I have probably been this tired sometime in my life - I just can't remember

It's a good type of tired (a friend asked me after the first day if I am 'God, please don't make me go back again' type of tired or 'God, please help me relax and go back again' type of tired. I told her it's the 'God, please do something about my feet - I am having too much fun' type of tired  I didn't know what to expect - so I started the show without any expectations. I managed what I should manage every time in competition: go there, take it as it is, do your best, and enjoy the process. Like I mentioned, though, my feet absolutely kill me right now... and they probably will for a long time...

What I took from our very first show?

First of all, I have been surprised (plesantly so) by the sheer number of people that were interested in the sport. Being GTA, I thought we will encounter a larger percentage of 'OMG, guns are dangerous' people. We did encounter them, but in such a small percentage - it gives me hopes for the future of the sport! That was my '#1 myth' busted

#2 - I was surprised (and again plesantly so) by the sheer number of ladies interested; there were so many ladies in the 'wow, I always wanted to try this!' or the 'oh, look, trapshooting' (explaining to their children what it is and how they did it when they were younger, usually on their parents' farm).

No surprise in the percentage of youth interested - lots and lots of them (both boys and girls) that were going 'mom/dad, look! I want to try it - can I?'. And most of their parents being either familiar with the sport or receptive to our explanations. No surprise either in the percentage of older generation that knew what trapshooting is.

Lots of 'where are you located?' followed by the 'really? that's so close - I must come and try it'. A few followed by the 'oh, that's too far - do you know any place closer to where I live?' A few 'oh, no, thanks, I do it on my farm'.

As for the exhibitors themselves - we are Canadians and we prove it every time: we are a nation of very friendly, polite people. Most of the exhibitors were glad someone is trying to educate people; some were reserved; some were probably openly against - but way too polite to do anything else but smile and pass by quickly. We had a few stopping by and expressing their pleasure we are there. We had a few asking if we operate in their areas (from couple hundred miles away all the way to Alberta and Oklahoma).

The show itself was very interesting - lots of different exhibitors, covering an amazing area of sports and activities. We sighed watching different promotions (like the Chilean adventure trip - filled with mountain pictures and amazing blue skies; or the diving in the Camayan tours - with incredible clear waters); we had fun petting the huskies (an adorable 3 months puppy with wonderful blue eyes) and chatting with the Conservation people showing 2 cute owls; I could not convince William to try the wall climbing adventure (maybe next year), but we sat together and watched the Camayan video. We learned about lots and lots of camps / parks / nature schools - I had lots of the 'wow, that would be cool to try' moments myself

And, of course, we all cheered for our hockey team - for the first goal, the second one, we groaned together (all 30,000 SF still packed with people) when the US team marked their second goal too close to the end of the game. We had an agonizing few minutes until Crosby scored the winning goal - What a wonderful finish to an amazing weekend!

Thank you to all our volunteers - you did an amazing job promoting our wonderful sport to the large audience. To have members of our youth team every day with us helped a lot - it demonstrated once again that trapshooting is really a family sport that everyone enjoys. As usual, our Golden shirts and hats stood out everywhere we went.

Thank you to all LearnTrapshooting students and supporters that visited us over the weekend - your support and positive energy was so refreshing!

And thank you to all our visitors - thanks for stopping by, for listening to us, for showing interest and for asking questions. We hope we picked your interest and we are looking forward to seeing you all on the range!
 

I knew someone will say something until the end of the Games - and I was sooooooo happy to hear Clara Hughes saying the perfect thing today. Clara is the only athlete in the whole world to win multiple medals in both Summer and Winter Olympics: she won 2 bronze medals in Atlanta, for Cycling; then she switched to speed skating and won a gold medal (2006), a silver medal (2006), and 2 bronze medals (2002, 2010). She's not a very young athlete either - being born in 1972.

That was my mini-presentation for Clara. And today - after she won her last Olympic medal, the reporter asked her something along the lines of 'Although you won only a bronze medal, you are still happy. Why?'

Please note somewhere her words - they are the most precious words you can ever hear in relation to a competition (not her exact words, I will try to find an exact quote and re-post exactly, but a good rendition):

I hear people talking about medals, owning the podium... I don't think about that - I see it in terms of excellence - excellence in performance, excellence in athleticism... I train to be ready physically and mentally, to peak when it is the right moment... I was ready today and I knew I will be the best I could ever be - and that's what I did: I gave it all and I had the best time of my life... 

I am sure you have heard these ideas before - goals must be based on performance, not results. Train to be ready, to get your best form, train both your muscles and your mind. Not to gain a medal (or a trophee), but to be your best, to give your best. When you are ready, when you wake up in the morning being calm, prepared, confident and enjoying your day - performance will transform itself into results.

P.S. Congratulations again to all Canadian Olympic athletes - and congratulations to both Canadian Bobsleigh teams and to the 5000-relay team!

Like the Summer Games a couple of years ago, I am watching these Olympic games with a different perspective than a few years ago.

Why? I believe all the comments the sport anchors make have a different vibration, I tend to try to hear something (which I very rarely do) and I also try to feel the whole experience more like an athlete, not a simple spectator. Far from me to say I feel like an Olympian (it's a long way to being an Olympian), but I sure feel differently than just a few years back.

I am not going to make any negative comments right now (I've been complaining for a few days already and it's getting worse) - I choose instead to share with you one beautiful comment from tonight's Lady Short Program: one of the former Lady athletes (I do not know them by voice and they never showed them to us, so I have no clue who said it) made this comment:

Butterflies are good! Just make sure they fly in formation.

This is such a simple synthesis of the pre-competition nerves. Nerves are good - if you don't have them, it means either it became a chore or it became boring; none of these 2 feelings will make you give your best, so you should find a way to get back into the challenge or... find another sport to compete into. So we agree that nerves are good. Good!

Now what do you do with those nerves? Make sure you control them - see the butterfly formation. If they move chaotically - they control you and they'll do whatever they'll please. And who can tell what nerves will please to do at any given time? But if you manage to figure out a way to fly them in a beautiful formation - oh, let them sing you a song, because that's the moment you became a real champion!

So here you have it for the future: Keep them butterflies - just make sure they fly in formation!

Congratulations to all the Canadian Olympians, to all the Olympians in general! And my deepest sympathy to Ms. Rochette - she demonstrated tonight the impossible formation of the most beautiful butterfly colony... I don't think there are words to comfort her now and all I can think of is to pray for her and her family.

My thought for tonight: Forget the 'Quest for Gold' - go out there and enjoy your moments, Olympians or not! Try your best, give all you have and remember to keep the joy in it. The rest will follow...

And, of course - See, Smooth, Smoke, One

If someone can explain where did January go... please do so!

But complaining about how fast the time flies by is only going to aggravate me, I learned this one long time ago... so - no complains... but seriosuly... where did it go?! OK, kidding.

As January / February decided to bring some cold with them (not enough snow to build even one small snowman, the child is 100% dissapointed) I had to postpone my well-laid plans to get out of the house and on the range, for a few practice shots now and then. Mounting the gun excercises are going ok (not phenomenal, mostly because I hate going in the basement in the middle of the night! and that's the only quiet moment when one can focus on some personal stuff, at least in this household  )... but there is a need to do something... almost anything will do.

Watching William playing tennis once a week was just killing me - I love tennis, I love playing the game and for a few years I missed all the opportunities to play. Add the Australian Open I've been watching like a mad-woman @ 3:30 in the mornings - so it comes to no surprise that last Tuesday I marched into the office of the Membership Director at the Cedar Springs Club and... a few minutes later I was the happy owner of a family membership. After returning home I didn't tell William anything, he would have get in the car and drive himself there - he's been asking for months now to go to their pool (they have a water-slide and he was anxious to try it for the first time in his young life). But later that night I shared our new aquisition with head coach - and this time I had no power (and no will, to be truthful) to stop the man in my life: so come 11:30 PM who's playing tennis on the only occupied court?! Yeah, you guessed it - the happy couple. Well - now 'playing' is a bit too much for what we were doing. Remember we hadn't touched the tennis raquet in over 5 years (if not seven, I lost count) so no normal person can get on a tennis court at midnight and start serving for the Provincial Championships.

But we did what they call 'cardio - or fitness - tennis' and we enjoyed it enormously. Of course both of us found muscles we forgot we have... interestingly enough, like in horseback riding, we find completely different muscles. Not sure what that means, but it took me 2 days to be able to hold a pot of water with my right hand only (well... I do return the backhand with one hand only... and after the first 15 minutes Florin forgot I am the lady and started to return at his full power... so there you have it, the complete 'excuse').

Another intersting fact is that, like in trapshooting, tennis is (after taking the fitness form out of equation) a mind game - you have to watch the ball, not the raquet, you have to move smoothly, but firmly, you have to move your whole arm, not the wrist. Translation in trapshooting: watch the target, move smoothly, move the gun with the body, not the arms... I wonder if all sports get to the same 4-5 main focus ideas bottom line?!

So here you have my winter blues solution - can't go to Florida (which will be my first option!) so we'll just go to the tennis club and enjoy some evenings of fun.

For all of you who can stay out in the cold - remember to stay warm! For those who can't - find some indoor activities that will keep you in form.

And, most important - have FUN! Winter is almost gone anyhow, spring is just around the corner... I can't WAIT to get back to the range

In the meantime - See, Smooth, Smoke - ONE!

It's official! At the next Outdoor Adventure Show, in Toronto, February 26-28 2010, LearnTrapshooting has a booth!

Write it down and come visit us at booth #353

It took us a while to decide, but we bit the bullet (or maybe the 12GA shell) and... we reserved the spot. It's a nice corner spot and now we are working hard with our friends to make it very special and memorable.

We are very excited and since we have less than 2 months to prepare we have started to study everything there's out there about shows  Knowing Florin I presume there will be lists to be made and checked and re-checked very soon. Luckily for me he's busy with something else right now, so I can just bask in the excitement for a short while.

Did I mention we are excited? OK, ok... I'm more like a child a few days before Christmas, wondering if I’ll be on Santa’s ‘good’ list

And now - back to work - remember: on February 26, 27, and 28 2010, at the International Centre, at The Outdoor Adventure Show come visit LearnTrapshooting and Hamilton Gun Club booth #353.
 

OK - we tasted it - and beside being a tad strange (it's, after all, a strange combination of cinnamon with chocolate) - everyone agreed it's a yummy final to our adevnture.

Like I said - next time will be the lime version, and after that the butterscotch.

Thanks again, Emma!

