Tied for 1st place at 2010 BC Airgun Championships

I ended up tied for 1st place at the 2010 BC Airgun Championships in Richmond, BC. The way the tie-break is done though is by counting back from the last shot to find who ended better. Out of 3 complete courses of fire (180 shots) both Edmond Lee and myself ended up at 1686/1800 points.

Congrats to my fellow Team BC teammate Edmond Lee who had a slightly better last target than me.

I'm off for a few weeks before getting ready for Provincials in Campbell River (early May) where I'll break in my new 50M pistol which should arrive in a couple of weeks. Next up after that, will probably be the 2010 Canadian National Pistol Championships being held in Granby, Quebec August 25 to 31, 2010.

Defending champions BC Team wins Gold at 2009 Nationals

We did it again! The BC Team won Gold in the 10M event. This is the second year in a row our team has won the team event.

Individually, I missed Finals by 1 point and finished 9th. I found the indoor range to be a challenge to shoot in due to the changing lighting from the overhead skylights which were located over a few of the middle positions. My scores were 553/600 and 561/600, which are lower than where I was hoping to be.

gold medal for the BC Team consisting of Edmond Lee, Tyler Johnson, and myself

I ran into a few preparation problems before the 1st relay due to forgetting my competitor number and gun check information. I didn't have time to drive back to where I was staying to pick it up without possibly losing competition time so I made a new competitor number by hand. Awesome. Luckily I was able to get a photocopy of my gun check information from the officials. Small issue but that burned through 20 minutes of time which I normally would have used for getting ready mentally and physically.

After the morning relay I drove back and picked up all of my paperwork and competitor number and made it back with lots of time to run through my regular pre-shooting routine. By now, the sun was almost overhead and shining through the skylights and reflecting right off the floor. I couldn't sit in my chair without having a really bright glare in my eyes. Bright. Sunshine + squeaky clean linoleum floor = Arggghhhh.

Good learning experience to make sure I have everything packed and ready (I thought I did! :)) before shooting as well as to train in different lighting conditions... maybe even pack some sunglasses. 10M is always shot indoors so I didn't anticipate possibly needing any kind of tinted lenses.

For the Finals, they used an electronic target scoring system which is projected on to the wall and shows changes to the leader board in real-time. Very cool. It was great to have my two BC teammates shooting in Finals. Edmond Lee (553/600, 573/600) finished in 3rd behind Mark Hynes (Ontario) and Stan Wills (Alberta) thanks to his impressive 573 he shot in the afternoon relay. Tyler Johnson (558/600, 559/600) finished in 6th.

Sitting at the Calgary Airport now and waiting to fly home.

Back into 50M Free Pistol Shooting! 3rd place finish for Team BC.

Last week I was issued a an authorization to transport permit so I could take my classic Pardini PGP 75 .22 to Calgary for Nationals. Shooting the 50M event is a natural progression from shooting the 10M air event.

I didn't have much in the way of expectations considering I haven't fired a .22 pistol since 1994 but it's an event that I wanted to start competing in. My 15 minutes of sighter shots were basically all the practice I would get to shoot before shooting my first scoring shot.

what the 50m range looks like from my phone's camera

I ended the day with a 512 and a 484. My BC teammates, Tyler Johnson and Edmond Lee both shot 502 on their first round and then brought their scores up in the 2nd round. Edmond Lee made finals and finished in 7th overall. Our combined score gave our BC Team a 3rd place finish.

My main event is on Friday... I shoot at 8:00 am and again at 12:30 pm. I'll be off tomorrow and will probably take a look around the city. The 10M range isn't open for practice times until around 6pm tomorrow evening.

Flying to the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships in the morning

Excellent day at the 2009 World Police and Fire Games today. I was a volunteer helping with scoring and tear down of the Air Rifle venue in Richmond, BC.

air rifle shooters at the 2009 world police and fire games

Flying to Calgary in the morning...

