The shooting sports include the Dynamic Shooting Sport consisting of several stages in which the shooters have to hit different targets in a very fast succession. It’s a sport that requires speed of movement going as quickly as possible in shooting position, and then the shooting action must be precise and fast. This type of activity has to be repeated several times with silhouettes to hit and different paths that the athletes have never shot before.
The psychological implications of this sport are, in my opinion, the following:
- Confidence in the physical and motor skills to move quickly and accurately among the targets
- Confidence in the firearm and the sport technique
- Skill in the immediate adaptation to the type of stage to be carried out
- Competence to immediately memorize the stage and the targets just before the beginning in a typical situation of competitive stress
- Skill to react immediately to one mistake, avoiding to compromise the next shots
- Skill to close the mind just 3-4 minutes before the start of each stage in a noisy environment, outdoors, restricted space, in presence of opponents and officials.
- Be able to relax among the stages, reducing the competitive tension regardless of the results obtained
- Among the stages be able to relax, in particular, the vision, in order to have always a correct perception of the targets
- Be aware of the unexpected events that could happen during the competition and have a plan to manage them
- Be just focused only on the next stage and never on the previous one and only on the next shot and never on the previous ones.
Edoardo Buticchi, coach of the Italian Dynamic Shooting Team and Alberto Cei
