Shooting Strengths, Overcoming Weaknesses

I think everyone is aware of the importance of working to improve weak areas during training. Most shooters have an event--rapid-fire, standing or 600 yards--that's not up to what they want. For me it changes year to year. It's normally not standing, but one year it could be.

My answer to a weakness is always to train more: Work on natural point of aim; run experiments; take a look at the rifle (and maybe the load); focus on the issue at hand. Get it fixed.

But don't neglect your strong suits. Don't spend so much time training standing, for instance, that the other, stronger suits either stagnate or slip by the wayside.

Don't take strengths for granted. You don't want to develop another weakness by overtraining on a weak area.

There are 12 months between national championship events, but I like to solve any problem I encountered at the nationals right away and then come back to that problem again when it's a little closer to time to go back to Ohio and see how that solution still fares.

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That, of course, is the advantage to anyone who is able to practice regularly. Constant, continual attention means, or should mean, that weak areas and strong areas are all given adequate attention.