Now that I have all of my registration, authorization to transport, and all other paperwork in order I'm taking my .22 Pardini PGP75 Free Pistol to Nationals. I haven't shot it in 14 years! I've got it all cleaned up, double locked and ready to transport.

I'm shooting 50M Pistol on Wednesday and 10M Pistol on Friday.

I better finish packing. Updates as I write them this week. Bang Bang.

3 more weeks until the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships

Only 3 more weeks until the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships in Calgary, Alberta. I was reviewing some of my training material and journals and decided to update the performance tracking chart I created last year.

I also included an update to reflect the new 10M Pistol World Record set on April 12, 2009 by Jin Jong-oh.


There are 3 notable lines on the chart:

594 - The World Record
578 - The BC Provincial Record
563 - The Olympic Minimum Qualification Score (MQS details)

There is a gap from July 2008 until May 2009 when I was recovering from a shoulder injury. It would have been nice to get some more shooting competitions in this year but I think it was good to ease back into it.

I'm travelling to Kamloops, BC on July 24th to begin the process to get my coaching certification. Then I'll be helping out at the 2009 World Police and Fire Games before flying to Calgary for Nationals.

Registered for 2009 BC Provincials and 2009 Canadian Nationals

I've sent my registration in for Provincials in Campbell River, BC next month and for the 2009 Canadian National Handgun Championships in Calgary, Alberta in August. The 2009 Provincials next month will be my first competition back since last summer when I injured my shoulder.

It will be busy weeks leading up to both events. Next month I might be going down to San Francisco for a few days for a conference and I'll be volunteering at the 2009 World Police & Fire Games right before flying to Calgary. I've signed up for 10M and 50M pistol events for Calgary and will only be shooting 10M at Provincials.

2009 Canadian Nationals Pistol Championship details...

Updated information for the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships is now available at pistolcanada.ca.. it's going to be in Calgary again and I will definitely be attending.

Also... results from the 2009 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix! Congrats to my fellow BC team mate Tyler Johnson who had the top Canadian score going into the Finals!

No Zorb! ...but Calgary Zoo today!

Well yesterday I finished Finals and ended up in 7th place, not to bad considering that was my first time making Finals at Nationals since returning to the sport.

me (on the right) shooting a 10 on thursday's 2nd relay.
phillipe tousignant is to my left.

I also found out at the Awards BBQ that our BC Airgun Team consisting of myself, Edmond Lee, and Tyler Johnson got the gold medal beating the Saskatchewan team.

My camera's SD card seems to be corrupted so I'm unable to get any photos off of my camera. The Z-Trip zorb adventure was cancelled as there was a massive thunder storm all day. We drove out to Canada Olympic Park and checked out the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum and Ice House there to watch the National Development Bobsleigh Team practicing. We also drove past the Zorb area which looked like a long ditch which was almost flat -- apparently they moved it there. It does not look fun, maybe it was the rainy day, but I expected it would be a steeper hill... scratch that... I expected it to be on a hill... any hill!

Today, I went and checked out the Calgary Zoo and was impressed! I sure hope I can get my photos off my camera.

Back to Vancouver tomorrow.

2008 Canadian National Finals Tomorrow 8am - Currently Tied For 5th

Today I shot a 560 / 600, one point shy of making the cut to possibly qualify for Canada's National Development Team. The score, combined with yesterday, puts me in a 3-way tie for 5th going into the Finals tomorrow morning. It also makes me the top 10m pistol shooter from BC.

Result	Competitor	Province	Score
1	Prakash Nanjappa	ON	1145
2	Stan Wills	AB	1132
3	Wayne Salhany	ON	1131
4	Yuri Movshovich	ON	1128
5	Sylvain Ouellette	PQ	1119
6	Josh Riker-Fox	AB	1119
7	Allan Harding	BC	1119
8	Mikhail Oussovitch	ON	1118

Finals will take place at the Calgary Rifle and Pistol Club. Everything is setup and ready to go for the Top 8 shooters. I am currently in a 3-way tie and with the count back I will likely be shooting in Position 8 (photo below) as positions 1 and 10 probably won't be used.

i'm currently in a 3-way tie for 5th

Gotta rest up tonight to fight for every point tomorrow!

