This weekend the focus was on a youth camp. There came 16 atlethes to our yearly youth camp. On friday we just let them shoot as they want to shoot and get to know eachother a little bit before dinner.
On saturday started with breakfast at 07.30 and at 8.30 we picked them up and drove them to the shooting range. It was a long day ahead of them. First thing we did was the warm-up. This was something new for the youngsters so we explained them well why we need to do a warm up in shooting. After this we started to work with the feet and where the balance under the feet was. First without shooting gear and on mats. They noticed the stability and balance after they had tried the mats and were standing on the floor again. After that we did the same just with pants on and at the end the jacket.
The next step was the hip and stability on the hip. We first made them get the hip out in position. Straight out towards the target and locked in position. After working with this in 10min we worked on the in and outlift where the hip should stay in same position. This can be a difficult task depending on several things. 1 if a boy, the muscles are not strechted enough because of growing. Then it is very hard for them. 2 loading with the right hand (righthanded shooter), then it becomes a lot of movements also on the hip. This thing is easier to do something about by turning the pelletbox so they can use their left hand to load with instead.
At the end of this session we did a short match on 15 shots and then we had a break.
In the next sessions we were working with the breathing and follow through. First we had a little theoretically part where we explained and asked questions to the youngsters. Then we practiced on it and ended each task with a little competition. The shootingtraining was finished around 16.30 and then it was time for the physical training. Here we had hired 3 young people to do the physical training and they had stationtraining. They worked with interval training, balance training and core training.
It was a long day and the youngsters were happy for the tacodinner and after they had lots of fun until going to sleep around 10-11.
On sunday we had a match with a final. Here we as coaches went around to see if they had listen to us on the technical parts and did as they learned the day before. We cannot expect they do since they had little training on it but many did something. What was maybe missing most is the follow thrugh. It seems to be something that is hard to get youngsters to do everywhere where it is electronic targets. And who blame them, as far as i remember i was curious too when i was young to see if it became a 10 or not.