TargetTalk

Dear Roger,

First of all, let us talk about the concept of competition in Olympic style target shooting. It does not matter where you are competing, whether you are at the National USAS or if you are doing a postal match in your own basement. The competitive idea is competing against yourself; developing the skills to perform well in any stressful condition. For example, those conditions may include: cold, hot, humid, dry, windy, sunny, or rainy weather; competing with your own personal stress level and emotions, or developing the ability to handle technical abilities with your handgun and ammunition. When you develop confidence to score 570 or over at a constant basis, there will be no problem for you to go to other locations and compete. The game is still the same; you are competing against yourself. In my knowledge, the oldest Olympic champion was Oscar Swan. His age was 72 when he won the Olympic medal in target shooting. I hope you still have enough time to develop an idea to win a few matches without distracting yourself about your own age.

But Oscar Swahn did not start shooting at age 70 or even 68. By 70 he had been a champion for decades. And aan Olympic medalist since age 60.

BTW, his medals were all in the old running deer event.

peterz wrote:But Oscar Swahn did not start shooting at age 70 or even 68. By 70 he had been a champion for decades. And aan Olympic medalist since age 60.

BTW, his medals were all in the old running deer event.

"Old running deer event" is it still "target shooting discipline"?
He is the oldest Olympic Gold medalist in History of the Olympic Games.
My US student came to me last summer at age of 62 and reported 572 AP in less than in three month… I’m tired to repeat this over and over: 570 is not rocket science! It must be accomplished in ONE YEAR, PERIOD! :)
You can do it with IZH 46M ($350 value)
http://midwestshootingacademy.com/article7.shtml

If someone was able to adopt an idea to purchase a $2,000.00 top rated Olympic pistol plus a $200.00 Air pump and failed to take research from available classes to gain knowledge about what to do with this tool. :(

It is hard for me to help understand a simple math equation IZH 46M + Perfect single shot development class $350+$760= $1,110.00
$2,200.00-$1,110=$1,090.00 Saving :)

PeterZ: I think the point is that age is not necessarily a disqualifying factor. It is a handicap, but everyone operates with handicaps in some contexts. And as obsolete as the "running deer" competition is, it is still an accomplishment worthy of respect and Mr. Swahn's age makes it more so. As for myself, at 57 I'm approaching the threshold of geezerhood but, with luck, still have some years of good physicality ahead.

I am not ruling out competition. Competition success is simply not something that I am working towards. I am working towards deriving from the act of target shooting all that I possibly can, physically and mentally. I did compete at this years Blue Grass State Games but no one else showed up. Naturally, I won and even turned in a respectable score for a beginner, but the event was not satisfying. If two dozen shooters had showed and I finished at the bottom of the pack but came away a better shooter, I would have considered it a much more successful outing.

Russ extols the value of being able to shoot well in the stressful environment of a competition. I see the stressors that Russ mentions as nothing more than distractions, not unlike shooting a free pistol at an indoor range where everyone else is blasting away with hand cannons, something I do at least 3 times a week. My point is that shooters who shoot for personal satisfaction can be as serious about achieving excellence as any shooter who has the date of the Olympic qualifiers tacked on his bedroom wall and is focused like a laser on that point. I'm sure Russ has much to offer as a teacher. I do not doubt that it is possible for him to help a shooter improve significantly by just improving his head game without shooting a shot. I am just a little annoyed at the implicit put down of those of us who regard competition as something inherently apart from learning the skill of shooting.

Roger

Roger,

I'm over 70.

And I'm hoping to find some geezer-oriented matches to compete in.

My point was only that Swahn didn't start shooting as an old man. The gold medal didn't come from left field.

I received a few emails last night with questions about specific details of the perfect single shot development class. Today, after I accomplished 20 miles in a mountain biking competition, I was able to write a short statement in my blog about important information related to this class. Please review this information on my blog. I will be happy to answer your questions to help you achieve your dream performance in the least possible amount of time.

Blog: http://midwestacademyconsulting.wordpress.com/

Russ always seems to fore get to say, they it took him more than a year to shoot 570 in a match, and he has never made a national team or won anything larger than a "club" match as he says. As you can tell, Russ has a financial interestincoaching, but not academic coaching credentials. Just part of the Russ hustle. Flame away "coach"

Mr. Derr,

You picked the wrong person to argue with. If you are trying to bring attention to your personality or business, maybe you will receive benefits from it. By the way, thank you for the opportunity for me to disclose some of my credentials.

I'm not looking for employment, but I am always happy to prove my words with data. Here are some documents of my education and background. If you will be interested, I will send you five pages of 233.00 credits, evaluated by World Education Services, Inc. Located in Bowling Green Station, New York, NY. I did it for the reason to pursue my business education in the USA.

I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from the Moscow State Academy of Physical Education. I believe this educational institution can be recognized as Harvard in Olympic style target shooting. Probably, 70% to 80% of Russian Olympic, World, European, and National Champions graduated from this school. A few names come to mind... Mikhail Nestruyev & Olga Kuznetsova. On top of it, I have a national ranking as a MSMK (Master of Sports, International Class). I don't want to brandish with my other achievements in Belarus, Ukraine, & Russia during my athletic career.

My single reason to post here since 2005 is to help someone understand the way to achieve progress is not only through buying a perfect tool such as a pistol which you worry a lot about because you have a financial interest to sell guns. Please feel free to disclaim your real business nature as an arms dealer. You are doing the absolutely right thing as a business developer; keeping people blind about the opportunity to learn and invest in education instead of buying new pistols.

There are three areas where athletes invest their time and money: education of a particular field (Olympic style target shooting), body and mind development (physical education & development), and the technical part; relating to the tools themselves (pistols & ammunition). 90% of all what is written on Targettalk in the Olympic Pistol forum is related to technical issues and people started making the wrong assumptions about how buying the right pistol will help them achieve a certain score.

Thank you Mr. Derr for upcoming ideas that will be posted in my blog. Feel free to tell us about your credentials besides you being selected to the National team. I'm just wondering what kind of score you produced.

Is that a hackney license from NY? Or what? Still not a word or pistol coach on it. Sorry not buying the snake oil today.

"Is that a hackney license from NY? Or what? Still not a word or pistol coach on it. Sorry not buying the snake oil today."

Greg, why don't you lose the smash mouth attitude? You only reduce yourself by mocking somebody else's qualifications. If "pistol coach" is be-all and end-all, maybe you can explain why a well known New England "pistol coach" several years ago pushed the kids entrusted to him well beyond their physical capabilities requiring at least one of them to undergo orthopedic surgery and prematurely ending the career of one of the most promising junior shooters in the Northeast.

Somehow I don't see Russ doing that to anybody who comes to him for help.

Bill: you'll have to PM me that story, I never heard that.