tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77374754022642412652024-02-19T08:12:49.460+00:00A shot in the darkLife of Michael Whapples, an international vision impaired shooterMichael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-22932881651084008012020-04-26T12:58:00.002+01:002020-04-26T12:58:33.550+01:00Experience of creating shooting videos<p>You may be aware that over the last few weeks I have been creating some videos for IBSA on vision impaired shooting. It has been quite an experience for me, creating and editing video without being able to see it. I may have been in videos in the past, but those were produced by someone else, this time I was doing all the work alone! So how did I manage all this?</p>
<p>Turns out we all, or at least all of those who have a smart phone, have a powerful camera in our pocket. The great thing with this option is that it required no expense and for me the screen reader software built into Android was able to speak all the controls in the camera app so I knew what I was doing. The only question was how to hold the phone? My answer was a windscreen phone mount I have stuck to my table. A solution which worked but was not great, particularly on the day when the sucker decided it wasn't going to stay stuck down.</p>
<p>With the camera mounted, next question, how do I know I am properly in frame? Time to get onto skype with someone who can see and ask them what the view from the camera is like. With a few instructions on how to move the camera I was then ready to actually start filming.</p>
<p>Another problem spotted with using a smart phone, whilst the screen reader was helpful for me to use the camera app, it was not so useful when it started speaking notifications whilst I was filming. Silent mode does not actually silence the speech output of the screen reader and there seemed to be some notifications which got passed do not disturb. The best option I found was to put my phone in flight mode, although I have just thought I could also have tried using the screen reader's mute feature.</p>
<p>From that point actually doing the video was simple. I could try and focus on the content and what I was doing. However the story does not end there.</p>
<p>Once filmed there was a little bit of clean up editing to do. Having no remote for my phone there was a period at the beginning and the end where I moved between my seat and the camera, not great youtube viewing. To help locate the points where I wanted to trim to I said a phrase just before/after so that I could locate it by sound when editing. I first looked at the camera app on the phone, which did allow me to trim the video, but it was slow to use. Also in the introductory video there was a section I wanted to remove from the middle and the camera app did not look like it would do this. Time to get out the computer. Windows 10 has the photos app which is accessible with a screen reader, but still quite basic. Asking someone to check the videos before I posted them, it was suggested I teeak the brightness and contrast in some of the videos, a task beyond the photos app in Windows, so the hunt for accessible video editing software started. So many tools seem to be not accessible, either partially or completely. Eventually I came across VirtualDub2.</p>
<p>With the editing done and the video checked by someone who can see, time to post. From an accessibility point of view no issues here, just the usual YouTube bugs everyone has to deal with, from time-to-time, including uploadss seeming to just constantly restart and never completing.</p>
<p>Now I have been through the process a couple of times I am feeling more confident in doing this video making, it feels like quite an achievement. Whilst I did not do it without any sighted assistance, I did manage it without needing someone actually present at home, so I can actually use this lock down period to create these videos I have been intending to make for some time. I plan to make a few more videos later today, so keep watching the Vision Impaired Shooting channel for more videos.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-20252611942512886592020-03-17T20:29:00.002+00:002020-03-17T20:31:11.178+00:00Making the most of the situation<p>I am sure you all are aware of the COVID19 virus situation and how many sports events are being cancelled. With my first two international competitions of the year being cancelled and I have my doubts whether any of my international competitions will happen, I am thinking how best I can use my time now I don't have the pressure of competitions coming up.</p>
<p>In a way it probably is a good timing for me as I really have not been happy with my standing shooting over the last year and I feel part of the problem has been putting too much pressure on myself. So this break from competition will be a good opportunity for me to lower the pressure and may be even have a break from standing if I feel that is needed for a couple of months.</p>
<p>There is something else I want to get done, that is to put my IBSA shooting committee chairman hat on and produce some information on vision impaired shooting. The sort of things I want to include are details of how the sport is done, the different disciplines, some tips for coaches, etc. Ideally I would like to get some videos made, but that does require the help of others. Again with the pressure of competition being removed for a few months, now may be that opportunity to get on with it with minimal impact upon my shooting.</p>
<p>So whilst turning on the radio seems to bring doom and gloom news, I intend to make the most of the next few months and have some good come out of it.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-30145147088443547212020-02-29T10:23:00.002+00:002020-02-29T10:24:06.635+00:00Melton Times Sports Awards presentation evening<p>Yesterday evening was the Melton Times Sports Awards and I was up for the Sportsman of the Year award. Those who read my social media will already know who won the award, but I felt now I have returned to the office it is time to write a blog post on the evening. Just for clarity, the office is not the shooting club, rather it is the room where I have my computer set up at home.</p>
<p>For those who do not know what the Melton Times Sports Awards are, they are local awards recognising the achievements of those involved in sport in and around Melton Mowbray. There were 14 awards to be presented with 18 sports represented. As I said I had been nominated for the sportsman of the year award.</p>
<p>When you read through what the nominated people have done, it is really impressive and I can imagine the decision was quite a tough one for the judges to pick out the winner in each category. The presentations started with the junior sportsman and junior sportswoman awards and then it was my moment with the presentation of the sportsman of the year.</p>
<p>As I said in a previous post, it is a slightly strange thing for me to realise I am not in the disabled sports person category, this time up against non-disabled sports people. The other two finalists both also had a good number of achievements to their name so I really did not know who would get the award until the name was read out.</p>
<p>Finally you patient blog readers now can be told that the name which was read out was mine and so I am this year's sportsman of the year.</p>
<p> The evening continued with awards in other categories, such as the community sports award, a coaching sports award, junior team awards, etc. It was a really good evening and it was nice to hear about all the nominees and what goes on in the local area.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-41979607545642158242020-02-09T16:43:00.000+00:002020-02-09T16:43:13.510+00:00Step towards being Melton Times sportsman of the year<p>In my previous post I mentioned about being nominated as Melton Times sportsman of the year. As readers of my social media posts probably already know, I have now been selected as a finalist for sportsman of the year.It is now a case of waiting until 28 February for the winners to be announced.</p>
<p>In the meantime I have training to do in preparation for my first international competition, the World Cup in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates which is due to be held in March. Over the last year or so I have been finding I have been putting more and more pressure on myself and I think its starting to get in the way of my shooting, so the main aim I have for this World Cup is to get back to the place where I can relax in competition and enjoy it.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-89834599575341624952020-02-02T12:02:00.001+00:002020-02-02T12:07:13.369+00:00My relationship with disability<p>This week <a href="https://www.meltontimes.co.uk/sport/other-sport/melton-times-sports-awards-for-2019-nominees-announced-1-9217969">the nominations for the Melton Times sports awards were announced</a>. It was nice to find my name on the list, however to find myself in the list for sportsman of the year rather than the disability sportsman of the year got me thinking again about how I feel about my disability.</p>
