Tips on Pistol Shooting

[hvj1]

Ah Hah...
So, it wus ze pauvre score in ze mind... (as Pink Panther read Peter Sellers would say)... I say Cato, Zere is this zomething going on, zat I, Inspector Clousseau alone nose. Ha ha, chop chop chop...

[jitu sati]

guruji let me repeat the question how does one take a shoot in a comp without thinking of the qualifying score

[tirpassion]

Dear all,

I reached home in Paris yesterday evening at 10PM local time. A warm welcome at the airport with childen running into my arms . It was heaven descending with the angels caressing me all over...

I went for the district championships today morning. Well, I was awake at 4AM French time (it was 0830 AM IST) inspite of setting the alarm at 6am and my detail was at 0830 hrs. The score was 543/600 in 1h23m; 91, 87, 89, 95, 91, 90. It looks below mark but I am not that unhappy. I scored about 23 tens which got negated by the 8's and an accidental 4 in the second set. I did not have any score in my mind. I was just fighting with fatigue to keep the mental intensity. I must say that I felt the fatigue and the lack of practice/physical exercise + effects of abnormal eating & alcohol of 2 weeks. My body would not just support me/my mind for a long streak as I thought it would do. The gripping was so difficult to keep intact and towards the end the thumb did not have enough strength to keep the grip stable.
I will start the regular training (physical, technical and mental) from tomorrow along with the normal food habits to improve the overall standard for the regionals.


warms regards
tirpassion

[airgun_novice]

Ah Hah...
So, it wus ze pauvre score in ze mind... (as Pink Panther read Peter Sellers would say)... I say Cato, Zere is this zomething going on, zat I, Inspector Clousseau alone nose. Ha ha, chop chop chop...

Only keeping the score in mind makes all that pauvre performance ? The factors others matter not ? Does not sink in yet.

Still in Thane (Mon 0900) wondering whether I should get going to Pune. No motivation. Lost out on hotel bookings anyway due to <24hr cancellation. But no regrets on that a/c. Post funeral things seem to be back to normal. But just don't want to drive to Pune to get a couple of stickers (Weapon Control). Practice = status quo = zero. But then once the rock bottom is hit, there's only one way that one can go -> UP !!! Monsieur L'Inspector, j'ai raison ?

[hvj1]

Jitu, AGN Dev,

YES, Keeping track of scores does make a difference due to a lack of self image.

When you walk into the competition environment, you start absorbing signals, such as;

1. Ah! There goes that shooter, who shot such and such score....subliminally, you are saying to yourself...I am not as good as him.

2. You read scores on the board....subliminally.... heck can I shoot the score required to get a medal? You are doubting yourself rightly or wrongly you are sending signals to your sub conscious.

3. I think I can shoot this score....../400 and having said that, a TREMOR goes through your body.....one of HUGE self doubt. You try to take a grip on yourself and jabber about in your thoughts....I can do it, I have done it in practice (Yeah, snigger, snigger...BUT not in a match...whispers the devil in the other ear) you try to ignore it. You try to ignore the quake in your boots, the nausea in your stomach, that sick queasy feeling.....You try to push it away, by switching on the T.V., or read a book maybe. Or worse go out and meet other warm bodies, who like you, too are quacking and shitting in their pants, but try to put up a bold front, through swagger and a nonchalant air and jabber. INTO this COMPETITION ENVIRONMENT you step in , adding to the waves circulating around you. To this miasma you contribute your own negative frequencies, increasing the pitch by that much more.

AND you say that does keeping track of the score, makes all the difference??????

[dev]

Dear Guruji,

I humbly disagree. I was not quaking at the boots due to the great scores being shot...in fact the scores have been pretty lousy. I have seen in the previous GVM also that a lot of states add as many shooters as they can. You often see people who don't even know how to open their pellet cans, some don't know how to load their pistols and so forth.
I think I just could not recover my form this year. Call it lack of available time or even motivation to pick up shri LP 10 after a day's work. In fact I shot the GVM because it was one more certificate, maybe I was hoping for a good day and a large part of it was because I wasn't going to spend thousands on travel and stay. If it would have been held out of state I would probably not have gone, after having discussed the merits and de-merits of doing so with you.
Another thing that I have realised over the last few years is that unless one is shooting 95 % in practise, or is able to keep all 40 or 60 shots in the nine ring(outer limit), one will not shoot well at any comp. Shooting an occassional 95 is a false hope or a false indicator of proficiency. Here is where I feel that one has to also know what the score is a month or so before the match.
Hope I am not coming across as rude or arrogant...I am writing down something that I have observed. Please do shoot and knock my words off the paper, show me the path.

