Lax shooting drills. Lacrosse Shooting Drills: Boost Your Skills and Accuracy on the Field

How can lacrosse players improve their shooting techniques. What are the most effective drills for enhancing shooting power and accuracy. Which exercises help players develop versatility in their shots.

Essential Lacrosse Shooting Drills for Beginners

Lacrosse shooting drills are crucial for developing accuracy, power, and versatility in players’ offensive skills. These exercises help athletes hone their techniques, improve their aim, and become more confident shooters on the field. Let’s explore some fundamental drills that coaches, parents, and players can incorporate into their training routines.

Dodge and Shoot Drill

This drill combines dodging skills with shooting accuracy:

• Players start at the midfield line
• They dodge past a real or imaginary defender
• Finish with a shot on goal
• Practice both right-handed and left-handed shots

Why is this drill effective? It simulates game-like situations where players must quickly transition from dodging to shooting, improving their overall offensive capabilities.

Wing Attack Drill

Similar to the dodge and shoot drill, but with a different starting position:

• Players begin on the wings
• Execute a dodge past a defender
• Take a shot on goal
• Alternate between right and left-handed shots

How does this drill benefit players? It helps them develop shooting skills from different angles and positions on the field, making them more versatile attackers.

Advanced Shooting Drills for Lacrosse Players

As players progress, they can incorporate more complex drills to challenge their skills and improve their shooting abilities.

Catch and Shoot Drill

This drill focuses on quick reactions and accurate shooting:

• Players start at the midfield line or wings
• Receive a pass from a coach or teammate
• Catch the ball and immediately shoot on goal
• Practice from both left and right sides

For a more advanced version, try the following:

• Coach calls out a target (e.g., upper right corner) as the player catches the pass
• Player must aim for the specified target
• Alternate between right and left-handed shots

How does this drill enhance shooting skills? It improves hand-eye coordination, reaction time, and accuracy under pressure.

Ground Ball to Shot Drill

This exercise combines ground ball skills with shooting:

• Players run towards a loose ball
• Scoop up the ground ball
• Immediately transition into a shot on goal

Why is this drill important? It helps players develop the ability to quickly transition from ground ball pickup to shooting, a crucial skill in game situations.

Developing Shooting Skills from Different Field Positions

To become well-rounded shooters, players must practice shooting from various positions on the field. Here are some drills to help achieve this goal:

X Position Shooting Drill

This drill focuses on shots from behind the goal:

• Players start behind the goal (X position)
• Run around the goal and take a shot
• Practice from both left and right sides
• Incorporate fakes when close to the goal

How does this drill improve shooting skills? It helps players develop the ability to shoot quickly and accurately from tight angles near the goal.

Dodge and Shoot from X

Building on the previous drill, players can practice more advanced techniques:

• Start from the X position
• Execute question mark dodges, inside rolls, or rocker dodges
• Finish with a shot on goal

Why are these dodges important for shooting? They help players create space and shooting opportunities when closely defended near the goal.

Improving Shooting Accuracy in Lacrosse

Accuracy is crucial in lacrosse shooting. Here are some drills to help players improve their aim:

Target Practice Drill

This drill is especially useful when a goalie is not available:

• Set up targets in the goal (e.g., lacrosse targets, cones, or half-full water bottles)
• Players shoot at specific targets to improve accuracy
• Vary target positions to challenge players

How does this drill enhance shooting precision? It provides visual targets for players to aim at, helping them develop better control and placement of their shots.

Quick Stick Shooting Drill

This drill focuses on rapid, close-range shooting:

• Players position themselves close to the goal
• Practice quick stick shots without cradling
• Focus on accuracy and quick release

Why is quick stick shooting important? It allows players to release shots rapidly in crowded areas near the goal, catching goalies off guard.

Enhancing Shooting Power in Lacrosse

While accuracy is crucial, shooting power is equally important in lacrosse. Let’s explore some drills designed to increase shot velocity:

Power Shooting Drill

This drill focuses on developing shot power:

• Set up two lines of players on either side of the goal, about 3 feet from the pipes
• Position players 2 yards above the crease
• Player with the ball passes gently to the opposite line
• Receiving player steps into the pass, catches in front of the cage
• Execute a shot with maximum power
• Players switch lines after shooting

What’s the key to generating power in this drill? Players should focus on reaching back, twisting their hips for torque, and “kissing” their front shoulder before releasing the shot.

Shooting on the Run Drill

This drill combines power with movement:

• Set up two lines 10 yards above the box
• Players start with balls in both lines
• Execute split dodges, one going left and one right
• Use the same power shooting mechanics (reach back, twist hips, kiss shoulder)
• Focus on maintaining power while shooting on the move

How does this drill benefit players? It helps them develop the ability to generate power in their shots while moving, simulating game-like situations.

Developing Versatility in Lacrosse Shooting

To become well-rounded shooters, players must practice a variety of shot types and techniques. Let’s explore some drills that promote shooting versatility:

Cutting Drill

This drill focuses on shooting while moving across the goal:

• Player starts 15-20 yards out from the goal
• Run diagonally across the face of the net
• Receive a feed from a coach or teammate
• Catch and shoot on the run
• Practice cuts from both left to right and right to left

Why is this drill important? It helps players develop the ability to shoot accurately while moving at different angles in front of the goal.

Behind the Back Shooting Drill

This advanced drill helps players add deception to their shooting:

• Start close to the goal
• Practice behind the back shots
• Focus on accuracy first, then increase power
• Gradually move further from the goal as skills improve

How does behind the back shooting benefit players? It adds an element of surprise to their offensive arsenal, making them more unpredictable to defenders and goalies.

Integrating Fakes and Dodges into Shooting Drills

Incorporating fakes and dodges into shooting drills can significantly enhance a player’s offensive capabilities. Let’s explore some exercises that combine these elements:

Fake and Shoot Drill

This drill focuses on using deception before shooting:

• Player starts with the ball about 10 yards from the goal
• Execute a convincing fake (e.g., fake pass, fake shot)
• Immediately follow with a real shot on goal
• Practice various types of fakes

Why are fakes important in shooting? They can momentarily freeze or misdirect defenders and goalies, creating better shooting opportunities.

Dodge, Fake, and Shoot Drill

This more advanced drill combines multiple offensive skills:

• Start at the top of the box
• Execute a dodge past a defender (real or imaginary)
• Perform a fake to create space
• Finish with a shot on goal
• Practice with both dominant and non-dominant hands

How does this drill benefit players? It helps them string together multiple offensive moves, simulating complex game situations and improving their overall offensive skill set.

By incorporating these diverse shooting drills into regular practice sessions, lacrosse players can significantly improve their shooting accuracy, power, and versatility. Remember to practice these drills with both dominant and non-dominant hands to become a well-rounded offensive threat on the field. As players progress, they can increase the complexity and speed of these drills to continually challenge themselves and elevate their game.

Lacrosse Shooting Drills – Beginner Lacrosse

Here are basic lacrosse shooting drills that teams (and parents) can use to improve their player’s shooting skill. They work on shooting accuracy, power, etc. For more drills on other lacrosse skills (i.e. passing drills), please visit the main Lacrosse Drills section.

For more lacrosse shooting drills and tips, visit our main section on Lacrosse Shooting Techniques. It has information on basic & advanced lacrosse shooting techniques such as Fakes, Shooting for Power, Behind the Back Shooting, Elevator Shots, etc.

Beginner Lacrosse – Best Lacrosse Books

Examples of Lacrosse Shooting Drills

• Players should run from the midfield line, dodge (past a defender – real or imaginary) and shoot on the goal. They should practice righty and lefty shots.
• Players should run from the wings, dodge (past a defender – real or imaginary) and shoot on the goal. They should practice righty and lefty shots.
• Players should run from the midfield line or wings, catch a pass (feed from parent/coach) and shoot. Players should practice shots from both sides – left and right.
• More advanced version – Players should run from the midfield line or wings, catch a pass (feed from parent/coach) and shoot. Coach/parent should call out a target (i.e. upper right corner) as the player catches the pass. The player must then try to hit that target in the net. Players should practice righty and lefty shots.
• Players should run, a scoop up ground ball and shoot.
• Players should run from around back of goal (from X) and shoot. Players should practice shots from both sides – left and right. Make sure that they practice fakes when close to the goal.
• From X, you can have players practice question mark dodges, inside rolls and rocker dodges and then getting off a shoot.
• If you are missing a goalie, you can add targets (i.e. lax targets, cones or even half full water bottles) in the net in order to practice shooting accuracy.
• Practice quick stick shots close to the goal.
• Cutting Drills – Have your player “cut” across the face of the goal (left to right or right to left). He should start from 15-20 yards out, run diagonally across the face of the net and end up at goal line extended on the other side of goal. Coach (or another player) will stand near/behind goal line extended on the opposite side of net (versus where the player starts) and feed player as he cuts across goal. Player should catch and shoot on the run.

Examples of Lacrosse Shooting Drills

Drills for Shooting Hard – LAXPlaybook

It is very important to have your kids be able to shoot hard.   For the younger lacrosse players around Junior High the kids are most likely shooting to just get it on cage.  They are not winding up as hard as they can because most are afraid of missing the cage. 

Power Shooting Drill:

A drill we do every single day is called “Power Shooting”. 

·         This drill is to encourage kids to reach back and let it rip. In this drill we are not working on accuracy but velocity.

·         Have a bucket of balls on the left side of the cage about 3 feet from the pipe. 

·         There will be a line there with players and have another line of players on the other side of the pipe. 

·         We will generally be 2 yards above the crease. 

·         Have the player with the ball gently pass the ball to the other line. 

·         The person shooting will step into the pass and catch the ball in the center of the cage.  Players are practicing catching the ball ready to shoot. 

·         There is a slight cradle and then a shot.

·         The two active players will then run to the end of the opposite line. 

One major coaching point I constantly remind my players is as they are reaching back, they should be kissing their front shoulder.  As the player is reaching back and kissing their shoulder, watch the kids hips.  Make sure they are twisting their hips for more torque.  Their follow through should almost look like they are falling towards the net.  This drill will get players numerous amounts of shots in a short period.  After all the balls are done, switch sides from right handed to left handed shots. 

Each drill is a transition into different types of shots. 

Shooting on the Run Drill:

The next we immediately go into is shooting on the run. 

·         Bring the bucket of balls up top 10 yards above the box. 

·         We always make sure we start our dodges above the box to spread the defense. 

·         Two lines side by side with each kid having a ball.  

·         The first two will split dodge, one going left and one going right. 

·         They are to use the same mechanics as power shooting (Reach back, twist your hips and kiss your shoulder). 

·         The shooter must fall into their shot towards the goal. 

·         Once they shoot they run back to the opposite line. 

·         Once again, many players getting in plenty of shots in a short period of time.

 “C” Cut Shooting Drill:

·         Start in two lines. 

·         One line above the box with the balls and the other outside the box in the alley. 

·         The first player from the alley line will line up right outside the crease. 

·         Here we are working on receiving a pass in a tight spot and releasing a quick shot. 

·         The player with the ball split dodges towards the cage. 

·         The person on the crease will mirror the dodger and perform a “C”cut.

·         This also works on feeding.  

A major coaching point is to constantly remind the finisher to finish the C.  At the younger levels you see players catching a ball standing still.  On the crease these athletes will not get a shot off.  Make sure the player is running through the pass with his stick in the shooting position.  Same as Power Shooting, hands are ready, reach back and kiss your shoulder, twist the hips and fall through your shot towards the net.