P.S. I actually missed the walk tonight, I believe I'll have to create a new Christmas tradition and have walks every night in December to enjoy the lights!

A week ago we received a bag with some batter in it, along with some (curious) instructions. After following each day's steps (most of them consisting of 'squeeze the bag; put it back on the counter') today was marked as 'Today is THE DAY'. A well known 'secret' about me is that I can cook, but I am lousy baker - and the reason? I hate following instructions (my cooking goes something like this: look through the fridge and pantry and figure out what ingredients I have; gather some that I believe will go well together; add things to the pan and when it smells right stop... one of the reasons I won't be able to make the same dish twice, even if I want ).

This being said - that's what 'THE DAY' became:

William: Mommy, it says 'This is THE DAY'

Me: Yup

William: We need to follow the instructions

Me: Yup

William: When are we going to make the bread, mommy?

Me: As soon as I'm done here

... and the 'soon' is suddenly 8 PM, which, coincidentally is the child's bedtime. No problem, how long could it take to mix some ingredients and pour them in the pan (for reference, I did read the instructions earlier in the day, to make sure I have everything... ).

Me: OK, William, read the instructions.

The child obeys and reads out loud: add one cup each of flour, sugar and milk... oops... where is our milk? Ask grandma - answer: err... I gave it to William earlier... No panic, we can hop in the car and in 15 minutes we'll be back home, right? Wrong - it's one of the very few evenings when I drank a glass of wine before William's bedtime... can we use soy milk instead? I don't think so. The powder one? I'd rather not.

Luckily for all involved - tomorrow is PA day, so no need to wake up too early - William and I got dressed quickly and decided to walk to corner store. The advantage? the neighbourhood is beautifully lit and we get into Christmas spirit and start singing carols all the way. About 40 minutes later we are back home - with the above-mentioned milk and with extremely bright spirits - there's nothing like a fresh evening walk admiring beautiful Christmas displays and listening to yourself caroling on top of your lungs.

Back to our baking: we add the cups and mix. Next step? Pour one cup batter in 4 ziploc bags. Guess what? No, I do have bags, lots, but not the 12 X 12... they are on the list... No problem, I found a few replacements.

Could anything else go wrong? As it's about me cooking - yes, lots... in this case - we follow the instructions nicely to the very last one... add 2 packages of vanilla pudding... oh... I knew I forgot something! Of course I have pudding in the house - but not vanilla... we don't eat vanilla, we are chocolate people. Did I mention this is cinnamon bread?! I am trying to figure what kind of bread will become and I decide whatever happens, happens - splash 2 chocolate puddings in it... next time we'll try the lime ones!

Finally - the batter is in the stove and the child is licking the bowl, at least the uncooked mix is yummy considering I lost him completely inside the bowl...

I'll let you know how the Amish bread tastes with lots of chocolate - until then William has decided that no matter the taste, this is what we should make for Christmas Eve dinner. I believe he had too much fun adding and mixing the ingredients.

Thank you, Emma!

Now we have only to find 3 people to give the new batter - one we'll keep

I was enjoing a quiet evening last week when Florin came from the club with incredible and sad news: one of the club members has passed away. I thought it would be one of the older gentlemen, and I was preparing to hear one of the familiar names - you know that feeling when something wrong happened and you wait for those few moments until to hear what exactly happened to pass. Then he said: John. A rapid brain-check and a stunning me: Kokoris? Yes.

I had to sit down - John was (as many trapshooters are) a person full of life, you could always be sure you'll find a good laugh in his presence. Not only that, he was what I will call still young, definitely not a vet... I knew he's been sick for a while, but when I talked to him last (sometimes in the summer) he was confident he was over the worst and recovering. Apparently it wasn't the illness that took him away, but the all-so-dreaded heart attack.

As I was trying to comprehend what our trapshooting lives will be without John's larger-than-life attitude, I became sadder and sadder: there won't be any jokes from him from now on, no smiles when you shoot well, no comforting pats when you shoot not that well...

May you rest in peace, John (and smoke each one from now on, up there) - I have you and your family in my prayers!

And so I was again reminded to slow down and enjoy every single moment - to tell my dear ones they are loved, to meet my friends as often as possible and to laugh a lot. Life is so precious and we spend way too much time being unhappy when happiness is just there, at the tips of our fingers. We just need to reach it and grab it.

I found an interesting quote somewhere:

Don't measure yourself by what you accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

I am not sure if I agree or not, but I found it an interesting notion for the moment and I'll continue to analyze it until I can file it under one of the categories... Most of us might have a good idea of our own ability, but there are definitely people out there that think too much or too less of their abilities - and then what? Even if you know exactly what you can do - wouldn't it be frustrating to not be able to accomplish all you want or need? Especially knowing you could, given the context would have been on your side.

Maybe that's the message - get the context on your side. I know better than to decree it as a pure truth - sometimes it's impossible to do what you want / need, sometimes the context is beyond your control. But I would also be one to recognize the North-American society (the Western societies in general) as one of opportunities. 

And so I start my day - wondering about this quote... it's actually a nice feeling to be able to wonder

If I ever make up  my mind about the quote I'll let you know. Until then - I'll try to accomplish as much as I should

I am reminded almost every day that life is precious and we should never take one second for granted.

I met lots of wonderful trapshooters during the past years - and unfortunately I also heard of lots and lots passing away. I knew very few personally, but the threads on trapshooters.com are always rich with amazing support for the ones that lost a loved friend or family member.

Almost every week there will be a mention of yet another trapshooter that's now playing in Heaven(ly) competitions...

And every time I read about them I pray for their family and friends and I also remind myself how grateful should I be to 'be alive and well' like Kenny Chesney says in his last song.

This past summer I have been touched more personally by this type of loss - first when Mark Edmonson lost his courageous battle with cancer, then more recently when Indiana's John Gould died quiet suddenly... While I wasn't a close friend to any of them, I just loved being around both. Mark had an amazing personality, and Mr. Gould was for sure a figure on the range.  We met Mr. Gould back in 2007, in Michigan, and every year we will chat at all the shoots we found together (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania)... this year I was wondering at the Cardinal shoot where would he be (it's impossible to miss him and for the whole week I could not see him), just to come back home and find out he's sick... and in a matter of weeks he was gone...

I was sad (still am)- now I'll never hear their laugh and I'll never admire the turquoises (Mr. Gould was wearing amazing silver / turquoise jewelry... and this is a very less-known fact about me: I am quite crazy about jewelry and I am completely nuts about turquoise, they are my absolute #1 stone; if you've ever seen me in one of those Trade posts up north, where they display native jewelry...) -  now whenever I'll go to one of the Ohio / Penn / MI shoots and walk the vendor lines I am bound to remember Mr. Gould (one of the vendors sells the type of silver / turquoise jewelry he used to wear). And whenever I go to Hamilton GC I will remember Mark...

This sport being one with a very high age average I am also bound to be touched by loss every now and then. A constant reminder of what friendship should be: a gift we handle with care, we wrap with emotions, and we give with love. A constant reminder that life is to be cherished for the present moment, and not waited around for the next 'perfect' moment. A constant reminder that we are not forever, but our memories are and what we do with our life (in those daily little moments) is important, because that's what we will leave behind us: memories.

So the task for today is simple: find a loved one and tell them you love them. Then repeat

And, of course, make sure you See one, Smooth to one, then Smoke one!

Amazingly enough it's already October - even worse: halfway through October!

I have been away from the range for a long time and with the cold weather setting in so early this year, I believe my range days are over until spring. I am not a fair weather person: I don't mind wind and rain, not even snow - but I do have a medical problem with the cold and so I prepare for hibernating.

How does a trapshooter hibernate? Well - the ones that can afford it (time- and money wise) will move down south, mostly around Silver Dollar (FL) or in Texas / Arizona. The ones that didn't reach the retirement phase yet will have 2 options: either do nothing over the winter or do something! OK, ok - I'm getting there... stay with me.

Last year I kind of took the first route - doing more or less nothing. Sometimes it's simply impossible to stretch the day any more and that was my last winter - un-stretchable. But I wasn't very happy with this 'doing nothing' activity so this year I plan to do something. What? Here comes in handy to have the coach close by  

For a start I would like to set up some time every day to mount the gun. Nothing else - just mounting the gun. It's important to get dressed like you'll do over the summer and just do the usual task of mounting the gun 1,000 times... And what in the peaceful world would you achieve with this? Oh - a lot, in fact. First of all - you'll develop (keep active) the proper muscles. Then - you'll also develop muscle memory. And that will build your confidence - once you return on the range you took out the 'do I know how to mount my gun?' question. Of course you do, you never stopped doing it! And having the confidence - as most of you know - is 90% of the game

Once I figure out how much more time I will have in the day - I will move on to practicing my swing. And with that - practicing being patient - which will be funny to watch, I'm sure. If you have a person that doesn't have too much time to start with... how will you make that person practice patience?! I am not 100% sure yet, but I'll keep you up-to-date on my progress.

Now that I have shared my plans with the world - I will feel obligated to follow it... or so  I hope.

Until next time - if you are out there: be safe and break them all while having fun. If you started to hibernate - maybe you can build yourself a plan to keep in touch with your best friend (I'm talking about the shotgun).

And whatever you do - keep the fun in it!

We heard / knew from various sources that this year, at the Grand, Florin has received the '2009 ATA Shooting Coach of the Year' award.

And yesterday it came in the mail - a box with Florin's name on it and with another (smaller) box inside. And inside this second box - the award itself, one of the Tilden desk clocks.

I admired it for a while and I keep reading the quote on it... the more I read it, the more I wonder how it came to be on this award.  

It is actually holding so much truth...

That's exactly how I would define his past few years: as a continuous activity, a never-ending action. It is tiresome, sure, but it led him to this wonderful success: not the 'title' (how they so nicely define it) but the LearnTrapshooting teams and family. I am again and again awed by his energy, by his new and fresh ideas, by his drive.

I wonder sometimes where will we be in a few years, how will all this evolve.

I have high hopes - and I am prepared to help him pave this wonderful road to success: because that's exactly what we are doing - building from scratch. I don't know all the answers and I am sure the process will be sometimes perceived as hardship - but I am sure the success will be sweeter that way.

All I am sure of right now is that we are not alone - and we again thank all and every single person that helped in one way or another. Even a good word is a great help, trust me! We need more than just words, for sure, but we are as grateful for the encouragements we received throughout the year.

