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I recently attended the 1st All Women Shooting Coaches Clinic this past September 4-7, 2014. More than 30 women from across the country--all dedicated coaches in shotgun, rifle, and/or pistol--came together at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO for outstanding sessions on gun fit, goal setting, psychology, nutrition, learning styles, and much more. The event was coordinated by Mike Theimer of USA Shooting, and included speakers Terri DeWitt (MidwayUSA Foundation) and Anne Mauro (Syren USA), with many additional speakers. Jamie Gray, USA's 2012 gold medalist in Rifle, also spoke and helped to moderate the sessions.

One of the outcomes of the Clinic was the desire for women coaches to connect in all our disciplines. If you are a woman coaching shotgun, rifle and/or pistol and would like to be connected in with this group, please PM me your contact information. Please include where you are located, the disciplines you coach, and your email. If you know of anyone else who may be interested please pass this request along. Also, let's use this forum to connect with one another!

Our purpose is to increase the number of women coaches within our disciplines, encourage young female shooters to learn shooting sports, and provide support and mentorships to one another. If you have any questions please contact me, and thanks in advance!

Sally Stevens
NRA Certified Shotgun Coach, Level II
National Shotgun Coach Development Staff

I'd like to thank all those who participated in this first, hopefully annual, USAS Women's Coach clinic. I agree with Sally's assessment:"Our purpose is to increase the number of women coaches within our disciplines, encourage young female shooters to learn shooting sports, and provide support and mentorships to one another" and I think momentum is rolling towards this goal.

We've seen that the number of young ladies participating in the shooting sports has been increasing, as evidenced by the shooting industry's recognition of the female market segment. Now the youth segment of that market is exploding as well and youth shooting teams are having to turn away athletes for lack of sufficient qualified coaches. It seems that the next logical step would be to mitigate this limiting factor. One way to do that is to enlist coaching support from a seemingly untapped resource - the moms, the wives, the former female shooting athletes. The US Olympic Committee wants to increase the number of female shooting sports coaches across disciplines and USA Shooting has taken a first step towards meeting that objective.


Terri DeWitt
1996 US Olympic Shooting Team
US Army Shotgun Team, retired
NRA Certified Shotgun Coach, Level II
Patiently awaiting Shotgun Level III

I so wish I could have been there for this one, but unfortunately I used my last vacation days for work for the coaches clinic in June at the OTC in Colorado Springs. I learned a lot there and can imagine I would have learned a lot at this one. At the coaches clinic in June there was one other lady and I. Is there any rifle/pistol coaches that would like to share anything they learn so I would be able to take it to my range and help my shooters?

Melissa,

Your request for information is exactly why the conference group chose to band together--to share, support, and mentor. We are working as fast as we can to get everything accessible and will keep everyone posted.

In the meantime, let me see if I can reach out to the pistol/rifle women in the group and have them connect with you, okay? Could you pm me your email and contact information?

Sally