Tips on Pistol Shooting

[fantumfan2003]

Actually it is 328 out of 400 not 238......

M.

Hello Fantumfan,
You can use some of the techniques, like box drilling to train yourself to CANCEL.
BR

[airgun_novice]

Actually it is 328 out of 400 not 238......

M.

[jitu sati]

hey tirpassion and hvj
thanks for the advise on reducing lateral mov. guess need to do more fig 8s as the shoulder starts to tire in the later sets. so the first few sets the score is within 10-9 but starts moving once the shoulder starts to tire. need to define my SOA and stick religiously to it. i would be thrilled if i can reach the level tirpassion has .

nikhil gr8 going. hope to enter the circuit next yearlike u. so need to prac like u have done.
jitu

[nmoharir]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I'll defintely revisit all the 13 lessons and make improvements.

[tirpassion]

Hi Jitu,
Thanks for your esteem but I assure you that it is nothing extraordinary. You can achieve it fast if you really so WISH.

I started shooting in Nov'06. Made 516/600 in the 1st match in Feb'07, 536 in Mar'07 and in the 3rd match 556/600 in Jun'07. I started walking on the clouds.
Believe me! I have never crossed the 550 mark from July'07 till Nov'10. WHY? It is because of lack of proper guidance. Do not be surprised if I tell you that most of the shooters in France are on a rudderless boat as most of the clubs do not have a regular coach. We manage on our own as we can with some stray advices from experienced shooters and 'vague' lessons from 'Doubtful' self proclaimed experts which would, in most of the cases, lead you to nowhere. Moreover, there are so many so called 'secrets' of everyone.
For example, I learnt the correct position/stance after 2 years of shooting. I am still learning the correct grip.

I came across the IFG forum in August 2010, read the lessons of 'hvj1'. I decided to start, made the SA cutout and started doing the '8's in September. I stopped there only due to too much of family constraints resulting in regular visits to India from Oct'10 to Apr'11. I could not even do more than 20/30 fig '8' reps 3/4 days a week when I was in France which is not much.
I shot my first match of the season in Oct'10: 545. Second & third match in end November: 556 & 551. Since then, I have crossed the 550 mark five times out of 10 matches and reached a personal best of 559. I have started from the basics, this time in a disciplined way and I can only improve from hereon.
THANKS A MILLION GURUJI !!! I am working...

Be positive, be happy*, be patient and keep on working hard focusing more on quality than quantity. Remember to work on ONLY ONE aspect at a time. Results will follow.

*Being happy is of utmost importance. Please take my word. I have seen 4 hospitalizations, 2 major operations and cerebral attack of my father followed by a paralysis, mother's demise and the demise of my very very close uncle who used to take care of my parents during my absence. All these from Oct'10 to June'11. I am the only child of my parents and I live 8000km away from them. I had and have sufficient elements to be unhappy but I decided not to give in. I chose to live. Surprisingly, my best results in shooting both in Muzzleloaders and AP came during this period.
Nothing is easier than to be unhappy. You can find it in the smallest of things/contexts in life. Contrarily, you can find happiness also in the same things. It happens to be a different look altogether. All you need is to have a positive attitude. You can see a glass 'half full' or 'half empty'; the choice is your's.

best regards

[airgun_novice]

Dear tirpassion, Your write up is certainly inspiring; in fact all of them are. Point blank and on the #10+ ring if I may say so. Your insights are as delightful and informative as the interaction between hvji Guruji and jitu/ dev. One can almost feel your personal presence while reading through them. Please keep them coming. In fact it was a similar analysis that made me realize that though I had kept "stress/anxiety" in check, lack of physical fitness did me in. Heart and sweat wet awry taking me by rude surprise. Hence now that competitions are a few months away, my focus is shifted to weight reduction and increasing fitness levels. Dev's advice on water bottle and dry fire helps. Meanwhile, I also have set two personal milestones to cross - 1. consistently shoot above 90% 2. Get rid of the "mid-set" jinx - out of 4, first and last are always great, second and third dip - second more than any other.

[fantumfan2003]

tirpassion,

A very encouraging and inspiring piece for all of us.........

On a lighter note....with the exception of some exceptional guidance of hvj1, we here are also somewhat a rudderless lot.......being in 10mtr air rifle shooting, I certainly do feel that way.....

M.

Hi Jitu,
Thanks for your esteem but I assure you that it is nothing extraordinary. You can achieve it fast if you really so WISH.

I started shooting in Nov'06. Made 516/600 in the 1st match in Feb'07, 536 in Mar'07 and in the 3rd match 556/600 in Jun'07. I started walking on the clouds.
Believe me! I have never crossed the 550 mark from July'07 till Nov'10. WHY? It is because of lack of proper guidance. Do not be surprised if I tell you that most of the shooters in France are on a rudderless boat as most of the clubs do not have a regular coach. We manage on our own as we can with some stray advices from experienced shooters and 'vague' lessons from 'Doubtful' self proclaimed experts which would, in most of the cases, lead you to nowhere. Moreover, there are so many so called 'secrets' of everyone.
For example, I learnt the correct position/stance after 2 years of shooting. I am still learning the correct grip.