<p>Whilst I do not try to hide my disability and I accept it as being a part of who I am, I do not want to be defined by my disability. I want people to see who I am first, someone trying to be the best shooter they can be, with my vision impairment just being another fact about me. So in a way its quite pleasing to be nominated and considered for an award where disability is not in the title. It feels like a step towards equality where I can be considered against everyone else and not just in a disabled category.</p>
<p>Those who have followed what I have done probably already know how I shoot in national competitions against sighted shooters. In these competitions I think I place more pressure on myself than at international vision impaired shooting competitions. This is because I feel in the sighted competitions I am someone different, may be even someone who others will view as being at a disadvantage, facing more challenges and may be even pittied. So I feel I need to shoot as well as I can to show people what i can do and so that when complements are given to me I feel I have earned it. It can annoy me when people are saying well done to me when I feel I have performed much worse than my best, it can feel patronizing even if that is not the intent.</p>
<p>When I compete in a vision impaired specific competition I feel more comfortable as I know that people will be comparing me against other vision impaired shooters. If I have a bad day, then people will see its not the best a vision impaired shooter can manage as they will see what the other competitors achieve. So in a way the disability is less defining about me in these cases.</p>
<p>Also the vision impaired specific competitions are required as you do need to create an equal playing field for all competitors, particularly when you are trying to find the champion. There are certain aspects which may be harder for someone with a vision impairment to do and so it may either require more work to achieve the same level of performance as their sighted opponents or it may not even be possible to reach that level of performance. In my case the competing in national competitions against sighted shooters is to give me a challenge and experience of shooting competitions, I know that in some of the competitions there is very little chance of me winning.</p>
<p>So whilst I do like it when I can achieve things in non-disabled categories, I do feel it needs to come with some caution as the disability specific competitions and categories do have their place. Sometimes when aspiring to break out of the disability world, it can lead to people feeling you view the disability specific categories as a lesser category, something we really should not do.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-77462333340093279322020-01-01T08:50:00.001+00:002020-01-01T08:50:49.754+00:00What is to come in 2020<p>Happy new year to all readers of my blog. Time to start looking forward to what 2020 has for me. It looks like it could be a busy first half of the year with three vision impaired international competitions to go to. Starting in March with the World Cup in Al Ain, UAE, followed by the International Shooting Competition of Hanover in May and the 10m European Championships in June. Then there are the national competitions against sighted shooters to consider, with the British Open Airgun Championships in February and the ESSU championships in May. These are just the shoulder-to-shoulder competitions, there are the various league competitions to be shot at my local club as well. At this point I don't know if there will be any shoulder-to-shoulder competitions in the latter part of the year, however it may present a chance to have a bit of a break or opportunity to experiment in my training. So plenty to look forward to, keep tuned for further updates as the year goes on.Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-53067667162737191302019-11-30T20:21:00.000+00:002019-11-30T20:21:04.447+00:00Why I do mental training<p>Readers of <a href="http://fb.me/ashotinthedark.online">my FaceBook page</a> will know that recently I have started putting a lot of attention on mental training. So why am I doing this, wasn't it already part of my training?</p>
<p>To answer the latter part first, yes it was already in my training, however I feel over the last few months something had changed and I felt much less confident about my shooting. Well to say something had changed is possibly understating it, almost all of my standing position has been changed and with all the attention being on the position I found my mind was being left behind.</p>
<p>As well as it being something I felt needed greater attention at the moment, it also is the part of training I can do independently. Unfortunately to actually go shooting I always need someone to assist me and so I am restricted to when someone is available to help. Even dry-firing at home is difficult, finding my standing position independently is almost impossible. On the occasions I have done dry-fire training at home, it was not about the position but rather familiarising myself with the EcoAims sound or doing trigger training, for which I could rest the rifle on a support rest.</p>
<p>Sadly many vision impaired people may know that books in an accessible form can be hard to find. Here are two suggestions of books I have got:
<ol>
<li>With winning in mind by Lanny Bassham, can be found on Amazon Kindle.</li>
<li>Bullseye Mind by Raymond Prior, you will need to email him regarding getting a PDF copy.</li>
</ol>
Another route may be to look for mental training apps. Certainly for those new to mental training I think it may be a good option as the interactive nature allows it to gather information about you and then make suggestions on what to focus on next. One such app is the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.excelatlife.sportpsych">Sport Psych app for Android</a>.</p>
<p>The fact mental training can be done independently makes it even more important for a vision impaired shooter, you can do as much or as little as you feel is required. So if you are a VI shooter and you are not doing mental training, I would encourage you to take a look at it.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-74879935454174875232019-11-10T17:32:00.000+00:002019-11-10T17:32:08.657+00:00Reflection on 2019<p>With all my international vision impaired competitions done for 2019, it seems like a good point to review how things have gone this year and what I need to focus on next.</p>
<p>This year has had its ups and downs. The year got off to a fairly good start with me shooting at the <a href="https://www.ashotinthedark.online/2019/02/british-open-airgun-championships-report.html">British Open Airgun Championships</a> where I put in a score better than the previous year's competitions despite having to move firing points within sighting time.</p>
<p>In May I had a change to my plan when there were problems in getting my therapeutic use exemption for one of my medications renewed in time for the International Competition of Hanover. This meant I had to withdraw from that competition and find a solution and to achieve my qualifying score for the World Championships out at the World Cup in Croatia.</p>
<p>This change in competitions meant the training plan needed to adjust as well. I had been going through significant changes to my standing shooting position and some of the time between May and the World Cup was used to keep making these changes. All these changes though started to get to me, with such a focus on only achieving the position and getting that right, I felt my shooting was slowing down. I was feeling detached from how I shoot in competitions and I started to worry about how I would shoot under the pressure of competition and the knowledge of having a time limit. My self image as a competitive shooter had been very badly damaged and whilst people were telling me that my thoughts would not be helping me and I needed to think more positively, I felt I was not getting support in knowing how to actually change the thoughts and the self image.</p>
<p>After the World Cup I was just relieved to have got my qualifying score for the World Championships. The silver medal in the prone was a very nice bonus, after the problems I had in getting started with prone and the significant pain whilst we were finding the correct position, it was nice to have something come from all that effort.</p>
<p>The focus then moved to the World Championships and being ready for that. I knew I needed to get myself back to a point where I would be comfortable and confident shooting in a competition. One suggestion I had from a club member was to trust myself and learn to just shoot through it. This felt like the best advice I was getting on how to get my mind back in the right place, so most of my standing training was spent shooting under competition conditions to reassure me that I could do it.</p>
<p>With prone still being fairly new to me, there was still much work to do on tweaking the position. Things felt like they were though improving. I was possibly starting to build the pressure on myself for the prone, if I could achieve a World Cup silver medal at my first competition, then what was the expectation on me for the World Championships?</p>
