Tips on Pistol Shooting

[tirpassion]

Dear friends,

I am back. I am taking the liberty to quote an old post in support of dev's views of One shot at a time.

tirpassion » Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:20 pm
Dear Jitu and airgun novice,

If I may permit to say a word, I will say that 'Please do not ponder over a lot on your second set'. It is just a part of the continuous flow of motion. Take everything or every shot as a step. You need to reach the goal/destination by placing one step after another. It may be a path of 40 steps/shots or 60 steps/shots. So there is absolutely no place for a series or set in between.
When you are walking to your destination you care a damn about your first ten or second ten steps or so on. You are only interested to reach your destination safely, on or before time and while doing so, you take utmost care not to fall in a pit, you avoid meticulously others who might barge in you or yourself doing the same, you save your brightly polished shoes from dirt, mud or freshly laid cow dung and dog shit . You do all these by taking careful steps in your natural rhythm not to be unnecessarily late or even better, to arrive early. If the path/way seems long, you take rest whenever you feel it is necessary. I repeat 'whenever you anticipate that it is necessary'. It can be anywhere and at anytime. Rest before taking any wrong step.

Please keep on doing the good work as Guruji says, You can make it!

Yes, one should keep in mind also that AP is not a match of 60 shots but 60 matches of ONE shot each. Hence, the importance of One Shot at a time.

So what I have figured out is that the whole problem lies in the mind. Only when you train for hours will it allow you to shoot well. Is this a correct hypothesis? If so then can one jump start the mind into believing that one has practiced hard enough, is this what a winner or so called elite shooter does?

Very true, the whole problem is in the mind because Shooting is a mental sport., I repeat.
But I have a different explanation for the rest.
Shooting being a mental sport, we need to train our mind a lot. Training the mind is programming the subconscious mind to work on it's own under subtle balanced guidance of the conscious mind. The only way one can do it is by repetition of the gestures (you may have noticed that I tend to repeat a lot the same sentences in my posts . It is perfectly intentional). Hence the necessity to train/shoot for hours (repeating the same thing for hours).
Having said that, the hours of training must be quantified / fructified with proper tools/instruments like box drills and diary writing. Otherwise these hours of shooting/training will not yield anything. It is and will be sheer wastage of precious time for a competitive shooter.

warm regards
tirpassion

[tirpassion]

Dear agn,
the SA hold exercise consists of holding the SA image (the perfectly sleeping E) on the backdrop of a blank white card (17cm x 17cm normal target card for 10m distance. So 1.7cm x 1.7cm for 1m distance, 3.4cm x 3.4cm for 2m distance and so on. You can well adapt the blank card according to the distance you find at home and paste it on the wall at a height of about 140cm) for 10 seconds each time. The SA image should be perfect and not have the slightest of deformation. Even a blurred image should be treated with a cross. You need to hold that 50 to 60 times for 10 secs each.
BTW, the fig 8s should also be done on the same adapted to distance blank card.

best regards
tirpassion

[tirpassion]

Gents how about a heretical question? Since most of us have shot ap for more than a few years, let's assume that somewhere down there we know how to shoot tens...correct.

Dear dev and friends,

The goal of shooting sport is 'Not to shoot TENs but Not to shoot anything other than TENs'

It is not at all difficult to learn to shoot a ten and I am sure that all of us have learned it. So it is not that important after a few years of shooting. What is much more important and all the more difficult is 'not to shoot anything other than 10s'. That is what the ultimate goal is. Well, we are not at that stage as yet.

But if you see at our level, by shooting only 9s, we can jolly well reach 360/400 or 540/600. So for us, 9 is a very good score provided we can keep all the 40 or 60 shots in the 9 ring. But can we? We can not because we are too much obsessed with that 10. This obsession of ten is a negative thought which poisons our mind and prevents it from functioning properly to shoot a TEN. Let us lighten the burden of our mind (self imposed mental barrier; see mental training posts of Guruji). What is wrong in a NINE?
My suggestion for myself is also 'Go for NINES and do everything to get them'. That way, I accept the arcs of my hand more easily and squeeze the trigger with more confidence. I get nines and tens also as bonus . There are some bloody 8's which I am still not being able to get rid off because of that obsession of ten which overpowers me sometimes .

best regards
tirpassion

[dev]

Had a few seconds in the morning and so decided to quickly shoot three pellets. Shot a mickey mouse formation (two tens, clipped the left and right of the bull) and one nine. Not much of a sample size but made me feel good to go to work . So aaaall is well.

