In January, a highly respected local minister gave some excellent advice during his weekly sermon that is quite relevant to competitive shooting, shooting coaches, and to all who are part of the sport. He started his sermon with a riddle:

We are your constant companions,
We are your greatest helper or heaviest burden,
We will push you to success or drag you down to failure,
We are possessed by all,
Those who are great, we have made great,
Those who are failures, we have made failures.
Who are we? Habits!

Webster defines a habit as "a continual, often involuntary, or unconscious inclination to perform an activity, acquired through frequent repetition." The minister went on to explain, "To a large degree, our success or failure has been determined by the small basic little things that we do over and over again as part of life's routine. Our successes or failures largely are based on our daily routine. Great talent, great powerful ability, and [inherent strength] are either enhanced or they are negated by those attitudes, actions, thought patterns, and practices that have become your habits." (Quote by permission of Manassas Assembly of God Church, Pastor Scott Lieb, Feb 05.)

Wow. His riddle and analogy are powerful words for all of us, especially for those of us in the shooting sports. He points out that habits lead to actions. Performance in competition and in life is largely based on our habits. Our potential can be either enhanced to its maximum or totally negated by our habits. All of us can change the way we compete on the range or how well we handle ourselves in life.

If we want to perform better in competition, get higher grades in school, or do better on the job, we need to evaluate our habits and develop a plan to reinforce or learn good ones. We can train to reinforce or develop new habits that will help us improve. Many of us learned from our military careers that our training prepared us for contingencies. Sometimes we found ourselves in tight situations where we didn't have time to think and had to rely on training to get us through. That's why the military trains continuously.

"You compete like you train." Encourage your shooters to practice to develop the good habits that will carry through the stress of a competition. How we train ourselves to use our habits is how we will respond to the pressure of competition. Looking at this another way, for those of us in competition, how well we train will directly result in how well we perform.

Vince Lombardi, Head Coach for the legendary Green Bay Packers, was quoted as saying, "Perfect practice makes perfect." How much we do is important. How well we do it is decisive! How do you train? Do you come to the range, hang a target, and just shoot 20 or so shots and then go home? Is there a reason for being at the range? Is there a training plan?

How about a mental training plan or a competition plan?

The first step in building a training plan is to define the goals for the season and then develop a plan to reach them. In training sessions keep focused on performance goals. What a shooter does is more important than the outcome. We need to focus on how well we do what we did, and not on the score that was achieved. Remember that score is nothing more than a measurement of what was done. The objective of the competitor is to fire one perfectly executed shot—right now.

As a part of identifying goals, be sure to include the most important competitions for the year. How far you desire to go in the sport will define your goals. For example, the most important competitions for most juniors with the desire to earn a college shooting scholarship or make the US Development Team would be the NRA Junior Sectionals or the Junior Olympics (JOs) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Preliminary Tryouts and the National Championships should definitely be part of your goals.

The next step in developing the training plan, now that the goals are established, is to analyze your situation. Here are some things to consider:

• How many practices are available over the entire season and how long can the practices be?

• How many competitions are there? When are the major competitions? How much time between now and then is available for preparation? How much time is needed to get ready?

• Are there any special events or team meetings where attendance is required?

• What and when are the supporting competitions to try out new positions and strategies? Are there any practice matches at home to test your new skills?

• Are there other athletes who need support?

• What facilities, equipment, and money are available? Are videos, books, charts, etc., that you need available? How about money for travel and other expenses? Where can funding be found?

• Are instructional and support personnel resources available?

• Do you have someone to help?

• Are there any other things that may affect the program and planning?

Goals have been established and our situation has been evaluated, now it's time to develop the plan that will cover the shooting season. The season plan is the road map to ensure that all of our known needs are addressed. Not just the obvious technical shooting skills, but also the physical, tactical, mental and communication training. A season plan helps to keep us on track. It also serves as a framework for evaluating the goals for the past season and developing a better plan for the next season. With a season plan we are more likely to:

• Keep actively involved, resulting in more learning and enjoyment during practice.

• Provide challenging and relevant learning situations.

• Learn skills in the appropriate progression that maximize learning and safety.

• Pace your learning and conditioning so that you are not overloaded or over trained.

• Make the best use of available time, space and equipment.

• Increase your confidence to manage the competitive situation.

The season plan can be a simple outline using a calendar. If the above steps are included in the plan, the training sessions should be more effective in helping to develop good shooting habits.

As a part of developing the shooting plan, consider outside sources such as:

• Purchasing or borrowing books, videos, CDs or DVDs that explain and demonstrate the skills of shooting.

• Going to clinics and courses where you can learn more.

• Consulting with more experienced shooters and coaches, and trying to find a highly experienced coach who will serve as a mentor.

The next step is to take the season plan and create specific practice plans for each training session. Not all of the details may be known three months out, but build general plans for accomplishment and add details as they become available. Start with the next practice and add specifics. Keep the practice sessions focused on the fundamental skills, keeping them sharp throughout the season. As the season progresses, check the practice plan regularly and evaluate it against the season plan to see if your progress towards your goals is on track. Remember to be flexible and adjust to circumstances as the season progresses.

A coach should be able to help you plan practices. Keep plans in the shooting diary. Refer to the diary often and continuously make notes on progress to include problem solving. If something were to happen that changed the plan, then there is a written record of any problems experienced, actions taken, and the results.

The training session where the hard work gets done! Each practice should include:

• Preparation -- Stretch, warm-up, relax

• Technical Training -- One aspect of performance that you will work on

• Competitive Training -- Same technical element, competition conditions

• Finals Training -- High excitement

• Cool-down and Analysis -- Stretch, cool-down, diary work

Plan about 20-30 minutes for each section listed above (provides a sample 2 to 2½ hour training session plan!). A shooter can expect to grow faster if his or her program has about three or four quality training sessions per week. Most shooters don't have this amount of time, so it is important that the training sessions are planned wisely to get the most out of every training session. When range time is available, make it interesting and productive!

Some shooting skills, such as dry-firing, can be worked on at home. Physical training and mental training are perfect for off-range training and should be included in planning. These attributes contribute to the overall shooting program but presence on the range is not required.

At the end of the practice session make copious notes in the diary and evaluate each practice session; what went well, what could be improved, comments on shooters' performances, etc. Write positive notes about performance improvement and identify details that need to be worked on during the next training session. Remember that a shooter loses about 50% of what is learned within 24 hours unless he takes the time to record the new information in the diary.