<p>At the World Championships I had nerves affecting me. For the prone there was that thought of what the expectation would be of how well I might do. My qualifying round was better than what I had in Croatia, but was still lower than may have been expected based upon my training scores. In the final I had some problems with the sighting and just could not settle after that.</p>
<p>After a disappointing time with the prone, I guess this meant I started putting more pressure on myself for my standing as it was the only chance remaining for me to show what I could do. I feel whilst my self image had somewhat improved since Croatia, it still had not been fully restored to where it had been back in previous years. This all added to my nerves and the sense of pressure to do well. It probably worked against me in the qualifying as I struggled to settle down. The result was well down on what I feel I am capable of and I went into the final in 8th place. The final was really the last chance I would have to show what I was capable of and yes the nerves were going and I could feel my leg shaking. However as the final went on and I realised I was doing reasonable, I started to settle down. The bronze medal was such a relief to win, I felt like I had really worked for it.</p>
<p>So enough of the reflection, it is only useful if I use it to take actions which should lead to improvements. Having had so much trouble with my feeling towards my shooting, this is why I started looking for a book to help with my mental training. The book I have ended up selecting is "With winning in mind". There are some things in that book which deal with how to change the self image and I will try some of those techniques. Another thing which the book mentions is over trying, something I thought I was possibly doing in trying to get the correct position.</p>
<p>Finally the other thing I am going to give a go is the performance journal. I had previously tried a shooting diary, but abandoned it when I found I was not recording useful things and also due to the difficulties I had in making the entries when I had the information fresh in my mind. In "With winning in mind" there is some details on how to structure the performance journal and may be with some of the technological developments since my last attempt I may be able to record the information better. I think it is worth trying it again as the performance journal can support almost all of the other aspects of training and make those more effective.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-70732509074269747062019-10-27T12:09:00.001+00:002019-10-27T12:09:32.370+00:00An encounter with Kedok<p>Whilst out in Australia I met with Geoff Hunter who runs a shooting club for the vision impaired in Sydney. I got the chance to try out the <a href="http://acoustic-shooting.blogspot.com">Kedok aiming system</a>. After having read about it for sometime, it was great to actually get my hands on one to test it out.</p>
<p>For those who do not know what Kedok is, it is another aiming device for vision impaired shooters designed by Wim Hager over in the Netherlands. It differs from other available aiming devices as all the design documents have been published online, so you could make your own and even modify it as you feel fit. One of the goals of the Kedok device is to make something which is much more affordable than devices like the ecoAims or the VIASS Pro.</p>
<p>Before discussing what it is like to use, I must note that it currently has not been approved for use in international World Shooting ParaSport competitions. So anyone wanting to compete internationally will need to use something else or apply to get their Kedok approved by WSPS.</p>
<p>Now for what i think about it. Unlike EcoAims and VIASS which use cameras to locate the LED, the Kedok uses a light sensor and so is more similar to the Swarovski device. This has the advantage that sampling of the sensor is much, much quicker and so the sound changes much more smoothly, however it does mean it is more sensitive to differences in lamp or LED set up. In fact when I tried it, Geoff had made a mistake in the set up and the device detected something was wrong when we were calibrating it.</p>
<p>Once the lamp was correctly configured, time to have a listen and shoot with it. As I noted the sound does change very smoothly, takes me back to the Swarovski scope although it does sound a little different. For me being used to the EcoAims sound now, I found the amount of variation in the tone was not really enough and I felt it flattened off too much in the middle. I felt the tone did impact upon my ability to shoot a good group and probably it was no where near what I can do with my EcoAims. I am aware that there are settings which can be changed, but I did not want to go and mess up someone else's aiming device so I left them alone. This though does mean I cannot judge how accurate the device really may be, so I cannot pass comment on accuracy.</p>
<p>Whilst on the topic of settings, it is nice to note how Kedok has speech prompts in the device which allows the shooter to alter settings and to warn the shooter of any problems it detects. It is good to allow the shooter to be as independent as possible. Also I like some of the prompts and how they give the device a bit of personality, such as wishing you good shooting after calibration, rather than just being very boring information only prompts.</p>
<p>Something which I am not so keen on is the separate processing unit which sits on the table. Having used a battery pack fitted to the rifle to power a Swarovski and now using the Ecoaims with its built in battery, I am used to only having a single cable whilst shooting. So it feels like a step back to have a cable from the scope to the processor and then a headphone cable from the processor. I think EcoAims have really set the standard here with the built in battery, so you don't even have a cable for a battery pack.</p>
<p>So in conclusion, I think the Kedok is a step forward from the Swarovski scopes by allowing calibration and customisation with voice guidance. When compared with the EcoAims it just does not do it for me. The problems I have about the sound being too flat might be possible to resolve either through settings or by tweaking the software. The external processor unit is a more significant issue to me and would need a more significant redesign. For those who want to do the sport recreationally or at national level, then this might be a reasonable option to consider if price is important. However for those who want to compete internationally, I would suggest save up and go for something like the EcoAims VIS500 or the VIASS Pro.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-69695110654584502342019-10-25T12:30:00.000+01:002019-10-25T12:30:02.753+01:00Medal success at World Championships<p>Now the World Championships is over and I have returned home back to normal life, time for an update here. Sorry its coming a bit later than I really would have liked, but things got rather busy out in Australia and I just never quite found time for writing a blog post. May be I need to alter my blog posts to be shorter but more frequent.</p>
<p>This was my first World Championships and nerves were a big part of what I was feeling. I felt I was fighting the nerves all the way through and I think they may have affected my shooting.</p>
<p>The first competition was prone. As I said nerves meant my score was not as good as I had been hoping and I entered the final in 7th place. Well enough to make the final and the score was better than my previous competition prone scores, so not all bad. Unfortunately I had some problems in the sighting of the final which disturbed me and meant I found it difficult to settle down. Not being settled meant my shooting was not competitive and so I ended in 8th place after the final.</p>
<p>After all the lead up to the World Championships and my success in prone at the World Cup, I was feeling a bit disappointed with my prone and I had to put my attention to the standing competition. Again nerves hit me and affected my qualifying score, with me getting through to the final in 8th place. With the reality of my performance being down at the World Championships and the prospect of not getting any medal, my mind was really focussed for the final and to make the most of it. Again the nerves were there and I could feel my hand shaking, so I was doing everything I could to help me calm down and relax. As shot 12 was taken and I realised I was still in the final, I started to relax knowing that I had at least gained a place in the final. This probably helped me on as I climbed to 3rd place. There was one shot which was really bad and cost me heavily, potentially meaning I missed out on 2nd place.</p>
<p>After the final I was so happy to have managed a medal place and relieved it was all over. Of course I wish I had done better but considering the nerves I think it is a reasonable result for my first World Championships.</p>
