Tips on Pistol Shooting

[dev]

As someone who has skirted dangerously close to the nationals, I will say that just take a look at all the renowned shots. Their efforts are herculean, what no one tells you is that most of them work as hard as Olympic level shooters. I had the good fortune to train with a few after the last North Zone. The pace they put me through had my arms sore for days.
The day before the center fire pistol, we went through a hundred rounds in practice. There is actually no other way. One friend who is now on the Indian Team shot everyday non stop for six months. Another friend has a few kilos of used lead pellets that he had shot on the way to being a renowned shot. So if anyone is thinking of making it to the top scores be ready to feel the burn. That is what Guruji has done and done it several times over

Regards,

Dev

[brihacharan]

I will say that all the renowned shots rely on their Herculean efforts & what no one tells you is that most of them work as hard as Olympic level shooters. I had the good fortune to train with a few after the last North Zone. The pace they put me through had my arms sore for days.
There is actually no other way. One friend who is now on the Indian Team shot everyday non stop for six months. Another friend has a few kilos of used lead pellets that he had shot on the way to being a renowned shot. So if anyone is thinking of making it to the top scores be ready to feel the burn.
That is what Guruji has done and done it several times over
Regards,
Dev

> I can't help but reiterate an old yet powerful quote:
" The heights by great men reached & kept, are not attained by sudden flight...
For they are those who toiled through the night, while others slept"

Briha

[airgun_novice]

" The heights by great men reached & kept, are not attained by sudden flight...
For they are those who toiled through the night, while others slept"
Briha

Brihji, I am indeed all ears ... and eyes too.
dev, satya vachan.

lesson learnt -> no waiting for 'muhurt', will start practicing at home today itself - 20 or 40 or 60 as per what I get to squeeze out. Priorities re-organized -> Practicing to shoot and getting in shape for that, is gonna be *the* priority; the rest of 'duniyadari' will dance around it. Not going to be satiated with what factors Mother Nature has given me - yeh dil maange more. Now, having said (and decided) that, back to two Qns:

1. These 100-150 shots/ session - are they to be shot on the printed side or the back (white) ?

2. I am lucky to have a 30' corridor at home and have set up the DIY 'fold-up' pellet trap stand on the far side wall. Due to mis-intepretation of the specifications, the *base* of the stand comes up to ~140cm. Plus the target card needs to be stapled to another card paper as the width of the pellet trap's card holding grooves is about 8mm more. Plus it gets stapled to about a height of 2 cm from base. As a result, the center of the AP target card comes to around 150cm height. And then of course there is no 1m table to "sit" the AP during break. Result ? Hand hurts after a few shots and they tend to go awry. Hence the 'home facility' gets neglected. Since I have nailed the apparatus into the wall enforced with Araldite I am reluctant to yank it out as it will break lot of wood and the plaster of the wall. So, any idea ?

regs
A.

[dev]

Get a table, dear Henry...dear Henry...dear Henry

[brihacharan]

[quote="dev"
Get a table, dear Henry...dear Henry...dear Henry ;-)[/quote]

> Solid advice Dev
> Now my take...

"Get a table dear Amol get a table
Don't worry about the brand or label,

Get one that's sturdy & won't wobble
You may get a perfect 10 but may not a Nobel,

Practice regardless winning is probable
Get a table dear Amol get a table"!!!

Briha

[hvj1]

Friends;
You all know, to shoot a 10, you need to get your act together WITHIN the Aiming Area (AA). Consider the AA as the centre stage,where the actors are supposed to come together and act out their parts SMOOTHLY and I may add FLAWLESSLY.

So, who are the actors on the centre stage, these are;
1. Position (read- stability and balanced)
2. Grip (read consistent grip pressure, before, during and after the shot - follow through).
3. Breathing (read - held comfortably for the duration of the follow through)
4. Sights ( read aligned and with clear sharp image, again B,D & A the shot - follow through)
5. Trigger ( read continuous in a straight line along the shooters fore arm, B, D & A the shot - follow through)
6. Wrist, elbow and shoulder lock ( read as above)

(AND there is one more character, who is the most important fellow; Guess WHO?)

Now all the above fellas, are supposed to come on stage (AA) and deliver their lines and or act out their parts within a stipulated period of time.

