TargetTalk

I am interested in working with a high level personal pistol ( AP and FP ) coach in prepration for the '08 Olympics.

Several folk I have talked to have suggested that I look towards getting an ex national coach from the European countries - however, before I take such drastic steps, ( overcomng the geographic and laguage barriers for a start ) I wanted to see what is the collective wisdom regarding the coaches in the US/Canada.

< start incentive >
while I cant afford king's ransoms, I do have some funds earmarked for this and will be picking up the tab for travel/expenses for the coach to accompany me to national and international competitions.
< end incentive > :)

DSingh:

Are you a Canadian citizen? Who is your national governing body; I will assume they have a national team coach? Or not?

You will have to be selected within your national governing body rules and procedures. That might be a good place to start asking questions (for several reasons).

Steve Swartz

Steve,
Deep shoots internationally for Canada - see the CAT games results. I'm pretty sure they have their own national pistol coach (isn't Patrick the junior equivalent ?). If that's the case I would have to ask why you feel you need another coach and is that really a good idea ? Are you going to work with 2 coaches <that can't be good> ? Or risk the wrath of your governing body by not working with your national coach ?

Rob.

Hi Rob/ Steve,

Thanks for the suggestions. I have talked to the folk in the Canadian shooting circle but havent come across any person who would be ideally suited to help me.

To answer some of your queries. The shooting federation of Canada ( SFC ) does have a postion of head pistol coach. The current coach is Rick Ward. Patrick Haynes is the assistant national coach. However, unlike most other countries the SFC does not have the funds to make this is a full time position. All the SFC does is subsidise the travel expenses of the the coach to international competitions. As such all the coaches ( as well as the shooters ) also have a full time job. That means the coaches have to use up vacation or take unpaid time off to travel with the team.

Practically, that means the official coach does not really travel with the team. Whoever is the designated coach to an international event is mostly tangled up with the management aspects of the team / getting the schedules / squadding etc.

I have seen Patrick ( and only him ) trying to juggle both the management stuff and watch some shooters on the line and it wore him out - I have barely seen anyone that exhausted.

Also given the lack of funding from the SFC and the wide geographical dispersion of the team members, the national team does not train together ( okay truth be told we dont even have a single national coaching camp ).

Hence my desire to have a personal coach who I can work with in training and competition. And no, the SFC does not have any issues with this. Everyone I have talked to in the SFC is very encouraging in saying "if you can find someone, go for it"

Bill Demarest is a great coach. Don't know if you can commute to him in Southern Calif....but any time spent with him is magic.

Greetings Deep.

If I had the time, opportunity, your skills and potential, I would do whatever I could to lure Ed Hall to take the job.

I dont know what Ed's situation is or whether he would be available but here's what I do know - Ed is very knowledgeable about the sport and more importantly, he is incredibly skilled at communicating ideas. He has a knack for taking complicated ideas and breaking them down into small and manageable components.

You have to read some of his material and see for yourself how organized and thorough he is. One other thing you will likely notice from his posts, he is a gentleman, a natural born teacher and he truly loves this crazy sport of ours.

I think he lives in the NE portion of the US.

If you haven't already read some of his stuff, here's a link:

http://www.geocities.com/ed_ka2fwj/articlesand.html

Spend a couple of hours reading these dozen or so articles and make up your own mind.

On a more personal note, I think this is a great move on your part.

Deep tens to you Deep.

F. Paul in Denver

Wow, Paul,

Thanks for the glowing endorsement, but I'm not really qualified/certified to be such a coach. Although I'm heavily involved in shooting and full of opinions, almost none of my experience is in the International arena. Deep(?) would need someone who knows a lot more about the International environment.

Again, thanks for the endorsement and as you pointed out, most of my suggestions are available for review at various sites.

Take Care,
Ed Hall
http://www.airforceshooting.org/
http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/