Once the competition is over a bunch of are going over to the Canada Olympic Park to Zorb next to the 1998 Olympic Ski Jump.

Competition Day #4 - My shooting glasses take a tumble

Well my first day of shooting at the event got off to a slow start. The range didn't have a scale to measure how much CO2 gas was left in my air gun, so I was cautious with how many sighter shots I used before starting my first competition shot. During the equipment check on the line my shooting glasses were accidentally pushed off the table and hit the cement floor. I was afraid to look, especially when I felt something hit my leg! With the kind of impact it made, you expect to see shrapnel and debris everywhere. Luckily, everything was fine. The plastic case made a loud noise when it dove into the cement and there was no lens in the frames to get injured. No lens in my glasses?? Yes. I took it out on Sunday and have been using them without a lens since. They still have the adjustable iris in place (not shown in the photo below).

what not to do!

After about a dozen sighter shots I began and it took some time to get into a flow. The competition consists of 60 shots; 1 shot at 1 target. Of the 1h 45m to shoot I used all but 3 minutes. Normally, I would be finished earlier but getting off to a slow start with double checking that my glasses were aligned and functioning properly. Despite a few equipment hiccups and making a last minute change this week to opt out of using a lens in my shooting glasses (the lens helps keep the gun sights clear and in focus) I'm happy with my score of 559 / 600. I know I can do better than this and will continue to fine-tune my self, equipment, and approach to shoot better.

I have yet to see where I currently stand against other shooters from across Canada. I'll look tomorrow after I shoot again.

Arrived in Calgary!

I landed in Calgary this afternoon to find Vancouver-like weather with a mix of rain and sun. Mostly grey skies and rain, not like the great day yesterday back home in Vancouver:

the view yesterday, aboard a ferry cruising back to Vancouver

After getting settled in, I went out to the two ranges hosting the 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships and got signed in and my equipment checked. I put some practice time in at the range to get my gun sighted in and get an overall feel for the range. I competed at the Calgary Rifle and Pistol Club last September for the Western Canadian Airgun Championships so I was familiar with how everything was setup.

The Dark Knight movie opens this week... must see!

Focus Al :)

My first relay of the competition begins tomorrow morning at 10am.

2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships start tomorrow!

The 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships start on Sunday July 13th in Calgary, Alberta. I fly out of Vancouver on Tuesday morning and will arrive with time to register and get in some practice time before my first relay of the event starts on Wednesday.

June was a really busy month and it seems like it's been almost non-stop between life, work, and trying to find enough time to practice. I'm looking forward to this week off to unplug a bit.

I'm going to be posting progress from the competition daily (well... maybe almost daily) and will put up photos of some of the non-competition adventures I'll embark on... like tumbling down a hill side in a giant plastic bubble! ;)

Travel details sorted for 2008 Canadian Nationals in Calgary

There are 6 weeks left until the 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships in Calgary. I just got my flight and accommodations sorted out and am very much looking forward to this trip. I found a seat sale at West Jet which made a big difference from some of the deals Expedia found for me online.

I quickly put together a Google Map of the two shooting ranges that will be used for the event as well a couple of attractions I might check out. Last September when I was in Calgary I was thinking of checking out the Zoo so I'm probably going to do that and I'm also going to spend more time at Canada Olympic Park (COP).

I only spent a few hours last time at COP but I'm going to spend at least a day there this Summer and plan to try Zorbing! Rolling down a hill inside a giant plastic ball... Sold!

Registered for 2008 Canadian National Championships

This week I received confirmation of my registration for the 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships. Registration can be done online at www.pistolcanada.ca.

registration for 2008 nationals
is available at pistolcanada.ca

There was also a change this week regarding the venue and the available practice times. If you're planning to attend it would be a good idea to get registered early:

DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES OF SCHEDULING, THE 2008 MATCH COMMITTEE HAS HAD TO CHANGE THE VENUE OF THE 2008 CANADIAN NATIONAL AIR GUN MATCH.

