Tips on Pistol Shooting

[hvj1]

Allow me to walk you through the SOA, which gets you a ‘10’

1.Check Grip
2.Check Stance
3.Visualize
4.Raise weapon/First pull begins.
5.Focus on SA
6.SA settles in AA/Second pull begins.
7.Follow through.

Common Problems;

1.Trigger delay.

Train yourself again and again and again …. To synchronise your smooth continuous trigger operation with your SA. Use Box Drilling.

UNTIL UNLESS YOUR SOA IS NOT PERFECTED AND PRACTISED A THOUSANDS OF TIMES, YOU CANNOT IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE.

2.Tinkering with the SOA.

Don’t tinker around with your SOA too much. There is no QUICKFIRE REMEDY, apart from applying self discipline and drilling the SOA into your subconscious.

[jitu sati]

hey hvj there is one thing i would love to ask you. i have two problems which crop again and again.
first every thing is working fine in the SOA, the SA is great and the ap starts dropping into the AA. then as i am concentrating the SA and the black becomes hazy and i end up shooting a 8 or 7 at 10-11 oclock. am i over concentrating? i do try to cancel when this happens but some times the second pull has gone too far ahead and the shot just breaks. also due to this i end up holding on in the AA too long some times and end up spoiling the shot
second problem is when every thing is correct upto the sharpSA in AA part but when i finally end up pulling the trigger the hand seems to give a last second jhatka downwards just as the shot is breaking. pl advice

[tirpassion]

Dear Sir and all friends,

Lot of things have happened in this thread since the last 2 day when I was out I will catch up from day after tomorrow.
I have just been back from south of France where I participated in an Inter league Muzzleloader match. I was selected in the team to represent our league of Paris region. I am happy to have respected the honour given to me. I should be in the top 8 in one event (percussion pistol) in the presence of some French National and even ex World champions. In fact, most of the Big Shots shot badly below par and I was stable in my level . The revolver event was not up to the mark scorewise but excellent groupings (9&8 zone). As my team mates said after the match 'Very beautiful target card but it will not pay' The ML revolvers we use do not have any sight adjustment possibilities and you need to compensate with the aiming area wrt to the light conditions. There the BIG Guns make a difference with their experience .

I should retire now, the flight is in the morning...

warm regards
tirpassion

[hvj1]

Hello Jitu,
Extremely happy to know that you have worked out your SOA and working on it. IGNORE the errors that you have mentioned. Just Box Drill on CORRECT SOA. Which means, give yourself a tick mark, whenever your SOA is as per your expectations. Start a practice session with a goal of doing 10 correct SOAs, see how many shots you take to achieve the same. Do this in DRY first and foremost. let me know.
BR

[airgun_novice]

Dear Sir and all friends,

Lot of things have happened in this thread since the last 2 day when I was out I will catch up from day after tomorrow.
I have just been back from south of France where I participated in an Inter league Muzzleloader match. I was selected in the team to represent our league of Paris region. I am happy to have respected the honour given to me. I should be in the top 8 in one event (percussion pistol) in the presence of some French National and even ex World champions. In fact, most of the Big Shots shot badly below par and I was stable in my level . The revolver event was not up to the mark scorewise but excellent groupings (9&8 zone). As my team mates said after the match 'Very beautiful target card but it will not pay' The ML revolvers we use do not have any sight adjustment possibilities and you need to compensate with the aiming area wrt to the light conditions. There the BIG Guns make a difference with their experience .

I should retire now, the flight is in the morning...

warm regards
tirpassion

Dear Tirpassion, The satisfaction that you exude here is tremendous and infectious. So what if it does not pay ? You have more than its worth. Congratulations, by the way.

[hvj1]

Performance manifests itself from your sub conscious. It is just like learning to ride a bike, once you learn how to balance yourself, it happens automatically, whenever you pick up the bike. WHY? Because your subconscious has learnt it.
Drilling the SOA in your subconscious for 100 shots will deliver performance. Ask Tirpassion, he will vouch for it.