Regards,

Dev

[brihacharan]

[quote="hvj1"]
Ah Hah...
So, it wus ze pauvre score in ze mind... (as Pink Panther read Peter Sellers would say)... I say Cato, Zere is this zomething going on, zat I, Inspector Clousseau alone nose. Ha ha, chop chop chop...

by jitu sati » Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:45 pm
Guruji let me repeat the question how does one take a shoot in a comp without thinking of the qualifying score

Hi there!
> Michael Angelo was once asked 'how do you sculpt such beautiful statues from just a block of marble'?
> He replied - I see the beauty of the human form in the marble - I then chisel away the excess!!!
> Likewise if you have the perfect score card in your mind - All you do is place the pellets where they should belong
> In one of my earlier posts I had mentioned - Keep a perfect Score Card in front of you & meditate on it till the impression stays in your mind.
> Its like keeping a waste paper basket 10ft away & fixing your eye on its open top and throwing ping-pong balls into it - bingo & it will go in. Its all about eye & hand coordination.
> Shift your eye for a moment & the ping pong balls will either fall short or overshoot! Try this sometime.
> Lastly the simple ''Acronym Formula' for a perfect score is BRASS -
1. Breathe
2. Relax
3. Aim
4. Sight align
5. Shoot

Briha

[hvj1]

Dear Jitu,
There are several schools of though regarding keeping track of score.
1. The one I subscribe to and which worked for me and suited my temperament is - Not to keep track of your score.
2. The second school of thinking is to keep track of your score and develop the Mental faculties for handling the pressure that goes along with it.
3. The third is a mix of the above mentioned two; First keep track of your score, get dejected, give it up and concentrate on your technique and similarly vice versa.

Exponents of all three systems require mental discipline and helluva lot of work on mental training. Please read Mental Training chapters and we can discuss the same.
Best Regards

[dev]

Dear Jitu,
There are several schools of though regarding keeping track of score.
1. The one I subscribe to and which worked for me and suited my temperament is - Not to keep track of your score.
2. The second school of thinking is to keep track of your score and develop the Mental faculties for handling the pressure that goes along with it.
3. The third is a mix of the above mentioned two; First keep track of your score, get dejected, give it up and concentrate on your technique and similarly vice versa.

Exponents of all three systems require mental discipline and helluva lot of work on mental training. Please read Mental Training chapters and we can discuss the same.
Best Regards

Achha now you only address your favourite pupil? So you have cast me in the outer darkness to wail and gnash my teeth? Not fair saar. I have discovered that I may need brain surgery (don't have one), yesterday I shot two ten shot sequences on some used targets. Now, get this I shot the pellets in sets of five, no looking at the target etc. Just raise lower, check sight picture and bang. First set only one 8, rest in a bunch over the ten. Next group by now I have quaffed off one hop extract pint like Dharamendra in Pratigya. Shoot another set. Group opens up a bit but almost all in 9 ring with two wayward 8's.

So I lower pistol, tear up the sheets and chuck them into the garbage. The rest of the evening feels so much better. I love my pistol's trigger now. Had shown the targets to the wife, she silently exhales...go to the range. Well with the Delhi winter setting in the timing couldn't be better. So I'm not done yet. Hope you will at least address my HVJ1 or I will get more ammo for my 'poor me' syndrome.

Regards,

Dev

[tirpassion]

Dear all,

I myself subscribe to the 'No scoring' attitude. It is because I found out that with the will to score, my concentration goes towards the score and deviates from the technique.
I was taught a good exercise in France earlier (in end 2008/early 2009) to go into a match with small micro scores in mind. I tried it and it did not go well with me at that time. I will exlain myself.
Our instructor in France asked us to shoot a match of 60 shots but in cycles of 3 shots. In every 3 shots one shooter should score a minimum score (according to the level of the shooter; it was fixed at 28/30 for me). If one fails to achieve the minimum score, one should do 3 dry shots before going to the next 3 shots cycle. It was a great battle for me and I shot 551 in that match in 1 hour and 43 minutes. The time constraint was too much a pressure for me. I tried the same in an official match in 2009 and ended up abandoning the method in between and finally I scored 546.

