Focus:  What to Focus on as a Biathlete?

10 minutes – Meeting  Discussion Points/Important Questions:

What is important to think about as a biathlete?

There are a lot of correct answers to this. Ideally you want to be thinking about the process. Getting into a good position, a consistent breathing pattern, loading of the trigger, stopping the breath, fine aiming, a smooth trigger pull and shoot.

They do not want to be just thinking about hitting the target, that is an outcome focus. It will not help. Thinking about the process will help you have better shooting. Additionally, we want them to focus on something external when it comes to taking the actual shot. So once the breath is stopped, trigger pull and a really good sight picture/fine aim, are the best focus points.

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: Talking with the athletes, ask them what they are focusing on, try to direct them to a process or something external if they are not finding success. If they are finding success, ask them what is working, or what else they could try to see if other things work.

25 minutes – 1 Skill/Drill Based on Focus: Coach Calls the Shots

Athletes will lie on their mats and get into position. Coach first explain what they will say, then will narrate, “breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, half out, 1…2…3…” On the half out, all the athletes should have their finishing exhale out (with a clear stop), and they should take their shot between 1 and 3. No longer, no shorter.

Coach narrates this for 5 shots. Then athletes practice 5 shots on their own using this same pattern. Then coach narrates 5 shots again, then athletes do 5 shots on their own again. Calling breaths should be relatively quick so they aren’t holding their breath in the process.

1 Game: 2min Test/ 4×5 Test

Athletes start behind the mat, they will need 4 clips. Traditionally they will shoot Prone, Prone, Standing, Standing. For younger athletes, they will just shoot prone 4 times. This test is timed, for each miss, they receive 10 seconds added to their time. Lowest time wins. Easiest to do in partners, one partner resets the target and keeps track of “hits” while the other is shooting. Then reports to the coach how their teammate did. Coach records finish times.