[jitu sati]

hey tir
congrats man. even to participate at such a level is great. here i had butterflies just standing in a electronic range for the first time. so when one takes part in comps with such varied wpns it must be really exciting. congrats again.

[bodhijobs]

Hello All,

Another enthusiast enters the battlefield. Gurujis please accept my regards.

Questions will be foolish to say the least but please bear with me. I have tried to read as much as possible and still doing.

Like the 1st one: How do I do the figure 8 exercise? I keep the AP target reversed on the table, put my wrist on the center with the weapon and start tracing the figure 8 or I fix the target on the wall reversed and start tracing the figure 8? AM confused.

Regards
BDG

[tirpassion]

Dear Sir and friends,
Yes, I am in Kolkata in the midst of the full fledged Durga Puja celebrations. No sleep since the last 36 hours and still I am on ON mode with one bar in the battery life signal

3.If any of his step in the SOA, does not feel correct, then he cancels, corrects himself, checks out in dry runs before switching to live. Thus maintaining ‘ZERO’ % tolerance towards errors.

Here is a small experience. A great AP shooter in France (several times national champion and personal best official score 588/600) was shooting last year regionals and lot of us were looking at him shooting, kind of admiration, you know... We saw him shoot a 8. He did not look at the card and rested the AP, took a break of about 30/40 seconds and started with a dry firing. It was normal for us (although we do not do it at all times). But to our surprise, he kept on dry firing, about 15 shots believe me. We were puzzled and could never understand what was the logic behind.
Thanks a lot Guruji for the explanation

best regards
tirpassion

[brihacharan]

Hi Guys,
> I stumbled across this very interesting post by a well known Finnish Air Pistol Shooter - He is also offering a FREE Booklet on Pistol Shooting. Here goes.....

Air Pistol Training is more about…
“Mental Discipline than Technique”
by
Jukka Lahti
(Finnish Shooting Champion & Coach)

I was only 13 years old when I learned the most important lesson I've ever learned about air pistol shooting. If you truly want to improve your scores, you can't "just shoot". You have to practice.

You have to really concentrate on what you do on the range and at home. The fun part is competing as you can just relax and let everything you've learned in practice just happen.

Air pistol training is firstly learning the right techniques. Right doesn't necessarily mean something that other people tell you. More important than doing things like others do is to do them the way you feel comfortable. Of course there are guidelines and best practices that are universal. But there also there are plenty of things you can adjust according to your own liking.

When you're practicing air pistol techniques, you should practice only one thing at a time. Stance, grip, aiming and pulling the trigger are the main elements but they can be divided into more detailed processes. For every practice session you choose an element you'll concentrate on.

There are two main reasons why you practice only one thing at a time.

1. Air pistol shooting is fairly complicated process as there are a lot of little things that are happening simultaneously. If you're not concentrating on one single thing, there's just no way you can perfect your process because your brain can't register all the things that happen during a shot.

2. To be able to shoot easily in a competition you have to have your shot process stored into your muscle memory. You know of course that muscles grow when you rest after a workout. The same thing applies to muscle memory. If you first practice one thing and another on a same session, your muscles remember only the last thing you were practicing. Muscle memory won't develop for the first thing.

I started air pistol shooting when I was 12 years old and I soon made it to the Finnish National Junior team. Then I stopped for many years but came back few years ago. In my first competition I shot only 543 and my old shooting buddies were asking if I had some problems with my weapon. Then I remembered the most important truth about air pistol training & designed a training schedule for myself and three months later I shot 575 and 577.

So I know what I'm talking about when I say - You can't just shoot, you have to practice. If you want to learn more about air pistol training, go and claim your copy of my……………………………………………………………

Free Air Pistol Training Tips eBook. You'll find it at http://www.airpistoltraining.com

Achieving scores like 540 or 550 or even 560 with air pistol is quite easy when you know what to do.
Air pistol shooting happens essentially in your head!!!