THE LOCATION WILL BE:

CALGARY RIFLE AND PISTOL CLUB
1910 – 39 AVE. N.E. – CALGARY, T2E 7Y9

THIS CHANGE WILL ALLOW SOME GREATER FLEXIBILITY IN CHOOSING SHOOTING RELAY TIMES AND WILL ALSO ALLOW FOR A COMPLETE OPEN DAY OF PRACTICE TUESDAY JULY 15.

Less than 2 weeks until the 2008 BC Handgun Championships -- I'm currently scheduled to shoot 10M and 50M pistol events.

14th place finish and 3rd place in a team event

I finished the match in 14th place. Good, considering there were close to 50 male competitors and I was shooting with most of the top 10 back in the early 90's. These guys have been shooting awhile... several of these guys are on the National Team.

One of the BC Team's we entered was for the Air Pistol event. Our team placed 3rd so we got the bronze medal for that. My teammates were Edmond Lee and Mark Johnson.

I'll be shooting two matches in September, one is in Vancouver and the other is in Calgary. I'm hoping that a few more matches will help me get back to my 94% range. Getting all of my firearm paperwork will also be helpful as I'd like to be shooting 50m Free Pistol again.

Long travel day tomorrow. 2 hr drive and two flights... :) It will be good to get back to Vancouver.

2007 Canadian National Junior Air Pistol Finals

The Air Pistol Junior Finals just wrapped up with both Junior Male and Female shooting Finals at the same time. It was cool to see all 16 competitors shooting. The girls dominated the Finals.

10m Air Pistol Junior Male and Female Finals

Junior Male 10m Air:

Result	Competitor	Province	Scores	Final	Total
1	Matthew Hendry	SK	554, 561	94.5	1209.5
2	Philippe Tousignant	QC	543, 554	91.8	1188.8
3	Stuart Krantz	SK	539, 547	93.4	1179.4
4	Ryan Ward	ON	531, 543	94.4	1168.4
5	Jordan Samoila	SK	548, 522	84.1	1154.1
6	Matthew Kao	ON	528, 532	92.7	1152.7
7	Timothy Hildebrand	AB	525, 531	92.4	1148.4
8	Tuo Su	BC	523, 537	84.2	1144.2

Junior Female 10m Air:

Result	Competitor	Province	Score	Final	Total
1	Danielle Marcotte	YK	356, 368	97.1	821.1
2	Alix Findlay	ON	365, 356	94.0	815.0
3	Catherine Thwaites	BC	365, 357	90.1	812.1
4	Amy Stewart	AB	360, 358	87.5	805.5
5	Christine King	SK	362, 338	92.8	792.8
6	Shvawn Christensen	ON	351, 346	91.9	788.9
7	Bailey Teitge	AB	341, 341	89.9	771.9
8	Ashley Parker	ON	334, 332	84.0	750.0

Awards banquet is tonight and then tomorrow I drive south to Saskatoon before flying home to Vancouver tomorrow.

2007 Canadian National Air Pistol Finals

Results for the 2007 Canadian Nationals Air Pistol Finals are in.

Men 10m Air:

10m Air Pistol Men's Final

Result	Competitor	Province	Score	Final	Total
1	Yuri Movshovich	ON	564	97.9	661.9
2	Steve Maly	NS	566	94.7	660.7
3	Scott Illingworth	AB	562	98.7	658.7
4	Jesse Olsen	SK	560	98.2	658.2
5	Stan Wills	AB	562	94.9	656.9
6	JP Huot	PQ	562	94.1	656.1
7	Oscar DiPilla	PQ	559	93.3	652.3
8	James Sandall	AB	560	91.1	651.1
9	Glenn Ohlman	MB	518	91.8	609.8

Women 10m Air:

10m Air Pistol Women's Final

Result	Competitor	Province	Score	Final	Total
1	Dorothy Ludwig	BC	382	93.7	475.7
2	Kim Eagles	BC	377	97.5	474.5
3	Charlene Johnson	BC	376	97.0	473.0
4	Avianna Chao	ON	372	95.7	467.7
5	Ena Ward	ON	371	94.3	465.3
6	Lynda Hare	AB	363	96.7	459.7
7	Jana Stieb	SK	367	90.8	457.8
8	Filiz Cakmak	ON	363	93.8	456.8
9	Karen Van Nest	ON	361	94.2	455.2

Junior Finals will be online shortly.