<p>Now the World Championships are over, time for a short break and planning for next year. Being a Paralympic year next year, there will not be any World Championships. It looks like the highest level vision impaired competition will be a European Championships to be held in Slovenia. There is a World Cup planned to be held in the UAE, however I am considering only doing European competitions and to make next year a cheaper year after all the expenses of this year with the change of equipment and travel to Australia.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-9196183192872662982019-10-07T11:38:00.000+01:002019-10-07T11:43:35.044+01:00In Australia for the World Championships<p>As the World Championships gets closer, now less than a week away, I thought it was time to write another blog post. Last week saw me take the longest flight I have taken up to now as I flew out to Australia. This is also the first time I have been outside Europe for shooting, so many new things for me. I had decided to fly out early so that I would have time to acclimatise.</p>
<p>The first couple of days were not shooting related, time to be a tourist and find where things are in Sydney. However by Sunday it was back to work at the shooting centre doing some training and to take my first shots on another continent. First up was training standing It was good to get going again and find out that everything had survied the flight and was working correctly.</p>
<p>After a break for some lunch and it was into training the prone. May be I started too soon after lunch as things weren't quite feeling right and I was feeling a bit sleepy. After a short walk around to wake me up a bit, back into the prone shooting and everything was back to normal again.</p>
<p>So all seems to be going to plan and I am feeling positive for the upcoming championships. So today I was back being a tourist, going on one of the access tours of the Sydney Opera House and then to the maratime museum. Both were very interesting and had things I could appreciate, well worth doing if you are in Sydney.</p>
<p>I plan to have a couple more training sessions before the championships begins. My first competition is prone on Tuesday 15 October. Keep watching here on my blog, my <a href="http://fb.me/ashotinthedark.online">FaceBook page</a> or my <a href="http://twitter.com/mwhapples">Twitter page</a> for updates.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-77859460382352799442019-09-22T09:43:00.000+01:002019-09-22T09:43:11.113+01:00Changes in my prone<p>Since I started my prone back at the end of march this year we have made many alterations to my position as we keep learning things. I thought I would give a bit more detail on how my position has been evolving and why we are still changing things when there is only weeks to go until the World Championships.</p>
<p>Right at the beginning we started by trying to have me square on to the target facing down range, so my upper body was somewhat like the standard prone position. I just could not get on with that position at all,I kept dropping my left shoulder, the rifle never felt correct in the right shoulder, etc. Then there was the problem of the pain in my left hand, although that might have been related to the glove I was using.</p>
<p>The next thing I tried was to sit at an angle to the target. This brought my shoulders round to something closer to my standing position and I seemed to have much less trouble with keeping the shoulders level. Whether this was to do with the position being better for me or whether it was that it was just more familiar because of it being closer to my standing I am not sure. After changing the glove I had a position comfortable enough that I could start thinking about shooting a full 60 shot match.</p>
<p>I stuck with this position for a while getting used to it and it was the position I used whilst out in Croatia at the World Cup. The problem though was that the angles of my arms were quite low and so we had fitted a long extension to the butt plate. This made it difficult to reach to load with the rifle in position and the only way to adjust the sights was to take it out of my shoulder. This is when we started looking at a forend extension and reducing the length of the butt to bring everything back towards me. At first I was borrowing a forend extension from a club member, this did seem to help as it reduced the stretching when loading, I could adjust the sights in position and it moved the weight back a bit. The forend extension I borrowed had a height adjustment piece which unfortunately was getting in my way and so we looked at making a forend extension.</p>
<p>The custom forend was not going to be attached for long as last Friday we had Mike, one of the coaches at British Shooting, come to have a look at my prone and give us some help. His suggestion was to increase the angle of my arms, which we did by raising my seat. By bringing the arms up a bit means that they are better able to support the rifle and my hold seemed to improve when we did that. It also means my left hand is not as far forward and so we could remove the forend extension.</p>
<p>I may have joked about all these changes and how it seems like I have something different every time I go training. However I think now probably is the time to do all this as I don't want to get too attached to one position which might not really be ideal. We have much learning to do and we won't find things out unless we experiment. Based on how well I did in the World Cup, hopefully with these improvements, I should be in with a good chance at the World Championships and I am feeling quite positive.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-12349577120567133832019-09-07T10:40:00.001+01:002019-09-07T10:40:24.884+01:00Call for VI shooters<p>In the past I have mentioned about wanting other vision impaired shooters to take up the international disciplines. One reason is that I enjoy the sport and I want to share it with others so that they too have the opportunity to participate in the sport and to do it at the highest level they can. However this is not the only reason.</p>
<p>Here in the UK we actually have quite a strong domestic form of the sport with may be about 100 or more vision impaired shooters. The vast majority of these do support rest shooting from a spring stand, only a few in the UK actually shoot either of the international disciplines. Also the national vision impaired shooting competitions are all shot using the larger air pistol target where as internationally the air rifle target is the standard. In short I am the only vision impaired shooter from the UK who currently shoots internationally. There are times it can feel quite a lonely place to be as I don't feel like I belong to any team.</p>
<p>My local shooting club has been very welcoming and supportive, in fact I couldn't have asked for more. I have mentioned about going to national competitions and shooting against sighted shooters. It has been great going to those competitions with fellow club members and in some cases working to place higher in the results. However these competitions are only a fraction of what they do and over the summer there have been a number of outdoor competitions where club members have gone to which I cannot compete in. Then there are my international competitions which I am doing separate to club members.</p>
<p>Historically vision impaired shooting has been quite separate from the rest of disabled shooting in GB, probably partially due to the competitions being held separate. Even though I am now going to the same international competitions as the rest of the parasport shooting team, I still feel external to the team. At this point I have not done any training with the rest of the team and so when I am at the competitions whilst I may recognise some of the names, I would not say I necessarily know the other GB shooters. Also for all my international events I have had to make all my own arrangements for travel and hotels rather than being invited to travel with the rest of the team. This though does have its advantage as it gives me the freedom to choose what suits me better, such as taking a cheaper route to the World Cup and not being restricted to wheelchair accessible hotels.</p>
<p>So if we had a few more British vision impaired shooters doing international disciplines then may be we could have a vision impaired shooting team. It would be nice to have some others doing the same shooting as me who I could relate to and may be we could even look at competing for the team medals at international competitions.</p>
<p>So how do I see more people taking up the international disciplines? I feel that prone might be the way in. For people trying shooting for the first time you could start them doing 10m air rifle benchrest with a support whilst they learn the basics of shooting. If they started on the air rifle target then they could enter league competitions against sighted shooters from the beginning. As they get better the only thing which would need changing is the support for a sling. As they learn using the sling they could still enter the benchrest leagues and once they reach a standard where they could be considered for international competition they would be able to start shooting internationally. Standing is quite challenging and I accept fewer probably will take it up, but hopefully those capable of it would be willing to give it a go once they have had the taste of prone at international competition.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-32424530470471199032019-08-27T21:56:00.001+01:002019-08-27T21:56:36.722+01:00Does blindness mean darkness?<p>Although I chose the name "A shot in the dark" for my blog and FaceBook page relating to my shooting, you may be surprised to learn that being blind is not the same as seeing darkness. In this post I will give you my personal experience, however remember that it may be different for others. Also remember not all who are vision impaired are totally blind, some may have some sight and for these the amount of sight and how it affects them may differ from person to person.</p>
