TargetTalk

I shoot in a league in the winter and dont shoot a lot in the summer so when i start shooting again i notice that after much practice(more than usual) my holds are not early as good as the were last year. i was wondering if anyone had any information on how to make my kneeling and standing more solid.
Jason

It isn't the solid, but the fact that you laid off shooting for so long.
Some of the skills are perishable. "use it or loose it."

You have to give yourself time to "get back up to speed."
You probably need a lot more time than you have been practicing.
Are you practicing with a coach or by yourself?
A coach will speed things up.

If you don't want to have to "get back up to speed," you have to keep up with an adequate amount of training during the summer to maintain your technique.

I agree with GaryN.

I shoot in a small bore league May through October. In the winter I practice with an air rifle on a 10 M course in my back yard (covered firing position) about 6 hours a week. I also practice dry firing with my SB rifle in the house down a "long" hallway - 25 feet, once or twice a day. I actually have the firing position in a closet that looks down the hall. If I fail to do this over the winter I spend all of May re-learning my inner position. You can photo reduce the targets for whatever distance you have available to you. My winter weather is generally pretty miserable so I'm not able to get to the range very often.

I've tried to get the air rifle to fit as close as possible to my SB rifle.

Training with wobble boards can accelerate the strengthening of your stabilizing muscles that are developed over continuous periods of shooting. They won't be a miracle maker, but can make a significant difference.

Try dry firing at home or just get in position once a week in the off season.

I used to shoot at the collegiate level and the off season was a killer. I had an old experienced shooter teach me hold drills and a few "tricks of the trade." Every day in the morning after his coffee he would drop into position for a half hour just to "feel the position" and dry fire to feel any movements during the shot.

I found the biggest thing to "strengthening the position" was not always trigger time or putting rounds down range, but just feeling the position and keeping the muscle memory alive.

It helped me ten-fold.

Its not often that I can make it to the range for live fire training, and even though I have a Rika home trainer I do most of my training using a dot on the wall. I used to use just my coat, but now I'm down to only a glove. I figure that if I can hold steady without boots, coat, or pants than I should do even better when I put them on. Besides cardio and body-weight exercises (push-ups, pull-ups, etc.) I often set my timer and stand on a single leg to build balance. One thing I noticed is that without the extra equipment and trying different support hand techniques I was able to see which was naturally better and which required more accessory muscles to maintain.
Vinny

You really do have to practice some; whether a scaled dot on the wall doing holding exercise(some use high mag scopes for this) or doing dry fire or air rifle shooting. Sit ups are a great exercise for Offhand. Kneeling is all about balance. Watch TV or read a book on the kneeling roll in a good rifleless kneeling position, but also do some holding exercises and also do some with your eyes closed to check balance; this holds even more true for Offhand.