Now IMAGINE, there is a Director, sitting on the side with the script in his hand and a megaphone in his hand. This fellow, since he is the director is watching how the drama unfolds on the stage.

What do you think will happen, if he keeps nudging and prompting each actor as he is delivering his line or playing his part?
SCENE - !

(All the actors have come on the stage)
Director: Hey you SA, bloody hell man, walk straight , stand straight, keep those legs apart, AND hey you, Trigger fella, what are you stopping midway for, I am talking to SA not you, you bloody go on in a straight line, stop dithering man! Hey You Wrist fella, what are you, bloody drunk, why are you moving on the stage erratically, try to be steady and in one place! Hey, you Breathing fella, why the hell are you going red in the face? Bloody hell, Trigger fella, you stopped again damn it...

CUT,,,CUT ...CUT...

Now this goes on again and again. Watching all this, is the Producer of the play, who sits in the front row tearing his hair, since he can see, that with this director he is going to have NO SHOW at all!

The Producer has a friend (read Coach), who advises him to fire the Director and get a new one, one who can get the job done, whom he also incidentally knows.

Scene_!! With new Director: The new Director calls all the actors together and they discuss things as follows;
Director: I see that all of you are very experienced actors, none of you are novices, each one of you have individually practised your part at home. I have the fullest confidence in you, all you guys need to do, is to co-ordinate yourself. So here is what we are gonna do, You guys come on stage and deliver your lines without my prompting, OKAY, you practise till you get your act together, OKAY?
Actors : Look at each other, nod and the tension from their faces eases somewhat.

Action:
All the actors come on to the stage, deliver their lines, with no co-ordination nor confidence.
The Director says nothing, just tell them to do another retake....and another retake and another retake, without saying a word.
Eventually, all the actors, take a cue from each other and gradually but surely, start delivering their part, till such time the entire scene unfolds smoothly and beautifully. The smoother their co-ordination the more each actor begins to enjoy playing his part and the result is a scene breathtakingly beautiful.

So? Who is the Director and who is the Producer? What did you infer from the above story? AND most importantly, how much of what you have gathered will you apply to yourself?

[airgun_novice]

Thanks to dev and brihji - an idea to cobble up a 10cm high platform brushed within. If I am able to raise my height by 10cm relative to current apparatus then voila ! I am "at par" - it's all relative !
NDT (Non-destructive testing) at work. Now to look for a plank of ply and some wood and am all set.

[airgun_novice]

[SNIP]
(AND there is one more character, who is the most important fellow; Guess WHO?)

[SNIP]
The Producer has a friend (read Coach), who advises him to fire the Director and get a new one, one who can get the job done, whom he also incidentally knows.

[SNIP]
So? Who is the Director and who is the Producer? What did you infer from the above story? AND most importantly, how much of what you have gathered will you apply to yourself?

My take on the above riddle:

Most important character -> Tuned memory through practice
Producer -> The shooter
Coach -> hvj1 (experienced shooter/ coach who has walked the path)
Old Director -> The shooter's over-analytic and over-zealous mind
New Director -> The shooter's own confidence, patience and perseverance

So guruji, am I spot on the sets ?

regs
A.

[hvj1]

AGN 4/5

[jitu sati]

hey guys just started again. have gone back to absolute basics. need to get the SOA where i start getting the feeling of everything falling in place. hey agn bhau nice to see u back in action too. hvj pl do let me know if u r in pune in near future. would love to get u home and be ur host. the silly inspection season is over and hopefully i wont let u down this time. sorry again. pl come home and have look at my whole shooting procedure. it is like starting afresh so i better do it correctly.. tir keep giving me guidance i need it desperately

[airgun_novice]

AGN 4/5

Thank you guruji, Sir ! Gosh ! I can almost hear you yell at me "अरे गाढवा, इतके समजते तर मग कुठे बिनसते ?" (For the M-challenged - "AGN, you stupid ! If you understand this why all that flop show ?")

Anyway, really curious to know where I lost that one important point. Is it in new director that allows things to fall in place by sheer volume practice (as many retakes) - so in effect it's a fresh approach ? Let me stop here lest the old director resurfaces.