I came across the IFG forum in August 2010, read the lessons of 'hvj1'. I decided to start, made the SA cutout and started doing the '8's in September. I stopped there only due to too much of family constraints resulting in regular visits to India from Oct'10 to Apr'11. I could not even do more than 20/30 fig '8' reps 3/4 days a week when I was in France which is not much.
I shot my first match of the season in Oct'10: 545. Second & third match in end November: 556 & 551. Since then, I have crossed the 550 mark five times out of 10 matches and reached a personal best of 559. I have started from the basics, this time in a disciplined way and I can only improve from hereon.
THANKS A MILLION GURUJI !!! I am working...

Be positive, be happy*, be patient and keep on working hard focusing more on quality than quantity. Remember to work on ONLY ONE aspect at a time. Results will follow.

*Being happy is of utmost importance. Please take my word. I have seen 4 hospitalizations, 2 major operations and cerebral attack of my father followed by a paralysis, mother's demise and the demise of my very very close uncle who used to take care of my parents during my absence. All these from Oct'10 to June'11. I am the only child of my parents and I live 8000km away from them. I had and have sufficient elements to be unhappy but I decided not to give in. I chose to live. Surprisingly, my best results in shooting both in Muzzleloaders and AP came during this period.
Nothing is easier than to be unhappy. You can find it in the smallest of things/contexts in life. Contrarily, you can find happiness also in the same things. It happens to be a different look altogether. All you need is to have a positive attitude. You can see a glass 'half full' or 'half empty'; the choice is your's.

best regards

[airgun_novice]

tirpassion,

A very encouraging and inspiring piece for all of us.........

On a lighter note....with the exception of some exceptional guidance of hvj1, we here are also somewhat a rudderless lot.......being in 10mtr air rifle shooting, I certainly do feel that way.....

M.

Hey FF, I hope you are following the write ups by gverma on a different thread ? I used to read and re-read them while starting off with an "AR". Sort of slackened along the way as I shifted to the "AP". By now he must have completed writing all he planned to do. I am sure that you shall find them useful. Good Luck.

[jitu sati]

hey tirpassion and hvj
been doing SA box drill and fig 8s diligently. now have slowly reached 85% and will continue till 100% as guruji has advised. the lateral movement is slowly reducing though it is still there. hope i can keep it up and my work doesnt take me off practice
jitu

[tirpassion]

Dear all,

Here is a first hand report of my regional match of today morning.
89, 92, 93, 94, 90 & 90: 548/600.

I followed the instructions of Guruji to the maximum possible. There are a lot to be done.
Checklist and planning for the day with time frames which I followed almost correctly. During the match, i wrote down to convince myself of paying attention to: Grip, SOA and fast trigger work. I admit that SOA was around 80% (that is what I have been doing in box drills of SOA during the last few days of training).

I took a long time in the sighter shots because I found the shots hitting the 8 ring below. The time I find out why and got it right, 12 minutes went past. The first 30 shots were executed in 50 minutes, the next ten in 15 minutes (1h05 for 40 shots). Many things went wrong after that. I could not get the right grip hold pressure, the trigger finger would get frozen and I aborted too often. I stopped thrice to regain the control over myself but finally I could not manage well. The result is I finished in 1h40m. 35 minutes for the last 2 series.
I am in any case happy with the match because
- I managed the match pressure better than earlier (not too much of drum beats in the heart, almost no hand sweating)
- I found out two major problems.
The grip hold pressure/force and Trigger control & confidence in it.

best regards

[hvj1]

Anxiety due to any reason manifests in a subconscious tighter grip, which in turn causes the trigger finger to freeze. Please continue training with your script, till the habits are ingrained.
BR

[jitu sati]

hey tirpassion
gr8 going. we r all learning
jitu

[tirpassion]

I thank you all a lot for your encouragement and support.
best regards

[tirpassion]

Dear Sir (hvj1),

I had told you earlier, to prepare a time line for each Step in SOA against actual time taken in seconds. Ideally your shot cycle should not exceed 30 seconds. With practice, your shot cycle timing will reduce

I would need some clarifications on this statement. When you say that the shot cycle should not exceed 30 sec ideally, do you mean the whole SOA and the execution of the shot in 30 secs? There must be some time after the execution of shot to breathe and rest before starting the new cycle. I understand that you are are keeping this time apart. Am I mistaken?

Best regards
tirpassion

[tirpassion]

Dear All,

An inspiration from the following quote of Guruji

Ultimately my friend, whatever skills we master need to manifest on the 'black' target, so why not practice always or at least most of the time on the 'black' ( as we call it here competition target).
Practice all your skill always on the 'black' target.

AND a word from him earlier in a post 'MY STUDENTS DO NOT SCORE' are leading me to write this.

A way not to score during training sessions is to shoot 6,7,8 or a max of 9 shots on each card. For example, if I choose to shoot 40 shots, I can do it on 5 cards where I will shoot 8 shots each. It will be more complicated to count after finishing a card of 8 shots. Or else I can also go for a session of, let us say 42 shots or 63 shots or as I wish. The more important thing is to work on the technical part where I can get satisfaction and a concrete mark of progress through the percentage of box drills. I can hence do away with the scores.
For beginners and those who tend to count a lot their points, this method is quite effective to detract their attention from scoring. Or even for experienced shooters this can dissuade to count.

I thought that it might help someone of us.

Sir, please correct and add on.

best regards
tirpassion