SHOOTING EXTRA!

Shooting Australia is undertaking the development of a new Strategic Plan to guide our work and reach for new heights from 2021 to 2024.

Significant consultation has been taking place over a number of years that is helping to shape this direction and recently, via the Australian Shooting Reference Group, we have been working directly with Member Organisations to understand how we can best serve our stakeholders in the community.

This consultation has coincided with ongoing work with our industry partners, including but not limited to; Sport Australia, the Australian Institute of Sport, the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympics Australia. 

Over the next six weeks, Shooting Australia will continue to refine this strategy and prioritise where our resources can have the most impact.

We plan to launch the Strategic Plan for 2021 – 2024 on SATV in April, so we encourage you to look out for this broadcast and hope you can tune in to hear our vision for the future

The new Shooting Australia Squad was announced on January 29th with 54 athletes named in the new three-tiered National Squad structure.

Our National Squad now includes:

• High Performance Squad – Current world-class athletes who have demonstrated their ability to regularly make finals and win medals in International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) competitions in recent years
• Performance Squad – Athletes who are regularly achieving selection to National Teams and whose international performances indicate that they are ‘on track’ to making finals and win medals in ISSF competitions
• Pathways Squad – Athletes who are considered capable of achieving National Team selection based largely on their performances in domestic competition (i.e. junior or senior) and demonstrated commitment to becoming a High Performance athlete.

The new squad structure replaces the former Aiming for Gold (A4G) Squad and enables us to recognise and support athletes at different stages of Shooting’s performance pathway by providing improved access to coaching, development opportunities and performance support.

Molly Bretag, a new member of the Shotgun Pathways Squad was on SATV’s Tuesday Night Live on February 2nd and spoke to host, Jon Harker about being selected in the squad,

“I'm feeling really privileged to be in the group that I am, there's some great names and great people that are surrounding me at the moment, so hopefully they can inspire me and hopefully lead me in the right direction".

The 2021 Performance Series is our domestic competition series which includes selected events through the year across Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun and Fullbore disciplines.

During the Performance Series, athletes will be awarded points based on where they finish in the competition. Although there is no minimum number of events that an athlete must attend within the Performance Series of Events, the greater the number of events attended increases the opportunity to secure Performance Series points.

At the conclusion of the Performance Series, each Athlete with the greatest number of points in the event/s they compete in, will be awarded the winner and a presentation will be made during the 2021 Shooting Australia Awards of Excellence.

Rifle and Pistol disciplines are well underway with the Performance Series, with Shotgun's events set to kick off at the end of March and Fullbore in April.

In partnership with our Member Organisations, the 2021 Officials Recruitment Drive has been launched! 

The drive is aimed at anyone who has a keen interest in target shooting sports, is undertaking officiating education and training and has competition officiating experience within their relative National Sporting Organisation.

For more information on what it is and how you can submit your expression of interest, visit the Shooting Australia website.

New Officials uniforms have been delivered around Australia! Watch out for them at the next Performance Series events!

With the cancellation of the Sydney Cup, and a strong appetite for competition within the Pistol and Rifle community, some creative thinking was applied. The outcome was a move to an online competition enabling Athletes the opportunity to compete from a range within their home state eliminating the challenge for some Athletes to travel interstate with current border closures. 

The pistol competition was held at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre with Athletes also competing online in Perth at the Rhein Donau and Whiteman Park Ranges. 10m Air, 25m Pistol and 25m Rapid Fire were all offered. This format of competition allowed a lot of new athletes to compete in a Performance Series competition.

Thank you to Mike Giustiniano and Michele Sandstrom, together with their team of Officials and Volunteers, for coordinating the competition on behalf of each of the ranges they represent.

13th February, 25m Pistol Women
Gold - Civon Smith
Silver - Elena Galiabovitch
Bronze - Siobhy Nicholls

The rifle competition was held at the Wingfield Rifle Range as an Adelaide Rifle Grand Prix, with Athletes also competing online at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre. 10m Air was the event offered to online competitors with an amazing 25 Athletes competing.

The Wingfield Rifle Range also offered 50m Prone and 3 Position as part of their three days of competition. Again, by offering this modified competition format it enabled many new names to enter the Performance Series leader board. Thank you to the Officials and Volunteers at the Wingfield Rifle Range and the Brisbane International Shooting Centre for their flexibility and ability to adapt to this well received competition format.

13th February, 10m Air Rifle
Gold - Alex Hoberg
Silver - Tori Rossiter
Bronze - Dane Sampson

The Rifle athletes have kicked 2021 off to a flying start with several Australian Records broken in the first two competitions of the Performance Series. 

Tori Rossiter most notably broke 7 Australian Records, 5 individual and 2 teams records. 

