". Have him browse thru the interviews the Pilkguns here has.

It wouldn't hurt to have his coach (you if that'll be it) read the same books at the same time, and try to discuss various points.

The idea is that HE nees to start thinking about his shooting, training & practice time, HIS battle with match pressure, and come to his own terms with it. If he enjoys shooting, even simply skimming thru the books should give him food for thought. (Everything will not come instantly anyway.)

One more: is there any NRA Rifle Summer Camp planned in your state or region? Ours in Illinois (Streator) is an excellent chance for kids & adults to really immerse themselves into a week of all things rifle, for both shooting and coaching.

PL, Wheaton Rifle Club

Thankyou, I will be looking into that.

Shh.... dont tell him im "showing off" his targetrs.

Jeff B wrote:











Shh.... dont tell him im "showing off" his targetrs.

Ok, the first 1 is his Prone, a 90 From Compitition.
The second is Kneeling, a 75
The 3d is a Standing, 71.

and the bottom 3 are from home.

the first is 75 standing
2nd is 83 Kneeling.
3rd 94 Prone, and i understand if this bores everyone :)

One thing to consider, as well, is that your son might be putting a lot of pressure on HIMSELF--however, from what you've said in your posts, this might not be the case.

When I was a young shooter, I was coached by my dad. I had a lot of great times at the range with my dad, as well as, some bad times too. As I became more experienced, we got a coach that could match my experience. But during the years I was coached by my dad, I think I put far more pressure on myself than he ever did...

Hi

To back up Joel's suggestion that YOU take the NRA Smallbore / air rifle coaches class, have your son take it WITH you. Several of our top shooters have taken the coach's course and it helped them a lot, EVEN the one that didn't bother with taking the test afterwards.

Have them take the COACH course, NOT the instructor course. The instructor course teachs you how to get kids to SAFELY shoot. The Coach's course teachs you, how to teach kids to shoot 10's.

Mike
Wichita KS

This will probably be a very unpopular reply. My 15 year old son has been shoot competitively since age 9. At age 7 to 8, he wanted to shoot something competitively and we went to lots of different kinds of matchs to watch. I did not know much about competiton shooting. At age 9, I bought a fairly light Smallbore rifle to shoot prone with. I had to really talk to him to get him to practice and put on the coat and sling. Smallbore prone or 3P was not going anywhere with him. I went to a few Smallbore Rifle Silhouette matchs without him to watch. I bought a small, light, cheap Smallbore Silhouette rifle for him. After this purchase he became my motivator at age 9, dry-firing at home, shooting practice matchs on paper at the range, and making me wake up at 4:30 A.M. to drive 3 hours to monthly matchs. At around age 12, I thought I would try again. I purchased a PCP Daisy Sporter rifle because that type of match had been started an hour and 30 minute drive away. He trained, shooting complete 3 position practice matchs at least 4 days a week without prompting for about two months so that he would do well in his first air rifle match. On match day, he did well finishing third in his first match. He also had enough strength left to shoot his Sporter rifle in International Standing just for fun. He looked like he was having fun. On the drive home, I asked him if he wanted to buy a Precision Rilfe, give up Silhouette and devote more time to Air Rifle. My son said "No, Dad, I want to sell this Air Rilfe Stuff and concentrate on Rifle Silhouette. This ISSF stuff is really boring. The wind does not blow the pellet around and you just line up circles all day." I decided not to fight this battle to force my son to compete in a sport he did not like. We have had tons of fun shooting Silhouette, my son is willing to do any training exercise at any time and he is willing to drive any distance to shoot Matchs. He has also excelled at Rifle Silhouette winning many Titles in the NRA Sub-Junior category. He will never shoot in the Olympics or earn a College Scholarship but we found a Shooting Sport that fit him and that we could participate in and enjoy together. I think I did the right thing by not forcing him to shoot a Sport he did not enjoy.

Hints that might help: My son has been to many large matchs. He has never been nervous before a Match. He exhibits total empathy concerning the match. In other words, no feelings, no emotion. My son says that if you care too much about winning or making the shot, you will not perform as well because it will make you excited or nervous. He says you must remember that match outcome and your performance are not related. You are not at the Match to "beat" anyone. You can only control your own score. You cannot control your fellow competitor's score. I do not like the idea of text messaging or music at anytime during the match. Text messaging shows a lack of concentration on the task at hand. Music makes people take the shots on the rhythm of the last song they listened to. In Silhouette, we found that if kids played Gameboys that involved timing and jumping games between relays that their scores were higher than if they just sat between relays quietly but Silhouette is a timing game. I do not think video games would improve your son's shooting sport.

Hope this helps,
Bobby R. Huddleston

The neat thing about the shooting sports is that there is something for everyone .... Not everyone has to fit into a pistol box, a rifle box, a muzzleloader box, etc.

Find what is fun and have fun.

Here is my opinion regarding the topic. These tidbits have really helped me improve my shooting so that I am now at a pretty decent level. Take what you will and toss the rest as some, all, or none of these may work for your son.

1. I do not know of a better mental training system than the one produced by Lanny Bassham. While the price of $150.00 may seem steep for his CD program, I can personally attest to the fact that this program does work if you follow its concepts.

2. I practice 5 days a week and that seems to be a pretty good number of sessions. Each session lasts approximately 3 hours. A session may include three types of events, (a) dry firing, (b) group shooting, and (c) live shooting. I do my dry firing indoors with a RIKA Home Trainer. This device allows the shooter to see where his shots are going plus a cornucopia full of statistics related to hold times, possible maximized scores, etc. Group shooting can be done with the RIKA or on a range. When you group shoot though, you MUST de-emphasize the score. All you look at are the five-shot groups (or ten-shot groups at longer distances) adn try to minimize the spread of the groups. If you can group tightly, you can always move the group but if you cannot group, you will not score well. Live firing should be conducted under match conditions and this will help reduce the stress/nerves that you son is experiencing. In an ideal world, your son should build up to shooting three times the amount of shots that he will have to shoot in a match. For example, if he competes in a 60 shot International Air Rifle Competition, his final practices leading up to the match should include sessions in which he is firing 180 shots.

3. Your son should keep a detailed diary of his shooting sessions, both training and competition so that (a) patterns can be identified, (b) problem resolutions can be tracked, and (c) improvement (or lack of it) can be documented. After each session, the first thing I do is go to my diary and write my entries before I forget what I just did.

4. Have you son set reasonable goals for his shooting, short term, mid term, and long term goals. This will give him something to strive for rather than just shooting and seeing where the results pan out.

As far as your son and his friend competing neck and neck...that is a good thing if you use it corectly. When I was a junior shooter, my best friend and I wold go back and forth in every tournament we entered. 7 of the 8 tournaments we entered to gether my senior year (he was a junior) we tied for first place. The rules at the time stated that the off-hand (standing) score would break the tie. I won 4 he won 3 of the tournaments that way. the point is, we inspired and drove each other to perform well. We competed fiercly against each other because we were well matched and could really bring out the best in each other. If you can use the situation in a similar manner, both shooters would benefit.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!