Part of the whole challange of olympic shooting is that you’re going up against people in International competition who are residential athletes; which is to say that their day job is target shooting and they would live on a campus for that task. Groups like the US’s Army Marksmanship Unit and other, civilian groups in Australia, France, Italy and so on, would take in shooters with potential, and then it’s a case of get up in the morning, hit the gym with your personal fitness instructor, then breakfast prepared by nutrition specialists, then training on the range with your coach, lunch (again prepared for you), more training and then relaxing in the evenings before doing it all over again. And in amongst there is the planning and goal-setting and so on.
Here, however, we don’t have anything even near that. We’re all amateurs in this sport, in the original definition of the word; we all have other day jobs. So part of the challange is finding a balance between work, your social life, your home life, your love life, and your other interests, which lets you get in the training you need to achieve your goals.
If anyone has a tried-and-true method for this, they’ll make a bloody fortune selling it 😀
Me, I’m looking at having range time in WTSC twice a week on Monday and Sunday if all goes well, but Sunday can get wiped out by competitions, and Monday can be cut short if traffic is awful. 🙁 The rest of the training I need has to be done at home in the evenings. Get into the under-gear (the polo-neck and the tracksuit and the shooting cardigan thingy) and the glove and just practise the position and the shot plan over and over again, watching for balance and so on. And of course, doing flexibility exercises and balance exercises, which you can do pretty much anywhere that noone’s going to point and fall over laughing…