<p>So a little history about me. I have always had sight problems since birth. At first I could see a little bit, enough to see colours, basic outlines and with the help of very strong magnifiers I could even read some print. However my eye condition meant that my sight would gradually deteriorate over time, eventually ending with no sight.</p>
<p>One of the problems with gradual loss of sight is that the brain can be very good at filling in what it expects. This can make it very difficult to actually know how much you can see as you go about day-to-day tasks. It is not until you notice that you are missing things or when you get your sight tested before you realise that your sight has got worse. As an example this time last year I could just perceive light with my right eye but now I have no sight at all. I could not say exactly when within that year I lost the light perception, around April I started to notice I was making mistakes about whether a light was on in the room and at my sight classification in Croatia I had confirmation from someone else that there was no longer light perception. Even though I know I have no light perception, my brain still fills in seeing the light come on when I press a light switch in my house.</p>
<p>As well as creating sensible images to fill in for a lack of sight, the brain can come up with some really strange images as well. I have heard someone say that flying chickens is a fairly common image to get, although it really can be anything you could possibly imagine. This seeing things which are not there is known as <a href="https://www.rnib.org.uk/eye-health/eye-conditions/charles-bonnet-syndrome-cbs">Charles Bonnet Syndrome</a>. Some can find this quite disturbing particularly if they do not know what is going on and why they are seeing these images. Fortunately I had a doctor explain this to me around the time I first encountered it and so knowing nothing is wrong I have just learned to live with it going on.</p>
<p>The brain can keep doing this for years after sight is entirely lost. I lost all sight in my left eye back in 2006 and I am still seeing a glowing colourful pattern in my left eye today in 2019. I do not think my left eye has seen dark in all the years since I lost the sight in that eye. So may be "A shot in the dark" is not an accurate description for me, however I found the title too tempting when I found ashotinthedark.online available as both a web address and a FaceBook page.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-76174949606744242062019-08-19T21:15:00.002+01:002019-08-19T21:15:17.789+01:00Learning from training under time pressure<p>In the lead up to the World Cup I had been focusing very much on training and getting the correct position. This though meant that I had not given so much attention to the timing of the competition and I was feeling a bit detached from how I shoot under competition conditions. Whilst the time has not been a particular issue for me, it still caused some problems as the pressure of knowing I was restricted in time meant that I would sometimes rush a shot when I should have taken a bit more time. So I want to solve this in readiness for the World Championships so that I don't rush any shot.</p>
<p>To overcome the problem I decided it was time to start doing training under timed conditions so that it becomes normal. It would mean I would be used to judging how long I am taking and the time remaining, but also it would mean that in competition I feel I need not do anything different to my training.</p>
<p>The last week I have spent some time training the 5 shot series, those which come at the start of a final. My reason for this choice is that they are a medium length and so possibly the most difficult to judge. In qualifying competitions there is plenty of time ans so it is possible to check with my assistant about how long remains. In the single shots in a final the time is sufficiently short that I think I can judge that reasonably well.</p>
<p>The first thing which became clear is that when you cannot see the time available, you need a bit more than the 10 seconds warning which is given in a final. We think that may be a minute is about the correct amount of warning for a 5 shots series.</p>
<p>Today in training it became clear that whilst I can shoot very well in this timed condition, it is noticeable when I am getting tired or distracted. I was just shooting the 5 shot series, doing about 60 shots in total but leaving only a little gap between each series. As I started to tire the time I took for each series started to get longer and a few bad shots started to creep in. Once this became obvious I took a slightly longer break before the next 5 shot series and I then started to shoot faster and the quality also returned.</p>
<p>Whilst in competition I would never shoot so many 5 shot series, this training possibly has helped to identify when I start to get tired and when I really should be taking a break in my qualifying competitions. Finals are a bit different as they are shorter and you cannot determine the pace of shooting. Instead in a final you need to work out how best to use the time between shots to prepare for the next one.</p>
<p>Since doing this timed training I am starting to feel better about my shooting and more ready for competing at the World Championships. I think I will be continuing it for at least the next few weeks. Who knows what else it may teach me about my shooting.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-38497765474193549142019-08-14T22:53:00.002+01:002019-08-14T22:53:42.647+01:00Give your view on blindfolds in vision impaired sport.<p>In <a href="https://www.ashotinthedark.online/2019/08/to-see-or-not-to-see.html">a previous post</a> I gave my view on the topic of blindfolds in vision impaired shooting. It is now time for you to give your view on the topic.</p>
<iframe src="https://poll.app.do/embed/what-do-you-think-about-blindfolds-in-vision" height="720" style="display:block;width:100%;max-width:810px;margin:auto;border:3px solid #444444;border-radius:6px;"></iframe>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-15005429111340006462019-08-11T09:53:00.000+01:002019-08-11T09:53:04.292+01:00To see or not to see<p>To see or not to see, that is the question in vision impaired shooting. Whether it is fairer to require all to wear opaque glasses or not.</p>
<p>World Shooting ParaSport made provision in the international rules to allow them to designate competitions requiring all shooters to wear opaque glasses. Whilst no competition this year has been designated as such, there definitely is talk about enforcing it sometime soon. The thought is that it is obvious when watching vision impaired shooting to identify who has some useful sight and who has not. There is a thought that those with some useful sight are gaining an advantage through their sight and that it can make a mockery of the sport. The solution being proposed is opaque glasses to try and equalise the sport.</p>
<p>As you may imagine there are some who really oppose this idea. I am mixed in my views on this. My biggest objection is more from a disability ethics point of view, I feel it is wrong to make someone more disabled than they normally are. In no other part of life do we ever consider disabling someone further, in fact we normally try and encourage people to make the most of what they have. So why is sport different? I fully appreciate the need for creating an equal playing field, but why take such a negative approach, surely a more positive approach by creating adaptations and allowances for those with less sight would be better. As an example of a positive approach I would use blind cricket as an example where totally blind batsmen must have at least two bounces of the ball and blind fielders may make a catch even when the ball has bounced once. Admittedly creating positive adaptations and allowances is more difficult, they may be more complicated for people to understand and may not satisfy some that equality has been achieved.</p>
<p>So if we put the ethics to one side and accept that opaque glasses are a workable proposal, will they help create an equal playing field and give the correct image of the sport?</p>