For the past 4 years we have done these progression shooting drills every single day and have seen a tremendous increase in high quality shots.  Years past many kids did not feel comfortable shooting.  Now every kid feels comfortable shooting and shooting hard.

Shooting Diagrams For Beginner Coaches

There are 2 styles of shot in lacrosse:  shooting-on-the-run (which is the most frequent) & set-shooting (which is the focus of this article).   Using a basketball analogy, for a set-shot think Steph Curry with his feet set, perfect balance, dropping a bomb from long range with perfect form.  For a shot-on-the-run, picture Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant slashing to the net and pulling up for an off-balance jump shot.

Set-Shooting sees the shooter start perpendicular to the net, taking a “crow hop” for extra power if “time & space is available

In lacrosse, when offenders get “time & space” in the prime scoring area, usually their first option is to take a “set-shot.” A good set-shot starts with a player standing perpendicular to the net, taking a baseball-like “crow-hop” if they have time, and then transferring their weight from their back foot forward onto their front foot; rotating their hips/shoulders (torso) and following through (shooting around the pipes).  When set-shooting, remember the BEEF principles: Balanced (stance), Eyes (on target), Elbows (reaching back, tight to the body), and Follow Through (towards the target).

The following is a list of drill progressions we use at Laxlife.ca to teach set-shooting, all of which could also be used to teach shooting-on-the-run…

Drill #1:  SEMI-CIRCLE (HORSESHOE) DRILL

For extra reps, or if no goalie is present, having everyone shoot at the same time can be fun and coaches can keep track of how many balls hit the net (or posts).  Having players “react” to their rebound is another good habit to be promoted.

The horseshoe drill is a great starting point for teaching set-shooting to a large group. Although, if boards or a wall are available, doing a demo and then having players practice (warm-up) there for a couple of minutes before shooting on the net is generally preferred.

Using the net as a reference point helps teach players where they should be shooting from.  In box lacrosse, players should always practice shots from inside of the “prime scoring area,” on their “proper floor side. “  

The prime scoring area is defined as two imaginary diagonal lines going from each goal post outward on a 45° angle towards the side-boards.  Just outside of the shooter position, another imaginary semicircle (10 metres out from the top of the crease) connects to just outside the other shooter position on the opposite side of the floor, forming an arc that ultimately connects to the diagonals (45°).  Shots from this area are considered to be “high percentage,” as a higher percentage of goals are proven to go in from this area than anywhere else.

Players should also be sure to take shots from their proper floor side, defined as a lengthwise “imaginary division” of the floor, stretching from the middle of one net to the other; players’ sticks should be facing this imaginary midline for the large majority of the time while on the floor.  Likewise, players’ bodies should rarely, if ever, cross this imaginary midline while shooting. Any shot on the “wrong floor-side” of this imaginary line is considered a bad shot, and one that the goalie should save.

Prime Scoring Area

If there’s no goalie in the “horseshoe drill,” coaches can ask that players shoot “all at once,” which gives beginners a chance to get lots of repetitions.  Some common errors we tend to see in beginning players are:  not reaching their arms back in their preliminary movements, not releasing the ball properly (too far in front or behind their body), taking their eyes off of the target, not shooting overhand, and/or not following through to the target (stopping short; abrupt follow through).

If there is a goalie, players can take turns shooting, working their way from one side to the other (left to right or right to left), with one second in-between shots.  Another advanced variation is to incorporate side-to-side shooting, switching from a left-handed to a right-handed shooter on each shot, which forces the goalies to have to reset on each shot and ultimately opens up more holes for shooters to try and expose.   

Once players have developed sound shot mechanics, coaches can ask that players “react back” after shooting, sprinting the length of the floor (collecting a loose ball along the way if possible), and then lining up in the same formation in the opposite end of the floor; or just sprinting to the rag-line (lining up again in the same end).

Drill #2:  STEP & SHOOT

As players begin to stabilize their shot, footwork patterns should then be added before the set-shot takes place.  The first footwork pattern, and generally the most common is the “L-Shot.”  The player takes a jab-step (“juke”) toward the board-side, planting off of their outside leg and cutting toward the middle (2-3 steps max), “setting” their feet (“perpendicular” to the net) for an outside shot.  For beginners, it helps to put pylons on the floor to give a visual representation of the pattern.   See the top half of the diagram below…

The “L-Shot” and the “Drag Shot” are two of the most common footwork patterns used before shooting

If per se, the L-shot didn’t open up a lane for a shot, the next option in a game would to either pass to someone, or drag (back-pedal) back towards their proper floor side.  In the “drag shot” variation (see the bottom half of the diagram above), the player takes a jab-step toward the top-side (opposite of L-shot), planting off of their inside leg and pivoting into a back-pedal (“drag”) toward the “board-side.”  At this point the player should re-establish their momentum towards the net (north-south) and take a shot while still in the prime scoring area.  

Drill #3:  CAROUSEL & SHOOT

To simply pass the ball across the top of the defense is generally an ineffective strategy for creating a quality shot in a set-offense.   Most offensive systems in box lacrosse see the ball get passed low first, and then carried high.  During this process the ball carrier should “be a threat” to shoot.  To replicate this, the next drill variation sees the first player on one side of the floor carry the ball from low to high, from the crease position up to the shooter position, and then step into a set-shot.  

For beginners, pylons may be used for players to curl around, being sure that they have their “head up” looking at the middle while “carrying high” (as opposed to looking at the pylon they are running towards).  This forces players to have to work on changing their body momentum from one direction to the other, in a north-south orientation.  In a game, players would be reading the defense and taking whatever ground they could towards the middle of the prime scoring area.  Thus, the pylon is just a visual cue for beginners.

Pylons may also be used as landmarks (not shown in diagrams) for beginners.  

Drill #4:  CATCH & SHOOT (STATIONARY)

The next progression after learning how to shoot with the ball already in your stick is effectively catching and shooting the ball as seamlessly as possible.  The ideal catch and shoot scenario sees the ball in the air with the player about to receive it already “crow-hopping” towards the net, receiving the ball with arms fully extended behind their body, catching and shooting all in one motion (otherwise known as a “quick stick”).

For beginners, coaches can underhand flip the ball to the player (with their hands), with the player attempting to catch and shoot the ball without cradling (or twirling) their stick.  If players are competent enough, they can pass lefties to righties & vice versa (see diagrams below), working on the same mechanics as described above. 

This drill is the first time players are asked to catch the ball before shooting, which can be a problem for beginners. Any time 2 tasks are combined into 1, it is inherently more difficult 

Drill #5:  CATCH & SHOOT (DYNAMIC)

The most advanced variation of shooting is for players to catch a lead pass in stride (gradually building up their running speed), shifting their momentum downhill (north-south) and taking a set-shot as quickly as possible upon receiving the pass (ideally all in one motion if it’s a good pass).  This is the most game-specific shot and the model for what players should try to be able to execute consistently.  See the diagram below…

Passing to where a player is going, not where they are, is what is referred to as “lead passing.” It is a skill that must be perfected in order to create shots in advanced lacrosse.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

The final piece of the puzzle is knowing when to, and when not to shoot; otherwise known as shot selection:  Shot selection is a mental process of either taking a shot or passing a shot up (not taking a shot).   Being ready to shoot and in the “triple threat position,” is half of the equation.  The other half depends on game-specific context variables, most notably:  whether there is an open “shooting lane” toward the net and whether the shooter has “time & space.”  Too often, beginning lacrosse players will take the first shot available, and not necessarily the best available shot (shot clock dependent). 

Players must use good judgment before taking low percentage shots outside, or on the cusp of, the prime scoring area.  It is usually better to “curl” out and look for a teammate who is in a better position, rather than take a low-percentage shot.

Shot accuracy and knowing where to shoot on a goalie is the final x-factor, and is usually the responsibility of coaches and “scouts,” although input from players and goaltenders are equally as important.

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Chedda B:

5 Keys To Effective Shooting Drills

by admin | July 10, 2019

To be effective on offense in lacrosse, it is crucial that players are able to shoot the ball into the net. Sounds simple, right? Far too often, we see coaches falling into the same traps when teaching their players how to shoot. The list below provides 5 easy ways to improve your shooting drills and ensure that your team is able to consistently put the ball in the back of the net. We also provide an example of one of our favorite shooting drills that uses all of these features: 5 on a Die Shooting.

1. BALLS, BALLS, BALLS: The less time players have to spend searching for balls or going into the net to retrieve them, the more time they can spend practicing! Value ball-hunts and be sure to have plenty of balls when setting up any shooting drills.

2. Don’t Use Goalies: There will certainly be times to plant your goalies between the pipes during practice, but keeping the nets empty during shooting drills has several advantages. First, you keep your goalies healthy as they don’t see an endless barrage of rubber. Second, players are able to get more reps as multiple shooters can go at once and players don’t have to wait for goalies to get ready. Finally, it is easier for players to practice shooting on different parts of the goal when the goalies are not there to distract or bait them.

3. Incorporate Multiple Skills: Standing at 10 yards out and taking 100 of the same shot over and over may be good for man-up specialists, but well-rounded players need to work on the skills that will transfer during the game. Incorporating dodges and passes into your shooting drills will create a more realistic and wholistic approach. It also allows both middies and attackmen to benefit from the same drills.

4. Reps on Reps: We mentioned it in key 1 and 2, but it is crucial that players are able to get plenty of repetitions from each spot, in each drill. While we want to incorporate multiple skills, we also want to make sure the time between each rep is limited and the drills are tailored appropriately so drills don’t die with missed passes or dropped balls.

5. COMPETE: Make it competitive – whether it is trying to hit the crossbar, scoring 5 in the same corner, or using a timer to create urgency, turning the drill into a game will make it more fun and force players to push themselves.

“5 on a Die Shooting” captures all of the key elements above and combines them into a drill that is great for offensive players of any age. It incorporates dodging and shooting with two players going at the same time. Good luck and keep shooting!

5 LACROSSE DRILLS TO DO ON YOUR OWN – Mountain View Lacrosse Club

If you want to become an elite lacrosse player, you will need to be able to practice and go through drills on your own. These drills will have to be different though because you don’t have the luxury of having other people help you out with them. Drills on your own are what separate the good players from the elite players. What you will need to get started is a field, a cage, a stick, lacrosse balls and cones. Below we will tell you what drills you can do on your own with that lacrosse equipment.

SOLO LACROSSE SHOOTING DRILLS

The main focus of solo lacrosse shooting drills is perfecting your shooting form with muscle memory. You should warm up for some time focusing on using both sides because you want to become well rounded. After warm up is done you can get into any of the five drills below.

●      1) SHOOT THE CORNERS

Another name for this drill is “pick the corners”, which also makes it a pretty self-explanatory drill. While it may seem like a simple drill, it is one of the most important ones you can practice. You should switch hands after each 10 shots and try to aim for the opposite corner from where you are standing. If you can pick out what corner you want to score in, you will become an elite player.

●      2) BASIC SWEEP SHOOTING DRILL

For this drill, place one cone even in line with the left pipe 12 yards away, and the other cone in line with the first one, but instead 10 yards toward the sideline. For this drill, you want to sprint to the outside cone, make a split dodge, and run towards the other cone. As you pass the second cone, you are to shoot at the cage. This is the perfect drill for midfielders looking to improve game-like shots.

