MEC Outdoors

The shooting season is over and while some of us are thanking our lucky stars we got through the season without hurting ourselves, others are shooting so well, they are wishing it would go on for several more months. Either way, the next few months are as important as when we are in the middle of the competition season. Actually, they are more important. So often, we don’t use this time off to our best benefit. Some of us pack away the gun, take a clean break and don’t even think about shooting. Others take no break at all, shooting local matches and use the rest of the time on the practice field. Life is about balance and so is shooting. The best time to balance out your shooting journey is during the off season, when your mind is clear. Shooters will use this time to reflect on the past season, thinking about certain shots and working hard to learn from the mistakes they made. Over the next few months, you’re thinking about what went wrong and how to fix it. That’s really not

Having just returned from the Grand American Trap Shoot, I talked with many shooters, both young and old, who told the same story and asked the same question. “I was shooting great at the start of the season and now I can’t hit a thing. What am I doing wrong?” The dreadful mid-season slump, we’ve all experienced it and when we do, we get the same advice, ‘just shoot your way out of it.’ Well, there’s some truth to that, but it’s how you approach shooting your way out of it that makes all the difference. The fundamentals of golf are similar to those of shooting and I play and watch a lot of golf. Not surprisingly, even pro golfers suffer from mid-season slumps, but what caught my attention was how they deal with it.   To put it simply, they go back to the basics. Tiger Woods is a perfect example. His struggles on the golf course these days are well known, but he’s working his way out of it. How? He went back to his basics. He pulled footage of his swing when he was at the top of h

By Shari LeGate A comment was made the other day that shooters weren’t really athletes. Not in the sense of a track athlete or baseball or football athlete. I would argue that point, saying those who make those types of statements have never stood on a trap line in the heat of summer for a few hours hitting target after target. That’s a true athlete.   Shooters are athletes in every sense of the word. Preparation for competition may not be like a football player lifting heavy weights or a jogger running 25 miles a day training for a marathon, but shooters still train, even during the off season.  Preparing for the shooting season doesn’t mean just throwing ammo down range and shooting as many targets as you can. Granted, you have to practice the execution of shooting at a real target, but there are non-shooting activities you can do to prepare for the upcoming season, and those can help improve your overall shooting even more.    Review your shooter diary: The off season is