<p>One significant objection is that those with partial sight are less adapted to life without sight and so the opaque glasses would disproportionally impact upon them. They claim that those who have no sight will be better adapted due to living with no sight 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Whilst those with partial sight may train with the opaque glasses, this training time will never compare with being in the condition permanently. Whilst I accept this argument to an extent, it cannot be ignored that the totally blind person may have other disadvantages such as limited training time due to not being able to train independently, greater difficulty in learning certain sport concepts due to not being able to visually watch a demonstration and also not being able to use some visual training techniques such as position training with a mirror. Also for those who have been blind since birth, they may never have developed certain skills such as balance when they were younger as they never had the visual queues to help perfect the skill.</p>
<p>There is also an informational inequality within the sport. By this I mean those who can see the electronic target display are likely to have far more information than a shooter with no sight. The phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind. As good as my assistant is, they cannot give me anywhere near the same information about the group shape, size, position, etc in a timely manner as a sighted person can by taking a quick look at the display. Also in a final where time is limited, it is much quicker to visually look at the time remaining, instead I would need to signal to my assistant I want to know how much time remains, the assistant needs to check the time and then communicate this back to me. If taking a positive solution approach, then one possible option would be to consider giving those with limited sight additional time to allow for the time it takes for the assistant to provide the detailed information. How practical that would be in competition I am not sure. The last thing to say about information communication is that those who cannot see the display fully rely on their assistant and must have full trust that the assistant has got it correct. If you can also see the information, then you can form your own opinion and decide whether to ignore the assistant or not.</p>
<p>So in conclusion, from a practical point of view I can see how using opaque glasses may equalise the sport. Whilst they may disadvantage those with some sight, we must remember that those who are totally blind may face additional disadvantages as well. When considered as a whole, based on reasoned argument I think it may actually result in something fairly equal, but it may be good if research could actually be done to confirm this. However the ethical aspect does bother me, making people more disabled does not feel like something which should be acceptable in this day and age, we really should be taking a more positive approach.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-7734905418990561332019-08-06T20:06:00.001+01:002019-08-06T20:06:27.762+01:00Experimenting by mixing the old with the new<p>For many years the Swarovski ZE-B618 was the most common audio aiming system for vision impaired shooters. The Swarovski system was a light based system requiring a bright lamp and a target with a white centre. However recent the international standard is the infrared LED based systems such as the EcoAims VIS500 or VIASS Pro. This means that many vision impaired shooters are going out and buying new aiming systems, quite a costly thing to do.</p>
<p>I was aware that the Swarovski aiming device although based on light, it does actually detect infrared as well. So I had the thought, can a Swarovski ZE-B618 be used with the infrared LED? If this is possible then it could save many people a lot of expense and also simplify vision impaired shooting competitions where the organisers want to allow people to continue using their old Swarovski aiming devices.</p>
<p>As I am currently having a slight break from training after the World Cup, I decided to do some experimenting to see how well the Swarovski aiming device would work with the infrared LED. First thing to do was use the white centred targets to check that my Swarovski aiming system was offset. I wanted to make sure that when I started my experiments with the LED that I would not hit shoot the LED.</p>
<p>Once I was certain the device was offset, it was time to point the rifle at a target fitted with an LED. The Swarovski was definitely finding the LED and giving me a change in tone. It did sound a bit different to using the target with a white centre, it was smaller and did seem to flatten off a lot in the middle. It was time to put shots down the range and see what sort of group I could achieve. To minimise error from myself, I was shooting using a support rest. Whilst there was a group, the size was much too big for me to even consider using it for competitive shooting, it was out to the 7 ring on a rifle target. May be I was no longer used to the Swarovski sound as I have been shooting with the EcoAims for some time now. Even taking this into account, I don't think the Swarovski aiming device with the LED could ever come to the same accuracy as the newer devices.</p>
<p>So sadly I have to conclude that the Swarovski days for international competition are over. There may be beginner or club level VI shooters where the Swarovski and a LED is more accurate than the shooter, but these would not be limited to using the LED as an aiming mark, they can continue using the target with a white centre.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-76155074406571063372019-08-02T08:29:00.001+01:002019-08-02T08:29:52.499+01:00Making travel plans for the World Championships<p>Now the World Cup is over and I have achieved my qualifying scores for the World Championships in both standing and prone, it is time to start making arrangements for going to Australia for the World Championships. I previously wrote about <a href="https://www.ashotinthedark.online/2019/07/booking-flights-for-shooting-competition.html">booking flights for a shooting competition</a>. Up to now I have only ever flown within Europe and on direct flights. Normally in Europe laws are sufficiently similar and the freedoms of movement within the Eu means it is not a problem to take the air rifle.</p>
<p>Yesterday I was getting the flights booked for flying to Australia and there were a few more things to consider compared to normal. I will need to apply to get a permit for the rifle in Australia, but I also need to consider the requirements in countries I transit through. The flights which at first looked like the best were via Hong Kong. However as I looked into the requirements for the rifle, this was looking not as good as I would have to apply to the Hong Kong police for a permit even though I would only be in transit at Hong Kong airport.</p>
<p>With so many possible options on routes via different transit countries, I decided the best thing to do would be to get a travel agent to assist me with checking what the airline and airport requirements would be for the various routes. This may not be the cheapest option, but I think it is well worth it if you don't want to have to spend the time yourself checking every airline and every route yourself. In the end we selected a direct flight, where the plane only lands in Singapore to refuel, this seems to be the simplest on the paperwork.</p>
<p>With the flights now booked, it is time to get that paperwork done for the Australian gun permit. Whilst this admin stuff is not very interesting in itself, it though does make it all seem more real that I am actually going to the World Championships. I am starting to get excited about going.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-57114603576671873452019-07-29T23:16:00.001+01:002019-07-29T23:16:17.773+01:00Success at World Cup<p>I have had a great time at the World Cup and it is time to give you all an update on how I got on.</p>
<p>Friday was the standing competition. This was a very tough competition for me. The weather was hot and I was struggling to keep cool inside my shooting suit. As well as that, I seemed to have caught a cold just before departing for croatia and I think that was affecting my ears and balance. All I could do was try and keep myself calm and shoot as well as I could. My shooting was not up to its usual standard, but it was sufficient to get me through to the final. I was feeling quite exhausted after the standing qualifying, but after some motivational talk I tried pushing a bit more in the final. My shooting improved a bit, but I was still struggling and finished in 5th place.</p>
<p>As the prone shooting was not until the Sunday, this gave me a couple of days to recover. Also being sat down for prone probably means that balance is less important. I was actually feeling quite positive about my prone going into the competition. The qualifying match went fairly well, although still not my best, but good enough to make the final. At the beginning of the final I could feel my heart racing. It took me a little time to bring my heart under control and then my shooting started to improve. Throughout the final it was difficult to know who was going to win as the lead kept changing. As the final progressed I realised I was getting closer to achieving my goal of being a medalist, then we got to the point where 4th place is eliminated and I realised I was still in the competition. This gave me a little boost and after two more shots I found I was still in the competition meaning I would either be first or second. I managed to keep gaining on the leader over the next two shots, however it was not quite enough and so I finished in second place with the silver medal. I am so pleased with it, particularly when I consider how recently I started doing the prone shooting. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPfbRvfQsI8">prone final can be seen on YouTube</a>.</p>
