Air Pistol
ISSF
Through my years in shooting sports I have been in contact with all kind of people, nationally and internationally, athletes and coaches, beginners and champions and I can freely say that I have learned from them, as they have learned from me.
Reason why I am writing this is to mention some of neglected things in our sports by both athletes and coaches. By analyzing our disasters and wrong time I can freely separate them in two groups. From one group I have learned how things should be done and from second group I have learned how things should not be done.
Before I elaborate this I would like to mention and remind people that coach is not only someone who helps you to learn a certain skill, coach is a person that needs to be a role model to his athletes in skill they practice, in integrity, honesty, honor. Coach is a person who affects athletes in way how they think, how they behave and how they act in everyday life. Our athletes follow our example and it is our duty to be the best example and to lead properly.
Now let me provide some more context and elaborate previously mentioned from viewpoint of the sport and athletes development.
Number of athletes and coaches I have met, had a very extensive and deep knowledge of shooting technique, which in one way is surely a great benefit, where in other way it is a setback and a blocker to athletes performance.
As we encourage athlete to learn, experiment and develop we as coaches should be leading by example and we should as well learn and develop further.
The setback in athletes performance I earlier mentioned is due to emphasizing one element and neglecting other elements of the sport which should be observed as a whole, compact unit. And now due to it, instead of having a structured systematic training, we have still practicing only.
We can divide shooting sport in following parts:
- Skill / Technique
- Strength and Conditioning
- Mental performance
- Planning, Periodization, Optimization
When we divided it like, we can say that each part should be playing an equal role in athletes development and performance which in many cases, unfortunately, is not the case.
Most people observe shooting sport as a static sport, which precision disciplines are, and they come to conclusion that physical fitness is not a requirement in our sport which is not correct. Even if static and our shooting position relies on bones, our body need muscle as support, especially the core. As only connection of torso (rib cage) and pelvic bone would be our spine. Weak core muscles will result in back pain and fatigue though the match and will finally have a negative impact to our overall match performance. Especially in competitive where we have long trip, then preparation match and multiple qualifying matches day after day and finals on the end.
For the next also pretty much neglected part which would be performance and resilience. This part would be very interesting and it is also a very broad subject. Starting from basics of sport psychology and simple breathing exercises as tools to a more complex and specialized programs as ACT, Positive Psychology, Deep training which are not only benefit for the sport but for everyday life in general and further character development.
Still no matter how important as well as interesting many coaches and athletes disregard this part as a training process. Disregarding this slows down athletes progress and higher level of performance and leaves them unprepared and subjected to negative effects of competitive pressure in national and international matches.
Last but equally important part of each sport as well as our own would be training periodization. As life today is very fast and athletes need to dedicate to their sport, to work, to personal life (family/relationships) it is very hard to find the time for so all of it even in one day, week, month etc. Therefore we can conclude that training periodization plan is necessary as well.
To have a high performance and correctly integrate three previously mentioned parts athlete also need to have proper rest and time for their personal life.
Training periodization provides us with structured yearly plan to have a systematic training, not just range time to practice our skill. Periodization plan is individually made on a yearly/competition season level with breakdown to macro, micro and meso cycles. This gives athlete structured training plan for technical practice and match simulation, for general and specific strength and conditioning and for weapon maintenance, servicing and modifications.
Which in end provides us with a full structured training plan. As a 12 month period is full of variables and not predictable the periodization plan shall outlined on yearly basis with quarterly follow up to apply any possibly necessary amendments.
Once we apply the mentioned framework as a systematic training and standard, then we can expect a proper athlete development and constant performance.
This would be just a short breakdown as there is a lot more points of discussion in athletes performance on high level fields such as nutrition, sleep, goal setting and trainings optimization. But for the start of correct athlete development coaches should respectively apply all three aspects in work with their athletes.
On the photos below you can see how a yearly periodization plan looks, this is just an example and to be applicable it would need to be tailored for the athlete or the team.
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