President of the Russian Federation of Practical Shooting A.I. Kondrukh
Moscow

Keywords: practical shooting match, complex athletic training.

Introduction

Competitions in practical shooting are traditionally called matches. The matches are classified into five levels – from the Level 1 club matches to Level V World Championship matches. Every of the five match levels implies certain basic level-specific conditions that specify a minimal number of shots, minimal set of exercises, minimal number of competitors and certain refereeing service standards. Difference in the close-level match competitions may be described as meaningful albeit not critical, whilst the gap between the Level 1 and Level V competitions is really enormous, since a club match is recommended to offer at least one exercise shooting at least 28 shots to every of at least 10 competitors with refereeing service provided by at least one referee certified by the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC); whilst a World Championship includes 35 exercises and at least 300 shots by every of 300 qualified competitors (each of them being a member of IPSC), with the refereeing service provided by a full-set team of IPSC-certified referees including senior referee, chief referee, master referee and stats referee.

Objective of the study was to provide a scientific substantiation for a shooting competition as an important and objective criterion of complex training of a practical shooter.

Study results and discussion. A practical shooting competition (match) is composed of exercises; the exercises are composed of stages; the stages are designed to include a number of shooting positions; and the shooting positions use different numbers and arrangements of targets – that are also different in types. Prior to a competition, an instruction booklet describing the arrangement of competitive shooting exercises will be made available to every competitor. Furthermore, a brief range safety instruction will be given to the competitors at the very onset of the competition and after that they are given 3 to 5 minutes to work out their game plans.

The individual game plan implementation in every competitive shooting exercise may be viewed as a reference framework to tackle the practical shooting challenge that the competitors have to solve by employing and demonstrating their skills in every domain, including the shooting skills as such, plus no less important mental, tactical, technical and physical skills and qualities. It is the upcoming competition that will set concepts and criteria for the whole complex training system in the period prior to the event, and this training period deserves being considered thoroughly and in detail.

A climax of every practical shooting event is the final duel shooting contest where only 8 or 16 short-listed winners of the prior main-stage events (plus three best long-listed candidates just in case that a substitution is required). Whereas in the main-stage events the competitors shoot (in their respective groups) exercises in certain succession one after another, in the duel shooting contest the competitors shoot their sets of targets in couples acting in parallel or simultaneously.

In view of the above, detailed methodology-setting recommendations will be given to practical shooters with breakdown by the main-stage events and the duel shooting contests.

It should be noted in this context that exercises in the practical handgun shooting competitions are classified into the regular (short-, middle- and long-range) and special (qualification) ones that vary in numbers of scoring shots, shooting positions and the gun reload arrangements. The special exercises, in contrast to the regular and standard ones (often designed to encourage creativity of the shooters) are strictly standard in their structure that must be in line with the relevant drawings and descriptions.

To give the reader an idea of how a practical shooting competition is normally designed, let us briefly describe how the shooting exercises are structured and performed and how the shots are scored.

Exercises in the practical shooting competitions are physically build up using different walls, openings, shelters, barricades and other structures made of semi-transparent, reticulate and usually brightly coloured materials. The setting being visible all through is important for the timer to clearly monitor actions of the shooters, whilst the bright colours create elevated moods and a sort of holiday environment for the competitors and supporters. To prevent ricochets, every main structure of the exercise settings (including barriers, bordering and penalty lines etc.) are made of wood and other ricochet-proof materials. Clearly marked starting position and a set of targets of different types arranged at certain distances are the main elements of a regular exercise setting.

Every exercise is arranged following a certain pattern and is shot within a shooting range that may be described as an elongate shooting site duly restricted and protected by at least three-meter high ground banks or bullet-proof walls on three sides, with one open side for access.

Exercise shooting procedure is the following. Phase one is the preparatory time when the shooters work out the exercise following the instruction in a so-called dry-fire course performed with non-loaded guns. Phase two is also the preparatory time that normally comes one day prior to the competition and designed to give a competitor the opportunity to observe the safe exercise shooting as demonstrated by other competitors. This phase gives a chance to the competitor to work out and memorize the dry-fire movement sequence and correct the potential inaccuracies and mismatches by comparing the exercise diagram given in the instruction booklet with the real exercise setting in the shooting range. Phase three is the instruction briefing when the referee instructs the competitors on the exercise shooting rules and procedure and answers their questions. Phase four takes only 3-5 minutes after the briefing. It is the time given to the shooter to put together and/or correct his individual game plan drafted beforehand to thoroughly spell out and memorize the following:

• Movement sequence within the shooting range;

• Numbers and locations of the shooting positions;

• Arrangement, numbers and types of targets in every shooting position;

• Target shooting sequence for the shooting positions;

• Shot numbers; and

• Gun reloading points if applicable in the specific exercise format.

Phase five is the live competitive exercise shooting in accordance with the shooting schedule of the specific group/ sub-group. The practical shooting procedure in this phase may be designed using practical recommendations of experienced shooters making an emphasis on the shooting techniques and tactics, including but not limited by the following ones:

• When you move along the fire line left to right, it is recommended to shoot targets from right to left as soon as you take the shooting position;

• Never shoot a challenging or steel target the last in the sequence of targets in any shooting position, but rather shoot the steel targets first if they are there;

• Decide beforehand what targets will be shot on the move and what in the static position; and

• Exercise shooting will be completed in the most challenging shooting position like a lying position or very low squatted position (V.A. Kriuchin, 2009, p. 240).

