The Shooting Diary

One of my coaches gave me this article along with a number of others. Unfortunately I don’t know where it was originally published, but I would guess either the American Rifleman journal in the 1960’s or perhaps in one of the US Army Marksmanship Unit’s guides.  I hope they won’t mind my reproducing it for […]

Quality training

We have all experienced a drop in our scores in competition, when compared to what we shoot in practice. I have a theory that a major contributing factor to this is that our tens in training are just not good enough. All those 10.0’s and 10.1’s we shoot in a training match become the 9.9’s […]

Focus on scores?

We all focus a lot on the scores we get. It’s natural to do this. Our family or friends reinforce this by asking “what did you get at training?” when we get home. Scoring targets is a great way of measuring how we are going and whether we are improving. However there are times when […]

Beginner’s guide to prone

.22 prone target rifle shooting is a fun way to get started in the sport. This guide adapted from an original article by the Australian Olympian and World Champion – Don Brook – provides a fantastic guide to getting the basics of the position right. Beginners guide to prone

Ammunition Testing

Good accurate ammunition is the most fundamental aspect in target shooting. Without it, spending time on training, equipment or other factors is a waste.  If you are not confident that the shots you fired will hold an acceptable group on the target, then making adjustments to your equipment setup, or your position will be a […]

Expectations & their impact on performance

Everyone, from the novice shooter to the world champion, will often experience difficulty at some point in their competitive life in terms of delivering the performance that their training and capability leads them to expect. I believe that this “weight of expectations” delivers increased pressure and the increased pressure leads us to make mistakes. Whether […]

Getting out of your performance slump

Whilst the following article has been written for the smallbore shooter, many pistol shooters may find the comments apply equally to them. Almost every shooter experiences a drop in performance at some time in their career. Whether it is a dramatic drop off in scores, or just patchy performances, dealing with the slump in a […]

Training with purpose

Over the years I have heard many shooters lament over their lack of improvement. The years go by and they always seem to perform at about the same level – the occasional high spot or good performance counterbalanced by a lower than average result, often in the next competition, with most results falling in the […]

What was the difference

by Tibor Gonczol, Pistol Shooting Coach. After spending some frustrating years trying to come to terms with the fact that OUR shooters – in general – are not producing the performances and scores necessary to be competitive in the international arena, I tried to dispel the various myths and discredit the excuses offered for this. […]