●      3) QUICK HITCH SHOOTING DRILL

In the quick hitch shooting drill, only one cone is required, which will be placed 10 yards from either side of the cage. How this drill works is you are to run to the cone, make a stutter step, and then continue to the goal. As you are close to the cage, pick a corner or try a bounce shot. This is another drill to emulate in-game situations.

●      4) TURNING THE CORNER SHOOTING DRILL

This drill is perfect for an attackmen because you are practicing eluding your defender. Put a cone to the side of the cage, run around the goal and once you pass the cone fire a shot as quickly and as accurately as you can. This is a great drill to create scoring opportunities for yourself. Make sure you practice from both sides.

●      5) SHADOW SHOOTING DRILL

Shadow shooting is the most simple of the drills, but it is arguably the most important. For this all you will need is your stick and an attention to detail. The purpose of this drill is to take dry shots without a ball to focus on the technique of your shots. Pay close attention to both your footwork and your throwing motion on each dry shot you take.

LEARN DRILLS FROM LACROSSE PROFESSIONALS

Solo and team drills are so important to becoming a better lacrosse player, as well as taking advantage to learn from the professionals. At Thompson Brothers Lacrosse, our athletes offer a number of resources to get better such as our camps, blog, YouTube page, or Instagram account. We can also help you dress like the pros with our wide selection in the TBL shop.  Contact us today to learn more about what Thompson Brothers Lacrosse offers, or just to talk about the greatest game on earth!

Salisbury College Lax Drills « Rough Riders Lax

Attack – Split Dodge, C.O.D., Finalizer, Inside Roll

Box Shooting 3 Guys

Bucket Drill

C-Cut Drill (Left Hand Shot)

Dawson

Diagonal Hitch & Shoot

Diagonal Roll Back

Dodge to ‘X’ Catch & Shoot

Dodge, Fade & Feed (Left)

Dodge, Fade & Feed (Right)

Dodge, Hitch & Shoot

Give & Go, Shot on the Run

High to Low Crease (Left)

High to Low Crease (Right)

Rapid Fire Shooting

Roll Back, Catch & Go

Roll Back, Catch & Step Out

Same Side Roll Back

Same Side Split

Wing Dodge & Roll Back

12 Excellent Lacrosse Goalie Drills to Improve Your Game

Hello my fellow shot blockers! Today I’m going to share another 12 lacrosse goalie drills that will improve your game.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I also wrote about advanced lacrosse goalie drills and lacrosse goalie drills to improve your foot speed.

Work these drills into your practice routine and watch your game drastically improve.

Without further ado, here’s the 12 lacrosse goalie drills for today –

For this drill we’ll put a lacrosse goal about 10 feet from a wall, with the goal face towards the wall.

The goalie stands in the goal, facing the wall without looking back.

Then we’ll have a teammate or coach shoot shots against the wall. The ball will ricochet against the wall and the goalie will need to react to the make the save.

This drill will improve the goalie’s reaction time and also work on their ability to make saves in close.

Shots should start off at a slower pace and then gradually increase once the goalie starts to get the hang of the drill.  You can also decrease the goalie’s distance between him and the wall to make the drill more difficult.

If there is no available wall you can also do this drill using a lacrosse rebounder.

As a coach or a goalie be sure to not get discouraged if balls enter the goal. The point of the drill isn’t to block every shot, its to see the ball and develop your reaction speed and ability to save shots at close range. As with every drill and game, don’t get frustrated if a ball goes in the goal.

Be sure to mix up the shot location (sides, corners, bounce shots) and also the shot origin (left side of goal / right side of goal).

Here is Scott Rodgers demonstrating the Mystery Shot drill, although he calls it the Blind Reaction Drill.

This drill comes from pro lax goalie and coach Brian “Doc” Dougherty. The Doc Drill works 3 important elements of a lacrosse save – move your top hand to the ball, moving your feet, clear vision of the ball.

For this drill we need a short stick, a wall, and a ball.

We’ll stand about 10-12 feet away from the wall and shoot the ball against the wall.

When the ball ricochets off the wall we’ll pretend like its a shot coming at us and make the save.

Remember our basic lacrosse save fundamentals – exploding our top hand to the ball, stepping with our lead foot, keeping our eyes on the shot the entire way, and then finishing in a balanced position, ready to make another save if need be.

Like the last drill, mix up the shot location (low / high, left / right).

After making a save, since we’re stepping at forward angle we’ll be moving closer to the wall with each shot. Rather than restarting the position just keep doing the drill until you’re closer and closer to the wall. Once you’re just a few feet from the wall, then reset to your starting position.

Here is a video of Doc demonstrating the drill:

Another drill from Doc, this one works our concentration and focus as we practice watching the ball all the way into the stick.

We’ll position our head directly over our toes looking down. Feet position doesn’t matter all that much.

With our top hand (our dominant hand) we’ll throw the ball very hard against the ground and then catch it with the same hand.

An alternative to this drill is keep your eyes focused in the same spot (in between our feet) but bounce the ball outside of our feet, off to the side.

This alternative will help us develop our peripheral vision.

Here is Doc demonstrating the Eyes Focus Drill:

For this agility drill we’ll place to lacrosse sticks or tape about 4 yards apart, parallel to one another.

Start straddling one stick, your partner rolls a lacrosse ball to the other side. The goalie shuffles his feet to reach the other stick and then picks up the ball and throws it back.

The partner then rolls the ball to the other side and the drill repeats.

Ensure the goalie is going past the sticks every time.

This drill is will work our conditioning and about 30 second reps should be good. Rest and then repeat.

This drill will work an important part of our lacrosse goalie game – outlet passes and clears.

There are two types of passes we’ll need to perfect in order to master the clearing game – the bullet pass and the lob pass.

For practicing the bullet pass we’ll mark a spot on a wall with chalk or tape. Then standing about 20-25 feet away from wall practice throwing a bullet pass to that exact spot on the wall.

Start at about 75% of your max strength to focus on accuracy at first. When you’re consistently hitting the spot on the wall, increase the bullet pass power until you reach 100% effort.

If you have a backup stick, be sure to take some reps with that stick as well so you have a clear understanding of your stick’s throwing ability.

To practice the lob pass, setup a large garbage can about 20-25 feet away and practice lobbing the ball into the can. Keep at the drill until you’re can consistently put the ball into the can.

These 2 passing drills are also excellent for those just restrung their goalie sticks and need to re-familiarize themselves with how it throws.

In my list of 8 advanced lacrosse drills I talked about a rapid fire drill using a pitching machine or tennis ball machine.

This version of Rapid Fire you can do with a coach or a teammate.

We’ll line up 30 lacrosse balls each around 15 yards from the cage.

For this drill the goalie will be making the save and then tossing the ball aside, don’t throw it back to the shooter.

The shooter meanwhile we’ll shoot one ball after another as quick as he can.

Get in our good stance quickly and consistently. Get set quickly and find the ball quickly and be able to react to shots.

Here is Trevor Tierney explaining and then also performing the drill:

This drill will help goalie quickly move from one side of their goalie arc to another.

We’ll need two shooters to do this simple drill. Each shooter is about 15 yards from the goal with one of the left side and the other on the right side.

The shooter will pass the ball to the other who will take a quick shot.

The goalie who is setup in his stance and on the arc for the shot will need to quickly move across his arc and quickly get into his ready stance in time to make the save for the shot.

This drill will help goalie’s understand the angles game involved with playing lacrosse goalie.

We’ll get a long, thin rope (about 100 feet). Tie each end onto either goalpost.

The shooter then steps into the loop formed by the rope, wraps it around his waist and backs away from the goal until the rope is taut.

The rope will form a V between shooter and the goal.

The shooter will move around and take shots on the goalie as we would during a normal warmup.

The rope will give the goalie a visual reference of the angle that needs to be reduced by our lead step. It demonstrates where we should be setup on our arc and how are far we need to step cut down the angle.

Eventually through repetition of this drill, the goalies will better understand angles without the rope.

Pretty simple, this works on getting your hands to the target. This one may not seem like a lacrosse goalie drill however it does help our game.

Stand about 4-5 feet from a partner and have them throw the football to your while you’re in your stance.

Step to the ball, hands out and grab the football w/ both hands. The object is to catch the ball with both hands WHILE stepping to the ball, not having your body follow your hands.

This works on getting to the ball with your hands and feet moving together at the same time, which helps you make the save faster.

Return to your ready stance and take about 5-6 passes in each of the 7 spots.

For this drill we’ll use lightweight foam nerf balls (like these ones).

These foam balls float in the air and take funny routes on the shot path due to all the spin.

For this drill the shooter simply takes shots on the goalie as if you were going through a normal pre-game warmup.

The idea of this drill is wait as long as you can – tracking the ball – and then react to the shot, making the save with good technique.

If you have trouble seeing shots, this is a great drill because it forces you to track the ball. Instead of just instinctively moving, really force yourself to watch the nerf ball, wait, and react.

Then once you switch to normal lacrosse balls you’ll notice how much easier it is to track the shots and react accordingly.

Here’s a video demonstrating this drill:

I’ve already talked about how I think all goalies should work with a short stick.

Wall ball is a drill you can do when you’re on your own. All you need is a stick, a ball, and a wall.

Check the post linked above for a specific wall ball routine you can follow to develop your stick skills and hand-eye coordination.

Here’s a great drill from the All-Star lacrosse goalie Brian Phipps. It’s one of my favorite goalie drills for improving clears.

This drill also serves as a conditioning drill due to the amount of running involved.

If we have 3 goalies on your team, we’ll setup with 2 goalies acting as defenseman. If you only have 1 or 2 goalies, recruit some extra players or coaches to help with this drill.

The goalie running the drill (G1) will start with the ball and make an outlet pass to the defenseman (G2). G1 will then sprint over to the hash towards G2. G2 passes the ball back to G1. G1 makes a long pass to G3 and then sprints to the hash on the same side of the field as G3. G3 passes it back to G1 and the drill continues.

Run it for about 5 times through and then switch roles.

The drill looks like this:

G1 passes to a defenseman and then sprints to the hash in that direction.

Defenseman passes it back.

G1 passes to the other side of the field and sprints to the hash on that side.

Variations of this drill:

• G1 simulates that an attackman is pressuring him and gives a face dodge before making the outlet pass
• G1 carries the ball to mid-field before making the outlet pass
• G2 can make a re-direct pass to G3, G1 still sprints to the other side
• Add extra attackman to provide pressure on the goalies

Here is a video of Brian explaining the full drill. His explanation of catching the ball across your body at 2:51 is very good.

If you’re looking for even more lacrosse goalie drills, checkout these 2 posts:

• 18 Lacrosse Goalie Drills to Improve Your Reaction Time and Foot Speed
• 8 Advanced Lacrosse Goalie Drills

Finding the right lacrosse goalie drills is essential to building a championship goalie.

By working the above drills into our practice routine or offseason program we’ll develop the skills and reactions necessary to dominate in the cage.

Until next time! Coach Damon

Any questions on how to do a drill? Let me know in the comments. 

90,000 Priorities in training a practical shooter

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By : Alexander Shooter.

Practical shooting is developing very rapidly in Russia, which is good news. Nevertheless, the sport is young and there is no standard training program for a beginner shooter yet. There are practically no full-time experienced coaches (not instructors – this is important!), Apart from the famous masters from the national team. And what do we have in terms of training a specific shooter? An introductory course, designed for 150-200 shots with basic elements, on-site courses in Finland and Mallorca, which the bulk of shooters cannot afford, and various seminars conducted by some PS masters for a tidy sum.At all these events, again basic elements with comments are given. But beginners and even experienced shooters often have a question: “So I went through the courses, shot 1000 rounds, and what to do next?” And this category of shooters begins to train everything indiscriminately, which will be remembered from these courses.