For me it did not work while it must have worked for some. You can try out this method if you think it is worth a try. It should not affect you much because you should be concentrated only on the micro scores out of 30.

best regards
tirpassion

[fantumfan2003]

hvj1

What you ask of us, is (proverbially) simple but not easy.

I do wonder why they have put up an elaborate and expensive world class online scoring system which titilates shooters to focus on something they should not
It is very difficult to not focus on that b!&ch called MQS and shoot in a match.

M.

Jitu, AGN Dev,

YES, Keeping track of scores does make a difference due to a lack of self image.

When you walk into the competition environment, you start absorbing signals, such as;

1. Ah! There goes that shooter, who shot such and such score....subliminally, you are saying to yourself...I am not as good as him.

2. You read scores on the board....subliminally.... heck can I shoot the score required to get a medal? You are doubting yourself rightly or wrongly you are sending signals to your sub conscious.

3. I think I can shoot this score....../400 and having said that, a TREMOR goes through your body.....one of HUGE self doubt. You try to take a grip on yourself and jabber about in your thoughts....I can do it, I have done it in practice (Yeah, snigger, snigger...BUT not in a match...whispers the devil in the other ear) you try to ignore it. You try to ignore the quake in your boots, the nausea in your stomach, that sick queasy feeling.....You try to push it away, by switching on the T.V., or read a book maybe. Or worse go out and meet other warm bodies, who like you, too are quacking and shitting in their pants, but try to put up a bold front, through swagger and a nonchalant air and jabber. INTO this COMPETITION ENVIRONMENT you step in , adding to the waves circulating around you. To this miasma you contribute your own negative frequencies, increasing the pitch by that much more.

AND you say that does keeping track of the score, makes all the difference??????

[hvj1]

hvj1

What you ask of us, is (proverbially) simple but not easy.

I do wonder why they have put up an elaborate and expensive world class online scoring system which titilates shooters to focus on something they should not
It is very difficult to not focus on that b!&ch called MQS and shoot in a match.

M.

ff AND dev,DEV, dev, dev,DEV, DEV, HELLO DEV, hello..hello ...hello..... I say dev can you hear me.....
Jokes apart, what is life without a measure of discipline...eh?
Apart from mental training, read the Gita too... especially the part where Lord Krishna says.. that one should concentrate on karma. Also Arjuna shooting the eye of the bird, focussed completely on his goal to the EXCLUSION of all else.
BR

[dev]

Hi Guruji,

Thank you for pampering me with your attention , the world is warm and cozy all over again. Actually I try to shoot in a state of no mind. I can do this while training.
Another problem I need to fix is that of not using shooting glasses. If my normal progressives slip down at the bridge of my nose, I start to see mirage rear sights. And sometimes this frustrates me enough to trigger the shot. When I train I will normally notice this and cancel the shot. Another that I would like to add is that with my and Jitu's speed we should take about 30 sighters to warm up the hand. Offcourse this is in addition to training really hard months before the match. This time as the project at work gathered steam, I knew that like a Juggernaut, it would squash my training time and my mind.

Regards,

Dev

[airgun_novice]

Back from Pune - it was more like 'kabhi haan kabhi naan" - first from my side; then from the organizers. Must admit that I was highly demotivated and demoralized right from the word "Go". On Nov 19th got dressed early in the morn to go to Pune for WC etc. Lost all the wish (enthusiasm is too big a word here) to go - so stayed that way (with shoes on) all through the day. Seeing my "state" wife and kids advised me to forget Pune for good and relax. After all, it had been hectic and fatigue had set in. Plus I had not practiced since eons and jumped up at all the competitions fillings in the forms not giving due thought or action. It was around 1515 that I jumped up from the sofa with a start for it had hit me - and hit me very hard. The more I wallowed in negative thoughts and emotions the more I got sucked in the whirlpool into the abyss of diffidence. So to the surprise of all I picked up my bags of AP and shoes and simply went down to the parking lot and zoomed off to Pune.

The WC went without any hitch. I returned to Thane the same night with detail of 1500 for the next day ! The next day I drove back to Pune and 30 minutes before the match came to know that the detail has been pushed off to the next day (21st) at 1100. "There! I told self. Should not have come in the first place" - but eventually went on to play the next day. I knew there was no change in my skill level from Delhi; if at all it would be worse with travel and extra travel and still more redundant travel fatigue setting in. Plus from my GFG-GVM experience knew that the honorable people in charge would shut down the a/c and these state-of-art facilities did not have fans. So how worse could it go - I was not shooting for any scores or laurels - I was shooting simply because I had an opportunity. That's all. Might as well shoot those 40/ 60 pellets and be done; come back home and ZZZZZ like Kumbhakarna.

