TargetTalk

Why does switching from one brand to another and buying different and more expensive toys not helpful toward moving up in score performance as you may expect initially? The answer can be simple. You did not have enough information to make the correct decision. The decision as itself cannot be good or bad because the intention besides any decision is positive. With some decisions, instead of an expected result, we may receive an unexpected result, and the gap between those performances weighs out a lack of information that may not be complete. Usually, some critical elements are missing. It will stay this way until you take the complete steps to use your time and energy toward the right direction.

A few ways are available for you:

1. Leave everything as it is and do nothing
2. DIY Project (Do It Yourself); start reading books, and compete with a try and fail approach
3. Hire a professional coach (ISSF Olympic Style) or convince him or her to work with you
4. Join the MIT Olympic Style Target Shooting Team
5. Schedule an appointment for a evaluation of your performance to discuss any possible solutions to elevate your performance to a desired level with someone to whom you can trust who has proven a successful result

It is important to understand at the National and International level that you will compete against the majority of professionals; the backbone of any National Olympic Team members who are military athletes or part of the CISM program. You have to face the fact that you are competing against professionals with limited financial sources, knowledge, and etc… It will be difficult to defeat them and earn your place as a national team member, but at least you must be aware of the different sources that are available to them, such as coaching, financial support, shooting range time, medical support (chiropractor & massage therapist), and a professional attitude (constant, predictable high level score performance). What does it mean for your ability to perform a constant, predictable high level score performance in any circumstance no matter what? The majority of professionals were selected who have a natural ability to outperform others. At the same time, success is a learnable skill. We all pay our price for our knowledge in one way or another by time, energy, money or other values in exchange to achieve the things that we wish most. It is a matter of our priorities. I do not believe that all Olympic Style athletes are satisfied with their level of performance, but they need more available sources, a professional attitude, and information to win their own game.

Agreed, if you have big ambitions in the shooting sport.

But if there is no ambitions, and if the family budget allows you to buy a new toy - why not? Shooting makes fun. I want defeat myself and not someone else. But in any case, I do not forget that people became champions even with ugly Margolin as Józef Zapędzki and many many others.

If it was easy, everyone could do it and it wouldn't be any fun.

Thank you for the replies.

First about Margolin, it is extremely rude and unpolite to talk about this model in the same way as you did Mr. ruig. Margolin was an engineer with an inability to see. He created an extremely simple and reliable model which was used by many starting athletes who became real stars in Olympic Style Target Shooting. I have great feelings about this model and person who created this handgun.

Second, shooting for fun in the United States has a different name: recreational target shooting. You can pay $4.00 at the gate of any state park and shoot there until dusk or until your ammunition is gone.

Third, the adjective; Olympic, should direct a specific interest of people who have a certain desire to succeed in the Olympic Style competition, and this desire is slightly apart from recreational target shooting. The big difference between Olympic Target Shooting and recreational target shooting is motivation behind purchasing pistols and wasting your time at the shooting range. Fun and the desire to excel has a different nature.

Dear Mr. Russ:

From what I've read from tour previous posts, I can't even presume to match your expertise when it comes to Olympic shooting techniques and achievements.

But, being myself a real LOVER of the Free Pistol / Air Pistol disciplines, I'm forced to partially disagree with your preceding comment.

You trace a clear distinction between what can be defined as "purely recreational target shooting" (to which you refer to somewhat disdainfully) and the Olympic Shooters, which you adress as "those with desire to excel".

Well, that's where I would introduce a third and particular breed of shooters, one that - for lack of a better example - includes me and a lot of fellow competitors.

We are the people that fill the entries of any major match, we are those who desire to BETTER our own performances, but have not either the talent, the will or the possibilities to reach the summit.

We are those who will probably never surpass 550 in FP or 575 in AP, those who have chosen this difficult hobby as a challenge against ourselves, knowing from the start that we will never put our whole efforts in just this sole endeavour, but take the shooting sport as a measure of achievement known only to oneself.

For us, "changing iron" is a try at something else because of our dissatisfaction with our current tool, or even a condoning of the child in us, and that is legitimate.

What I'm trying to say is that in spite of your being reasonable and right enough from the point of view of an Olympic Shooter (meaning one who has ACTUALLY shot in the Games), your attitude is somewhat patronising towards the rest of us.

Believe me, Morini will still be working part-time if he was to limit his sales of match pistols to those meeting the MQS..........................

до свидания

Thank you for your reply Mr. Renzo.
I do not have any ground to argue with you.

I met a few very nice and intelligent gentlemen who share the same attitude toward Olympic Style Target Shooting as you do and as many others. I do respect those efforts and contributions to our sport. Some of them even volunteer their time to teach others with no charge. I was trying to help them with their goals to succeed as much as I could, but if the athlete has a mental barrier to succeed and have fun at the same time, it's a difficult and complicated issue for your coach. So, I fail to help.

In many different cases, when I started working with athletes from the adjustment of their mental attitude, we had different outcome with less time and less energy spent from both sides.

Summary: there is no point of disagreement with you, and I understand your point clearly and completely. I hope my voice will be heard too.

Успехов!

