jwshooter wrote: »

I would not say that makes me a expert ,but i can shoot

So why don't you shoot OT then?

And once more to the original poster, the ICPSA is running free coaching days, see the link in the post above. So if you're not sure it'd be useful to you to be coached, go along to the free coaching day and see what it's like - worst case, you've not lost anything. Best case, you now know what every other clay pigeon shooter in the world outside of Ireland knows - coaching's not some optional extra you bolt on at the end to get the medal, it's an integral part of training.

I’ve read this thread with great interest as it raises up for me many of the myths and highlights some of the confusion that surrounds coaching and the role of the coach.

This is a big subject, one that to truly explore would take a lot of time and consideration. But I wanted to throw out some observations and some insights that I have picked up over the years.

Coaching for shooting sports is a relatively small field of expertise in terms of the academic and educational support structures which are in place. We do not benefit directly from the amount of specific research that other sports such as athletics, soccer etc., have had access to and which has subsequently been formative in the development of sports science in areas such as physiology, biomechanics and sports psychology.

For many their introduction to the shooting sports has been through clubs and their formative instruction in the sport was through the friendly help of a more experienced shooter. This is how I started myself and I would think it holds true for about 99% of current sport shooters.

I like many others developed my early shooting skills through practice and I say practice deliberately as it is not the same as training. I’ll come to that a little later. Over time, through practice I learnt how to hit targets, I became more confident as the score rose. I looked to other successful shooters to see what they did, I copied what I saw, sometimes it helped and sometimes it didn’t. Information was always available, through kindness and out of a love for the sport I was bombarded with guidance, tips and recommendations by many of the fellow shooters I met at the range and at competitions. Often, I would take on the advice there and then, again sometimes it helped and sometimes it didn’t.

I like many of my contemporaries have been to “coaching” sessions where we would hand over a fist of notes to have “an eye thrown over” my shooting style by another shooter who is seen to be a “top shooter!”. These coaching days were not the structured coaching days that the ICPSA now organise but were perhaps an opportunity for a successful shooter to trade a little on his success. Everyone was looking for the “secret” or the “one missing bit” to their technique which would take them straight to shooting glory and success. Often a new stock would be the recommendation and a suitable one would be produced.

If this story, so far, sounds familiar then I’m glad I was not the only one who went down that track.

My introduction to structured coaching came from a long a circuitous route. I travelled and spent much of my time as a shooter in the company of some great coaches whom I found took a completely different approach to their work than what I had experienced up until then.

Some of these coaches were themselves very successful former shooters, some where just good coaches, but they all had a common feature and that was the method and structure that they applied to their coaching. Gone was the mysticism, to be replaced with fact and logic. Gone was the “missing bit of technique” to be replaced with understanding, patience and commitment and above all knowledge.

Practice now became training, no longer shooting “lead down the barrel” to see how many 25 straights I could get, I was now training for a purpose, I had a goal to achieve in each training session. I knew what the goal was and the coach knew the methods of training which would help me to achieve that goal. It had to be a partnership built on trust and a belief and respect for the coach.

I found I had more empathy for coaching than I had as a shooter so I took the first steps of a long road to becoming a coach. It’s a road that never ends; it just gets more interesting the further down it you travel.

The ICPSA and its coaching task group have done wonderful work over the last few years and the mystique of coaching has been replaced with formal, structured lessons delivered by trained instructors. Those ICPSA coaches have taken the step forward and shown the commitment to undergo coach education. They understand that coaching is a process in which change and ultimately results take time and perseverance, it also takes a belief in your coach and it will take commitment from both to see it through. To benefit effectively from coaching it must be seen as an ongoing and integral part of the shooting experience from beginner through to elite as indeed Sparks has mentioned with respect to Wilkinstown.

So if you can get access to coach who understands you, your way of shooting and what you want to achieve in your sporting career then count yourself lucky and hold on to them, spend the few quid if necessary and as Sparks has said already you’re paying for their knowledge and not their shooting ability. Sure if you had to see a Doctor, would you ask him first how good a patient he was.

jwshooter wrote: »

you should have got a few lessons then !

not every one has natural ability .;)

did you get lessons to improve at the dtl or was it by doing a lot of shooting?