It’s February and it’s too cold here in the northeast to shoot. But
in six weeks the USA Shooting Spring Selection Match at Ft. Benning
will decide who will be on the United States’ Shooting Team to travel
to Lonato, Italy, for the World Clay Target Championships and to
Puerto Rico for the Championship of the Americas and we have to get
ready.

Not all training involves shooting. There are lots of things that can
be done at home to improve performance. There is nutrition and
physical conditioning, and the mental game. Parents and coaches can
develop their skills in training, preparing and managing shooter
athletes. And these things can be done inside where it’s warm.

There are some very good resources out there that help deal with all
these issues. But, there is no central clearing house and most folks
don’t know where to find them. Let’s talk about some of them.

Not a week goes by that I don’t get several calls or e-mails from a
parent or new coach and the calls go something like this: “My child
just discovered trap shooting and he loves it and the guys at the club
say he’s pretty good at it. But we are new to the game and need
direction. How can I learn?”

Well, one of the best places to start is with Tom Migdalski’s classic
book, “The Complete Book of Shotgunning Games.” Migdalski spent many
years as Assistant Athletic Director at Yale University, Director of
Outdoor Education and Coach of the Trap and Skeet Team. His book
describes the standard shotgun games, as well as conditioning and
fitness, nutrition, fatigue, learning to shoot and learning to teach
others to shoot. He also discusses sports psychology and the
attitudes necessary to win. For new shooters, new parents and new
coaches, this book has to be the starting point. It contains an awful
lot of information; it is well organized and well presented, and in
terms that anyone – novice or experienced alike – will understand.
Migdalski’s book can be purchased at Amazon.com, as can most of the
other materials that I will discuss in this article.

For those that are more interested in learning the international clay
target games, there is really only one available resource. That is
the “United States Army Marksmanship Unit International Skeet and Trap
Guide.” This book, which was written and illustrated by shooters and
coaches of the U.S. Army Shotgun Team, is available only through the
Civilian Marksmanship Program, Eastdoor. It can be ordered on the
internet at www.odcmp.com.

It’s a paperback that only costs $3.95, but is the single best source
for international trap and skeet information, rules and techniques.
If you are going to be in the international clay target shooting
business, you better have one of these little books in your range bag.

For those of you interested in coaching, the starting point has to be
Dr. Rainer Martens’ “Successful Coaching,” now in its third edition.
This book doesn’t have anything to do with shooting, but it has
everything to do with coaching. It goes beyond what new coaches’, and
many old coaches’, practice. It is organized in five sections which
include:

Principles of Coaching, which emphasizes the value of a coaching
philosophy and how to achieve the three major objectives of coaching:
create a team of winners; help your young people have fun and how to
motivate young people to develop physical, psychological and social
skills;

Principles of Behavior, which discusses how to communicate with and
motivate players, as well as problem solving among athletes using a
positive discipline approach;

Principles of Teaching, which introduces the game’s approach to
coaching and details how to incorporate this new approach into
teaching technique and technical skills;

Principles of Training, which includes training basics, physical
fitness, muscular fitness, nutrition and battling drugs; and

Principles of Management, which covers the interpersonal and
administrative basics required to build a solid coaching foundation
that emphasizes team relationship and risk management.

“Successful Coaching” is required reading for the NRA/USA Shooting
Certified Coaches course and I understand it will also be required
reading for the SCTP coaches program to being in 2005. That’s how
good “Successful Coaching” is.

Everyone wants to learn more about the mental game, but they are
unsure of where to start. And, most folks want to start in the
middle, but that doesn’t work. Studying the mental game is a lot like
studying math – you’ve got to learn to add and subtract before you can
multiply and divide. One of the best places to start is with Lanny
Bashem’s book, “With Winning in Mind.” Bashem was a rifle shooter
back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He won an Olympic Gold Medal in ‘76 and a
Silver in ‘72. He won numerous World Championships. Nobody dominated
the sport of rifle shooting the way Lanny Bashem did. He is also an
engaging, fun guy who teaches mental management to not only athletes
but also business leaders around the world.

“With Winning in Mind,” his small paperback book, is available through
Amazon.com, or at Lanny’s web site <www.mentalmanagement.com.> It is
small, it is simply worded, it goes right to the point and it is
written by the guy who has been there and done it. He was a champion
himself and coached many champions. He borrows concepts from many
sources and states them simply and understandably. There is no
question that Lanny Bashem’s goal is winning and he’ll tell you how
the winners do it.

At the mental management website you will also find audio and visual
tapes and CDs geared for teachers and coaches and parents and
athletes. The video programs dealing with: (1) Winning the Mental
Game; (2) Performing Under Pressure; (3) Goal Setting; (4) Mastery and
Self Image Change; (5) Young Performer; and (6) Parent/ Coaches are
particularly valuable for anyone running a competition program.

There’s also some good resources on the internet. One of them is Dr.
Patrick Cohn’s peak performance sports site at <www.peaksports.com.>
Dr. Cohn has an “e-book” listed at that site entitled: “Mental
Preparation: Preshot Strategies to Think and Perform Like a Pro.”
Again, this is a simple, little book; it is inexpensive but it teaches
the elements of preshot routine and it helps you develop a strong,
simple, effective preshot routine of your own. We are using this book
in the Youth Development Shotgun Team as the outline for our winter
training.


As you will soon come to realize, there is not a lot in publication on
mental training for the shotgun sports. But one sport in which there
is a lot written about mental training is golf. And if you think
about it, golf and the clay target games are not that different. One
of the best books on the mental game of golf is by Dr. Bob Rotella
entitled, “Golf is Not a Game of Perfect.” This book is written for
the recreational golfer, but it is very relevant for the recreational
clay target shooter. Rotella says: “A golfer must expect only two
things of himself: to have fun and to focus his mind properly on every
shot.” It’s the same for the trap shooter. Once you understand that
– and a lot of shooters don’t – the rest is easy, simply “how to.”
Rotella’s book is very strong on visualization, preshot routine and
focus or staying in the present. I have taken it, summarized it, and
rewritten it for shotgunners for use in my private instructions.

It’s February, it’s cold. May as well sit inside by the fire and
read. I guarantee that studying the resources listed above will
improve your game this summer.