<p>Both results are sufficient as qualifying scores for the World Championships later this year in Sydney, Australia. Now I have returned home, as I come of the high of my prone success, I will start preparation for the World Championships where I hope to have further success.</p>
<p>Finally a thanks to all who have helped me. Special thanks to Pauline my assistant for the many hours of coaching and training. However there have been many others such as those helping with equipment, training, financial donations through <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-michael-to-vi-shooting-world-championships">my GoFundMe campaign</a>, as well as encouraging and supportive words. It all helps me do it.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-12821591102742105382019-07-25T05:22:00.001+01:002019-07-25T05:22:08.480+01:00Ready to shoot in the World Cup in Osijek<p>As you may know this week will see the WSPS shooting World Cup. I have already travelled out to Croatia for it and the last few days I have been busy getting the official things checked off before the actual competition which happens over the next few days.</p>
<p>As you may know, to reduce flight costs I decided to fly to Budapest in Hungary and then take a hire car to get to Osijek in Croatia. Some people seemed surprised about flying to Budapest as it is in a different country, however it is a similar distance from Osijek and was much cheaper for flights than it would have been flying into Zagreb.</p>
<p>I arrived in Osijek mid afternoon on 23 July, which gave me enough time to find where the range is. The 10m air range is in a sports hall, thankfully considering how hot it is here there is some air conditioning in the sports hall.</p>
<p>Yesterday, 24 July, was the day for getting all the official approvals done. First thing to do was get the shooting equipment checked. Sometimes this can be a really slow process if not organised well and if you go at the same time as many other people. Thankfully things seem to b fairly well organised for the equipment control here and it took not too long.</p>
<p>After a bit of lunch, it was time to do a small amount of training to just check that everything was working after the flights. Again no problems here, seems like our packing was sufficient to let the equipment survive the flight.</p>
<p>As sight classification was not until later on in the evening, this meant there was time to do a little shopping and relax having an ice cream. As you may know from <a href="https://www.ashotinthedark.online/2019/07/the-bureaucracy-of-international.html">this previous post about sight classification</a>, it can feel a bit like a lot of bureaucracy. After the sight classifier looked at my eyes and did a quick sight test, I was pleased when I was told they were going to give me confirmed status due to me having no light perception. The confirmed status means that I should not need to go through the sight classification process again unless anything with my sight changes. For most athletes with some sight they will be given a status of review which means they need to have sight classification done again at future competitions.</p>
<p>It was quite a relief to have got all this official stuff out the way, now all that remains is to actually shoot in the competition. I will have a little bit of pre-event training this evening for my standing, then it is the standing competition on Friday. Saturday will be my training for prone, with the prone competition following that on the Sunday.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-24052439702580043692019-07-19T20:39:00.001+01:002019-07-19T20:39:36.940+01:00The bureaucracy of international competition<p>Yesterday evening at my shooting club I had a discussion with another member about the administrative tasks involved in competing at an international competition. I think they were a bit surprised at what is involved, you might be as well if you are not involved in international vision impaired sport.</p>
<p>Today I am just going to focus on the sight classification process. I possibly have a unique perspective on sight classification as I know what went into developing the sight classification system through my work in IBSA, but I have also experienced it as an athlete.</p>
<p>The purpose of sight classification is to minimise the inequality caused by the different levels of vision impairments of the competitors. You would not want it that those with the best sight always win the competition because their sight gives them an advantage. To solve this problem sight classification determines who is allowed to compete in the vision impaired form of the sport, it may split competitors into various classes depending upon their sight or introduce rules to mitigate any remaining inequalities. In shooting all competitors who are allowed to participate as a vision impaired shooter compete in a single class, mainly because the sport is so small at the moment and we need to keep the competition meaningful with enough competitors competing against each other. Shooting does have some rules to help mitigate the inequalities which may exist, such as allowing the assistant to provide information about where shots have hit the target to athletes who cannot see the target display. A number of vision impaired sports do use blindfolds, which is a controversial topic as some feel it is wrong to make someone more disabled than they are normally and there is the question whether this temporary additional impairment may actually disadvantage those with some sight by placing them under conditions which is not their normal. There is no evidence showing whether blindfolds really achieve the equalisation they are meant to. Interestingly whilst World Shooting ParaSport has made a rule allowing them to require the use of opaque glasses by competitors, this rule will not be enforced this year and they avoided terming it a blindfold.</p>
<p>Now you know the basics of why sight classification is done and what it is, time to discuss the administrative work of how it is done. The first thing for the shooter is prior to competing internationally, they must get their ophthalmologist to complete a form about the vision impairment and also provide medical evidence. From my experience in IBSA, many shooters claim they have trouble getting their ophthalmologist to complete the form in time and sometimes the ophthalmologist not being familiar with the sight classification process does not provide all required details. The next part is that about a day or two before the competition the shooter will be seen by a sight classifier, who will check the medical documents submitted and see whether it is consistent with what they observe when examining the eyes or doing eye tests. The sight classifier will then determine if the shooter is allowed to compete and what sight class will be assigned.</p>
<p>Unfortunately there is no short cut through the above. Sight classification must be done by an international sight classifier according to the international sight classification system, so a national sight classification will not help. Thankfully for those where it is very clear they lack sight and there is no possibility of variation in sight, a sight classifier may assign the shooter confirmed status which means they need not go through the process again. However for the rest, they will have a review date set on their classification for when they will need to be classified again. The review date may depend upon how likely their sight is to vary over time, in the worst case someone may need classifying before each international competition.</p>
<p>This sight classification thing may seem like a load of bureaucracy, as an athlete I know how it may seem excessive. However I guess there will be people who may try and cheat so the system needs to be as water tight as possible. Is the system perfect, no I don't think so and I hope World Shooting ParaSport keep it under review as more people start competing and thus more data and evidence becomes available.</p>
<p>So that is the short explanation of sight classification. Now remember sight classification is just one of the administrative tasks. There are things like anti-doping, making sure medications are permitted and if not applying for a therapeutic use exemption. I also have to arrange all my own travel and hotels for these international competitions. Its surprising how all this adds up, there is more to it than just going and shooting a rifle. There are times when shooting feels like the easy bit.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-87020339203486299022019-07-15T21:19:00.001+01:002019-07-15T21:19:21.919+01:00A refreshing break before the World Cup<p>Last week I took a break from my shooting, instead going yacht sailing for a week in the Solent. This was part of the south coast blind sailing week. There were 22 Yachts and just over 50 VI participants. This year I was sailing with the same skipper as last year as well as his wife, but the other crew members I had not sailed with before.</p>