It is important that every such recommendation is based on valuable practical experience and sound logic. In addition to the above technical and tactical recommendations, experienced practical shooters normally give psychological recommendations i.e. the instructions making an emphasis on the mental competitive performance planning based on ideokinetic/ visualization and other mental conditioning procedures, including but not limited by the following recommendations:

• Make mental rehearsals of your action plan now and again, with your mind totally engaged in the process. Imagine the shooting sequence in every detail. Imagine a signal of the timer, feel the handgun handle, visualize in your mind the target and how you take aim, imagine how the foresight travels the shooting process. Never think it over – just imagine and replay it in your mind;

• Play in your mind the exercise shooting process in a slow replay mode. Note that when it comes to the live shooting, adrenalin in your blood will automatically speed up your movements. Avoid replaying shooting actions in your mind at high speed, otherwise your body will be lagging behind your thinking in the live exercise shooting process;

• In case that the exercise is challenging enough with a few shooting positions and other complications, never rely on your memory and fortune and rather make a drawing of your game plan on paper with clear indication of the target shooting sequence; and

• Never change your game plan prior to the start even if you are dead sure that you have thought out a much better plan. Any change in the game plan will break down your mental fitness and may result in very poor performance (V.A. Kriuchin, 2009).

It should be noted in this context that most of such practical recommendations normally refer to the shooters’ behaviour, actions and mental settings in what can be called a generalized manner that means that they usually cover almost every aspect of the preparations and prime provisions for the competitive shooting procedure.

Scoring procedure is the wrap-up phase of the event that deserves being considered in detail in any description and analysis of the practical shooting match process. As things now stand, the IPSC applies two scoring systems in fact. The first one, Comstock points-per-second scoring system, is applicable in every practical shooting competition, with the exclusion of standard and classification shooting events. And the second, Virginia scoring system, is applicable to the latter two exclusive events. Both of the systems score one or two hits in every cardboard target and a fall of steel target; the exercise time count is stopped with the last shot; the individual result is computed on a points-per-second scoring basis, with penalties being imposed for misses and violations of the exercise shooting procedure, the shooter being penalized by penalty target shooting. The only difference of the two scoring systems is that the Comstock scores only one or two best hits on the cardboard target with no limitations of the shot numbers, whilst the Virginia scoring system limits the shot numbers and scores the cardboard targets as non-hit in case of extra hits; and penalizes for the extra shots.

Special computer software is now applied in the competitions to compute a hit-factor by dividing the individual points scored for the exercise shooting time with account of the gun power factor. It means that all guns are classified by the power factor into two groups: major and minor guns. The same cardboard target hit counts give higher score to the major gun compared to the minor one. Therefore, the scoring software computes individual scores of every competitor with account of the hit-factor and, consequently, the final score is largely determined by the following three performance criteria: shooting accuracy, speed and power.

Now, having the general idea of the practical shooting competition procedure, we receive a starting point (or even a reference frame) and an objective criterion for more concrete, detailed and accurate assessment of the whole shooting training complex. This integrated system, however, looks quite complicated and voluminous even in a logically structured format as it includes very heterogeneous and unevenly valued components. Which of these components are the most important and critical ones and therefore may be accepted as the system backbone? This is the key issue being addressed by quite a few IPSC trainers and instructors; and it is problem number one being considered by authors of still occasional research and methodological publications of the practical shooting sport analysts. We all need to solve this problem sooner or later one or another way since its solution effectively will lay a groundwork for the efforts to design and build up a consistent research and education concept for the practical shooting sport discipline.

Conclusion

The study demonstrates the urgent need for an integrated approach to achieve good standards of the practical shooter’s fitness formation process. We believe that this approach provides us with sound means to develop our authors’ concept and methodology of professional education and competitive training system based on the IPSC standards.

References

1. Kirin P. Razmyshleniya o prakticheskoy strel'be (Reflections on practical shooting). – Double–Alpha Academy, 2005. – 221 P.
2. Kryuchin V.A. Prakticheskaya strel'ba (Practical shooting). Arkaim, 2009. – 264 P.

Corresponding author: alisa.gorba4eva@yandex.ru

Abstract

In the present paper practical shooting competitions are considered in detail as a defining moment of the complex training of shooters.

The authors have proved the structure and significance of competition as an objective criterion of the complex training in practical shooting.

The study involved an analysis of the results calculation system as the final part on which one should definitely focus when describing and analyzing the specifics of conducting practical shooting competitions (matches). The two scoring systems are common in the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) scoring. The first one, Comstock points-per-second scoring system, is applicable in every practical shooting competition, with the exclusion of standard and classification shooting events. And the second, Virginia scoring system, is applicable to the latter two exclusive events. Both of the systems score one or two hits in every cardboard target and a fall of steel target; the exercise time count is stopped with the last shot; the individual result is computed on a points-per-second scoring basis, with penalties being imposed for misses and violations of the exercise shooting procedure, the shooter being penalized by penalty target shooting.