TargetTalk

Hello everybody,
I am now in training for the next Junior Olympics qualifier, and i need some tips. First, what are some good training exercises that i can do? Second, what can i do to increase my balance and steadiness while shooting?
Thanks!

Air or Smallbore (or both?) (male or female)

I'll tell you what we are doing, but it is for both (AR & SBR). Our JO Qualifier is Dec 18-20 (Air & SBR)

Right now we are training Air exclusively in standing. We get the 3-P training by doing smallbore.

We have been doing this since about June. We also "overtrain" at least once a week ... the gals are shooting 60 shots ... men 70-80. (I also want the gals to get used to an NCAA type match) The other air days we work on position/balance ... lots of eyes closed NPA ... even closing eyes for NPA and taking the shot w/o opening then to see if they are "cheating".
(Try long holds w/ your eyes closed to help your balance)
We begin this week 1 3-P air training day for the month. Even though we shoot a 3-P cup match in November, our focus is on standing thru December. This includes shooting in the (old 3XAir) Winter Airgun Championship in early December.

Right now our shooters are concentrating on the "wellness" of their hold ... many times they anticipate the "good" hold & shoot too early or don't trust what they see and take the shot too late, so I let them experiment a bit to see if they cannot determine where they are. Having good follow thru is essential to this as you have to try each and know that you can call the shot. (A Scatt can help with this too)

If you are shooting too fast practice imagery before each & every shot. The next time you shoot a dead center 10.8 & 10.9 & know it ... stop and play that shot back thru your mind 5 or 6 times ... the whole shot, from picking up the pellet to your followthru. Then play that shot before every other shot.

As mentioned we get 3-P practice in mostly in SBR now ... we shoot that on Saturdays.

Another thing is I'm letting the shooters try "big" changes in position/gun settings up thru about mid-October and then begin to narrow them into more set positions and rifle settings right up to the Winter Airgun match. We'll try and hold those thru the NRA INTL Sectionals (for us in Jan) and up to Rocky Mountain and Spring Airgun in Feb. We transition our air to about 1/2-n-1/2 standing and 3-p in mid-Feb.

I don't know if this makes any sense, but you'll get lots of other ideas here. I got kinda chatty here after a mountain dew at 3:30PM.....
See you in C-Springs in April!!!

Sorry, air rifle and male. My coach really didn't give me much information on the procedures and such. Is there a good website that could really explain what the competition is all about?
Thanks!

In the next few weeks I expect USA shooting to put out the call for applications to host the JO qualifiers. Usually one, maybe two locations, in each state.

Looking at last year's host list, it appears that usually TN's match is done in Knoxville by Mary Furr (a great coach & a very nice lady). Your date last year was Dec 12th.
vrtfurr at MSN dot com (865-688-8767)

Contact Mary and get on her list to get the program out to you when she has one completed. (Also ... you need to be a member of USA Shooting)

Then you show up at the match and fire a qualifier. That score goes into USA Shooting. If you fired at or above the "Automatic Qualifier" score you are invited to the National JO's in April. If you win the state match and are at or above the state qualifier score you are also invited. The USAS staff then goes down all the other reported scores from all the states and does a 1st round invitation to fill out their shooting positions. Shooters usually have about 2-3 weeks to accept or decline the invite. Then USAS may go into a 2nd round of invites if any slots are left.

The draw for the auto, state, & 1st round invites is that you are eligible to stay at the Training center in the dorms for a lot lower cost than a hotel in town (about $45-50 a night with meals in the cafeteria included) Staying in the dorms is nice in that you get to interact a lot more with the other shooters from all over.

I'm expecting that the auto and state qualifier scores will be the same as last year ... PM me and I'll send you a copy.

Contact Mary & get on her list & we'll see you there

From What my coach told me, our qualifier is in Feb.

One more point to confuse you.

Are you talking the "Olympic style" JO Qualifier (run by USA Shooting) or the 3-Position "JO" Qualifier (run by CMP)?

The USA Shooting JO National match is fired at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in April.

The 3-Position Air Rifle Council "JO 3-P" National match is fired at either Camp Perry or Anniston usually in early July.


If the USAS JO's contact Mary. Normally the JO Quals are fired from October thru January.... February is past the deadline ... results are due in the first week of Feb.

If the CMP 3-P Air there is usually a minimum score for an individual (580 Precision - 525 Sporter??) or your team must win the state match in one of the invited categories.

I will be sure to ask, thanks!

Thanks too...
make money online

The JO Host list has been out for a few weeks now and I remembered this post.

You can download the list by going to:
http://www.usashooting.com/downloads.php
and download the file:
"2011 List of State Junior Olympic Hosts" in the Competitions area

Note that this is the "International" JO's ... not the 3-P JO's