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, of course, everything is simpler, the SS is already well developed there. By the way, having learned the price for the services of an instructor in the capital, I realized that the PS is already moving into business for some people, and this is sad… Remember the bullet shooting sections of the DOSAAF, on which they were built.

As for the regions, there are no trainers as such. There are again instructors whose main task is to ensure safety and give a certain set of shooting exercises. But this is not an athlete’s training. Therefore, the shooter is forced to become his own coach, and, as you know, it is very difficult to train himself.

The question arises – what to shoot? How many shots? Maybe the first shot today? Or do you need to run short and long moves? And it turns out that the shooter randomly starts shooting everything.

And what is real to shoot ?? Fortunately, famous good people have already done the work for us in the selection of exercises, you just need to systematize them and prioritize in working out specific elements, which I will discuss below. And we are talking about the book by V.A. Kryuchin – “practical shooting” and the methodological manual of A.I. Kondrukh. “Practical Shooting” is a wonderful book, which is better to buy in the original, but if everything is bad, you can download it on the Internet. I will not retell the content, I will only say that the book contains dozens of exercises with descriptions, subtleties and analysis of errors.Better not to come up with! Take it, read it, try it. About 4 years ago I made myself an extract of all the exercises (they were published in the magazine “Brother”) and just worked them out one by one in a circle. But there are about 50 exercises and if all this is worked out, then the process will be very delayed, and we, as a rule, always have some kind of competition on the nose 🙂 …

What have I done? I summarized the elements and made a mini plan. It looked like this – (screen from my training diary):

As you can see, there are not so many elements in the PS – removal from the chest, the first shot from the holster, carrying weapons, double shot, shooting from behind cover and into ports, shooting at difficult targets, moving, manipulating weapons such as reloading, sending a cartridge into the chamber, elimination of delays, etc.p.

Let’s take a quick look at my basic circuit.

1. Accuracy single . Here I include the carry-over from the chest, the 1st shot, the transfer from target to target, and all this is done at basic distances – 10.15, 25m. Now I would add 5 meters more.
2. Flash , double shot is meant. This is the practice of two aimed shots at different distances.
3. Inconvenient positions – everything related to the scenery – shooting from behind cover, at a low port, etc.d.
4. Challenging targets are headstock targets, long range targets, iron and moving targets such as swingers.
5. Movements – Long, Short, Shooting on the Move and Shooting on the Run with the targets at close range.
6. Mat. part – elements related to the manipulation of weapons – position number 2, 3, reloading, picking up weapons from the table, etc. Now I would add the elimination of delays to this.
7. Strong, weak hands – everything is clear here.
8. Attention are exercises with various tasks in mind, for example, shooting at even targets. You can name the numbers of targets you need to shoot at, or, on the contrary, you don’t need to shoot (for more details, see the book “Practical Shooting”), etc. The precision test is the famous Dot tortue test. But now I don’t shoot him, but I don’t see the point – I am engaged in additional classical shooting and, in principle, there are no special problems with accuracy. Problems only with the head :).

As you can see, this program is a block of eight lessons.If you shoot once a week, then the program is designed for 2 months, if 2 times a week, then, accordingly, for a month. I took one topic and trained selected elements at the rate of 100 rounds per training (4 years ago I could not afford more and only fired 100 rounds a week, however, this did not stop me from shooting on the CCM and then on the MC).

If you have more or less cartridges at your disposal, respectively, you can simply multiply or decrease the shot in a specific element (for example, shoot the transfer not 40 times, as according to the plan, but 20 or 80).

Now we get to the main question? In what respect to shoot these topics (elements of the PS). What to focus on, and what can be worked out to a minimum?

Initially, I was stupidly practicing topic by topic. If something turned out badly, he repeated the topic in the next lesson. And so round and round. And before the competition, I built mini exercises and trained the balance of speed and accuracy (there will be a separate article on the balance). But having trained more or less all the basic elements, the question arises – what to focus on? I constantly have to see how beginner and intermediate experienced shooters shoot it is not clear what, for example, from class to class they work out the first shot, or movements.I ask: “Why are you practicing the first shot today?” Answer: “Well, I don’t know, I shoot and shoot ….” This is where the main answer to the question of training in the PS in general lies.

As in any sport, in PS you need to train exactly what will be in the competition. Take the long 32-shot drill, what do we have there? Do you have the first shot? Let’s say there is, but not always … It may be that we need to move from the very beginning and make the first shot in a different position.Run into position, what are we doing? We take out the weapon and hit a group of targets, of which most of all cardboard, cardboard we hit with two shots . Next, we do transfer of to another cardboard or piece of iron, etc. Then move to another position and the situation repeats. Thus, it is clearly seen that almost all shooting is reduced to three basic things – removal, double shot (re-shot), transfer of weapons (I wrote a separate article about moving, where arguments for the relevance of this skill are given).Therefore, these are the things that need to be worked out first of all in training. This is especially true for thrifty shooters who can NOT afford to shoot 300 shots per training 3 times a week. You just have to use your cartridges rationally.

For reference, a sore point about weekly shooting … I asked many masters about their weekly shooting, these figures differ for different shooters, but the minimum bar is 2 times a week, 150-200 shots per training.This is the minimum at which there is real progress. Personally, I shoot 150-200 shots once a week in the offseason, keeping in shape, and reworking the whole base, developing speed and stability. You need to understand that only by shooting wisely each shot, there will be a result. Resist the temptation to “water somewhere there.” Only when preparing for a specific match, in a couple of months, I increase the number of trainings to two or three per week. This method is similar to the method of intensive training in professional sports, when due to the volume of work, the general level of training rises sharply.

After working out three basic elements, the first shot is already in progress, reloading, shooting from behind cover, strong and weak hand, etc. Therefore, be very careful about your workout priorities. There is no need to hammer 100 rounds with a weak hand, if in a match of 20 exercises, the maximum will be one with a weak hand, and then, not a fact, there may be one with a strong hand. In this case, the exercise will most likely be short and even getting 80-90% of the leader, you will not receive a large number of match points in your piggy bank.There will be more long exercises and more, where the main interest per match is earned, but there will just be an abundance of a double shot, carrying over cardboard and iron, and each time taking out weapons in a new position.

Here you can ask me – why shouldn’t you shoot a weak and strong hand at all? It is necessary, but exactly in the volume so as not to make mistakes, strong breaks, and not to drain the exercise. This is true for any minor technical element. Trust me, making the first shot in a second will not win the match.And when you have everything in order with the basic elements, then you can calmly train a strong and weak hand (reloading, loading weapons, etc.). But, of course, if you have a match in a week where you know for sure that there will be a strong hand, then naturally you need to devote at least a couple of trainings to a strong hand.

I think the general idea is clear and there is no need to chew additionally. Once again – in any sport in training, you need to work out exactly what can meet in competition. There is no need for a boxer to fight two opponents if there is always one in the competition, etc.p.

General concept – methodical development of all elements to the level of a confident user. As soon as you make all the elements stably and without errors, then we begin to work on speed. And then, when the technique is at some average good level, we begin to focus on weak points. The shooter should not have spaces anywhere. For example, you perfectly hit any sequence of cardboard at different distances, but you “pour in” on distant plates, which means that at the match you will bring yourself exactly as much time as you “torment” the unfortunate plates at a distance of 25 m.

After working out the base (it takes years), it is necessary to train the ligaments. The bare elements themselves are far from a 32-shot exercise. It is expensive to do long bundles as full-fledged exercises, so I do short ones for several shots, for example – extraction, cardboard, cardboard, popper, plate (6 shots). Extract, popper, carton, short travel – 3 bianchi plates (6 shots). Picking up a pistol from the table, hitting the cardboard in the port, moving with reloading and hitting the swinger (4 shots).Well, etc.

Do not forget to work out all the elements at different distances, especially I pay attention to close distances closer than 5 meters. At matches, there are many open close targets and they need to be hit with lightning speed (in a controlled manner). And averagely experienced shooters do it either too slowly (carefully), or vice versa quickly, collecting a bunch of charles and deltas. Remember, if you are shooting in a minor key, there should only be double alpha in the open plain cardboard. If you collect charlie, not even a lot, you will lose to a more experienced shooter who methodically scores points.But let’s talk about balance later.

Also, don’t forget about idle workouts. All of these elements are true for the lesson without ammunition, with the exception of a double shot and fast serial firing at iron. Novice shooters need to do 70-80% of idle workouts. There is no need to burn bullets when practicing moving backwards, if you break the safety corner every time :). As you gain experience, the percentage of idle workouts decreases. It’s all about fine motor skills, the feel of a shot.With a high-quality, fast performance of all technical elements (transfer, removal, movement, etc.), the control of recoil and an intuitive mark of hitting the target come into the main role. Such subtle things can only be felt during live shooting. Sooner or later, you will run into a certain ceiling of technology in terms of speed, purely physically, it will become more and more difficult to do each element even faster, you need to understand this. Nevertheless, everyone is single and world champions too.

In general, experienced shooters and masters train according to their individual schemes.I brought only my own experience. There is no training program the same. Even coaches in professional sports, such as running, give their students different tasks within the same workout. But until you reach the level of stable first rank (65% and higher in a third level match), you can take the general scheme and work according to it. Further, it will already be clear what you need to change yourself and what to focus on.

And remember the main thing – it doesn’t matter what exactly you do in training, it is important what result you end up with.

Perhaps someone will persistently try to teach and retrain you (there are always such arrows in every dash), so always ask such people for qualifications and if this is a shooter below the CCM, be very skeptical about the statements.

Try, experiment, constantly try to do something new, never think in patterns, and then, in search of truth, a result will come to you.

PS: I took up practical shooting in 2011. At first it was training with instructors, but, unfortunately, the whole training was reduced to shooting some elements or ligaments without analyzing mistakes and adjusting the technique.The maximum that I have heard – shoot faster, shoot more accurately … And how to do it, what to change in the grip, or the stance, no one said … And, believe me, this phenomenon is frequent. That is why I was forced to look for answers on the Internet, in various articles on PS, to experiment, a couple of times I invited famous masters to conduct seminars. Then an understanding of the training process was formed, I wrote myself a training program. Returning to the beginning of the article, it’s all about a young sport, we have not yet grown up a generation of honored shooters who could be competent coaches.

But, I think, everything is ahead, and we will show everyone :).

Basics of practical shooting

Basics of practical shooting (Kryuchin V.A.)

In PS competitions, pistols and revolvers, smooth-bore shotguns and rifled carbines are fired. The pistol shooting technique is the most difficult and interesting. If the shooter has mastered the technique and rules of the PS from a pistol, it will be much easier for him to master shooting from a smoothbore gun and carbine.Therefore, our main topic is practical pistol shooting, but sometimes I will refer to both the gun and the carbine.

For almost half a century, the shooters, using the timer, have improved in their desire to shoot as quickly and accurately as possible, improving their weapons and shooting equipment. During this time, the principles and methods of training a fast, accurate and accurate shooter with the skills of safe weapon handling brought to automatism have developed. During this time, after hundreds of competitions and millions of shots, everything superfluous and ineffective was eliminated.In the course of natural selection, the highest quality, most reliable and fastest weapons, ammunition and sights were revealed. The most effective grip of the weapon and the stand when firing from various positions have been determined. “Fast” sports holsters and pouches appeared. A more comfortable position was indicated on the shooter’s belt.