Whilst I agree with some of what you say, you have a manner of belittling the acheivements of a lot of shooters. As Renzo says, most shooters are recreational or club level shooters, who aspire no higher. Most shoot for different reasons than an aspiring international shooter and we all need to respect other peoples decisions and nott try to steer them down a route they don't want to go down.

3. Hire a professional coach (ISSF Olympic Style) or convince him or her to work with you
4. Join the MIT Olympic Style Target Shooting Team

I also find it a little odd how you have to be in (or very near) Michigan to progress, wouldn't happen to be where you live and coach professionally by any chance would it ?

Rob.

Wouldn’t happen to be where you live and coach professionally by any chance would it?

Why not if I can support my financial needs by doing so? :)

Whilst I agree with some of what you say, you have a manner of belittling the achievements of a lot of shooters. As Renzo says, most shooters are recreational or club level shooters, who aspire no higher. Most shoot for different reasons than an aspiring international shooter and we all need to respect other people’s decisions and not try to steer them down a route they don't want to go down.

I also do not see any ground to argument with you Rob. But some adjustments must be generate to separate Olympic pistol (Competitive Level) and Olympic pistol (Recreational Level).
By amount of topics and hits we can justify existence of your point of view. Since your assuming it is majority of TT visitors do not have any desperation to win any level of competition not club level, not state, not region, not national… we can easily can count where is attention goes.

Manner of belittling the achievements?????

We can measure achievements in Olympic pistol (Competitive Level) target shooting by score performance.

We can measure achievements in Olympic pistol (Recreational Level) target shooting by different ways: the sky is the limits.

It is hard to understand what kind of specific achievements you are talking about.

Russ other than your attempt at self promotion what is the point of this post?

How to Win Your Own Game?

Professionals are willing to discuss what they know at the shooting range and share some information with you. But most important is what they don’t tell you, and what they do after their formal training. This is what makes them special and stand out of the crowd. There are small details in performance, and their attitude to make them compete at a different level. Many of us are fishing for certain tips, and believe that those tips can move our performance at different levels. Yes, tips and small details are extremely important, but if you do not have the complete picture of your puzzle as a Structure, System, Strategy, Support; then it will be less likely that those tips will make any difference in your future performance.

Professionals won’t be willing to open up all their secrets, which separate them from an average performer.
Why do they do this and what must motivate them to do so, hypothetically? Presumably is to compromise their position…

If you will find an answer to those questions, it may become a pivotal point in your own performance.
Why is it important for me to win this match or competition?

What score level should I perform at this match?

Do I need leverage to do better at the shooting range and excel in my performance?

The main point of this post is: Start searching for the right knowledge and not only for new and expensive toys.

You must create your own journey to success. But it should be your own unique ingredients mixing with other proven and working elements of successful performance in Olympic style target shooting sport.
The choice is yours, but don’t forget to take action when the decision is made.

Russ wrote:manner of belittling the achievements?????

We can measure achievements in Olympic pistol (Competitive Level) by score performance.

We can measure achievements in Olympic pistol (Recreational Level) by different ways: sky the limits.

It is hard to understand about what kind of specific achievements you are talking about?

Russ,
You know as well as I do that acheivements are far, far more than simply score performance. Score is just an outcome measure, which is of course important, it is non-the-less merely a rough indicator of performance.

Acheivements are whatever you want them to be; Beating a PB, winning a club competition, getting all your shots in the black, meeting your performance goals, the list is endless.

Wouldn’t happen to be where you live and coach professionally by any chance would it?

Why not, if I can support my financial needs by doing so :))

And I applaud your honesty ;)

Rob.

Acheivements are whatever you want them to be; Beating a PB, winning a club competition, getting all your shots in the black, meeting your performance goals, the list is endless.

Are you talking about score performance?

If so, the score is the true measurement for achievement in competitive target shooting…. Why do you have to redirect the attention from this statement and influence people with other “achievements”? :(

Russ:

I can safely assume you've already made your point, expressed in your urging of every shooter with a desire to excel to search professional help (and not only yours, there are people from all the world here) to deliver his best.

You can therefore stop hammering it, because - at least from my point of view - it can be seen as boasting or self - aggrandizing, which I think you don't need in the least.

Удачи!

Your first sentence is quite timely, as I've been aching to upgrade my 46M to a Morini... I think that'll wait!

I scored 576 with a IZH 46M Pistol at the USAS PTO, but with a Morini, it will be easy to do :)

renzo wrote:Russ:

I can safely assume you've already made your point, expressed in your urging of every shooter with a desire to excel to search professional help (and not only yours, there are people from all the world here) to deliver his best.

You can therefore stop hammering it, because - at least from my point of view - it can be seen as boasting or self - aggrandizing, which I think you don't need in the least.

"Russ other than your attempt at self promotion what is the point of this post?" by AK Pistol


At least some people can read and understand what I’m trying to deliver in plain English. :))

You may wonder what to do next?

I suggest you to: go to Barnes & Nobel and ask for a notebook. Ask for the finest notebook, which was also the choice of Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Bruce Chatwin, and Vincent Van Gogh. You will mentally become aware of the guide to all wisdom from the moment you clarify your search for the right knowledge. It will be a wonderful journey!

What ??? You just lost me completely with that one.