<p>After joining the boat in Lymington, the first place to visit was Bembridge. For those who do not know the area, it is only possible to sail into Bembridge close to high tide. At low tide there is very little water and you would be surprised you could ever get a yacht in there.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGCQQyXqyaOpV4H2S_7Jqrk2_iei8qm-p_o1dIXa2QByggmPqcmRN5JVZTTL3oWcU9ERKmS6KdZzAIwqA7XhjRgCq722eVY5wOd2qNbCoa2aiQ5rq-kXe94RnuGUhxAEAFW8leqHaCyM/s1600/IMG_4322.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGCQQyXqyaOpV4H2S_7Jqrk2_iei8qm-p_o1dIXa2QByggmPqcmRN5JVZTTL3oWcU9ERKmS6KdZzAIwqA7XhjRgCq722eVY5wOd2qNbCoa2aiQ5rq-kXe94RnuGUhxAEAFW8leqHaCyM/s320/IMG_4322.jpg" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0goWXVM8zZaYU6sWZM8Hat20KySmt4UDwsIv3vbamh2_8x9KJXGYgF44hoZdLnpXhOgdDpWNSBu009fl5t0hKYHzAEzq7G_GKrOPOTLT6uBnv_PK_DR_GEEa_N7tHKK3psbx8HTqoNg/s1600/IMG_4324.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0goWXVM8zZaYU6sWZM8Hat20KySmt4UDwsIv3vbamh2_8x9KJXGYgF44hoZdLnpXhOgdDpWNSBu009fl5t0hKYHzAEzq7G_GKrOPOTLT6uBnv_PK_DR_GEEa_N7tHKK3psbx8HTqoNg/s320/IMG_4324.jpg" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdB-bcWAWGvKEIbtYP6Zt1dSZ_rFv4oxgwp_BFwWfhKOI9qO7WgtcPEb6xUjkJOMq4RMBP3BA1VB8C-iNGlvL1HxhPbeFiK9mfAuw5YnQ0LinqMRzH2EhGhVaVPTC0bm-2jkddPxhWE4I/s1600/IMG_4371.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdB-bcWAWGvKEIbtYP6Zt1dSZ_rFv4oxgwp_BFwWfhKOI9qO7WgtcPEb6xUjkJOMq4RMBP3BA1VB8C-iNGlvL1HxhPbeFiK9mfAuw5YnQ0LinqMRzH2EhGhVaVPTC0bm-2jkddPxhWE4I/s320/IMG_4371.jpg" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAFQI1xpDXhSUu-ZKaU_V6J6VgftjL06fxsOC5G6vJE9v-Oo9MH3YwmekQWM6O406M02UCR_4W4wrDOfPlN_6lRdSfhT01UF5jyzcmplChHF_gCCHm4yQRi1uncMAMhxS1_01IgSUquA/s1600/IMG_4372.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAFQI1xpDXhSUu-ZKaU_V6J6VgftjL06fxsOC5G6vJE9v-Oo9MH3YwmekQWM6O406M02UCR_4W4wrDOfPlN_6lRdSfhT01UF5jyzcmplChHF_gCCHm4yQRi1uncMAMhxS1_01IgSUquA/s320/IMG_4372.jpg" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1200" /></a>
<p>Requiring sufficient water to get out of Bembridge, it meant a 5:00am start, may be not quite the relaxing time I had intended. However being a morning person as well as it giving us time for a good long sail, we headed off round the south of the island and past the needles.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBrOs4JOvG6847xR0lgHnttPVqMTFyXJ0001eUT_AvEJXeoLmpKc9JJelMgt-poTyts2TsrMQQP-RRk53X6GWr2nc7YKpfPj3Rvm2DfBlAGSLss8TSNgqP2cJ0Rw_hqwkzKpbkEjCspTI/s1600/needles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBrOs4JOvG6847xR0lgHnttPVqMTFyXJ0001eUT_AvEJXeoLmpKc9JJelMgt-poTyts2TsrMQQP-RRk53X6GWr2nc7YKpfPj3Rvm2DfBlAGSLss8TSNgqP2cJ0Rw_hqwkzKpbkEjCspTI/s320/needles.jpg" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="1544" data-original-height="1160" /></a></div>
<p>The next few days were spent sailing around, finding quiet spots to stop for lunch. One such place, which possibly is my favourite in the area is on the Beaulieu River.</p>
<p>As the week came to an end I had the chance to go on the <a href="https://www.wetwheelssolent.co.uk/">Wetwheels power boat</a>. I had not done this before and so was quite keen to do it. However I seemed to be at the back of the queue and so I had some time to relax on the yacht at anchor in Osborne bay. The wait was well worth it. The Wetwheels power boat has twin Sazuki 325 HP engines and is capable of going at 40 knots. This is probably the fastest I have ever been on water and then also to have the chance to steer the power boat as well. After that the last day of sailing on the yacht felt very pedestrian, although I think there is much more to feel on a boat under sail.</p>
<p>This brings me to the end of the sailing week and today I was back at the shooting doing some training in preparation for going to Croatia next week. May be the week break from shooting and doing something else has helped as I achieved a personal best league competition score. Its all looking good for the World Cup.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-81632136027442449692019-07-03T23:41:00.003+01:002019-07-03T23:41:50.923+01:00Booking flights for a shooting competition<p>In the last week I got the flights booked for me to go to Croatia for the World Cup at the end of this month. Those of you who are either not a shooter or are a shooter but have never competed internationally may have wondered about what is involved in flying to a competition with an air rifle. In this post I will discuss the process of booking the flights and arranging carriage of the air rifle. It is a simple enough process when you know what to do, but there are certainly things to watch out for.</[p>
<p>The first difficulty is to find an airline who carries firearms. In general the low-cost airlines do not and the national airlines do. There are some exceptions to that rule so its always worth checking specific airlines before booking. This can affect the route taken. For me flying to Croatia, Zagreb is the most logical airport to fly to normally, but when you remove the airlines who will not take the air rifle the flights are expensive and/or involve multiple flights. Also it is worth checking what fees the airline charge to carry the air rifle, these can vary considerably. I have even once come across a flight which was a codeshare between two airlines, yet one airline charged much less for the rifle than the other. So if cost is important remember to add the additional fees to the ticket price.</p>
<p>I started to look for alternative destination airports. The most promising with a choice of cheaper direct flights with airlines who would carry the rifle was to fly to Budapest. Whilst the drive from Budapest will be a similar distance as it would be from Zagreb, it does mean we will be in another country and so need to check the laws of that country in relation to the air rifle. Within Europe this normally is not to much of an issue for match air rifles such as mine as it is of a low power. However typically there can be some confusion when discussing it with officials not realising what it is and so asking to see the gun license. After a bit of discussion they realise its a low power air rifle and then things are fine.</p>
<p>From this point on it generally starts to become simpler. In one case I was able to book the air rifle on the airline website at the same time as making the flight booking. However in most cases you need to phone the airline to add the rifle to the booking. I normally book myself as a blind passenger when booking the tickets, so I have always wondered what the person taking my call thinks when a blind person is adding a rifle to their flight booking. I have never recieved a comment or question about it, so either their training says to not ask such questions or they just don't notice or link the two facts.</p>
<p>After all this everything relating to the flights is now arranged. All that remains is to turn up at the airport and actually do the flight. I will write another post about that part around the time when I fly to the World Cup.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7737475402264241265.post-81751088586837762412019-06-14T11:10:00.001+01:002019-06-14T11:10:29.752+01:00Improvements in prone shooting<p>Yesterday evening I was doing more prone training. We had made some adjustments to try and solve the cant problems and stop the rifle dropping in my shoulder as I shoot. Whilst up to now my prone scores have been good, we have always needed to watch out for these things as they can lead to my shot group moving across the target and out of the 10 ring. In prone as things are so precise, any error could make all the difference.</p>
<p>So did the changes to the rifle make a difference? I think they might have.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVF8iiGW0ohcSjesbhCinOwpQiPmuDu9KpWJhSWfjII5kI3RPjriq0nZcxsbmmM-v3dmwSr4N51S6gJi856TJk6UpJxc09PZYZwxJ8EjPx6QSmxRa90nkGNocbUPdDmkmwwCxtaKC58Dc/s1600/IMG-20190614-WA0000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photo showing target when shooting prone" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVF8iiGW0ohcSjesbhCinOwpQiPmuDu9KpWJhSWfjII5kI3RPjriq0nZcxsbmmM-v3dmwSr4N51S6gJi856TJk6UpJxc09PZYZwxJ8EjPx6QSmxRa90nkGNocbUPdDmkmwwCxtaKC58Dc/s320/IMG-20190614-WA0000.jpg" width="240" height="320" data-original-width="1200" data-original-height="1600" /></a></div>
<p>A score over 614 is a new personal best for me, so I am pleased with it. There were some really good groups in that, somewhere in the middle I had a string of 23 shots in the 10 ring. By the end I was tiring a bit and I made a few mistakes and it is possible to see this in the shots. Overall I am quite pleased with it, even if there are a few things to work on for further improvements.</p>Michael Whappleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07085099526865502253noreply@blogger.com