January/February 2011: Volume 19, Number 1 - USA Shooting
January/February 2011: Volume 19, Number 1 - USA Shooting
January/February 2011: Volume 19, Number 1 - USA Shooting
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LAR&R Hosts Successful Rifle Camp<br />
<strong>USA</strong> <strong>Shooting</strong>’s Certified<br />
Training Center at the<br />
Los Angeles Rifle and<br />
Revolver Club<br />
(LAR&R)<br />
conducted two intermediate<br />
three-position rifle clinics<br />
this fall. Coach David Kimes<br />
invited Bill Boyle as the main<br />
instructor for these two-day<br />
clinics. The clinics were a<br />
success at both the northern<br />
and southern California<br />
locations. Organizers and<br />
young shooters were grateful<br />
to <strong>USA</strong> <strong>Shooting</strong> for its<br />
generosity in providing World<br />
<strong>Shooting</strong> Championship<br />
t-shirts, U.S. Olympian<br />
posters, as well as athlete cards of prominent<br />
international shooters—Jamie Beyerle,<br />
Matthew Emmons and Michael McPhail.<br />
The first clinic was held at the Santa<br />
Clara Valley Rifle Club in San Jose on Sep.<br />
18-<strong>19</strong>. Four coaches helped instruct 15<br />
junior shooters from 13 to 18 years of age.<br />
With the help of local parents, Coach Dean<br />
Peterson organized this event.<br />
The classroom and firing line<br />
instruction were interlaced. Coach Boyle<br />
handed out an abundance of current and<br />
extremely relevant course material. Topics<br />
included: goal setting, training plan, fitness<br />
and nutrition, shooting diary, shot plan/<br />
mental programs, contingency planning,<br />
mental training and visualization, wind<br />
reading, match conditions, winning<br />
attitudes and the availability of USOC Sport<br />
Psychology services.<br />
Coach Kimes showed a video of Coach<br />
Ernest Vande Zande’s Wind Camp held<br />
for members of the U.S. World <strong>Shooting</strong><br />
Championship team this past July at LAR&R.<br />
You can read Coach Ernie’s wealth of<br />
knowledge on wind management when it is<br />
printed in four different issues of the NRA<br />
<strong>Shooting</strong> Sports <strong>USA</strong> digital edition in the<br />
near future.<br />
Three weeks after the San Jose Clinic<br />
a similar course was held at the LAR&R<br />
Certified Training Center in southern<br />
California. Eight shooters and four coaches<br />
came from as far as Arizona to attend this<br />
clinic. In addition to the San Jose clinic<br />
curriculum, Edward Knutson delivered three<br />
topics on three-position rifle settings,<br />
gravity model of standing position, and<br />
an elite training theory: periodization.<br />
He suggested that our bodies and the<br />
shooting position we assume contains<br />
certain variables and constants. For<br />
example, the sight line to the hook vertical<br />
dimension in the standing position is a<br />
relative constant. The fine<br />
adjustment of the cheekpiece<br />
should not influence<br />
the butt hook setting.<br />
Knowing the constants helps<br />
lay a solid foundation of<br />
consistent performances.<br />
This is especially true<br />
when challenges arise in<br />
a match at an unfamiliar<br />
range, such as sloping down<br />
position or target height<br />
is out of the range of your<br />
usual setting. The palm<br />
rest adjustment offers the<br />
correct compensation for<br />
this vertical natural point change. If you<br />
adjusted the butt hook height, consistent<br />
desirable outcome will be difficult to obtain.<br />
By breaking the constant, muscle usage is<br />
introduced, which is the very thing we are<br />
trying to eliminate. In today’s free rifle, every<br />
effort should be made to make the rifle come<br />
to the shooter.<br />
Knutson continued to describe a<br />
concept named “Gravity Model” in position<br />
shooting. This model emphasizes natural<br />
body position and natural head position.<br />
The core concepts are skeletal support and<br />
constant cheek pressure. Skeletal support<br />
Above: A group photo from the<br />
camp at the Santa Clara Valley<br />
Rifle Club in San Jose.<br />
Left: LAR&R’s head coach<br />
David Kimes (also a <strong>USA</strong>S<br />
volunteer Assistant Rifle Coach)<br />
offering advice between shots<br />
with an attendee of the LAR&R<br />
Rifle Camp.<br />
Right: <strong>USA</strong>S volunteer Assistant<br />
Rifle Coach Bill Boyle explains<br />
positioning to a young shooter.<br />
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