One in a row....

I'm introducing something new to our SCTP team this year: the shooting diary. Not all the kids are ready for it yet, but I think that our third year group is ready and will benefit from it. For anyone who hasn't used one, a shooting diary is simply a formalized way to keep track of your shooting experiences. Good performances, bad performances, things you've learned, experiments, anything that may make a difference in your final score. Trying a new color of shooting glasses? Write down how they work in your diary. You may find that on cloudy days you shoot better with yellow lenses and on bright days purple lenses work better. Your diary will help organize this information and keep you from having to reinvent the wheel each time you shoot.

I use an "anything goes" method in my diary....and by anything I really mean anything. I have the normal stuff like ammunition type and weather descriptions, but I've found that at this point in my shooting career little things really do make a difference. For instance, I've discovered that I shoot better when I wear shorts. Why? Because I can feel the wind blowing in the hair on my legs and read slight changes in direction or intensity sooner than other competitors. I've learned that eating chorizo before I shoot gives me heartburn by the time I get to the third trap. I've learned that the back of my knees need more sunscreen than my arms. I've learned that pulling the trigger with the very tip of my index finger instead of the pad or knuckle gains me an extra target here and there. I've learned that on windy days I score higher with #7 1/2 shot, but on calm days #8 gives me better scores. I've learned that Winchester wads work better for me than Claybusters. I've learned that even though I must eat lunch, I should eat about half of what I would on a non-shooting day. I've even learned that the music I listen to makes a difference: I score better at trap if I listen to Boston's first album on the way to the range, but when I'm shooting IPSC Pantera works better.

I've already started Kathy and Nathan with their diaries, using pages copied from my original U.S. Olympic Training Center diary. (Yes, dear reader, at the tender age of 15 yours truly was shooting at the US OTC as part of the NRA junior olympic development program. I never made it to the olympics, but it was a hell of an experience.) It should be quite interesting to see how this one plays out. Kathy took to the diary thing like a duck to water. She has a 3 page list of goals that she reads every time she goes to the range, and has really jumped on the "anything goes" method. She's already figured out that if she wears spaghetti strap tops her shooting vest chafes her neck, and that her hair needs to be braided and not just in a ponytail. She's tracking her scores vs. the type of shoes she wears and what she eats for breakfast. Last night she spent almost an hour working on a written description of the target flights we were dealing with on Sunday and the solutions she came up with to handle it. (Variable tailwind with the trap set to throw regulation height with the wind blowing but without enough spring tension to make the target float. She called the "woo-hoo's" because they would climb and fall so fast.)

Nathan's diary is much simpler. Where Kathy has 3 pages of goals and a detailed plan of how to reach each one, Nathan has two words: Beat Kathy. Instead of lengthy descriptions of how he feels when he shoots, Nate sticks to simple, hard facts. That's cool.....it's his diary and he can keep it the way he wants. I caught him checking his diary before he changed his choke tubes on Sunday, so I think the boy will do fine.

If you've never used a shooting diary I highly recommend that you try one for 6 months or so. You'll be surprised at how much information you gather while your shooting that you forget by the time you get home.

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