Belt, holster, pouches

The holster and pouches for magazines in the PS should be located only on the belt and be fastened to the belt, threaded through at least three loops of trousers.In the “open class” of the pistol, the holster and pouches can be placed anywhere on the belt. In the “standard”, “modified” and “serial” classes, the holster and pouches should be located on the sides without protruding beyond the front part of the ilium (Fig. 1).

Ill. 1

Ill. 2

Ill. 3

The most convenient sports double belt, consisting of an inner, thin belt threaded through the loops, and an outer strong rigid belt on which the pistol and pouches are fixed.The inner and outer straps are securely fastened with Velcro sewn on both straps. Thanks to this connection, the outer belt can be easily removed or adjusted to the position of the holster without pulling it out through the belt loops, which greatly simplifies the shooter’s life.

The holster on the sports double strap is fixed firmly, does not change its position and does not dangle when pulled out. The trigger is always closed. The handle should not be lower than the belt. The location of the holster should be such that it is convenient to grab the pistol with both hands down and up.Such a position is created when the handle of the pistol, inserted into the holster, is parallel to the belt (Fig. 3), the pistol, hand and forearm, when gripping the handle, are directed towards the targets (Fig. 2). The raised hand should fall on the handle without any extra effort, and the freely hanging hand should easily find it when it is lifted. When using a sports holster, the distance between the shooter’s torso and the closest part of the pistol must not exceed 50 mm.

Magazines in pouches should be located at an angle at which the hand and forearm maintain their natural position during extraction.It is necessary to leave space between the pouches so that when holding one magazine, you do not touch the other. Stores should protrude as much as possible from the pouches, but not at the expense of the strength of the fastening. The more conveniently the store is located and the more it is open, the faster you will grab it, and, accordingly, the faster you will change the store. These improvements will give you an edge in just a split second. But perhaps these fractions of a second will help you win the match or bring victory in duel shooting.

Double grip pistol

Most shooting errors arise from improper pistol holding, hand position and improper stance. Over the past ten years, the most comfortable and “fast” stance with a double grip has been formed in the PS, which allows you to make accurate aimed shots in a static position and, at the same time, easily hit targets in motion.

We will not consider foreign sports (large-caliber) pistols with a comfortable large grip, magazine latch button, etc.Let us turn to the most common weapons in Russia – IZH-71 (with modifications) and PM.

Ill. 4

Before learning to hold the pistol, let’s agree that the right hand will be called “strong” for the “right-hander”, the left hand will be called “weak”, and for the left-hander it is the other way around. With a double grip of a PM pistol, the location of the hands and fingers depends on the physical parameters of the shooter. The main problem is the placement of the “strong” hand’s thumb. The stand in the PS is frontal, the head is straight, the legs are shoulder-width apart, sometimes the pushing leg is slightly extended forward, the back is straight, the shoulders are perpendicular to the line of fire (Fig.four). Many shooters tilt the body slightly forward, making the stance more aggressive. When shooting at high speed, this makes it easier to compensate for recoil. But do not bend too much, this constrains the arrow and increases the time for transferring fire from one target to another.

With a double grip of the pistol, the “strong” hand firmly holds the grip (Fig. 5), the index finger touches the trigger only with the last phalanx. Get in the habit of immediately keeping your index finger outside the trigger guard, until you have pointed the weapon at the target.The wrist of the “weak” hand bends downward at an angle of 45 ° to the forearm (Fig. 6) and grabs the wrist of the “strong” hand. It is necessary to ensure that there is no gap between the base of the thumb of the “strong” hand and the hand of the “weak” hand. The third phalanx of the index finger of the “weak” hand should rest tightly against the lower part of the trigger bracket. The fingers of the “weak” hand should tightly grip the pistol grip (Fig. 7). Approximately 60% of the effort to hold the pistol falls on the “weak” hand and 40% on the “strong”. The thumb of the “weak” hand is relaxed and directed towards the targets.If the hands are not large, the thumb of the “strong” hand can be pressed with the palm of the “weak” hand against the pistol. And if the hands are large, the thumb will have to be applied to the back of the “weak” palm so that it does not touch the bolt carrier and the safety catch when firing, otherwise it is fraught with injuries and the trigger is disrupted after the shot.

It is not recommended to put the index or thumb of the “weak” hand on the front of the bracket. This weakens the grip and in a stressful situation can lead to the retraction of the trigger guard during the shot downward and the release of the bolt of the pistol, which then simply flies away.

We are looking at holding the pistol in such detail because it is the foundation of all your shooting. Improper grip will be a source of shooting errors in the future. This will manifest itself in difficult shooting positions and when shooting on the move.

So, the palms are tightly wrapped around the pistol, the shoulders do not rise, the arms are slightly bent at the elbows and divorced, and the “strong” arm is bent a little more than the right one. This will be done if the stance is correct and the shoulders are perpendicular to the line of fire.Hands do not squeeze, attract or repel the pistol, that is, they do not oppose each other in any way.

and tense, but not too much. At the moment of the shot, the arms bend at the elbows, working as shock absorbers, and automatically return the pistol to its original state without changing the position of the body. This allows you to quickly fire a second shot. At first, this positioning will seem uncomfortable, but after several weeks of training (it is very useful to practice pulling a pistol out of the holster idle in front of a mirror) you will feel comfortable and confident.

We will not consider the widespread Weaver stance, when the “strong” hand with the pistol is straightened at the elbow and tense, playing the role of the butt, and the “weak” one is bent at the elbow and pulls the pistol towards itself. This rack is outdated. In the PS, athletes almost never use it, since it is more constrained and slower, it is inconvenient to shoot from it while driving.

Ill. 8 Fig. 9 Fig. 10 Fig. 11

Pistol withdrawal

To fire a shot, you must first grab the pistol from the holster, lift it off the table, remove it from the safe, etc.e. All these actions will be called in one word – “snatching”. Not extraction, not reaching (this is something slow), but, namely, snatching – a quick and accurate action. In all these cases, the pistol can be either loaded or unloaded. Therefore, when training to draw a weapon, do not focus on one action, train all positions equally. A variety of options can be encountered in competitions.

All exercises begin with a start signal. This is usually the sound of a timer.Consider the usual position. Let’s agree that the shooter has a “strong” hand – the right one.

The shooter stands facing the targets, relaxed, hands down (fig. 8). The eyes are focused on the target. Holstered pistol with safety catch. The cartridge is in the chamber.

After the signal, the hands simultaneously raise and begin to move towards the pistol (Fig. 9).

With three fingers of your right hand, grip the pistol grip, with your index finger straight, relaxed, and put your thumb on the safety catch if the holster allows.

The left hand continues to move to the solar plexus area.

The pistol is pulled out of the holster vertically upwards, the barrel is turned towards the target, removed from the safety catch with the thumb of the right hand.

Hands meet in the solar plexus region. The left hand wraps around the handle (as described above), the elbows are slightly apart (Fig. 10).

The pistol rises along a trajectory similar to the letter “G” to the “eye-target” line and moves forward with a simultaneous selection of the trigger free travel (Fig.eleven).

At the moment of stopping the weapon and aligning the rear sight, front sight and target, there is a smooth final pressing of the index finger on the trigger and a successful shot!

During the snatch, make sure that the shoulders do not rise, the body does not tilt, the head is straight. Only hands work. The less movement, the faster the shot will be. Remember, the head is motionless, the pistol is brought to the “target-eye” line, there is no need to look for the front sight with the eye.

The draw should be vigorous, but soft, without sudden movements.Make sure that the right hand grip is firm and firm on the pistol grip. Otherwise, you will have to intercept the pistol, and this is a waste of time. When the pistol is in position 2, when there is no cartridge in the chamber, the cartridge must be sent as early as possible; it is prohibited to close the ejector window with the left hand.

It is ideal to train the pistol pulling out in front of a mirror. Use a variety of starting positions, for example: shooter facing targets, pistol holstered, cartridge chambered, gun safety, arms

raised to head level; a pistol in a holster, magazines in pouches, hands down; the shooter is sitting, the pistol is in the desk drawer, the cartridge is in the chamber, the weapon is on safety, etc.5-10 minutes a day is enough for you to feel the gun as an extension of your hand in a few weeks.

Dear shooters, I think that having studied in the previous issue of the magazine the material on how in practical shooting (PS) you need to draw out a pistol and make a quick and accurate first shot, you did a good job of idling in front of the mirror and in the shooting range.

I’m already starting to worry, you will come to the PS competition and beat our best shooters! And I also ask myself a question: “Why am I passing on to you the method of practical shooting, which I have accumulated over several years of training with the best shooters in the world? It may be better to close in a dash and train only the elite, improving their well-being and letting the fog around the “secret skill”, as some “special training centers” do.shooting-ua.com. “?

No, our goal is to make practical shooting accessible to citizens who own small arms, of which we have a lot in our country. Openness is the PS principle. Cultural handling of weapons is the basis of PS. Some, perhaps, will be jarred by the word “cultured”, someone will say that one should handle a weapon rudely and confidently. The expression “cultural appeal” does not mean shaking off debris from the pistol grip with a handkerchief, but the ability to hit a specific target accurately and quickly (due to one’s preparation).The shooter should not flip the barrel frivolously in all directions with the finger on the trigger; he must handle the weapon safely and respectfully.

Dear friends, we have a lot of good shooters in our country.

We do not want to belittle or exaggerate the skill of each of you. We value cooperation and respectfully listen to everyone. Please come to our competition as participants or spectators. Invite IPSC shooters to your events. Watch us shoot and share your skills.We have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. We just love guns and we love to shoot. I think that shooting sports fans need to unite. Perhaps with the help of the media, such as the KALASHNIKOV magazine, we will be able to influence the Law on Weapons and prove to our government that a respectable citizen with a registered pistol is not dangerous to the state, but useful. Let the officials ponder what is more dangerous for the state – a “left” pistol hidden in the attic, of which there are millions in the country, or a registered one in a safe?

Ill.1 Fig. 2

Ill. 3 Fig. 4

But back to the basics of practical shooting techniques. After firing the first shot and hitting the first target, you will need to transfer fire to the next target. Transfer is one of the foundations of PS. But before we learn the transfer technique, let’s figure out how to aim correctly.

First, you need to determine which eye is dominant (leading). To do this, you need to make a ring with a diameter of about 5 cm with the index and thumbs of both hands, stretch your arms in front of you and look through this ring at some object in the room.Then, without taking your eyes off this object, bring your hands to your face. The eye that has a ring of fingers will be dominant.

You should always aim with two eyes. Scientists have found that if you close one eye, the visual acuity of the other eye automatically drops by 15-20%. One closed eye creates unnecessary stress on both eyes. And when conducting high-speed shooting, this is especially harmful, because the field of view is reduced by half, the time it takes to transfer the weapon from target to target is increased, and the reaction to a change in the target situation worsens.To prevent the “weak” eye from interfering at first, you need to stick a piece of “muddy” tape on the lens of the glasses in front of the pupil of the weak eye (Fig. 1). After a while, you will develop the necessary skill, and the tape can be peeled off. You will aim with both eyes open, and this will happen naturally, without tension.