Lane # 3 was between two white tube lights - so no heat elements trying to make a tandoori out of me. a/c was switched off in my region but retained only where the big fish shot and sat on the other end ! But this time following dev's advice had taken along only plain water. No hair oil - so the glasses did not slide as much though I had started sweating. E-targets. Shot 33 sighters, all of them landing beautifully - with ample 10s. Remembered Delhi. Immediately sank into Zero - but out again in 2 seconds. Started record shots. Decided not to give any attention to any aspect of points - NO #9s, NO #10s, not even SOA%. Changed the shooting style - shut down my left eye while shooting. First record shot was a 9.9 - what is that !!! Simply put it's a #9. Ended the first set at 87. Not bad I realized. Then came 81 & 84 before I realized I was a bit TOO casual. Come on boy - you are playing two matches. So took a long break and started cooling down my body through pranayam. Suddenly whole lot of thoughts flooded and I eliminated then one by one. Then started my 4th set.

9.9, 9.7, 9.8 .... seven #9s in a row and all on the higher side (read darn close to #10 ). Suddenly very happy - he-he was I going to cross the 90 ? Phut 7.1 => 7! WARNING. Oh ! This could have gone into #6. All right no issue - next two shall be #10 - it was 8. STOP SCORING - KEEP THE AP DOWN. That was tough. I aborted thrice in a row and then took a small break. Came down to earth - Guruji's words made sense now - Why should you not score. Went out and shot the last of the set without much thought 10.8 -> 10 ! The 4th ended up with 88. Took that break again and called the referee. Confirmed if I was supposed to shoot 40 or 60 shots. "60" - confirmed and I changed my cylinders. FORGOT TO SEEK PERMISSION TO SHOOT AIR A COUPLE OF TIMES. That would have stabilized the air in the regulator. The first two shots went haywire. (In retrospect, thinking if it was just mind games that made me shoot haywire). Anyway, with all the high #9s and #8s whittling down to only the integer parts, ended up with 79. Now checked the time - lotsa time - I had rushed through the 5th set unnecessarily. So sat down to contemplate. Got up and spaced my shots. Got 4 #10s there but once again the rest taunted with higher fractions and lower integers. The set ended with an 8.8 that came to #8 and totaled 88. A message ? My 545 (with fractions added) ended up being corrected to 507. Another message from beyond ?

So in short, I had 340/400 for 40-shot WZ-I and 507/ 600 for 60-shot MSCC.

Takeaways for me: At an absolute score value, the scores don't mean much but,
1. I shot on e-target after quick GVM & GFG. No previous experience at all; hence orientation was a problem.
2. Prax levels were all time low. Some more days had added on from 10th through 21st of Nov.
3. I had been incessantly travelling or down with fever since Oct 24th - the last time I had shot a full 40 shot match was on Oct 12th (checked in my diary)
4. Driving Thane-Pune-Thane 2 times and getting mighty frustrated due to detail bungling must have added on to the baggage.
5. First time shot 60 pellets (plus 33 for sighters) in any competitive environs.
6. I set the AP for RWS R-10 pellets right there at the tournament during sighters since I could not visit the range earlier.
7. Stance and stability were FINE this time - unlike GFG & GVM.

I feel I did quite OK considering everything. I started as a quitter but ended up a fighter. This pleased me more than the scores. Another factor that came up later was that I shot better score than couple of fellow shooters from the range who had more number of shooting years under their belt than me and also had been practicing consistently at the range.

[airgun_novice]

So enthused suddenly I became that I went to my range and shot out a 60 (6-card) pellet match. Paper targets, of course. Whatever be the outcome today, I knew my level would only hike to higher plane with time and diligent practice. Rode the scooter and added to the body ache.
84, 85, 87, 91, 88, 85 with 20 #10s and 16 #9s; i.e.60% desired shots. Used MS green box pellets. Will pay another visit tomorrow and do SOA BD and use RWS Clubline.

BTW, @PTKS-II got official score of 336 (had calculated 341 or 342 - only one boundary shot) on the certificate that was kindly delivered to my range. No idea about the breakage of sets.