And a heartfelt thank you to whomever nominated Florin for this wonderful award. It is still a bit surreal - as the recognition comes from the highest level in our association... it is an honour and, as far as I know (I will check in the near future) it is going for the first time to a Canadian Coach! We are incredibly happy, honoured, and humbled. I am extremely happy his efforts have been awarded as such a high level - and for those who know us it will come as no surprise that I am not referring here at the award (or not only), but at the actual recognition of his actions.

So - as an LTS athlete, be proud: your Coach is THE BEST

Or how to surprise someone

I love surprises and since I figured out how the actual Fairies and everything works I have been genuinely surprised a very few times in my adult life. One reason could be that I am usually the one setting up meetings and get-together, so it's really hard to get me out of our house w/o a good reason or w/o becoming suspicious.

This being said, I got into the car last weekend with no other expectations than having lots of fun with the core LTS team, at the farm. I was driving (Florin likes to take advantage of my driving now and again) and because everyone in the car was purposely looking for the right number, of course we just zoomed by... a U-turn and few moments later we were all happily jumping on the trampoline, getting black walnuts off the lawn, and starting the biggest bone fire I ever saw.

I was totally and completely unaware of anything 'suspicious' - until the very last second, when Dan started 'the speech'. Even then... the very first moment I thought something strange is happening was only when I realized he's reading the speech... which meant he has prepared the speech in advance... which I had no idea what meant.

But I can tell you what - the awards Florin and I received from the 2009 LearnTrapshooting team have now forever a special place in our hearts. They are the most hard-working awards we ever received (OK, Florin probably can say that about his 2009 ATA Shooting Coach of the Year award as well), and the most sweet rewards we could have ever received. We didn't need an award to know we are appreciated by our students, don't take me wrong! But to actually 'see' the appreciation went beyond my expectations. I knew Florin is loved by all his students and I had no questions about the respect he raised in every soul he touched - because he has a magic touch - and I felt the love as well. But I keep the beautiful award on my desk since and I find myself smiling at it - there is a beauty in that flying Canadian flag that the people we become to love in so little time understood. For me that's even more important than everything - the fact that you, our LTS teams, understood us, understood what the school means to us, understood what Canada means to us.

I will bug Florin to get a few pictures of these 2 beauties to post here - for everyone to enjoy them.

Until then - we thank the team again - for all their hard-work, dedication, and for thinking so sweetly of us. We are continuously humbled by your actions and we are as proud of your performances. We are so lucky to have been surrounded by so many great athletes!

Well - here we are, at the very end of the 2009 competition season. 2010 will start in exactly 2 days (on Tuesday, September 1st).

We had a wonderful time in Marengo, OH. Weather was kind of cooperating and I was lucky enough to finish one of the days just 2 minutes before a pouring rain with great lightning came over.

Besides weather - everything else was wonderful: we met a few friends from last year that we had missed during Pennsylvania state shoot, we had lots of fun competing, and we had a great time using the bunker traps. Unfortunately it took me until the very last day to get back into International form, but I was really happy I remembered everything coach taught me last year (yes, it has been that long since I shot bunker). You know how it is - now I only have to practice some more

The actual competition - Cardinal Classic - was absolutely great: excellent organization, nice people, good scorers and trap helpers, and amazing attendance. The shoot was up 23% from last year and gained 6 point recognition in just 4 years. That is in itself a great accomplishment and both Mr. Fishburn and Ohio Trap Association should be congratulated.

And what did the LTS teams and students do? What they have learned from the coach: they had fun, they enjoyed their targets and they had better scores than before. It is something that only after you attend such a big competition you can fully understand: good competition makes better athletes. The better your 'opponents', the better you'll become.

And that's how I believe everyone shot their best to-date score, that's how my competition average was the highest for this year, and that's (just one of the reasons) why we'll come back given a chance. I, for one, had lots of fun - I managed above average scores in all 3 specialties, I actually managed some good results in handicap - and I now feel confident that I am on the right tracks with my handicap (my biggest struggle for the year). I finally understood (as you all know from my Provincials' blog) what I was doing wrong and - what else is new? - all I need to do is remember before each event that I need to be patient. Yeah, patience is the name of my Nemesis

I was fortunate enough to be in the same squad with very nice people I shot before - and in one of the events it helped a lot. The Ball cousins are a pleasure to shoot with - they bring such happiness to the range.

And that's my lesson for the competition: be happy. If not for you, then for the others around you. Happiness and joy are contagious. Unfortunately so is grumpiness - and the only way to counter-act is with lots of laughter and joy.

All in all - we had fun. We had to manage the Buckeye's Olympic traps in the morning and evenings, and we had the traps for ourselves 2 full days before and after the competition. We met even more people that way and we shot with some of the juniors from the National team. We made new friends and we had the pleasure of spending time with lots and lots of people. And that's the beauty of this sport: the community. The larger the community, the better will be for the sport's associations and for the athletes themselves.

I am so happy to see the many young people competing down there and I have high hopes for the number of young people that will compete up here as well.

Thank you to all our sponsors and supporters - we made it such a successful year with your help and encouragement!!

Thank you to all our athletes - your dedication was amazing and your hard-work humbling!

Thank you to all the parents - through your efforts we have a huge number of young trap-shooters eager to go out and compete.

And not last - thank you to our Head Coach, Florin. His efforts and dedications brought many sleepless nights, but nothing can made him happier than seeing his athletes performing so wonderful (competition or not). And, to crown it all  - he received a wonderful recognition from our governing body, ATA: he is the recipient of the  2009 ATA Shooting Coach of the Year.

Congratulations to each and every single person that made this year such a success! Thank you all!

After our amazing start of the season in May we have long time ago decided we will finish the season on the same happy note: with the LTS Games. After long and numerous conversations we decided to have it open for everyone and with the summer being as non-summery as possible we pushed the whole event right where it should have been: the very last weekend of August.

We prayed hard for nice weather (I suspect we had one nice weekend over the summer: the Provincials' one) and we started to get ready about a month in advance. Posters went up, word of mouth was spread, lists were made, more lists were made, friends asked how they can contribute, more lists were made and finally the eve of the Games downed upon us.

With the weather forecast getting a bit better (from 100% rain to 80% down to 60% the night before), Dan and Florin proceeded on a bitterly cold and cloudy afternoon to the club, to at least get some tents up, tarp & all... just in case the sunshine boy (aka as Matthew) couldn't save the day.

Luckily enough (strange way to define your luck!) it poured Friday night - and you won't believe it: the moment Florin entered the house the sky opened. Of course we kept praying through the night... and after a mere 3-4 hours of sleep the morning came and I have to be honest: I was completely afraid to open my eyes and check the light... sure enough, when I summoned enough courage I was greeted by gray clouds. My only hope was the temperature - which was decently above 17 and gave me hope for the rest of the day.

Having just a few hours of sleep meant I had troubles getting everyone ready in time, so we pulled into the west side later than we wanted... and what a sight! All our covered area was flooded! We will not be soaked from above; we would be soaked from the ground... Trapshooters being outdoor people, when someone wished we had a shovel ideas started to flow and in moments we had a team literarily digging a trench, a team pushing water with all our means, while Perry smartly went on the other side and returned with all the shovels he could gather. In about half an hour, someone else smartly mentioned we could have moved the white tent... yes, it would have been easier if we would have had enough people in the beginning... now, the area where the tent could have been moved was half-flooded as well so we kept brushing the water down the nice trench. Plus - the kids were so happy to help with building the dam, and splashing in their own 'Lake Ontario'... Taking pity on us, dear Ken came with the tractor from the other side and dumped 3 loads of gravel - saved by Ken! We now had clean and nice grounds and when people start trickling in were all exclaiming 'What a wonderful luck to have no rain'... yeah... lucky...

But, hey, that's how teams are built, isn't it? Not that our team needed more building, we were doing great before  

Anyhow, that's how we'll probably remember our first Summer Games: as the Flooded Games!

And what you know? By the time everyone pulled in and our grounds were 'steppable' again even the sun started to shine above us! Saved again by Matthew!

With all the excitement we couldn't really start when we had planned but nobody was in a real rush, so we proceeded nicely to shoot the first event - 50 singles. We had 4 full squads, 3 of the LTS athletes and 1 of our supporters, friends, or parents. The forecast kept most of non-LTS trapshooters away from the range, and it wasn't much we could do about that. The second event went by as smoothly as the first one - with the non-LTS athletes having probably their most fun, as almost none of them ever shot handicap!

And now, with the competition well behind us, we could continue the fun. And so we did: first we had our hat ceremony for all the first 25 and first 50, followed by the trophies and awards ceremony. We cut the cake for our coach (no, I did not take pictures of the cake when I made it so I cannot show you the beauty!), we presented the 8 trophies and the 2 special awards. I can tell you none of the winners expected to win (maybe Phil had a slight idea) and you could see the surprise on their faces.

Ok, Ok, no more suspense, here is the list:

• Open Champion: Dwight Cowan
• Open R/U - Matt Ciufo
• Open 3rd - Dorin Stanciu (with his personal best in singles, shot with his duck shotgun!)
• LTS Champion: Phil MacDonald
• LTS R/U: Alireza Aliabadi
• LTS Junior: Chloe MacDonald
• LTS New Shooter: Alex Lazich
• LTS Lady: Sacha Kucey
• 'Dwight Cowan' Trapshooting Excellence award: Matthew VanHaaren (for dedication and commitment) & Alex Lazich (for most improved new shooter)

Congratulations to all winners!

And congratulations to everyone - as I was saying in a previous entry, we are grateful for all your support!

The day was not done and almost nobody wanted to leave - and for good reasons, we still had to play the games. We proceeded to a Buddy shoot with our own rules (after 10 shots at 16 yards we moved everyone at 20 yards, the teams were most of them still equal). After all that fun, everyone was still ready for more target smoking, so we had a shoot-out at 27 yards. Now imagine all our 19-20 yarders focusing hard at 27 yards! And imagine a few of them going on for 5 targets! Next year we'll have to have trophies for the games as well

I believe everyone had lots of fun and we had a successful end of the season get-together.

Today the 2010 target year starts - and with it new hopes, new goals, new wishes. Remember to set your goals appropriately - it is all well to aim for the moon if you understand that just landing among the stars is as good. If you need to reach your goal to be happy, make sure your goal is reachable. And make sure your goal is performance related, not results-related. Your results will go up and down (there is only one Dave Shaeffer), but your performance should be (like Dan figured it out) a steady slow climb. It's performance you want to improve - and the results will improve automatically. Always remember: it's better to have 23 smokes than 25 chips... always!

And how do we get the smokes? Oh, com'on, you should know by now: SEE, SMOOTH, SMOKE... ONE!