When aiming in high-speed shooting, you need to adhere to the basic generally accepted rules. If the target is open and is located at a distance of no more than 5-7 m from the shooter, then the shooter focuses his vision on the target, the front sight is at the center of the target, it is vaguely visible.If the target is further than 7 meters, or is difficult (for example, a regular target at a distance of 5 meters, most of the scoring area of ​​which is covered by a no-target), then vision is focused on the front sight, the rear sight is controlled, the target looks blurry, and the trigger is processed neat and soft. Generally speaking, in high speed shooting, the trigger is always handled gently, only the speed of the whole process increases. A common mistake of novice shooters is that while aiming, they begin to catch the “ten” with an oscillating front sight and, at the moment the front sight passes through the center of the target, they “pull” the trigger – as a result of a miss.It must be remembered that even if the front sight is not located strictly on the center of the target, then with soft triggering, the result of the shot will still be good. In order not to “pull” the trigger, when shooting, you need to concentrate your attention on the sensation of contact between the last phalanx of the finger and the trigger. You cannot wait for a shot and try to compensate for the recoil with your hands, the muscles of the hands will themselves extinguish the recoil and return the pistol to its original position.

With regard to zeroing in the weapon, the pistol must be centered.In PS, you often have to shoot at different distances from awkward positions. Sometimes you have to tilt the pistol to the right or left (for example, shooting from behind cover), and sometimes you have to hit targets while holding the pistol in a horizontal position. If, for example, a pistol is aimed at 25 m “under the bull’s-eye”, then during the exercise, where the shooter is forced to tilt the pistol at 45 ° from the vertical, it is difficult for him to quickly navigate how to aim at a steel plate located at a distance of 18 m.

It may seem to the shooter that transferring a weapon from target to target is a very simple action that does not require special attention. This is a big mistake. Weapon transfer time is that “empty” time between two shots that should be kept to a minimum. This significantly reduces the total time of a series of shots. A person shoots as fast as his eyes move. To make the correct transfer of weapons, you must do the following.

After hitting a target on the next target, the eyes move first and focus on the point you want to hit.Then the shooter turns his whole body towards the target, and the pistol moves in a straight line from the previous target to the point on the next target, on which your vision is already focused. If the next target is in the shooter’s field of view, then only the eyes move first, and then the body along with the head. If the next target is out of sight, then in this case the head first turns (Fig. 3), and then behind it – the body with the pistol (we are considering a double grip of the weapon) (Fig. 3).four). During the transfer, it is necessary to select the free travel of the trigger, and at the moment of combining the front sight and the aiming point – fine-tuning the hook and a shot. When carrying a weapon, the hands, forearms, shoulders, and back move together, like a turret in a tank. Twisting occurs in the lower back and legs.

To train fast transfer, you must first carefully follow the sequence of actions – the eyes or the head move first, then the body. No matter how the targets are located, the transfer is always carried out along a straight path.A straight line is the shortest distance between two points.

At first, these two actions (eye movement and the transfer itself) will be separate. After a few weeks of training, these actions will merge into one, and your transference will be swift and precise. Always remember:

The

carry must be aggressive and fast, and the shot must be accurate. If you do not see the front sight – do not shoot! Even if the target is close. The shooter must always control every shot and hit.

Exercises aimed at reducing the time of transferring weapons.

Exercise 1. Attach at home in the bedroom (of course, with the consent of your spouse) on the wall opposite from your bed markers – black circles of paper with a diameter of 3 cm – or reduced copies of targets. After waking up and before going to bed, move your gaze from one target to another several times, while focusing on them.

Use the timer when training with live ammo or dry.Analyze the time taken for each shot and constantly strive to reduce its value without losing quality. Without a timer, it’s hard to tell how much you’ve improved your performance. In PS, tenths and even hundredths of a second are important. At the World Championships in the Philippines, the world champion and the second shooter were separated by 4 points with a total score of more than 3000.

Exercise 2. The shooter is facing the targets. Right and left are two non-falling steel plates with a diameter of 30 cm (or targets). The angle between the directions is -120 °.The distance to the targets is 11-20 m. After the timer beeps, the shooter alternately shoots at one or the other target, transferring the weapon from target to target as quickly as possible, and shoots the entire magazine. The exercise is performed several times with a double grip, then with a strong and weak hand.

Exercise 3. The same as the first, only a third target is added directly in front of the shooter at a distance of 10 meters. When training, vary the angle between the directions on the targets and the distance to the targets.Shoot from various positions. Use a low port and a lying position.

Good luck!

Reloading weapons

A shooter who needs to hit a lot of targets will sooner or later have to reload the weapon. At level III practical shooting competitions, athletes shoot from 8 to 25 exercises, in half of which they need to reload their weapons one, two or more times. That is, in a major match, the shooter changes stores during shooting 10-20 times!

Usually drills are structured so that the shooter can change the magazine or reload the weapon between shooting positions.More often it happens on the move. From this it follows that the shooter must be able to quickly reload the weapon and, moreover, do it while moving.

Before the start of the exercise, the athlete must carefully listen to the briefing and, within the time allowed for this, which for the whole group does not exceed 5 minutes, carefully study the location of the targets. Then he needs to determine how many magazines are needed to complete the exercise and add another spare to this number. This is done in case the shooter drops the magazine while changing or moving.Removing a new magazine from the pouch is much faster and safer than picking up a fallen one from the ground.

Note again that it is more efficient to change the magazine when moving between the firing positions. In this case, the shooter does not spend extra time on the shift. It is advisable to calculate the moment of changing the magazine in such a way that the cartridge always remains in the chamber. If the pistol is on the slide stop, and the chamber is empty, this increases the number of operations with the pistol and, accordingly, the time.It is wrong to build a plan for performing the exercise in such a way that the weapon remains unloaded before changing the magazine. Any surprises can happen during shooting at this stage, and the shooter will need additional ammo. For example: misfire, miss, delay, etc. And in general, remember, when your weapon is out of ammo – it’s just a piece of metal.

Smoothbore gun

When firing from a rifle with an under-barrel magazine, the most important thing is the ability to quickly load cartridges.Michael Voight once said: “In a pistol, a techie wins, and in a smooth-bore gun, the one who can load faster”. Here’s an example: An experienced shooter with a rifle with an under-barrel magazine can complete a short exercise of six shots in 7-8 seconds, of which 1.5-2 seconds is firing, and the rest of the time is loading the weapon. Some experienced shooters load the rifle magazine with their fingers one cartridge at a time faster than shooters using quick-charging devices (see previous Kalashnikov issues).The reloading cartridges can be worn on the belt, on the wrist of a weak hand, and on the gun without compromising safety. Cartridges can be loaded with both strong and weak hands.

In our rifles with a box magazine from the Saiga 12 series, reloading is much faster and is comparable to reloading on pistols and carbines. Since 2004, shooters have been able to realize this advantage in competitions. on practical shooting from a smoothbore gun in the “Open” class. More details about the features of reloading a gun – in the following issues of the magazine.

Self-loading carbine

There are no peculiarities in practical shooting from a carbine when changing a magazine. The advantage is given to those carabiners where there is a convenient magazine ejection button, which allows you to keep the wrist of a strong hand in your workplace during a shift.

Pistol

When reloading the magazine, the pisto-years must be high, on the “chin – target” line. At the time of reloading, the pistol grip should be directed towards the pouch.The gaze should be directed to the magazine slot in the pistol grip. The weak hand with the magazine moves strictly in a straight line – from the pouch to the pistol. The store is located in the pouch, bullet forward. The hand holds the magazine in such a way that the magazine cover rests against the center of the palm, and the index finger is placed on the front edge of the magazine. The magazine is inserted into the handle in one energetic continuous movement.

On pistols of the PM type, where the magazine is released by pressing the spring in the lower part of the handle, reloading is more difficult and longer than on pistols with a magazine latch button.The advantage of pistols with a button reaches 1-1.5 seconds. This advantage is especially felt in duel shooting.

How to train

You can train the pistol reloading operation without a load. You need to have 4 or more magazines and change them in turn, simulating a shot after each shift. This should be done while standing and in motion. Train with live ammo as follows:

Exercise. Target shot, magazine change, target shot, change, etc.e. Then collect the magazines, insert them into the pouches and repeat. Distance to targets 7-20 meters. Better to use non-falling poppers or fixed steel plates. The hit is well audible, and there is no need to walk and raise the targets. Perform the exercise with changing the magazine at the time of moving between the shooting positions forward – backward, left – right. If using poppers or cymbals, never shoot steel-cored bullets.

I wish you a good time at the shooting range or shooting range and achieve the highest skill!

Shooting on the move

By offering you to get acquainted with the technique of shooting in motion, I am getting ahead of myself a little.But there are reasons for that. At the dawn of the development of IPSC, shooters in competitions often fired from static positions, moving from one square to another. Currently, most of the exercises are structured so that the athlete is given the right to choose: he can shoot at targets from a static position, or he can shoot some of them in motion, moving to the next shooting position. Shooting on the move, the shooter gains time, which means he shows the best result.

In the past few years in IPSC competitions, 60-70% of the targets on the course are positioned so that they can be hit in motion.And if you want to achieve the best result, you need to do it. Simply put, you have to shoot in motion more than in a static position. When I teach an intensive weekly FP course with novice shooters, we start learning shooting on the move on the second day. Newbies, who yesterday tried to convince me that it is more convenient to shoot with one hand than with a double grip, should they shoot in motion today? Http: //www.shooting-ua.com. “It’s a very complicated technique and it’s too early for us to do it,” the cadets usually convince me.And on the third day, they have no idea why they even need to shoot while standing, when they can do two things at the same time: move and hit closely spaced targets, greatly reducing the exercise time.

It’s actually easy to shoot on the move – you just need to do it. Naturally, it is necessary to have a certain technique, the basics of which I will briefly outline in this article. Unfortunately, in none of the Western publications on PS you will find a detailed description of shooting in motion at different-distance targets, because until now no one has yet collected all the elements of this technique, which has been formed in recent years in the course of a constant competitive process.In my article, I will briefly try to do this, and you can study the technique in more detail in a book that will be released early next year.

A beginner shooter needs to learn to shoot in motion immediately after mastering the handling of triggering, snatching and firing the first shot. Think of the chicks who first learn to fly and then walk, although flying is much more difficult.

If we are talking about shooting in motion, this does not mean that having learned to hit targets in motion, you must shoot at all targets while moving.It is always necessary to proceed from the expediency of this or that action. The main task when performing an exercise at a PS competition is not to shoot beautifully, but to accurately hit all the proposed targets in a minimum time. Therefore, each shooter, based on his level of training, must decide for himself what will be faster: hit the targets moving between shooting positions or quickly and accurately shoot targets in a static stance, and then quickly move to the next shooting position.

Body position

When shooting in motion, the center of gravity of the body should be located lower than during normal walking or running – the upper part of the body with the pistol should, as it were, “float” at the same horizontal level, allowing the shooter to aim the target efficiently while moving and fire shots.

Foot movement

Legs should be bent and walk along one imaginary line. This is done in order to avoid swinging the body from side to side.

Traversing speed

The speed of movement when shooting in motion depends on the distance to the targets and the experience of the shooter. It is inappropriate to hit targets located further than 10-15 m in motion. Often, it is much more effective to hit such targets in a comfortable stance, and then quickly move to the next shooting position.

