good to hear from you gert   you are 100% correct  i always shoot 20 rounds the week of a match just to wake up the muscle memory   art

MartiniBelgian you are 100% correct. 
One has to be constantly out working on wind and mirage reading skills. Continually improving on ones muscle memory, comfort, concentration and self confidence. 
Back in the day I would be out once a week and often times twice and I would do this all year long. 
It also depends on just what ones own personal intent and goals are and  just how successful they actually want to eventually reach.
It also takes a self dedication and sacrifices to get to that point and to also be able to remain there for years on end.

I believe this is also what Frank Monikowski once said - make sure you master the basics 1st, then you can go to gradual technical improvements.
But if you don't master those basics, it will be hard to see the real results of any changes done.

rafter3c wrote on Jul 12^th, 2022 at 3:06pm:

I have a friend who's a free diver. He can get down below 100 ft with nothing more than a mask, snorkel and flippers and swim around. 

He pointed out that when the brain is thinking it can use up to 20% of the body's oxygen.

John, are you talking about those diving competitions off of cliffs in Acapulco? 

The kind of free diving my friend does is like scuba diving but without tanks. 

Watching it would be like watching submarine races but without the companionship required for the latter.

I would like to offer my two cents on this subject. Years ago Frank Zika said to me: " Rifle shooting is all luck, but the more you practice the luckier you get."

I would like to add a few points to that. As has been said already, most of this sport, like anything else, is in your head. When you practice, you have to practice with a purpose, not just go out and blast.
When the first ammo shortage hit in about 2012, I decided to change my practice routine. Instead of shooting 50 or 100 or more shots in a session, I limited myself to 25 shots per shooting session. I had a healthy supply of ammo and components but no idea how long the shortage would last. I was concerned that cutting back my trigger time would adversely affect my scores. Well, it turns out it did NOT adversely affect my scores. I am able to shoot 3-5 times a week, so I have been able to practice almost on a daily basis, but still limited to 25 shots per day,(usually). I decided that to make it effective, each practice session had to be executed with the same intensity and concentration that one would employ in a match. I ignore everything around me and "pretend" that I am at a match shooting for score.( I shoot 25 shots because you get two sessions out of a box of 50 cartridges). 
If I shoot a ten I decide that I need to dig myself out of that hole and concentrate even harder. I  score every target. Looking at a target and saying "thats not too bad, I got a couple centers" is not the way matches are scored and there's no sense in doing that in practice. I either add up the score and divide by 25 to get the average score per shot then multiply by 20 to get the comparable score at a match, or calculate the score by adding up the plusses and minuses over and above 20 for each shot. For example, a score of 22 is two over 20 so that is 2 over. I nineteen is one under 20 so thats one under for a net of one over. Doing some quick and simple math will tell you in a hurry if you hit 400 or not, which is my goal. You can set any goal you want, of course. When you are done you will know exactly what your score was and either feel good about it or realize that you need to do better. Not keeping score leads to sugar coating the results which means you really dont know where you are at. 
I am running out of my 2500 characters, to be continued Joe S

Joe_S wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2022 at 9:19pm:


This ^^^ sums it up very well.

I set up a 10M air gun range in my basement, bought a good quality air rifle. -30, snowing, blowing or + 90 deg. summer,  I can go downstairs in my slippers and shoot. Discipline is exactly the same (and there are some superbly accurate air guns).
There's still a place for outdoor centerfire match practice but not nearly as often.