As you journey through your trapshooting adventures you'll meet lots of people. From my personal point of view, this is the best part of trapshooting: the community and the tons of friends you end up with.

Most of the people you'll meet are amazing ones. You'll find the odd one from time to time, you'll most likely find some of the grumpy ones (note: the better you shoot the grumpier some become); but I believe on average the trap shooters are extremely nice people. And I mean EXTREMELY!

As you meet people, make sure you are not prejudiced. It is probably the easiest attitude: to fit someone in a category, to stamp them with a label, based on a lot of circumstances that might or might not reflect reality. So try hard to keep your mind open.

The main observation I made over time is that shy people pass as arrogant people. And I understand very well (because I am shy, believe it or not) how that might happen: they don't know how to approach strangers, so they keep to yourself... and suddenly people think they don't want to talk to them. And what's the easiest reason to put behind? Of course, they don't want to talk to you because they feel superior. Well... that says a lot about how you feel (remember Eleanor Roosevelt's "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent"...). But nonetheless, here you are, labeling someone as arrogant just because it didn't return your 'hello'.

It is hard not take everything personally, another feeling / attitude I understand very well. But if XYZ didn't smile back to you when you met on the range in the morning it's most likely because he/she was

• preoccupied with the next event
• preoccupied with some personal problems
• preoccupied with some business problems
• worried about the weather

 ... so just relax... don't judge a person by the first meeting... or the second meeting... or... even better: don't judge it at all!

Over these past few years I have been pleasantly surprised by some people and I have been less than pleasantly surprised by others. In the first case - I judged people and thought they were grumpy or too competitive or too arrogant to talk to a newcomer as I was. In most of the cases I found out they were simply preoccupied or, in some cases, they were simply waiting to see if I am serious about the sport or not. In the second case - we all have our own negative experiences and we all must deal with them. Enough to say that I believe the positive experiences are exceeding the number of the negative ones. The balance is always tipped in favour of positive. At least for me.

Another personal observation: The main reason some people are grumpy is a (mistaken if you ask me) perception that getting friendly with your competitors will take the edge of your excellence. I am not arguing the idea; I just feel that life is hard enough and short enough to fill it with unknown enemies, when you can fill it just the same with as many friendly faces. And, besides, being the energy 'magnet' I am I would rather surround myself with positive emotions - starting with my own.

And that's why I keep the memories of each shoot as a combination of performance, results and emotions, in more or less same parts. I believe that emotions impact performance which, in turn, impacts results. It's kind of a golden triangle and getting on the negative side of the emotions will have huge reflection on both performance and results.

And that's why I prefer to see each trapshooter I meet as a friend (until they prove differently, at least).

And that's exactly why I feel the community as a family. I feel lucky to have an extra family - my trapshooting family. I feel privileged to share my "adoptive" family with my real family. I feel honored to count in my extra-family amazing people.

I can only hope I will always make them proud and I will always be worthy of their friendship.

And I am amazingly glad I will meet some of them soon, in Ohio. And not any - but the best: William's 'other Mom' (Gen) and older 'brother' (Cody). We have not worked out the translation of these relationships beyond William, we are just happy to count them as our good friends from down-south.

Slowly the days start to return to normal - it is still a frenzy, mostly because the weeks before Provincials I had to push things down the list and they are creeping slowly, but surely, back on the top.

I've been looking back at the Provincial days, and the whole year and I still can hardly believe the whole competition season is almost behind us. There will be one more major competition, Cardinal Classic next week, and then the LTS Summer Games on the 29th... and... that's basically it for 2009. We will have a few 2010 shoots in September: the major St. Thomas on the long weekend, Toronto International the week after, and a Hamilton Gun Club competition on the 19th.

What do I remember the most of this year (I am referring at the competition year, of course)? I will forever remember the impression our Gold Teams made wherever we went. And I am not talking about colour here, or not only - because the colour itself was a great distinction. I am talking mostly about the feeling we shared - of being together, of being a Team, proudly representing what our school stands for: Safety - Performance - Fun!

The next I will forever remember how all the people came to recognize us - to all gentlemen and ladies @ the Provincials (and not only) who stopped by just to say 'Good job!': we thank you for your nice words. Every single word of enouragement matters to us and we appreciate yours. To understand the depth of our appreciation you should understand the state of the trap shooting community in Canada, and especially in Southern Ontario. Look around yourself when you are next at your club and see what is the average age of the shooters... it is a sport that seems to get older and older every year. And we need the advice of our excellent shooters, we need it badly and we need to pass it to next generations. What we are trying with the school is to bring the new generations into the sport. What we will need from our community is to share their wisdom with the new generations, to be gentle and helpful. Remember when you first started before you criticize next time! Like Thumper's Dad taught his son: 'If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all!' And again - to all that found in their hearts to say something nice: THANK YOU!

I will probably remember as a blur all the activity at each and every shoot. All the fun we had on the range, competing or in practice. I will wonder how I could ever shoot all year without real practice and I will try to practice some more into the new year.

I will remember that results are not important, what really counts is performance. I will remember with distinctive love the day when I finally 'got it together' again. It's the next best feeling after the Zone. I will keep a precious memory of my round of practice this last weekend when Florin and I played some games in handicap and I will try to remember forever that I can, indeed, blast targets from 27 yards; even better than at 22... It will come in handy in the future, when I will gain some 'real estate' for my handicap.

And last, but not least, I will remember our friends and trapshooting family: it is growing larger and stronger every year and it makes me happy.

And I will always remember William's smile when we tell him we have to go to the range, or the seriousness he takes his miniCoach job on. Only last week, after quietly listening to Head Coach explaining a set of information about ammo, trap events and what not to a group of nice ladies and gents trying trapshooting for the first time, he politely asked if he can ask a question. When permission was (graciously) granted by his Dad, what does miniCoach ask? We could hardly believe his 6 years could come up with something as serious and as complex as this notion, but here you are: "When you are shooting doubles, can you use different type of shells for the first shot and second one?" Which shows he does, indeed, listen to all that comes from Daddy and Mommy... And after a moment of gaping at him (all 11 adults available) he got his answer in all the seriousness it asked for.

Now you have to ask him the same question and listen to the answer - I promise you'll have a blast!

This is a blog entry which I am "borrowing" from my personal blog (made for family and written mainly in Romanian) and posted last year after the Great Lakes Grand, in Mason, Michigan. God willing we'll have the chance to return there next year, we had to skip it in 2009 and we missed it dearly. Mason is my second most preferred place to be (after #1: Elysburg, PA) and we love competing there.

While translating it I realized it could have been written as well this year: everything in there holds as much truth today as it was last year.

Any athlete with an ounce of self-respect (and entertaining some thoughts of winning) must have a coach.

Sometimes the coach is one of the parents - at least until the 'offspring', having displayed some talent, either surpasses his 'coach' or starts having an attitude. At that point a new coach should be found.

Sometimes, especially when the athlete starts later in his life, the coach is a friend with good intentions (but usually with zero coaching skills) - this friend will come with lots of advice that might or might not make any sense. When we add a husband-wife relationship into this unfortunate mix, the disaster is imminent, because the athlete will feel now he/she can answer back to the 'unofficial' coach. In cases like this one it's preferable to find a new coach. In the majority of the cases, in fact, what gets dropped is not the coach, but the actual sport.

And every now and then, it happens that the coach is, in fact, a skilled one and knows what to tell his/her student. Even in this case we have quite a few ramifications: the athlete has both talent and passion; the athlete has only talent, and no passion; the athlete has no natural talent, but lots of passion.

In our case God gave us an ideal situation: the skilled coach and the athlete with some natural talent and tons of passion.

I, being for the past 3 years (I can't believe there have only been 3 - it seems like forever) the student with open ears and no mouth (meaning: listening and not answering back), had only to listen to his advice: smile to all and do only what I tell you - and today we have a coach very happy with his student and a student very happy with her coach. And both very happy with the results.

In our case I have to be honest and say that he knows not only what has to be done, but also how to tell the student what has to be done. The ones that know me can tell right away it's pretty difficult to make me do something that's illogical (or only seems illogical or if I don't understand 'why' it has to be done). And somehow he managed to make me advance, to improve my technique one step at the time - up to today's performances.

It's next to impossible to explain what these trophies [note: the trophies where my first ones, won at the Great Lakes Grand in the spring of 2008] mean for me, for us.

It's not about the win, it's about the climb - the exposure, the recognition I won in a blink.

It's not about the trophies - it's about opportunities: to know you can do something that puts you on the top is an incredible feeling. In this specific case, the performance is even more special: it is equally distributed between Category (Lady) and Class. I wasn't only the top Lady in a couple of events; I was also the top shooter in my class in a couple of events. And hearing a nice gentleman asking his friend: 'who's this girl that beat me?!' is not only funny, it is purely amazing.

It's not about the results - it is about performance: and in my quest to climb to the top of the mountain there were always at least 2 people involved: the coach and the student. The ones that think they can achieve high performances without any help whatsoever, just by themselves, are either not very smart, or extremely arrogant. Without my beloved coach I wouldn't have started in this sport, I wouldn't have advanced as much as I did, I wouldn't have performed as well I did. The advice right before entering the line were precious to the last sound - especially his calming advice before Event #6, Doubles, when I found myself in a double 'peril' situation: sudden squad leader (nobody took position 1) while shooting with one of our own legends, Paul Shaw.

If today I can take my post and subconsciously prepare myself - the merit is his for knowing what to tell me and mine for listening and doing exactly what he told me to. If today I can look at the targets and know how to adjust my eye/gun hold - the merit is his for going through different scenarios with me and mine for asking questions and storing his answers. If today I can clear my mind for long enough to focus on the main task (one target at a time) - the merit is his for knowing how to get me to this phase and mine for getting there.

And if today I am proud of myself and my own performance I am equally proud of him, my coach. And my pride is triple: he's not only the best coach I ever met, but he's my better half and an amazing father.

Or how to continue a great Championship!

The officials have been a bit slow in displaying information this year (apparently because some technical difficulties) and so we are slow in confirming some of the amazing results of this weekend.

On Friday, at the Winchester shoot, Garret won the Junior Handicap. His very first win in hist very first competition season!

Yesterday, in the Preliminaries - Chloe won her very first real trophy: Lady Handicap. I hope she'll write something about it, the feelings related to such an event are great!

And today, in the Doubles Championship Phil won the Doubles Class D title - way to go...

Congratulations to all winners!