When hitting targets located at a distance of 1 to 3-4 meters, the speed of movement, as well as the speed of fire, is maximum, the transfer is aggressive.In this case, the shooter focuses his eyes on the target, he sees the front sight vaguely. He must see the front sight at any distance while firing. If the shooter shoots at nearby targets without aiming, “intuitively”, the rate of fire will not increase, and at the same time he will miss from time to time. In the competition, I watched a lot of experienced IPSC shooters, who, running past the target, at a distance of 1 meter, casually fired two shots and sometimes missed once, sometimes two.

When hitting targets located at a distance of 5-7 to 10-15 meters, the shooter must move smoothly and prudently.The eyes are focused on the front sight, the target is blurry, the rear sight is controlled, the trigger is carefully handled. In this case, you need to try to fire shots at the moment when body weight is transferred, you are standing on one leg, and the other leg is in the air.

If you fire a shot in the step phase, when the second foot touches the ground, then, most often, there is a shift in the aiming point and a miss.

Idle training method

Do not forget that you should always “bachelor” with a discharged weapon in front of a bulletproof wall!

1.A shooter in a rifle position moves back and forth, left and right, keeping the front sight on the center of the target, from time to time transferring the weapon from target to target.

2. The shooter, standing, moves in a circle, for example, around the table, keeping the front sight at the center of the target, and with peripheral vision controls the trajectory of movement.

You can bachelor with a pistol, with a gun and with a carbine. Instead of targets, you can use their reduced paper layouts.

Fire training

Exercise.There are two poppers at a distance of 11 meters from the shooter, the distance between them is 6-8 meters. Between the poppers, 3 IPSC cardboard targets are randomly placed in a line. The shooter is in the first shooting position (square A), in front of the first popper, facing the targets, holstered pistol in position 1-3. After the sound signal, the shooter, without moving, strikes the first “popper”, then moving along the front along the boundary line to the second shooting position (B), strikes three cardboard targets in motion with two shots each.Having reached the second shooting position, he strikes the second “popper” from a comfortable stand. The minimum number of shots 8.

I wish you success!

Source http://www.shooting-ua.com/force_shooting/practice_book_5.htm

Isolation training

Is it possible for professional athletes to keep fit these days? With this question the correspondent of “RG” turned to the famous Altai athletes. The first thing that caused a pleasant surprise: no one gets discouraged.

Silver medalist of the 2016 Olympics, shooter Sergei Kamensky training in Biysk. He says that the work schedule is the same as at the training camp in the national team. The only difference is that you don’t need to go anywhere – he does shooting training, exercises on the horizontal bar and with dumbbells in his apartment. Sergei improves his shooting technique with the help of an electronic simulator. For complete happiness, the only thing missing is a treadmill. For some fresh air, the shooter comes out onto the balcony.

Sergei’s father and his first teacher in shooting, Honored Coach of Russia Igor Kamensky, notes that in the current situation his son lacks competitive practice.

The resident of Biisk took the postponement of the Olympic Games philosophically – the main thing is that the hassle has ended because of the scandal around RUSADA. The champion and medalist of the world championships, hurdle sprinter Sergei Shubenkov, reacted just as calmly to the forced pause. Recently, he even invited sports fans to his home for an open training session in an online format. In the very first minutes, about a hundred people connected to the live broadcast of the Barnaul athlete on Instagram. Together with Shubenkov, they did stretching exercises, rocked the press, and performed a block of strength exercises.

“All is well, in general. And training continues in some form in the forest and at the stadium. And the mood is suspiciously even,” Sergei admitted in a correspondence with the “RG” correspondent.

Ilyas Kurkaev, a pupil of Altai volleyball, who is currently blocking the Novosibirsk Lokomotiv and the Russian national team, is trying to keep himself in shape. There is an opportunity to go two by two to the Lokomotiv base – Kurkaev is training in tandem with Sergei Savin, one of the best spikers of the past season, which became the champion for Novosibirsk.

– While everything is going as usual – in the break between seasons we always try to keep fit. Especially now, when there is a lot of free time, – said Ilyas.

The skier of the Russian national team Yana Kirpichenko, according to her, spends time with her family, reads and runs a little. Skiers are now off-season, just like skaters. Sprinter of the Russian national team Viktor Mushtakov also does not lose his presence of mind. He rests, learns English with the help of his girlfriend and does aerobic exercise: runs, shakes the abs, arms and back, which aches a little after the season.The first training camp for skaters in May was canceled, the June one is scheduled for Kislovodsk. Mushtakov’s plans for the new season are ambitious – to run out at a distance of 500 meters in 34 seconds.

Meanwhile,

An unpleasant story happened to Sergei Naidin, a four-time medalist of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in artistic gymnastics, Barnaul. In early April, the media reported that Naydin was diagnosed with a coronavirus. The athlete was hospitalized, but the repeated test, fortunately, gave a negative result.In mid-April, the gymnast returned to Barnaul and is in quarantine, like everyone who flew in from Moscow. Every day, Naidin does various exercises and answers regular calls from Rospotrebnadzor about his health and compliance with the quarantine regime.

Game plan in practical shooting | About shooting and weapons

Acquaintance with the shooting exercise is something for which practical shooting is often hated by adherents of other shooting directions. Whether fair or not, I don’t want to argue on this topic today.Today I want to talk about what actually needs to be done during the acquaintance.

So, these 3-5 minutes, which are given at the match for familiarization with the exercise, you need to spend on one simple thing – you need to come up with a game plan for the exercise. This is your personal scenario, which should help you hit all targets as quickly as possible without going beyond the boundary lines and observing safety precautions.

It is the optimal game plan, and of course your shooting skills, that will determine your success in the exercise.

Therefore, the first thing to do is to listen carefully to the briefing that will be read to you before reading it. You must know exactly the number of targets, their type, starting position and weapon ready position. Sometimes there are also additional conditions, for example, hitting the target with not two shots, but three, shooting only from a weak shoulder or arm, etc.

After you have mastered all the points of the briefing and received permission to familiarize yourself – go to the exercise, find and count all the targets.No, just count it. Do not assume that you walked through the entire exercise and saw them all for sure. Count it. If there are 16 of them in the briefing, then you should count exactly 16. Not 15 and not 17. And this often happens when you do not find any target or targets, or when you see the same target from different positions and accept it for two different targets. And sometimes for three). Ok, counted? Does it all fit together? Let’s go further!

Find shooting positions from which you will hit these targets.That is, find places within the boundary lines where you will come running after the timer signal and shoot. The main rule is that the fewer shooting positions, the less time you will spend on the exercise. Find points from which more targets can be seen. If you have a choice to shoot at a target from here and step forward to fire at the next target, or immediately go further to the second position and hit both from one place – choose the second option. But use common sense. Sometimes it is better to fire at targets from different, but comfortable positions than from one, but make the most of your acrobatic capabilities.Do not engage in “dzhekichanshchina” and “hongildonshchina”)) Think what will be faster, more comfortable and more reliable for you, with a minimum of complex manipulations.

Then, obviously, you need to define your order of movement between these positions. Focus on the distance that you have to go “visiting” all the points from which you will shoot. The distance should be minimal so that the movement takes a correspondingly minimal time. Consider ease of movement. It is more convenient for a right-hander to move from left to right with a weapon than vice versa.It’s easier for everyone to run forward than backward. Try to end the exercise in a position that is the most uncomfortable of all the positions you have identified. For example, if you need to kneel somewhere in order to be able to fire at targets, then it is better to end in this position, since getting back up on your feet will take time. The same applies to positions where you have to fall out strongly from behind the shield or shift weapons to a weak shoulder. Returning usually takes a long time, and by finishing in this position, you remove this time from the total time of the exercise.But this is not always possible or always optimal. Depends on the design of the exercise.

Next, you need to understand where you need to reload or reload your weapon. Because the cartridges loaded at the start may not be enough for the entire exercise. This is especially true for the gun and pistol. Or they may not be in your weapon at all under the terms of the briefing and you will have to do the charging after the timer signal. It is very difficult to count shots in an exercise, so athletes do not do this.They are engaged in determining where in the game plan they will make a change of store or throw a “four” rounds in the gun. It is better to do this at the transitions between shooting positions to save time. Shooting to the last cartridge in the store and reloading when there are no cartridges in the weapon is extremely wrong. Reload-reload should be done when at least a cartridge remains in the chamber. Again, to save time. Choose convenient transitions between positions for recharging. For example, moving forward will make this much easier than moving backward.Calculate the number of cartridges that will remain in your weapon before reloading and try to stock up. After all, you can miss the target and do the shooting. Consider this and give yourself the right to make mistakes.

Now try to critically evaluate your game plan. Perhaps you can reduce the number of shooting positions? Or change the order of movement between them? Will it be convenient for you to recharge or change stores in the places you specify?

Mark targets for yourself that you can easily forget and miss, focus on what needs to be done to prevent this from happening.For example, in the very corner of the exercise, you need to fall out as much as possible to the side in order to see the target, which is visible only in this position for firing. Understand exactly where you will aim when shooting difficult targets. For example, in extremely close or distant, covered with penalties, moving or non-standard targets.

Identify potentially unsafe locations and times where you can break the rules. For example, to break the safety angle when manipulating a weapon or to get a procedure for a spade when shooting.Think about what you need to do to ensure that this is avoided.

If it seems to you that you have made the optimal game plan for yourself, be sure to try to go through it several times, starting very slowly, focusing on important points: shooting positions, reloading, difficult moments and dangerous places. Do the idle exercise as many times as the time allotted for it and your squad colleagues who involuntarily interfere with you, as they are busy with the same, will allow you.

You need to understand that it is not enough to walk once and think that you have remembered everything. You remember this now, while the brain is not in a stressful situation. After the timer signal, such a game plan turns into chaos, like Cinderella’s carriage turns into a pumpkin at midnight. You must memorize the game plan with your spinal cord, your whole body. Therefore, even if it seems to you that you have memorized everything, do not be lazy to go through the exercise several more times with imitation of shooting and other elements. By the way, according to the rules, you should not have anything in your hands on acquaintance.Nothing at all.

Is your familiarization time out? Play the game plan in your head. Close your eyes and try to “go through” the exercise several times from memory, imagining all movements, manipulations with weapons, aiming points, etc. Very often, shooters do not have enough time for the required number of idle passes. Therefore, visualization remains. Do the exercise in your head.

A common mistake on familiarization is to imitate the passage of an exercise at a high speed that is not typical for you.Imagine how long this or that element will take you and do not try to imitate it faster in idle. If you do a reload in 1.5 seconds, take the time to familiarize yourself with it. If you throw eight rounds into a gun in 4 seconds, you don’t have to pretend that you will do it in two. “Shooting” a group of four targets – no need to think that you can cope with it in half a second. In general – try to completely recreate the timing of the exercise, which will allow you to shoot it comfortably and efficiently.Otherwise, it will turn out that during a real passage with a weapon, your brain will constantly sound the alarm – after all, you previously “told” him that this or that action will take much less time and now you should already be in another place of the exercise, and you have not yet coped with the first group of targets. You will start to speed up and are guaranteed to make mistakes.

Another fatal mistake when the shooter tries to change his game plan at the last moment. For example, say your coworker went through an exercise in front of you and you saw that his game plan is optimal.You might want to use what you saw in your game plan by modifying it a bit. Don’t do it! It is a trap! As a result, you will not fulfill either your game plan or your colleague’s game plan. It’s very likely that everything will not go according to plan. Therefore, even if suddenly after reading you see how you can improve the passage – refrain from changing your plan. Better to reliably execute not the most optimal game plan than screw up the perfect one.