In conclusion I wish to say - As any other shooting sport, air pistol shooting always boils down to a few fundamental things. By taking constant care of those factors you’ll be at the top of your game whenever you want to be.

So, I went back to the fundamentals. I read tons of books, websites and my own notes from the national team days and I put together my very own training schedule. Three short months later I scored 575 and 577.

So you can see - I know what I’m talking about. Back to the basics is what I always say when someone comes to me about a problem they’re having with their air pistol shooting.

That’s why I wrote a 16 page eBook on the very basics of air pistol training.

In the book I reveal to you:

1. What is the most important thing in Air Pistol Training…
2. What kind of a weapon you need
3. How to stand, grip, aim and pull the trigger
4. The mental game

Simply fill in your info on the form and you’ll get the book for free – right now!

Guys, I think it’s worth getting that ‘Free Book’ – Good Luck!

Briha

[hvj1]

3.If any of his step in the SOA, does not feel correct, then he cancels, corrects himself, checks out in dry runs before switching to live. Thus maintaining ‘ZERO’ % tolerance towards errors.

Here is a small experience. A great AP shooter in France (several times national champion and personal best official score 588/600) was shooting last year regionals and lot of us were looking at him shooting, kind of admiration, you know... We saw him shoot a 8. He did not look at the card and rested the AP, took a break of about 30/40 seconds and started with a dry firing. It was normal for us (although we do not do it at all times). But to our surprise, he kept on dry firing, about 15 shots believe me. We were puzzled and could never understand what was the logic behind.

Thanks Tirpassion
The dry firing is to get back into the correct RHYTHM of the SOA which gets him a 10.
Your post says it all.
Best Regards and looking forward to meeting you in Satara.

[tirpassion]

here i had butterflies just standing in a electronic range for the first time.

Jitu bhai, you are lucky to have been able to shoot on an electronic target. I have not still been able to reach there, not even once

[tirpassion]

Performance manifests itself from your sub conscious. It is just like learning to ride a bike, once you learn how to balance yourself, it happens automatically, whenever you pick up the bike. WHY? Because your subconscious has learnt it.
Drilling the SOA in your subconscious for 100 shots will deliver performance. Ask Tirpassion, he will vouch for it.

Oh yesssssssssssssss!!!!!!!
I have experienced it sometimes and it is like you are all smiles, happy in your own world where nothing else exists... exquisite feeling!!!

Thanks Tirpassion
The dry firing is to get back into the correct RHYTHM of the SOA which gets him a 10.
Your post says it all.
Best Regards and looking forward to meeting you in Satara.

The honour and pleasure are all mine Sir!

Best regards
tirpassion

[tirpassion]

Hello Bodhijobs,
Welcome to the thread mate!

As Guruji explained earlier, no question is a stupid question. Regarding the figure 8's, it should be done on a blank target, the blank white side (reverse side). If you are at the range, put a blank AP target at 10M and draw your eights with the SA intact slowly on the backdrop of that blank target. Do it both clockwise and anticlockwise. Your eye should never abandon, neither accept any deformation of the image or any blurry image during the drawing of the 8.
Do it 5 times with the shooting hand. Change to the non shooting hand and do 5 reps and continue alternatively. 60 reps in total with both hands.

Now if you are doing the same at home. You will have to adapt the card size according to the distance available.
The size of the AP target is 17cm x 17cm for 10m. So for 1m distance it should be 1.7cm x 1.7cm, for 2m it should be 3.4cm x 3.4cm and so on. The target should be placed at a height of about 140cm from the ground.

warm regards
tirpassion

[jitu sati]

hey tir you have reached a very high level , electronic tgts or not. we r still learning. honestly speaking i got a bit overawed by the range and the occasion. strangely when the shoot was over i realised the shooters 10 to the right and 10 to the left were almost in the same boat as i. not that it cheered me up but atleast i realised that there are a lot of learners around.
welcome to the thread bodhi and join the swelling ranks of gurujis and upacharyas shishyas