[airgun_novice]

Due to heat and health reasons cut short my travel and put my theory to test yesterday and today.

May 09, 2012 -> 91, 90, 89, 88, 88, ABORTED 6th card
May 10, 2012 -> 86, 86, 90, 84, 90, 88

Travel in heat, large quantum of eggs, chicken (masala), an ayurvedic "wood" (anti-diabetic) that turned water bitter etc. etc. unleashed tremendous heat within and my eyes were puffed up and all red and water seemed to flow at will. Still rode around 150KM on scooter yesterday and that probably affected the eyes even more. So today did the ride and the shoot after sunset. But anyway, now I proceed with my theory.

What is the main thing that you would notice in the scores ? The mid-sets (2nd & 3rd) do *not* show any substantial dip. Though too early to break open the cork - !think I may have triangulated the problem or the jinx faced by me and Jitu as well. How so ? In my case, remember, all along I usually spent my sighter cards and a considerable time adjusting my sights. So by the time I was done with my first set, 30-35 minutes would have elapsed. Then the time pressure would be on the second set as a result the "break time" would be reduced not quite allowing me to relax my back; lower and upper region. Though I would start the second set calmly, after 4-5 shots I was trying to cope up on the time lost; plus the ache building up. Same would go for the third set, but reverse. After the first 4-5 shots then I would realize that time was getting under control. Having finished that, I then would rest * substantially* sometimes as much as 5-7 minutes before the fourth set and then proceed leisurely with it; finish it with time to spare. The score was found to peak up again in the fourth set.

So last two days, I changed the tactic to "5 shots-small break-5 shots-big break". Though # of breaks reduced (earlier it was 3-break-3...) I had larger duration break when I shut my eyes and concentrated on the pain in the back etc. and willed it to go away and relax. Suddenly the 2nd and 3rd sets were more consistent. BTW, today's 4th set was probably result of lowered pressure (since I was using the same cylinder yesterday and today) and changed the cylinder before the 5th. Plus the weakened state of eyes.

I had also noticed that somehow I slouched a bit every now and then when my back started hurting and that would invariably be during the mid-sets. Last two days I made a conscious effort not to and didn't require to either that much. That could be the result of the consistency. Jitu, could it be that you face similar problem - if not with back then with arm ? Gurus please jump in to correct me.

[tirpassion]

Dear agn,
you are absolutely on the right path. You should make a shot cycle and take rest between them. 5 shot cycle is good enough if you are comfortable with it. But you will have to work hard to ingrain the discipline of the 5 shot cycle. Jitu, I believe, is working on the 4 shot cycle.
Some remarks:
- The sighter shots are meant for verifying and adjusting the Pistol. You should have ENOUGH CONFIDENCE to adjust the weapon correctly within a few shots. Otherwise, you lose your energy for the match if you are too long with the sighter shots. You should plan earlier how many sighter shots should you take and respect the plan during the match. I will strongly suggest not to go to double digits.
- Take good care of your back pain. Are you working regularly with the left hand? Balancing the left side wrt the right side?

best regards
tirpassion

[airgun_novice]

Dear agn,
you are absolutely on the right path. You should make a shot cycle and take rest between them. 5 shot cycle is good enough if you are comfortable with it. But you will have to work hard to ingrain the discipline of the 5 shot cycle. Jitu, I believe, is working on the 4 shot cycle.
Some remarks:
- The sighter shots are meant for verifying and adjusting the Pistol. You should have ENOUGH CONFIDENCE to adjust the weapon correctly within a few shots. Otherwise, you lose your energy for the match if you are too long with the sighter shots. You should plan earlier how many sighter shots should you take and respect the plan during the match. I will strongly suggest not to go to double digits.
- Take good care of your back pain. Are you working regularly with the left hand? Balancing the left side wrt the right side?