And to all our competing students: so far you did AMAZING! Matthew shot 300 targets in 3 days and he got better and better each and every day. Today he shot an amazing 76 in handicap, in unbeliveable windy conditions. Smokey B. Alex was constantly smoking targets every day and, by the look on his face, greatly enjoying himself. Sacha discovered the joy of shooting in less than perfect conditions and absolutely loved it! Dan was our usual cheerful team member, always finding ways to uplift the spirit of our young ones.

Welcome to 2009 Ontario Provincial Trapshooting Championships to Gyl, Doug, Alireza, Keith and Anthony - good work!!

We are all looking forward to tomorrow's performances.  

Or let this be the day when 'I got my swing back' 

One of my favourite movies is 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' - I love absolutely everything about it: the director (my #1 actor / director of all times, Robert Redford), the actors (I believe Matt Damon is one of the best in his generation, I love Will Smith to pieces, and I see Charlize Theron as the new Sharon Stone, with more style and finess – if that’s possible), the photography and, most of all, the message. I first watched the movie long before I was entertaining any ideas about competiting, long before I broke my first target. You know how a movie can impress you with one scene the best - and my 'Legend' scene was the one when Matt, after being 12 under par, at the beginning of his second 36 hole run gets the 'See the field' speech from Smith and then... while Will Smith is still talking everything blurs out and it's only him and The Field... then even the field somehow comes closer and closer... in focus... Then, when he hits the ball - it is a perfect move, efortless and beautiful. And you hear Smith's smile: 'Yup, he got his swing back!'

And that's exactly what happened to me today: I got my swing back! It is hard for anyone to understand what such a thing means, unless one had walked in these shoes...

I am unsure how to explain – for a while I have been trying too hard to break those orange targets. I still had fun (lots) and I was enjoying every moment on the range. But for some unknown reasons I wasn’t feeling what I used to feel. I was breaking targets, I even broke some very good scores – but something was missing. Like Bagger says: ‘Well you lost your swing... We got to go find it... Now it's somewhere... in the harmony... of all that is... All that was... All that will be...’  And that’s exactly how it was – I lost something and I had no clue how to get it back.

Then – yesterday it started to click and... today... I’ll let Bagger Vance one more time to explain, he does it so much better:

‘Put your eyes on Bobby Jones... Look at his practice swing, almost like he's searchin for something... Then he finds it... Watch how he settle hisself right into the middle of it, feel that focus... He got a lot of shots he could choose from... Duffs and tops and skulls, there's only ONE shot that's in perfect harmony with the field... One shot that's his, authentic shot, and that shot is gonna choose him... There's a perfect shot out there tryin' to find each and every one of us... All we got to do is get ourselves out of its way, to let it choose us... Can't see that flag as some dragon you got to slay... You got to look with soft eyes... See the place where the tides and the seasons and the turnin' of the Earth, all come together... where everything that is, becomes one... You got to seek that place with your soul Junuh... Seek it with your hands don't think about it... Feel it... Your hands is wiser than your head ever gonna be... Now I can't take you there Junuh... Just hopes I can help you find a way... Just you... that ball... that flag... and all you are...’

I learned just last year that what he's describing is The Zone - and, for the ones who have experienced it, it is probably the most amazing feeling you can have. The beauty of the moment is indescribable. All I know is I still dream about that calm and out-of-this-world feeling.

It wasn’t a full zone what I experienced today, but it was a type of zone (I wonder how many they are...). Today I somehow managed to let the perfect shot to choose me. Instead of searching high and above for it, I became calm and I let it come to me. How I did it – I don’t know. I know before handicap I had a determination to be soft and smooth and all the targets I broke where pure smoke (with a few exceptions). Was it efortless? No, I had to work (that’s how I know it wasn’t THE Zone, that one is pure effortless), but I worked with confidence and determination. I worked with joy, knowing what I was doing and what I am suppose to do.

And then the Doubles event came – and I had an amazing moment there. We started after 7 PM, light was awful and I was still sooo happy about finally getting the ‘click’ in handicap that nothing could have bother me. We took the line, I called for my first pair and I had 2 very good first posts. On post 3 I suddenly remembered how last year I shot this event with Mark Edmondson – a legend of trap shooting, untimely passed away on June 20th. And I will always remember the feeling I had when I got on the line, realizing I was going to lead a squad of amazing trap shooters, me, a brand new shooter with barely 3 years of experience against their decades of excellence. Not only that, but the next day I was to receive the ‘Mark Edmondson’ Award for the most improved shooter in doubles – an added pressure on me. And I will always remember his smile and his pat on the shoulder: ‘You’ll be fine, just have fun’. So I tried and I actually managed to pull off one of my best scores to day, winning the event in preliminary. Imagine my profound surprise when, next morning, for the actual Championship Event – who’s walking the line with me? Same squad, same Mark Edmondson and his friends. Now the pressure was tripled - now they knew I can do it, I had to do it – again! Same smile, same pat – and after the first round, when I shot a not so impressive 43 he looks at me and tells me in a matter-of-factly tone: ‘I know you can do better – how about you do it?’ Somehow, from his tone and attitude, all I gathered was not shame but an amazing strength - and I broke an amazing 48 on the second round. He was happier for my score than I could be. And that evening I found out we were two ladies with the same score and it would be a shoot off. As luck would have it the other Lady was Cheryl Stiby, a good friend of Mark and a wonderful person herself. Mark came to both of us before the shoot-off and told us to make him proud. Then, at the end of 3 hard rounds of shoot-off, he hugged both of us and said we made him proud, indeed.

And back to today, a year later – I am sitting on post 3 and all these thoughts come through my mind in a flash... and I am suddenly flooded with a swirl of emotions... and in a panic I am looking for an idea on how to channel all this energy into something positive. I cling to the first one that comes through my mind: I am shooting these targets for him, for Mark. And although I did not calm out, there is a change inside that makes me focus and smoke the next 50 targets. I loose the edge of all the emotions exactly when I got them (on post 3) and the relaxation brings also a sudden calm. I am happy and I am still sad at the same time. But I know I can do it, because I know there are a few people out there (walking here, on Earth, or up there, in Heaven) that believe in me.

Or, like Bagger Vance put it so eloquently:

‘Yes you can... but you ain't alone... I’m right here with ya... I've been here all along... Now play the game... Your game... The one that only you was meant to play... Then one that was given to you when you come into this world... You ready?... Strike that ball Junuh don't hold nothin back give it everything... Now's the time... Let yourself remember... Remember YOUR swing... That's right Junuh, settle yourself... Let's go... Now is the time, Junuh...’

For all of you out there looking for a lost swing: you are not alone... just play YOUR game... and let it come back to you. Now is time
 

Or - What a great start to the Provincials!

Imagine our home club (Hamilton Gun Club) in the morning, with about 150 trap shooters around (and many more just watching)... and 10% of them being LearnTrapshooting Canada's teams! Isn't that nice?

It is - and it was wonderful to see the golden people all with big smiles and (at least some, I am sure, if not all) quiet nerves. We gathered relatively late - all ready to classify and squad around 10 am - and ambushed Alan @ classification. After we cleaned all the confusions about who has enough targets and who doesn't we were ready to pull the squads and we did so in good time. People behind us were really understanding, I thought some of them will start complaining; but either they came to recognize that we are, in fact, doing a good thing for the sport, or simply they got used to our storming around with lots of gold  Whichever it is - a public and heartfelt 'Thank you!' for your patience, gentlemen, it is much appreciated.

After a few moments of confusion about who needs to pay what (I know, those forms can get really really scary!) we met on the west side, under our beautiful white tent. Cars unpacked, guns put together and into the rack, lawn chairs spread around - and then the humming of the day started... Everyone was excited - to shoot, to watch, to simply be out there. The whole day passed almost without a hiccup - we got pretty good scores, we got several decent ones, we got lots of converstaions along these lines: 'Wow, lots of new people... when did they start?' 'In March [or May or January]' 'What year is that?' 'This year' 'You mean to tell me they have been shooting for less than 6 months?!' 'Yup' 'Oh, they are doing GREAT! Keep doing!'. And we got lots and lots of positive comments from lots of people... Everybody kept saying the same thing over and over: 'This is great - what you are doing here!'.

We even tried to ignore the craziness of the doubles event - which started on the wrong foot and continued that way... the only good thing about it is the fact that when the rain start everyone was completely done  

All in all - a beautiful start of the 4 days of competition. We had fun and we enjoyed our targets. We met some of our good friends and we gained more and more experience.

My lesson for the day? Don't rush! If I could only be patient enough to remind myself that before each and every shot...  And it's not that I don't know what to do, because I do - but that Mr. Hyde kept popping his ugly head in my mind and disturbing my peace. So for me the simplest of advises today: Stay there until you see the target... everything I missed today could have been smoked if I only had waited to see the target first.

But I am happy - beyond the scores (which were all over the spectrum - I am talking about my own) I had a very fun day, with lots of sun and almost no rain (I got half-soaked at the end, looking for my better half, which, for the record, has been beside me 2 seconds before... and then... simply disappeared!), with lots of smoked targets and this simple realization of how much more some patience will bring to my trapshooting life, with lots of friends - what else is there to be wishful for?

I am looking forward to our Provincial Championships - remember: Relax, Relax, and... Have fun!

And, of course: See, Smooth, Smoke - ONE!

P.S. It's clear I haven't mastered this patience 'thingie' - rushing to get a few more other things done I submitted this same article twice... oh, well - I can only hope tomorrow I'll remember to wait and see my targets. Or, like Phil Kiner says in his last Trap & Field article: it's simple - if you can't see it, you can't break it. Truer words have never been spoken...

Apparently I have started my own series - of thoughts

It just dawned on me - I had this thought at the back of my mind for months, I even wrote once something along the lines of this idea... when suddenly the idea became crystal clear in my mind and I had this urge to share it with everyone that might read about trapshooting on our website.

Trapshooting is the only sport I know of (you're welcome to leave comments with other sports where this is happening) where you will have multiple generations of athletes all competing together. As parents and grandparents we might want to have our children competing in one sport or another - and trapshooting is the only one where Dad & Son (Mom & Son, Mom & Daughter etc.) can compete together. Yes, we have the Categories - and I believe it's for the adult's own good as well as for the younger / older generations: we encourage different generations (and Ladies for that matter) to keep competing. But at the end of the day we had different generations of people competing together. We are not bound by the age rule, we are not even bound by the physical rule that much (we have the Wheelchair category, and we all know of people with different physical disabilities which are still able to compete).

And what is so revolutionary about finally getting the idea, you'll say?

I am not sure revolutionary is the right term - but whatever the term will be the answer is: opportunity!

