September/October 2011: Volume 19, Number 5 - USA Shooting

SHOTGUN
Life at the OTC
Aer four fuel stops, a
McDonald’s, a quick
tour through Bass Pro
Shops and 19 hours 26
minutes of driving I could nally see
the mountains approaching in the
distance. is place I was arriving
to would help me fulll my goals
and oer opportunities to further
my shooting career. e Olympic
Training Center (OTC) in Colorado
Springs, Colo., is home to some of the
best athletes in the world all working
towards achieving their dreams.
Athletes of a variety of sports, such
as bobsledding, swimming, wrestling
and my favorite—shooting, all live at
the OTC. ough all have dierent
training, nutritional, sport psychology
and recovery needs, everyone still eats in
the same cafeteria, uses the same weight
room and represents the same team—
Team USA.
e training center provides the
resources to make each and every one
of us “OTC Residents” better athletes.
ese resources include the following:
sports psychologists who help us
mentally prepare for matches, personal
trainers who help keep us physically t
by targeting the parts of our body that we
use the most in our sport, nutritionists
who help keep us on track for when and
what we should eat so we are fully alert
before and during a match, and lastly
the physios at sports medicine who help
athletes with ailments from training
Garrett Walters has utilized the athletic services at the Olympic Training Center to help become a
better athlete. He is shown competing in the 2010 National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships.
14 USA Shooting News
By Garrett Walters
injuries to the common cold.
As a shotgun shooter, our training
is unique in that it is dicult to have
four trap elds along with four skeet
elds all in the center of town. us,
our training facilities are located about
15 miles south of town on Fort Carson.
We have the opportunity to train every
day, which is one of the key factors to
being successful. Some shooters prefer
shooting cases of shells a day, whereas
others will only shoot a couple boxes
every other day. Your training should
depend on your plan, goals and coach’s
guidance.
Every shooter needs a break now
and then, and personally, I like to take
a break aer large matches. It gives me
time to think about what I did really
well and what I need to work on to get
to the next level. So, what do some of the
shotgun residents like to do with our time
o the gun? I prefer hunting or shing. It
gives me time away from the hustle and
bustle and allows me to relax outdoors.
It’s dicult to nd a better place to
wind down than Colorado. Everyone is
dierent, and not all shooters like the
outdoors. I’m sure some may not take
any time o from training, but for me, it
is a strong asset to being competitive and
not getting burned out.
Being a resident athlete is a great
opportunity and I would recommend it
to anyone that gets oered the position. It
has made me a better shooter and athlete;
I have achieved goals that I know would
have never happened if it wasn’t for the
great sta, awesome facilities and many
services oered at the OTC. I’m very
grateful for the awesome opportunity and
I know all the athletes that reside here
are as well. We all want to do our best to
achieve our Olympic dreams and with
the help of the OTC, we will be a bigger
and better Team USA.