551 / 600... a good score for my first Nationals in 12 yrs

I finished shooting and finished with a score of 551/600. For my 2nd competition since picking up my gun in May I'm quite pleased. The last time I was at Nationals was in 1995.

I'm happy with this score because it matches my 552/600 I shot in May at Provincials so I'm definitely establishing a solid baseline. Having practiced and trained a couple nights a week for the last couple of months has helped a lot. I know I still need a lot of work to improve on basic fundamentals as that seems to be a key area that will get me more 10's. Working on grip and trigger control will be essential for me to push my scores higher.

One of the key learning's for me at this competition is about all of the rule changes that have occurred since 1995. I had to modify my shooting glasses and reduce my left eye blinder down to 30mm. Also, the range officers here wanted to make sure wrists are always visible and my long sleeves kept sliding down. Time to buy a current rule book! :)

Old left eye blinder and the new smaller left eye blinder

I will be working on getting my gun license so I can shoot other events at these competitions. I'd like to shoot Free Pistol, which is also an Olympic event but it is shot at 50m. I think I'd be more relaxed if I shot a different event before shooting Air Pistol. Air Pistol is my favorite and strongest but having a different event to shoot a day before shooting my Air match will help me get into the right mindset.

I shot on the first Air Pistol relay and most people will be shooting over the next 2 days. I'll post up results as they're made available.

I have some photos I've taken but for some reason my laptop isn't reading my SD card from my camera. I'm here for a few days so hopefully I can get that sorted out.

Time to go explore what this city has to offer... :)

Arrived at Nationals...

This will be a quick update. I've arrived in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and I'm all registered and checked-in for Nationals.

Plane ride to Saskatoon, Canada

There was one issue with my shooting glasses not meeting current rules so I needed to change one of the pieces. Not having shot at Nationals since the mid-90s I should have expected some rules would have changed. ;)

Lucky for me Scott from Illingworth Imports was there to help me out. Thanks Scott!

I had a chance to practice a bit in the indoor range and I'm looking forward to shooting tomorrow.

Taking aim during practice time

I shoot on the first relay tomorrow at noon. Dinner time. :)

11 days to go... Nationals website updated

11 days remain until I leave for Saskatchewan. I would have liked to have made a few more posts before I left but time is short and well I'm sure you all would rather I was practicing anyway. ;)

What do the next 11 days have in store for me?

• Continuing to practice at the Richmond Rod & Gun club Wednesday and Friday nights.
• Continue cardio and physical training Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights.
• Tighten up my food and beverage consumption. I always shoot better when I've been eating a lot of fruits and vegetables and keeping breads, sugars, and meat down to a minimum. Fish is always good too so I'm going to get some sushi a couple times before I leave. :)
• Cut caffeine out. I'm going to research this some more as I've read caffeine stays in your system for up to 72 hrs. I also don't want a situation where cutting caffeine out completely creates a negative response. I do love my Diet Rockstar sugar free energy drinks. ;)
• Confirm all travel details (again).

Some other news:

The Canadian National Pistol Championships website has been updated with lots of new information. They have also announced that the shooting range will have wireless Internet access so I will definitely be posting updates from there.

Travel details for Nationals are all set

I have all of my travel details for Nationals in order. I will be flying out of Vancouver on August 10th and arriving in Saskatoon in the morning. Then a short 2 hr drive to Prince Albert.