It means you are not required to start at 4 or 6 (where most of the top athletes have started their training) - you can pick this sport up whenever life gives you the opportunity. And you'll be as likely to win as any other trapshooter, providing you have the right attitude, of course. It means that we, as parents, can bring our children along and teach them this wonderful sport, and then we'll have the opportunity to enjoy it together. It can also mean that if our kids are in the sport we can come along at any time and start learning. How many parents will pick up hockey along with their 7-9-15 year olds? Even if they do - it will mean different leagues, different ice rink times, different everything. Enter trapshooting: voila! We have parents and children coming together at the range, and enjoying a few hours of clay breaking! At the same time, on the same range, with the same targets...

It opens an entirely whole range of opportunities: because it's not a physical intensive sport (all you need is to be able to swing your shotgun), it’s more of a mind game. You need proper instruction to start so that you can fully enjoy it and to perfect its technicalities. And from there on – it’s you and your targets. Nothing will ever stand between you and your targets: neither your age, nor your physical abilities. Eyesight may give one past a certain age a little grief, but that can be usually corrected; there are some good optometrists out there (although very few that will take the time to understand your specific needs).

Not being a physical sport it means we are not bound by age (which usually drives all the physical differences in the world) or by gender – it also means we can start in our late 40s, 50s, 60s and still be the Grand Champions. Now show me an NHL player over 40 that can still be as competitive as a young 20-something. Our beloved Maple Leafs had the oldest average age between the NHL teams and we all know what good that did to it. Not only that – but show me an aspiring NHL player that decided at 35 he’d like to play in the NHL, then started training and made it there by 40.

We can argue that NHL is a professional league and that there is tons of sifting to go through before you get to a top team. And we can argue that Categories in ATA have, in fact, the same effect as different leagues in other sports would. But none of these arguments will negate what we have in trapshooting: the awesome opportunity to compete along the top players, the unbelievable opportunity to compete along all generations and genders. Which is exactly what gives trapshooting its magic: the ability to learn from the experts and to pick up the wisdom of all generations? Everybody knows you play better when you have a Gretzky in your team. Why? Because you’ll learn from his game – and you’ll learn without visible effort, just being around him.

And that’s the opportunity trapshooting provides, that’s the ‘magic’. That’s what makes it a perfect family gathering, a perfect family common hobby. That’s what will keep trapshooting alive – the dream of a 6 year old to someday compete in the Olympics and the dream of his parents to someday compete in the Olympics. Susan Nattrass was 56 last year when she competed for the last time in the Olympics. She started 30-some years ago with ATA trap and she went after that into the Olympic track. She is Canada’s best known trapshooter athlete. And makes everyone’s dream somehow attainable. All you need is the opportunity and the passion. The rest – it will be, one day, history!

Until then – we have our own Provincial Championship this coming weekend. To all our LTS athletes competing: good luck and remember: it’s the journey, not the destination! To all LTS athletes not competing this year: come out and cheer for your friends, come out and enjoy the show!

To all our friends: we hope to see you on the range, at Hamilton Gun Club – Friday, July 31st to Monday, August 3rd. It will be a weekend full of fun and we will all enjoy our time there.

And to everyone: it’s really simple: See, Smooth, Smoke… ONE! Just that next one, that’s all!
 

Not so long ago there were a couple of threads on trapshooters.com - one about favourite trapshooting sayings and another about inspirational sayings.

Enjoying both threads enormously I realized (once again) that our trapshooting community is a pretty close-knit one and once you get accepted you find a strong family ready to help you. As with any family you'll have the odd members, the black sheep and all sorts of other characters. But, at the core, in its essence, they will love you as much as you love them back.

And that gives me hope that we'll be able to revitalize this beautiful sport even here, north of the Second Amendment's border. That more and more people will come to realize this sport is as much about beauty and calm and happiness as golf (like Michael just figured out: it's the new golf ). It is about traditions and family values, respect and appreciation, about outdoors and friendship. Of course you'll find the bitter 'old' ones but most everyone else is shooting at the little clay 'thingies' for the pure joy of smoking one.

Getting me re-acquainted with a shotgun after many years of pause was, most likely, the best gift my husband gave ... himself   I am sure lots of people will shoot better if they'll get their better half to join them on the range - it is a wonderful sport, but like any other it needs lots of practice hours. And ranges here are far from being as accessible as a golf range or a soccer field or a hockey arena. Which means, most likely, more time away from home… and what family enjoys having a part of them being swept away for hours and hours at time?! But what family wouldn’t enjoy the same time doing something together, sharing the love for a common hobby? Granted, not everyone is made for trap shooting… but I am quite sure there could be more women and more young people on the range than there are today. Sounds strange to try to bring on the ‘competition’, doesn’t it? But it’s not – the future of the sport is not in the hands of our wonderful third generation of veterans and senior veterans… the future is not even in the hands of our male adults… the future lies with the children and youngsters. And what best way to bring the youngsters than to bring their moms, sisters, and girlfriends into the sport as well? This is not an entertainment sport where we can get the cheerleaders and watch for 2-3 hours a match… We are talking about day-long competitions… it takes a very dedicated person to endure hours and days of a middle-of-nowhere. So what could be better than actually transforming them from simply spectators into participants?!

And so I happily dream of a day when we’ll be able to have high-school teams of trapshooters… or collegiate competitions… like our neighbours down south. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Until then, I am going to share a few of the trapshooting sayings – for humor and for a thought before Provincials.

Shoot well!

***********************************

If you're shootin' bad, you need a new new gun; if you're shootin' good, you deserve a new gun.

It ain't the gun that causes misses, It's the nut on the end of the stock.

Trapshooters fear the angles and miss the straightaways.

I must have shot overneath that bird.

Ya get 'em all? Naw......I left some for seed!

There is a lot of space around the target.

If you knew what day you were going to shoot good that's the only day you would shoot.

Look at that kid, he don't know he's supposed to miss.

A talented puller is someone who can throw the bird into your pattern.

I shot a perfect score. They threw 25 targets - the gun went bang 25 times!

***********************************

To break them all you should break this next one.

Just like the fishing saying 'If it was easy, they would call it catching not fishing'. Same goes for trap. It's called 'trap shooting, not trap hitting' for a reason.

How to shoot doubles: You shoot that one and then that one.

Never admire the break on the first bird in doubles!

Can you break one bird for sure?... Then you can break 100!

The best thing about winning is knowing you can.

After an extremely tiresome week (the first LTS camp and 2 BIG 50 shoots) we gathered again in Cookstown, next to the model airplanes and (a new addition to the mix) some parachutes. This time weather was more gentle (although I wouldn't say it was a summer day, more like spring; and it's middle of July!), and the team even bigger.

We had 2 full squads for singles - with Matthew competing for the first time in Ontario (thank you, Alireza for watching him closely - literarily) and a very brand new member of the Senior's Team: Sacha - welcome to the team, Sacha! And welcome to the team Alex as well! I know he's sulking he couldn't make it this weekend, but I also know he'll probably tie Mike up when he returns home and come with us next time  Mike, you've been forewarned!

This time I found a solution for not ambushing the nice gentlemen at classification / squading and all went smoother than a smoothie: positions were handed out in no time, and everyone stood in line to get their cards swiped and their money happily “invested”... life as a trapshooter

As soon as we all had our stubs in the pocket we went outside to watch the targets and wait for our squads to start - and the LTS crowd being larger than ever before time passed quickly with lots of stories (meant to tease or encourage the newcomers; although I am sure some stories might have discouraged some  - time will tell). We shot singles on the last 2 traps - and if any of our students wonders what had happened with their scores on the second trap - stop wondering. You did nothing wrong! It's the actual trap that made it extremely hard for one to shoot targets. The reason: because of firearms regulations, Toronto Club management had to actually physically rotate the traphouse towards the left while the concrete pads were left intact. As we know from the handicap event - event a few degrees at the trapshouse make a lot of difference out there, at the target. That being said - as I explained a few times already, harder conditions made the human brain be more disciplined: you know you have to pay more attention, you know you have to “behave yourself”... and that's how you smoke more targets! When all conditions are perfect one tends to let down the guard and think 'oh, this is easy!' and that's when the 'oops' moments occur.

Anyhow - I was impressed by all our team members; smoke after smoke and targets disappearing in little black puffs... at one point I was actually happily laughing with Frank which made it interesting for us to mind our own targets. But we did! And I watched the other team - they were having as much fun as possible (on the exact same 2 traps). Some interesting competitions arose on the spot - it still amazes me how these young minds find a way to compete over any single thing that's crossing their way... But, please, always remember to keep the fun in!

Although the shoot was supposed to be a small one (with most of the top shooters being away to Cicero, NY for the NY State Championship) we somehow managed to get to 15 squads of  singles. Luckily for us Steve opened the third bank and so time wise we finished shooting earlier than last time!

Handicap went by with another first 25 straight - this time from Chloe who managed to step exactly in my footprints. My first year of competition, at the exact same shoot (July 16th was the exact date in 2006 and I know because I took the accomplishment as a gift for our Canada anniversary; we arrived in Canada on July 15th a few years back) I ran my first 25 straight ever in handicap, to finish with a score of 89. What did Chloe do? She ran her very first ever 25 straight in handicap, to finish with a score of... you guessed it, right?! 89!

Add to that Alireza's first 25 straight (in singles), Anthony's first 50 straight (to a very nice score of 99), Garret's almost 25 (his eyes followed one of the parachutes instead of the orange dome) and now we have quite a few hats to shoot at! Not too shabby for a team that started to train (with the exception of our young “veteran” Anthony) just a few months back!

Congratulations Garret, Phil, Alireza, Anthony, and Chloe! Looking forward to the hat ceremony during the LTS Summer Games on August 29!

The morale of today's story? Enthusiasm and dedication, discipline and attention to detail, listening to the coach and, last but not least, how well we keep the fun in the game makes it all possible.  I'll let everyone enjoy their successes. Bask in your happiness and coat yourself with it.

For all of you - come and shoot the BIG 50s this week - Tuesday and Thursday (July 14/16). It's a nice way to gain experience in the comfortable settings of Hamilton GC.

And, of course, enjoy the summer and enjoy your targets! Smoke them all!

 
I was reading one of the heated threads on trapshooters.com, about where 'big dogs' (aka the top shooters) keep their gun hold in doubles and how they shoot their first target (spot shoot vs. tracking) and I started to recall all the opinions and pieces of advice I received over the years.

There is something in the human nature that makes us 'experts' in every single subject - from raising horses to building houses, to educating kids, to whatever subject seems to be the center of the conversation. And then you have the trapshooters - most of them knowing better than the actual experts what you have to do.
 
