Anita North reports on British Shooting’s progress

Posted on August 11, 2020 by towens — No Comments ↓

Anita North reports on British Shooting’s progress with a return to training and competition.

I’m writing this article in July, and there is progress with the considered return to training and competing for Olympic Trap and Olympic Skeet.

The international scene

The international scene is still in a state of limbo as we continue to await an updated calendar from the ISSF. Fingers crossed this is issued in the next few weeks, so that by the next issue I will be able to report on positive news. There are still quota places and medals to be won in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics.

One announcement made on 17 July by the European Shooting Confederation, after much speculation, is the official cancellation of the 2020 European Championships.

Anita is looking forward to the British Shooting Pathway coaching sessions restarting

This will of course impact on shooters’ training plans. However, as I have said previously, you can be sure that British shooters will be doing whatever they can to be fully competition-ready and raring to go when international competitions resume.

One disappointing story currently circulating is the news that the medals earned at the planned Commonwealth Shooting Event in Delhi in 2022 will not be counted in the medal tally for the Commonwealth Games. If this is true, then it is a bitter blow for shooting sports.

What’s happening at home

There has been further progress on British Shooting’s Return to Training strategy. While individuals had already got out practising and training, it took careful preparation for group training to resume.

A significant step forward was achieved in July with World Class Programme athletes returning to outdoor training as a group of Olympic Trap shooters and coaches attending the first group post-lockdown training session at the National Clay Shooting Centre, Bisley.

There is progress in regards to the competition front too, with British Shooting announcing that The Shotgun Grand Festival will take place on 11th to 13th September at East Yorkshire Clay Shooting Ground.

This will be replacing the Shotgun Series Grand Final this year, as obviously there have been no Shotgun Series competitions. With entry to the event open to all, I am very much looking forward to seeing how many shooters sign up for this event.

As with the Grand Final each year, I am sure that there will be lots of effort put in to the preparation and arrangements to make it a great event. This competition will be a valuable opportunity for shooters to focus on performance and affords an opportunity to go for the GB team place consideration as scores can be counted from this competition towards team selection.

With a return to training underway and plans for competitions forming, British Shooting have published selection policies for the 2020/21 World Class. For more details on those, make sure that you check out the British Shooting website.

On the training front, for British Shooting’s Pathway, like other coaches, I continue to get ready for coaching sessions starting in August. This means we are ensuring guidance and procedures are in place before the first training session, in line with social distancing guidance to ensure a safe training experience for everyone concerned.

Interested in shooting Olympic Trap or Olympic Skeet?

The Pathway starts from the beginning – from first learning how to shoot and compete in the Olympic disciplines, all the way up to those competing in the Olympic Games.

If you are interested in learning to develop your shooting skills in the Olympic disciplines, then the Pathway might just be able to help you with that.

If you are interested do contact me – email anita.north.coaching@gmail.com, and I will help you or put you in contact with someone who can.

Preparation is all!

It’s clear that there’s a lot of preparation work currently taking place. Are you fully prepared for your shooting? What do you do to make sure you are ready? What does it take to break clays? I had a great conversation recently with a shooter about being prepared.

They were thinking about how they prepare on all sorts of levels from before they call for the clay to the bigger picture of preparation for competitions. That’s great attention to detail. One topic can cover so many things. It’s worth having a think about what do you do. Could you do anything better?

World Class Programme athletes are now able to return to outdoor training

One way I am preparing myself is to do some gym work. This time it is gym work for my eyes. A little while ago I was fortunate to get one of Ed Lyons’ Total Workout kits. The kit comes with a series of exercises and there are videos that can help you understand the exercises as well as a booklet. Next month I will let you know how I get on.

Until next month…

I hope you’re all really enjoying your shooting. What are you working on now that you are able to get back to it? Personally, I’m off to continue preparation for return to Pathway sessions and to do some concerted training of my eyes. I am very keen to hear what you would like to read about, so do get in touch. Here’s to everyone staying alert, staying safe and staying well.