I compete the following day on Saturday at 12:00 pm on the first Air Pistol relay of the competition. The current match relays and positions is now posted on the Canadian Nationals website. I will then have a couple of days rest before the Finals and National Team Trials match. It has been awhile since I competed at a Nationals event so I'm not sure yet what the rules or qualification are for the National Team Trial. I believe Finals will be the top 8 shooters in any of the Olympic events (Rapid Fire Pistol, Free Pistol, and Air Pistol).

I check out Wednesday morning and will fly out of Saskatoon in the late afternoon and arrive home to Vancouver in the evening.

One month remains before I leave. I've got a very basic training plan I'm following. I avoided making it unnecessarily complicated and just sticking to basics. Spending time conditioning and strengthening core muscles, cardio, and of course actual practice time at the shooting range.

I'm waiting for the Knobloch Lens Testing kit from Illingworth Imports, as soon as I have it I'll post up info about my shooting glasses. I suspect I'll need a new lens cut for my 12 yr old shooting glasses. Too much time in front of a computer! ;)

The importance of a Competition Journal

One of the great things about having taken such a long break away from competition air pistol shooting is that I forgot a lot of things. Specifically, bad habits. A huge portion of this sport, like any sport for that matter, is the mental aspect of it. I used to spend a lot of time training my mind.

When I was regularly competing before, I would get myself into a lot of trouble with a poorly executed mental performance. The problem with this is that I would finish the competition and leave it at that and not do anything to correct a poor performance. This was made worse if I actually shot a decent score and did nothing afterwards.

Shooting a decent score is like going to a match and staying within your comfort zone and being content with that. Boring. If you want to shoot super scores you need to do more than piggyback on a 'decent performance' to get you there.

The goal of a training / competition journal should be to reinforce positives and modify negatives.

When I went to my first competition this past May I made sure that I kept a journal of everything so that I would have notes to work from later. This became especially important to me when I knew it would probably be the only competition I'd be able to attend before going to Nationals in August. Looking back at my notes now, I know I will always do it for every single competition I attend from now on.


What do I keep track of in my Competition Journal?

• Event name, location, results


• Overall thoughts: Were there any themes to how I felt I did?


• Time leading up to match: Travel details... any problems with accommodations? car rental? What went right? Did I forgot to pack anything? Should I have brought anything differently? What did I eat? How did I sleep? Etc.


• During competition: How many sighter targets did I take? What was I wearing? Any problems with my equipment? Any possible improvements to equipment? Range lighting? Other range notables? Competition pace? Mental routine? Physical routine?


• After competition: Immediate thoughts after competition? Who shot next to me? Scoring accuracy by officials and scorers?


• Other thoughts?

I kept track of a LOT of details. The photo above shows some of the details of what I wrote down after Provincials. I find it useful to separate a training journal from a competition journal.

My biggest takeaways from that competition were equipment related and in reinforcing the positive benefits of a training AND competition journal.

At Provincials I had 3 key areas all related to equipment that I wanted to improve:

• Sight blackener. When I competed before I used to always take a carbide lighter to my gun sights to make them super black.


• C02 - The precious gas which powers my pellets 10 meters to the target. I had one empty cylinder and another which was nearly empty after having been shipped via air from Cibles Targets. The range was out of C02 and most of the other competitors were either using Compressed Air or a different brand of gun. Knowing that after any shot you might be out of air isn't healthy for your mental program.


• Shooting glasses. The lens in my shooting glasses is 10 yrs old... it was OK but I knew for Nationals I would be better off if I went and got my eyes tested and possibly even got a new lens cut for my glasses. At the very least I would be able to rule out my eyes as any kind of an excuse. ;)

All of these points are actual notes in my competition journal. With 6 weeks to go I've ordered sight blackener from my friend Scott at Illingworth Imports as well as a Knobloch Lens Testing Kit. Knobloch is the make of shooting glasses I compete with, I'll be covering those in my next blog posting.

As always... any feedback and comments are hugely appreciated. If you like this blog please tell a friend, let me know, or let's exchange links. Cheers.