I cannot remember any of the pieces of advice I have been given because I stuck with the main one: "don't listen to any advice"; and I was smart  The main argument one has against one giving advice is 'show me how your advice is producing results'. Another argument is 'what kind of results have you ever had to prove you know what you're talking about?' I would argue both are not necessarily a correct argument, and does not 'negate' the advice.
 
Being a top shooter doesn't automatically make you a good coach / instructor. Being less than a stellar shooter doesn't mean you are not a wonderful coach. And a good instructor / coach is exactly what one needs to be in order to give good advice. A very good coach. Or a very good instructor. There is a difference between coaching and instructing, but we'll talk on this subject another time.
 
As Phil Kiner mentions so nicely in his July T&F article (about Nora Ross and her beginnings) - there is one excellent advice one can receive when starting to shoot (and the only one he/she should listen to besides his/her coach): look at what top shooters are doing, ask what they are doing, then try it: if it works for you - great; if not - discard!
 
We are all individuals and we are all very different from each other: physically and mentally. What might be a good approach for someone could spell disaster for another. In the beginning one should stick with advice from one person only: their coach. Once you start mixing advices - it's like mixing drinks at a party: we all know what the end result of such an activity is!
 
And one should also be careful when he/she decides that "coach's advice is not needed anymore; now I can fly by myself". Early good results can give one false confidence and parting with your coach's advice too soon will lead to disaster. After so many years I still feel better when I know Florin is behind me, watching what I am doing. It takes away from me the responsibility of remembering what I was doing (wrong or right) in order to fix or repeat. I know that he's there and he can correct me with one sign from the side. Sure I can go by myself to the line (and I did so many times) and sure I know what to report back - but oh, it is so much nicer when I can fallback on being just a student!
 
I keep reading the specialty magazines and forums and I sometimes laugh hard at what human beings can come up with! Remember - the best advice I got from a great big shooter, Nick Stamos: "You, girl, are like a turtle - keep doing what works for you and don't listen to nobody; they don't know you as you do".
 
So keep listening to your coach (being he/she a professional one or simply a good shooter you trust) and stay with his/her advice; your coach knows you better than anyone and knows what is good for you.
 
And, of course, enjoy the summer - today is supposed to be one true summer day!
 
See you on the range (next competition: Toronto International)
 
 

Given the name of this club, one thinks you will laugh all the time there... but that's not always true. Hamilton Anglers and Hunters Association is a wonderful small club (4 trap houses), situated in Ancaster. They are much more than a trap club, in fact they have a pond where one can fish, a handgun / riffle range (quite noisy), an archery outdoor course, a few skeet fields and what not. They host ATA shoots, as well as Skeet competitions, Archery tournaments and from time to time Cowboy shoots. All in all - it's a nice little place to be... except if you're looking for good scores

Why? As nice as the club is, the background is pretty hard to shoot against - add the setting of the targets (a bit low), and the vicinity to the Hamilton Airport and you got yourself a nice challenge. Again, it is one of the nicest clubs around and I am all for going to as many (and as difficult) clubs as possible in order to gain experience and learn to adapt. Managing low 90s in any event at HAHA, almost guarantees mid 90s at HGC. Rather then using the background as an excuse for their results one should not be disappointed in a lower than expected score, but embrace it as an extraordinary learning experience.

That being said - my first HAHA shoot in a while was more pleasant than I expected. After a somewhat slow start (the shoot started around 10:30) it picked up pace and ended pretty soon (4 PM we were all done). We were just a few squads, all trying to follow hard to follow targets. I, for one, had huge trouble seeing the targets flying towards west, on the first 2 traps. But I learned my HAHA lesson long time ago and I had lots of fun even with missing lots of left birds. 

And how did the rest of the team faired? In my opinion – excellent! They got over the disappointing scores and by the time to shoot doubles they were having lots of fun. We all got a bit tired towards the end, with the exception of Frank who decided to clean house. Which he thoroughly did, with the focus and decisiveness we all know he's capable of. We all managed to finish close within our averages on all 3 events and in the end that's what is most important.

We were blessed with a very nice day - mostly sunny, mostly hot, with a light breeze: one cannot ask for more. It's true that for the new shooters it was a slight shock after Pennsylvania & Ohio (no, still no TV / Radio to channel onto to check the on-the-ready squad or the scores), but I actually felt good being there. I believe I missed HAHA this past year and I was glad to see the shoot ran as efficiently and competently as before.

Were there any lessons to learn from this experience? Sure thing – quite a lot.

First of all – whether shooting practice or competition, try to stick with the positive emotions. Any negative feedback will hunt you down pretty soon. For one subevent I left my emotions fill my mind, and they were on the negative side... I worked hard the whole subevent to clear my mind and get myself back on track, and I managed to get everything to normal somewhere towards the beginning of the next subevent. So – always stay positive!

Another lesson - when everything else fails, fallback on having fun. This probably sounds like a broken LP already - but it's essential. Missing is easy, and we need to work on what comes after a missed target. None of us has been born breaking 100 straight the first time - and each practice, each competition will put us face-to-face to the (dire) reality: at one point or another we will miss one target. Everybody does, sooner or later. What we do after the miss is what separates the winners from the whiners. And the winners will end up smiling and focusing on the very next target (and only that one).

And the funniest point of the day: a gentleman telling me in a couple of years we'll have a full squad. It took me a few moments until I got what he meant: he thought we are a family, with Chloe and Garret being my own, and William growing up to fill the squad soon. After an internal ROLF I gently corrected him and explained that I 'own' only one of the kids, the rest are our students. He was taken aback - not sure what surprised him the most: that the young ones are not really mine or that there is a trapshooting school in Ontario?! But then William decided the gentleman's idea was better and asked me if we could 'get' Chloe and Garret to be in our own family  and quickly added: 'and Cody too!'

So after a day filled with lots of sun and warmth, some cute dogs to pet, a child totally absorbed by his 'best girlfriend' and some very nice coloured caterpillars one cannot ask for too much else, but a quiet dinner in the backyard, with good friends.

Wherever you are - enjoy your summer and have lots of fun!

About a year ago, right after Ohio State shoot we came back to our home club to attend THE trapshooting competition of the year for us, Canadians: The National Championship. Every few years the Canadians (how they are lovingly nicknamed) arrive in Ontario; our club being the largest it’s where it took place.

This year they are in Calgary and we miss them dearly.
 
For all who love this wonderful sport here is an article about the Canadians. As you can see – they got it right: it’s about friendship and joy. Enjoy your targets!!
 
Marksmen gather near Calgary - Canadian championships/1755237/story.html
 
And… you know, right!? See, Smooth, Smoke… ONE!
 

I am rarely as profoundly fascinated by an author as I was by Gladwell and his books. Might be his Canadian roots or simply his extraordinary power with the words. Whatever it is all I know is that when I get one of his books I won't even breathe much until I'm done reading it.

That being said it is no surprise that today I got from the library his last book, 'Outliers', and I am almost halfway through.

And why in the peaceful world am I talking about his book here, on a trap shooting site?!

Because in 'Outliers' he speaks about 'The story of success' - how and why some get to the top and others don't. I always knew it's a matter of context (we are NOT born equal and I have strong opinions about this equal thing) and I always knew it's also a matter of opportunities and hard work. But this is the first time when I see it so specifically written down in black on white: it is a matter of context (which we cannot control too much), of opportunities (which is in our power to take when they cross our paths), and - most important of all - it is a matter of hard work (which is absolutely, 100% under our control).

Doesn't matter how talented one is - if he/she doesn't practice he/she will loose the 'edge', will become just one other mediocrity. Doesn't matter how not-so-talented one is - if he/she practices diligently he/she will become a star.

And no, going to the clubs for Sunday's competitions doesn't count as practice. If you don't have the opportunity to practice a lot between competitions, a sunny disposition and a positive attitude at the competition will go a long way.

The 10,000 hour rule explains why people like Leo & Harlan can go 1,200 hundred of targets straight... The more you break them, the easier they will break   Does it sound familiar?

If you have the opportunity to read any of Gladwell's books you won't be disappointed: I loved all of them. The title of his second is very interesting for us as well: 'Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking'.

So practice, practice, practice and remember: it's always See, Smooth, Smoke ONE!

Monday morning, after packing quickly, I was really happy to have (for once) someone else doing my job: guiding Florin out of the campsite. Amazingly enough we were out Elysburg at 2 PM – exactly the time I hoped for. This means we are getting better and better at packing up and moving towards new adventures.

The ride to Ohio was painfully long and I am grateful for Garret’s presence – he played games with our talkative son and he probably was gladder than we were to get to our destination 

We got to Marengo (after a quick detour on the highways; our GPS is playing tricks with us) at about 11 at night, which is, again, a record. We like to pull into Marengo around midnight, even later and wake Greg (the campground manager) up. Luckily for us he loves us (still). This time it was no need to wake anybody up (except, most probably, all the neighbours), we knew our campsite number and we pulled right in. Again I was happy to have someone else to guide Florin in (and I laughed a lot next morning when our left side neighbours came in and I had to witness their wonderful conversation… until a wife needs to help her husband to back up a trailer in a campsite you don’t know if you have a solid marriage or not, trust me!). And as Garret already mentioned – we unpacked really quickly and it was time to relax, have a bite and enjoy the night.

Waking up in the morning I enjoyed the calm and quiet – everyone was still asleep and I could have a couple of hours for myself; a luxury I cannot afford too often, especially when camping

After an eventful classification – they managed to put me in AA for singles and doubles, based on the only shoot they had in their databases for the year (my best scores for the year so far) so we had to go through lots of fun to have me ‘downgraded’ where I belong, in class B. Then we had to go through some other layers of God-knows-what to have Florin classified, the same lady that was in PA laughing at us and telling ‘see, I told you to keep up the receipt!’… Then we had the kids classified as well and another commotion about the colour of the cards… plus the eternal question of a new shooter: ‘To Penalize or Not To Penalize… this is the question’. After about half an hour all as well, we were classified and we decided to just enjoy the day and not shoot any of the events. A smart decision, considering the amount of sleep we all had and the laziness that I (at least) enjoyed. We just squaded both Garret and me for the rest of the week and walked on the vendors rows. After a quick stop by Keith Heeg’s trailer, to have Phil stock fixed, we got back to the campsite. William, as usual, already found himself 2 boys to play with – the other grandchildren of the same grandmother he played at when we were at Cardinal Classic, last August. He had a blast – our camper was parked right at the playground, he could be in the playground all the time without loosing sight of the trailer. While Garret and William were enjoying an afternoon of fishing with hotdogs, Cody came by and we were again the big family of trapshooters we've been looking forward to all winter long.

