One of the things that I am constantly reminded of, and need to remind myself of, is that like any sport shooting is a set of skills that are built upon.  You have to have a solid grounding in the fundamentals and be able to execute them consistently every time.

Shooting like, hockey, or golf demands your ability to be able to execute multiple activities concurrently.  As an example, if you have to concentrate on skating your passing and shooting will suffer.  If you to concentrate on puck handling, your passing and maneuverability suffer.

I ran across this video from the MGM Junior camp from 2012.  The drills here are a notch above fundamentals (grip, sight alignment, trigger press, reloading, etc.) but they are some great tools to develop some intermediate skills, and the reasoning behind why the techniques work.  A great reminder of why and how we position ourselves for specific shots.  It’s a little long but there is some good stuff here.

I think that we all know that in order to optimize your results, planning your time is important.  This is especially true when “training” for anything.  When I was coaching, we always planned the practice.  There were specific things that we needed to work with the team, and individuals on.

For physical conditioning, shooting, and martial arts I have readopted the same approach.  Developing a long range set of training blocks, and then devolving those into specific work sessions.  The key for me, is finding the time to execute the plan.

Randi Rogers has a break down of how she approaches planning her practice sessions and includes a pretty focused template for you to use as a starting point.

In Ben Stoeger’s book he breaks down what a week of practice looks like for him and how he approaches the mixing of both dry fire, and live fire exercises.  Interestingly he spends some time working in the mechanics of moving through the stages, and between shooting positions as well as fundamental techniques at distances.

Mike Seeklander goes into a lot more depth in his book about developing not only a specific goals and plans but balancing that plan among his six distinct areas of development.

No matter your approach, planning the task, executing the task, and then evaluating the results is a key to your development.  With the economic and opportunity cost of range time, equipment, and ammunition it becomes even more important to your success and enjoyment of the sport.  Take the time to give your efforts some thought and planning before you jump right in.  I think you will be pleased with the results.

** Disclosure time.  I am not an Amazon affiliate nor am I sponsored or supported in any way by the individuals (or their organizations) mentioned above.  I have just found their advice useful and wanted to pass it on.

Over at When The Balloon Goes Up Lee has written a good article on how your body can impact your performance at a match.  It is worth reading, and I think it is something that we can all relate to.  I certainly know that the first two stages that I shot at Rockcastle this year, I was off my normal pace, and normal game.  I did more than just stumble through as a zombie but, the amped up go for it mindset was missing.  Sleep, travel, poor eating and nutrition I think all factored in to that.

Read the article, there is some good stuff in there.