• 50m Rifle 3 Positions - Qualification (1156)
• 50m Rifle 3 Positions Jr - Qualification (1156)
• 10m Air Rifle Women - Qualification (630.4)
• 10m Air Rifle Women Jr - Qualification (630.4)
• 10m Air Rifle Women Jr - Final (252.6)

Tori, with brother Jack Rossiter have set two new 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams records

• 10m AR Mixed Teams - Qualification 1 (628.2)
• 10m AR Mixed Teams - Qualification 2 (419.4)

Jack also managed to meet the current Australian Final Record for 10m Air Rifle Men held by Dane Sampson of 251.7

Finally, Michael Davis claimed the Final Record for the 10m Air Rifle Men Jr (453.7)

Congratulations to all the athletes!

Last December Shooting Australia released the 2021 – 2022 National Team Selection Strategy with the main purpose of maximising the number of medals that Australian Shooting athletes can win in benchmark events, and to use those events, and other ISSF and WSPS events to provide elite and pre-elite athletes with exposure to high-quality international competition that will help to accelerate their development for 2024 and beyond.

This document does not replace selection criteria for specific events but will help shape their content.

Most selection criteria require athletes to meet minimum performance standards in order to be eligible for selection to ensure we are selecting only those athletes that have demonstrated they may be able to contribute to our performance objectives.

The Team Selection Criterias have been released for the following international competitions:

December through to January saw many of our athletes engage with media opportunities. There was a big focus on the pistol athletes and their training camp at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre. Luke van Kempen also talked about the integration of our Performance Series. 

Balance in the Standing Position

An important skill to develop when you are shooting in the standing position is the ability to hold the rifle and your body in a balanced and stable position.  This means that building stability in your shooting position and feeling when you are unbalanced is very important.  Focusing on building balance in training is the only way to develop this feeling and to have better control over your balance.

If you do all of these exercises together, each one gradually increasing the difficulty and requiring you to focus more deeply on balance – you will have completed 45 minutes of holding and had something interesting to focus on each time.

Happy Holding!
Carrie Quigley - Rifle National Talent Coach

National Come and Try is a nation wide campaign that gives participants an opportunity to “Have a Go” at the sport of target shooting. It's a great way to get more people involved in shooting by providing a quality and enjoyable experience to new participants.

Club registration for the 2021 National Come and Try campaign will open on Monday, March 1st.

The Active Target Program, delivered by Shooting Australia is funded through the Sport Australia Move It AUS – Participation Grant Scheme. Promoting the SportAUS Find Your 30 campaign, the Active Target program engages people from all areas of the community into a fun, friendly and uniquely physically active experience through the use of laser pistols and rifles.

The primary aim of the activity is to promote the sport of target shooting to the community in a method that is non-threatening and engaging.

The project will involve a 30-minute laser pistol/rifle activity that includes various exercises with shooting at stationary targets. This activity is a modified version of a current international competition.

Shooting Australia is seeking Clubs in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney to partner in the delivery of the Active Target Program and for support in creating a strong link for participants to take the next steps to try Shooting sports.

BOOK

"I have just finished “Mary’s last dance” - an autobiography of Mary Li, an Australian Ballet dancer married to Li Cunxin of “Mao’s Last dancer” fame.

It’s beautifully written and there are many interwoven stories; how a child of 8 in Rockhampton became a premier ballet dancer, leaving home at 16 to study at the Royal Ballet School In London. The life of a ballet dancer is tough; away of life commitment that is all consuming. The book talks about career, falling in love and marrying Li Cunxin and then giving dancing away when her first born daughter was born profoundly deaf.

Just an incredible family. One of the best books I have read in a long time."

Nicky Frey is the Shooting Performance Support Manager at Shooting Australia and works closely with our National Squad and Team members.

Elena's post shows a great mindset when it comes to competing and the attitude required to take challenges in your stride and continue to push forward.

During these tough times - when we must improvise to make competitions happen - the effort, time and resources put in by the Officials and volunteers to ensure meaningful competition for athletes is so important.

It's great to see them being given the appreciation and praise they deserve.

We love seeing and sharing your pics, make sure you tag @shootingaus in your next one!

Tuesday Night Live

Tuesday Night Live is getting a rebrand! Next week, Tuesday March 2nd will be the last time Shooting Australia produces a Tuesday Night Live, instead we'll be coming to you live On the Range with the first new show broadcast from Yarra Valley Grand Prix on the 28th March - still with all the latest Shooting news, interviews and highlights from around the country. 

Next Tuesday, March 2nd we'll have a great lineup of guests including Shooting Australia's High Performance Director to talk about the latest released selection criteria, the Shooting Australia Participation and Sport Development Manager discussing what's coming up for clubs and the community and we talk with clubs and athletes about what's going on for them now.

Tune in at 7pm AEDT on Shooting Australia's Facebook or SATV

Shooting The Breeze

Throughout 2020 Shooting Australia engaged international shooting commentator Jamie Stangroom to host a series of interviews with internationally successful athletes from around the world.

Every month we released a new episode of Shooting the Breeze on Facebook and SATV

In the latest episode of Shooting The Breeze Jamie talks to World #12 Pistol Shooter Anish Bhanwala from India. They talk growth of shooting sport in India, his hopes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, another round of Tok-yo or Toky-no and much more.