Be mutually polite on acquaintance. Don’t distract colleagues unnecessarily.Do not hang in one place for a long time – there is little time and all the shooters need to have time to do the same. Try to optimize your movement on acquaintance and do not interfere with the arrows that follow you.

Remember and do not neglect the opportunity to re-familiarize yourself with the exercise alone, without a crowd of colleagues. This is possible just before your passage, when the shooter in front of you has already shot, the referees gave the command “retreat”, the results are removed and the targets are restored for your passage.You can go out and walk through the exercise again and fix your game plan in your head. Empty-handed, of course.

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Photo: Dmitry Rozmeritsa

Basic methods and means of training shooters

Learning to shoot accurately is not an easy task. To become a really good shooter, capable of showing consistently high and stable results, you need to learn how to practically perform all shooting techniques and consolidate certain skills in yourself.To do this, you need to train hard.

It is rather difficult to give a universal recipe that would be suitable for every shooter and would apply to all shooting exercises without exception, the organization of training requires a strictly individual approach. Therefore, there is simply no single, stereotyped system for organizing and conducting training for future shooters-athletes. However, despite the differences in details and methods, there are many similarities at the heart of sports training that apply to all athletes without exception.

Sports training is a multiple, specially organized repetition of a number of actions aimed at mastering certain movements, as well as developing, consolidating and maintaining certain motor skills and abilities at a certain level.

Training causes a restructuring in all physiological manifestations of the body’s activity. This restructuring is a consequence of the adaptation of the body to the work being done.

A future sports shooter should know that versatile training, the performance of sports exercises containing individual elements of these movements, which he performs in his main type of shooting, helps to strengthen the previously formed dynamic stereotype in general, and one-sided training can lead to the fact that the already developed dynamic stereotype will be impoverished or even destroyed.

It should be borne in mind that in the initial period of training, when the temporary connections in the cerebral cortex have not yet strengthened, side external stimuli, causing side foci of excitation, can destroy the not yet strengthened reflexes. However, in the further course of training, conditioned reflexes are firmly fixed, exercise performance is automated and extraneous stimuli no longer cause harmful effects. Consequently, in the initial period of training, the shooter needs to create the most favorable conditions for improving the shooting technique, and work out individual elements of the shot so that they are firmly entrenched and automated.

It should be noted that the phenomenon of transfer of skills takes place during training. It is expressed in the fact that with the simultaneous formation of two or more motor skills, they can influence each other. In addition, a previously formed skill can influence the formation of subsequent ones, or vice versa.

The shooter’s sports year is divided into three periods: preparatory, basic and transitional. It is quite natural that the degree of training intensity in each of these periods is different.

Despite the variety of existing training methods in various sports, due to the specifics of shooting sports (sedentary mobility, systematic muscle work), in recent years, two methods, closely related to each other, have become established among coaches. These are repetitive and competitive training methods.

The first method is to systematically repeat the exercises. It provides for learning and practicing individual elements of shooting, searching for new, most beneficial technical and tactical techniques for performing exercises.

The second method is that the shooter, in competition with other team members, performs shooting exercises with the maximum mobilization of his strength and capabilities. This method involves strengthening the moral and physical qualities of the athlete.

Shooting practice has shown that the most effective is the training system, in which the future athlete combines actual shooting with cartridges with training without shooting, which complement each other and are necessary for further sports growth.

The characteristics of the work performed by the shooter in training and competition conditions comply with the Rules of the Shooting Union. In shooting sports, various exercises are used, certain weapons, all parameters of which are determined by the Competition Rules.
Arbitrary rifle, standard – no more than 5 kg, pistols – no more than 1260 g, etc. In addition, the Rules determine the number of shots in each exercise.

An athlete in training and competition works with the same individual weapon, which he raises to the ready, holds in the aiming area and fires, or holds it without firing to enhance the training effect, while solving special training tasks.All actions of the shooter are periodic, since the work of holding the weapon alternates with rest. Therefore, the intensity of the shooter’s work can vary due to the number of times the weapon is lifted and the time it is held. These objective values ​​are the initial indicators of the intensity of training influences.
The study of the training work of shooters according to timing showed that in training, when performing the same exercise, the shooter raises the weapon and takes aim at a different number of times, respectively, experiences a different training effect, i.e.e. training load.
Training load is understood as the shooter’s work performed by his muscles, systems and organs during the raising and holding of the weapon with aiming. Objective indicators of the training load are: constant – the weight of the weapon, variables – the number of lifts of the weapon, the time of holding it and the time of rest.
Competitive load means the shooter’s work when he performs a competitive exercise against the background of increased mental tension.Therefore, in addition to the indicated objective indicators, the competitive load is assessed by the degree of mental tension and is expressed in the heart rate (HR).
What is required of a shooter to do this job? To achieve a sports result, in shooting, the shooter must first of all acquire a certain level of development of physical qualities, master the skills of shooting techniques and learn to regulate his mental state. The accuracy of hitting the target depends on many factors: the degree of muscle tension in the position, aiming accuracy, correct trigger pulling technique and mental state.The main condition for a well-aimed shot is the coordinated execution of all actions in a monotonous position from shot to shot. A high degree of stability of the shooter-weapon system is required here.
Long hours of training and competitive shooting cause the shooter’s fatigue, which is formed as a result of physiological changes (shifts) in the working muscles and body systems. These physiological shifts represent the body’s natural response and create some kind of training effect.In shooting sports, it is achieved during work, sometimes significantly exceeding the one-time performance of a competitive exercise.
To enhance the training effect, shooters, with the same number of cartridges, increase training work due to long-term holding of the weapon and the repeated lifting of it. Physical work performed in training significantly exceeds the competitive one. This load causes the shooter to fatigue, but does not cause an increase in heart rate. At competitions, the physical load does not exceed the training one, but a large mental load gives a significant increase in heart rate.
Performing precise work in training and competition conditions makes great demands on the athlete’s neuromuscular work, since during shooting there is a high coordination of many muscle groups that keep the readiness relatively motionless. The deflection of the shooter’s torso by only 9-13 minutes gives a deviation of the hole on the target by 13-17 cm from the center. And the whole exercise lasts several hours, and in order to achieve a good result, the shooter must work without losing high sensitivity and coordination of the neuromuscular system.
Even more stringent requirements are imposed on the nervous system. The release of various hormones into the blood in the prelaunch state increases in some shooters by 10-15 times in comparison with the resting state. This naturally causes an increase in heart rate, a change in blood pressure and an increase in cardiac output, an increase in hand tremor, a violation of fine coordination of muscle work, etc. At the same time, external factors act on the shooter – an unfamiliar shooting range, the presence of media representatives, judges, spectators, etc. …Under these conditions, the shooter must demonstrate his best technique and show his best result. As a rule, anxiety makes it difficult for the shooter to take a shot from the first estimate and he has to make several throws of the weapon to execute one shot. If the shooter does not have a sufficient level of special endurance, he gets tired rather quickly. As a result, the shooting technique is disrupted and the result is reduced.
As soon as the day of test shooting begins, an elated mood appears, one feels anxious.

Excitement is inherent in all athletes, without exception, whether it is a master or a beginner. The difference between the one and the other is only in one thing: one has taught himself to somehow restrain his excitement, muffle it with will, while the other succumbs to it, which is why he makes gross mistakes in shooting.
It happens that the first shots do not go well. Inexperienced shooters panic from this and start experiments. They try to grip the grip differently, make the trigger heavier or weaker, change the aiming point, etc.It can give nothing good. Experiments are only allowed in training.

The manner of shooting in all its details must be worked out prior to the competition.
An inexperienced shooter will usually immediately add a second to the first gap. Why is this happening? A bad shot is annoying. Under the influence of this feeling, a person is inclined to act recklessly. The athlete wants to cover the loss of points with “tens” as soon as possible. In the heat of the moment, he reloads his weapon and hurries to continue shooting.Such rash haste leads to new errors that give additional loss of points.

It is necessary, on the contrary, to suspend your work, reflect on the error, establish its causes, and then slowly fire a shot.
By emphasizing the idea that the athlete must fight for every shot, I do not in the least deny the fact that the beginning of the exercise has special difficulties. Perhaps it is difficult to complete all the work. This happens, for example, when personal success in a competition depends on one or several shots.

Only those who are not interested in the outcome of the competition, who do not care whether the shooting goes well or badly, can be extremely calm. It is necessary to talk about something else: how to deal with excessive excitement, how to ensure that the excitement does not interfere with shooting, but intensifies the sports anger of the shooter, promotes his composure, perseverance, courage?
Only the will of a person, his passionate desire to win, to win the battle, is capable of truly overcoming excessive excitement and directing it in the right direction.During the competition, the state of mobilization and the will to win must not be weakened for a moment.

How to cultivate the qualities of a sports fighter, the ability to stubbornly fight for success? You need to take it as a rule: before each competition, set a specific goal for yourself. At first, these goals are modest: to beat several shooters of the same category as yours; enter the twenty-fifteen best; improve your result by at least one point more than the rest of the team’s shooters.
As the sport class rises, the shooter sets himself more and more challenging targets. It is important to note here that you need to compete with those who are stronger than you: fighting the weak does not develop strong-willed qualities, but only demagnetizes.
At the end of the competition – whether it brought joy or grief to the shooter – it is necessary to analyze the valid shooting from the first to the last shot. It is useful to do this after a few days so that the analysis is truly objective. Both good luck and mistakes must be taken into account, but in particular mistakes.Working with young people, you often come across such facts when shooters destroy bad targets in training, try to keep only good ones. They do the same with the report sheets that they fill out at the competition. The desire of young athletes to collect the best and forget about the bad is familiar to all coaches. I strongly advise you not to do this. Forgetting past mistakes, the arrows keep repeating them.

Most of all we need to think about what does not work out in trainings and competitions.And so that mistakes do not fall out of memory, you should make entries in your diary. On the eve of the competition, it should be at hand by the shooter. Viewing the records will help to avoid those mistakes that previously hindered the achievement of sporting success.

The first world championship in practical shooting from a carbine will be held in Russia: Weapons: Power structures: Lenta.ru

The first world championship in practical shooting from a carbine will be held in Russia in the territory of the multifunctional firing center of the Patriot Park in June 2017 …This, as the correspondent of “Lenta.ru” reports, said the President of the Federation of Practical Shooting (FPSR) of Russia Vitaly Kryuchin. About 850 shooters from 45 countries will take part in the competition.

“Russia is the only country in the world that has fulfilled all the requirements for a shooting facility for holding the World Championship in the number of galleries and ensuring facility safety,” said Kryuchin.

He noted that the teams of the USA, Norway, Finland and Russia will seriously compete for gold medals.

The Patriot park multifunctional firing center is the first dual-purpose shooting facility in Russia: on weekdays it will be used for military training of security forces, and on weekends and holidays – for training everyone in shooting. Shooting sports competitions will also be held here.

“The complex includes shooting galleries, a military shooting range, a training tactical field where you can perform exercises, including throwing combat grenades, and practice questions of engineering mine explosives with small charges, and a director, where you can fire from combat machines, ”said Dmitry Gorbatenko, acting head of the Main Directorate of Combat Training of the Armed Forces.

Practical shooting as a sport has been registered in Russia since 2006. Shooters use three main weapons: pistol, shotgun, and carbine. Athletes fire from different positions and on the move.