Anyway, suddenly enthused by a new burst of energy, shot 20 H&N on single card at home - 6 in #10 and 7 in #9. 5 in #8 and 2 in #7. This was between the two postings. But a distant horizon from those 150/session. Tough at home with kids' vacations on in any case. So shall await another day or two for the range to re-open.

BTW guruji, can we have that Balewadi session in mid-May ? Better wait for all that Code of Ethics to get over with. Will check with VS who arrives tomorrow or day after. Jitu can join in there or if he can manage something at Hadapsar range, we could converge there. What say ?

regs
A.

[jitu sati]

tell me when agn. balewadi will be just fine. hadapsar range folks dont seem very positive. presently feeling as if i have started the sport afresh. mid may would be fine but can only make it post afternoon. but need the guidance for getting back on road.

[brihacharan]

hvj1 wrote...
So? Who is the Director and who is the Producer? What did you infer from the above story? AND most importantly, how much of what you have gathered will you apply to yourself?

> Simply brilliant - a story-line that seamlessly leads to the $64 question?
> IMHO - hvj1....
The DIRECTOR is the shooter's MIND...
The PRODUCER is the the Shooter himself in flesh & blood...
Now these two apparent entities are the 2 sides of the same Coin!!!
Now it's all up-to the shooter as to how he / she 'fuses' these two to add value to the outcome...
Sir! You couldn't have put it better
Briha

[tirpassion]

Dear Sir,

This is the best lesson of shooting sport I have ever had in my life. I am still in deep thought over what you said Guruji. Simply mindblowing, awesome and I quit because I am poor in adjectives.

Who is the most important character?
I believe that the most important character is the WILL POWER, the intensified mental strength. The mental strength not to shoot a 10 but the one to shoot nothing other than 10s.

The old director: The mind looking for scores or let's say MQS and eventual accolades.

The new director: confidence in the subconscious

For the rest I support agn's views.

Best regards
tirpassion

[hvj1]

Wonderfull! All of you got almost everything correct, now I will quickly continue the lesson and will reply to you individually later;

1. The first director is your Conscious Mind.
2. The second Director is your subconscious mind.
3. The Producer is YOU.
4. And the most important character is - The Crystal clear picture of the PERFECT FOLLOW THROUGH and the UNALLOYED JOY which follows.

Just to clear any cobwebs; the perfect follow through is when all the above mentioned elements perform flawlessly before, during and after the shot WITHIN THE AA.

Now when you shoot fast; say 45 shots in 20 odd minutes; this is what happens;
1. The Conscious mind is forced to shut up or at least reduce its noise drastically.
2. When you shoot that quickly, your TRIGGER RHYTHM is set, remember the actors (read elements - breathing, grip SA etc..) take CUES from each other to perform flawlessly. When all these actors KNOW, that the Trigger is going to set his own pace ( 1-3 seconds) the others automatically fall in line, provided the Conscious mind is GAGGED and dumped out of sight. Much like the character in Asterix comics, if you remember, in almost every last page, Asterix and Obelix and the rest of the villagers are having a ball of a time roasting their boars and there is this chap whose name I forget (Cacophonix?) who sings horribly out of tune is gagged and trussed up and dumped on a tree branch or behind some distant bush, lest his out of tune singing disturbs the party.
3. When you deliberately shut up the conscious mind, the Subconscious mind comes into play (second director) AND allows MUSCLE MEMORY TO DEVELOP fully.

THIS SOA is what you need to practice for 150 shots in 2 sessions.
4. Next you need to transfer this into a match, but more about this later...

Jitu, you need not apologise, remember I am an army brat, though during my father's time, things were much easier...

Like i said, I have almost completed my own shooting range, just one lane. Its still need some work, but i think by mid May, it should be more or less ready. If you guys can find the time, drop in or I will see how i can organise a visit to B'wadi.

Brihaji, Tirpassion, thank you for your kind words...

AGN, its 5/5 for you, I deliberately held back a point.

One final point: Whether i get a perfect follow through or not, I JUST LOVE THE ENTIRE PROCESS OF FIRING A SHOT, something which I developed since a child and am REDISCOVERING it once again. Somewhere along the way, as Tir correctly put it, the conscious mind got so involved in scores and log kya kahenge, that I stopped enjoying that simple process of firing a gun...so I just shoot, shoot and shoot AND THE RESULT BE DAMNED!