Focus:  Natural Alignment

10 minutes – Discussion Points/Important Questions:

What is natural alignment? When your rifle aligns with the target without much forced effort.

Which target should you naturally align with? Echo (assuming right hand shooter) Why? It’s where you will start. (I know there are also different theories with this. This is what I decided to teach for transition to speed later on).

How do you do a natural alignment check? Line up on Charlie, close your eyes, take a breath, open your eyes and see if you are still on.

If you aren’t aligned, what should you move? The Hips!
If you move your hips back, where does your rifle point? High. If you move them forward, where does it point? Low. If you move them left, where does it point? Right. If you move your hips right, rifle points? Left.

15 minutes – Head Out to Range, Zero, Confirm, and Start 10 Minute Warm-up

35 minutes – Combo Practice Working on Session Focus

What to look for: Athlete checking natural alignment before each shot. Adjustments made from the hips if needed. Athletes on slings, should get straight into position, once their left elbow is in position, it should not move. Movement should only come from the hips.

25 minutes – 1 Skill/Drill Based on Focus: Pyramid Challenge

Athletes walk/run/ski a lap (short is better), then take 1 shot. If they are successful they take a lap and go for 2 hits. If successful they lap and then go for 3 hits. This goes to 4, 5, then 4, 3, 2, 1. If they miss a shot in the progression, they stay on that level until they are successful. I.e. If they need to hit 4, they must hit 4 before moving on to 5, etc.

1 Game: Garage Sale

Athletes take off all gear (skis and poles) and mix it up in a big pile in the stadium. Line them all up, and say go, they will run to the pile and collect and put on one piece of equipment. It does not have to be their own. Then they come in and shoot. Usually have some penalty for misses – Silly squats, push ups, jumping jacks, star jumps, etc. Then back around the fence and pick another piece of equipment. Continue until they have 4 pieces of equipment and cross the finish line. It does not have to be their own equipment and it does not have to be 2 skis and 2 poles. They can have 4 skis or 4 poles or any combination.