best regards
tirpassion

Dear tirpassion,

You are an absolute claivoyant - during last 2 matches, I invariably put around 30+ shots on the sighters. What I should have done was get the pistol adjusted the week before and then stuck to those pellets and used the match sighters only to *confirm* and *conform* (sigh). In short I almost played two matches back-to-back on both occasions. Howz that for stupidity! In fact at Parle match, I had the AR OS event first and then AP immediately after !!! And then I end up writing about what a bad day it was !

I do holding for left hand (overall 10-15 min) also but not for the same duration as the right hand (like say 60 min). However, I understand that I need to do more wrt physical exercise. Will start with Yoga/ Free-Hand regimen as with dislocated left shoulder and lower back, weights/ crunches are out for starters. Am caught in a Catch-22 quagmire. Increase in waist => exacerbated back pain => not to do abs/ crunches => No reduction in waist. Will draw up and pursue a plan after Capt EZ (June first week).

Thank you very much for "putting the finger on my marma" - literal translation Mar->Eng. Here's to you.

[jitu sati]

hey tirpassion
i have started prac with the ap and am following the 4 shot cycle. next shoot is scheduled today. let me see how much i can achieve with this ap and what more i would require to do after understanding my strong pts ironing out my faults with this ap

[dev]

Hi Agn,

You can heal your back rapidly with Yoga. Just doing the Cobra (bhoojang asan) three times in the morning will work.
Believe me you will be well and shoot great soon. Think you need to abort more shots and you will be scoring higher.

Warm Regards,

Dev

[tirpassion]

Agn bhai,
your vision and that of dev are the best possible remedies. There is nothing like Yoga to make you fit physically. The physical exercises, on the contrary, increase the endurance. So, make yourself fit first and then increase your endurance.
best regards
tirpassion

[jitu sati]

hey tirpassion
have carried ou the first shoot with the new ap. seem to have come back to my old level or near by. the new ap handles easy but seems a bit light after the old izy. secondly the pcp gives a bit of akick. just a bit though. need to start the fig 8s and Sa with this one. need to make my hand habituated to this one. the SA was overall around just 85%. the scores were 90,86,88,88. but i havent slipped too much as some ppl here had predicted after changing the ap. now to go ahead i guess. no shoot for a week but just fig8s and SA. so wish me luck
jitu

[tirpassion]

Hello Jitu,
Have fun with your new gun! Congrats!
Yes, it is obviously very light compared to the Izzy & will turn out to be an advantage for you. The LP10 should not have any recoil or muzzle flip if you are not the cause. But be very careful with this gun. It is so perfect that it might give you an impression that it does all the job by itself, on it's own. Always remember that you are the master and hence the Commander.
There is always a time of adaptation to a gun; the grip, the trigger shoe, the shot breaking, the sights, adjustments etc. etc. During this period, there can be a slight difference in your usual scores which is nothing to be worried about. So, whatever you have heard from some ppl are not that wrong.
You are doing good work. So carry on!

tirpassion

[airgun_novice]

I showed the AP to the good Doc and yes; it had a snag in the rear sight; the faulty spring within not performing as expected. Full evaluation tomorrow or on Thu. At last I stand vindicated; but now the onus will be on me to perform. No more excuses. Once I get it in hand, will do as directed by tirpassion (cutting out the #8 & #9) on Wed or Fri as case might be. Will revert with report by this Sat. Jitubhau - Jiyo; CONGRATULATIONS and Good Luck with the Steyr.

[jitu sati]

thx tirpassion and agn. now i need to get serious and prac regularly. no more excuses as agn says. halla bol
jitu

[dev]

Congrats on the Steyr. Now, you have committed yourself. What pellets are you using? Refer to you tube for how increase the oomph factor. Required when shooting heavier Indian pells.