At Cardinal Centre there is no time to waste and no time to get bored: this year they added 3 more banks, to a total of 12 (same number as in Elysburg). They can run it a bit more efficiently because they start at 8 and use all banks at 8. In PA they start at 9 and they aren’t able to use 4 of the banks until around 10 am, because of the position towards the rising sun. This way, although the shoot was larger in OH than in PA (as expected, mostly because of the weather in PA and the economy being what it is this year) – most of the days the shooting was done by 4 pm, the shoot offs by 5 so basically you had lots of time on your hand. But with all the games, fishing, pool and excitement – each day we found ourselves around 1-2 am still talking, still enjoying the night and our friends

And then the Ohio State shoot started for us: Garret shot all events except the singles class championship, I shot everything, and Florin picked a few events for himself as well. It’s always amazing when you shoot at different venues how you need to get accustomed with the new background (pretty hard in Marengo), the targets and their setup (very different from Elysburg), the traps houses themselves, and all sorts of conditions. Now in Marengo everything is excellent, but the background is not the easiest to shoot with. Mind you, Leo the Great (aka Leo Harrison III) was able to miss exactly 4 (as in FOUR) targets out of the 1,200 (as in ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED). And he probably shot all over the place, it’s hard to imagine him or Harlan picking up banks  But for us, laymen and women… well… background has something to say still. On one of the events, one of the handicaps – I could not even blame the background for my abysmal scores. It was one of those moments when nothing comes together… I looked hard at the poor targets (which, by the way, where flying slow and nicely), I could see the exact same picture I was accustomed with and… now I smoke one, now… I heard ‘Looooost’… oh, well.

On Thursday the rest of the MacDonald clan arrived – with the rain, with a terrible storm, in fact. Luckily for all of us involved the rain poured on us late in the evening – just enough to have the adults (minus the young people’s mom, aka as Alicia) trying to prepare dinner in the kitchen tent while the youngster ate the above-mentioned dinner in the trailer, and watching a movie. Now, mind you, when we left home it was pretty crazy so the only movies we had where William’s movies. Apparently not an issue for the older ones – all 4 (Chloe, Garret, Cody, and William) watched ‘Cars’ and laughed heartily at MacQueen’s gimmicks. I was pleasantly surprised to see all of them (the difference in age is 10-11 years!) equaly enjoying the movie and the evening.

All in all, the Ohio shoot was a success – I know the young ones don’t think so, I for one, was tempted to think otherwise as well… until I compiled the averages. And what do you think? While the whole week I was sure I was shooting poorer than in PA, it turned out that on average I did better…

Which brings me to the morale (of course, what will be a blog entry w/o morale?!): never despair! And always look at the big picture.

So what have I learned from Ohio? Never count yourself off a race after you miss one target. Why? Because despair will only make you miss more and more and more and… well, you got the picture. This one comes in handy with the ‘never count your targets’ but we all know it’s next to impossible to do that  although we all (right?!) try hard not to.

Are there any other lessons? There always are, even when it’s hard to pin-point specific ones. The main lesson for me would be: be happy. Which I managed to implement for 1,100 targets, but I failed miserably on one hundred  as we all know – you can’t always have everything. But you can always work hard and try to enjoy yourself. And that’s the most important part to remember: we are in this sport for the fun, for the camaraderie and friendship, for the joy. We are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to enjoy the sport – there are people out there that might be more talented than any of us, but have no opportunity to practice, to buy themselves a gun or shells, or to go out of province and compete with the best of the best.

Just think for a moment: at these 2 competitions we competed along the best of the best in Pennsylvania & Ohio (which are probably the best 2 states in ATA ); we had the opportunity to watch (or simply be in the same competition) with the best in ATA: Leo Harrison, Harlan Campbell, the Ohyes, our own Paul Shaw, Stephanie Sandler, the Vendels, Brad Heathly and list goes on and on and on. We met and befriended All American juniors (Cody & Daryl and many others); we met and befriended lots and lots of nice people. If for nothing else we should be grateful for that. But there is much more: it’s our own individual progress. We all progressed from what we’ve been shooting at home to Pennsylvania, and then some more to Ohio (for the ones that competed both state shoots). We shot at the largest 2 shoots in ATA (other than the Grand). We shot at the 2 best facilities in North-America. And the experience we gained it’s priceless.

I, for one, am happy: with the progress of all of our students, with my own progress. I am happy I met all my friends again and I made some more.

What are you happy about?!

Until next time – keep your head on the stock and your eyes on the rock. And remember: See, Smooth, Smoke, ONE!

The day finally came to leave for my favourite trapshooting place: Elysburg, Pennsylvania.
 
After a somewhat hard start (I decided to get sick on Saturday / Sunday and most of Monday) we managed to get the camper ready and leave Burlington around 5 PM on Tuesday. Which is exactly how Florin ‘loves’ it: to drive the trailer at night :) Not only we had to pass the mountains at night, but we had my old GPS only and at times it decided to take strange, non-existent routes. Add to that some detours (it’s road fixing season everywhere) and you had a very nice mix. All in all we arrived at our campsite at the beautiful hour of 1:40 in the morning. Like the seasoned campers we are we had everything in order in less than 2 hours… which left me with about 4 hours of sleep.
 
The first day of our PA adventure arrived with some clouds and high spirits – there is something in the Elysburg’s air that makes me happy no matter what the conditions are. I haven’t decided yet if it’s the air or the people, but I tend towards the people. I barely left our campsite, walking with William towards the clubhouse, when we met some friends. And once we got to the clubhouse I started to stop every 2 meters to greet someone. I managed to classify and squad myself for the day and then I lost William to some friends, but that’s pretty much how our lives go while we are camping: the child is always finding some people to take care of him :)
 
The events of the day went pretty well, I remembered the feeling of being on the line in Elysburg and I enjoyed my day a lot.
 
On Thursday the rest of the team gathered and our campsite became the ‘base’ of all operations. As the day advanced it became crazier and crazier, and we were still having lots and lots of fun, on and off the line. Mother nature was nice enough to keep the day cloudy only, without any showers or storms. At one point we tought the rain will come, as the left-side valley dissapeared in a gray cloud; it proved to be not a storm cloud, but some fog. One has to learn where the storms are coming from and we had learned last year for both Ohio and Pennsylvania how to ‘predict’ the immediate local weather.
 
The evening brought everyone around the campsite and hopefully we haven’t bothered our neighbours too much (we have learned that lesson as well, last year, in New York). And from then on the days are a blur: lots of shooting, lots of friends, lots of caring for the ones new to Elysburg, and lots and lots of fun.
 
Some of us shot better than others, some enjoyed more than others, but all in all I believe it was a wonderful trip for everyone. I was impressed again with the youngsters' shooting and in particular with Matthew. With a gun almost as big as he is and at his very first competition he acted like he's been doing this for decades. He's barely a decade old! And because we all were in our gold attire I got numerous 'Oh, you must be a proud mother' whenever I watched from the walkway. I was indeed very proud of each and every single one :)
 
Everyone wanted to know what’s with the Gold T-shirts and we explained lots of time who we are and what we do. And most of the time people were very impressed we brought the teams with us.
 
What did I learn from the events of the week? That once you have the technique you only need a strong mind and a very disciplined one to go forward. I cannot remember the number of occasion when my mind wondered in places it shouldn’t and I still mounted the gun. My best one was when I shot down-the-hill for the first time and on trap 10 B: I had a left target and this is what went through my mind: “oooh, look at the hills, how beautiful they are! And look, some cute butterflies! And look – what is that orange thing… oops… “. What do you do after such a target? You laugh!
 
But everyone can miss targets (none of us need a lesson in that!) – so how do we break them? By first judging the environment properly – light, wind, height and speed of targets and adjusting our gun- and eye-hold accordingly. And after that – but being disciplined and following the routine each and every target. Remember – we don’t really need to have to be focused and disciplined for an hour, we just need it for a few seconds, one target at a time. One – it’s always one, the very next one. That’s all we need to focus on: smoking the next target. And how do we smoke ONE target? Well – we all know that and we all did that a number of times before: we get ready, we call, we wait to SEE, we move SMOOTHly, and we SMOKE the ONE target that flies nicely before our eyes.
 
What else did I learn? That shooting from 24 yards is not impossible! They penalized me (for not having enough targets in the current year) and while I don’t care much about class (penalized to A instead of my usual B), when they send me 2 yards farther it wasn’t a pretty sight (score-wise). My very first impression at 24 was: ‘wow, why is the bead so big? It’s bigger than the target! By the way, where IS the target?!’. My second thought about 24 was: ‘and how does one break targets here?!’ By the end of the competition, even if my scores weren’t stellar, I managed to squeeze a 23 and so I believe that given the proper time I will figure out how to master the 24. After I master the 22, of course!
 
And what else did I learn? Not really a lesson, not a new one, for sure, but as valuable as any: friends are very good for your health and spirits! The number of people we have laughed with is unbelievable, and the happiness they brought to us is priceless. 
 
The last day of our Elysburg adventure came – the Marinaches gained an extra-son (we kept Garret with us between PA and OH) and the LTS teams gained tons of experience. Because nothing compares to a perfectly ran big shoot and absolutely nothing compares to Elysburg!
 
So we said our good-byes, we hugged everyone and promissed to see each others again. I then left Florin to check emails while I visited Knobels with my 2 ‘kids’ :) I still have to find out how did Garret enjoy our trip to the amuzement park :)
 
Thank you all Learn Trapshooting students who could come and compete – thank you all parents and famillies for your unfaltering support.
And a huge CONGRATULATIONS to all first US competitors! What a wonderful way to start your trapshooting ‘life’!
 
We’ll see you back in Ohio or Ontario. And to all who couldn’t be here: we have missed you and we hope you’ll be able to make it to the next competitions.
 
Thank you Pennsylvania for having us! See you all soon.

P.S. I got a couple of Jones Sodas from the MacDonalds (they always have an endless supply) and although I didn't get the name of my gun yet, what do you think my messages where?!

One I am still trying to figure out: "The rainbow's treasures will soon belong to you".

But the second one speaks of a true trapshooter: "You have a yearning for perfection". Of course - and for the perfect score :) And who doesn't? Just ask any trapshooter you know!

Having tried to blog about this shoot a couple of times only to be beaten by my connection, it's a bit hard now to remember all the feelings from last week... and one will understand why: we are now at the end of PA State shoot, after a week of Elysburg.