The beginning of the year was a very hectic time, thankfully a break over Easter gave me time to recharge my batteries ready for the spring and summer. May highlights included an introduction to Pony Club Shooting and a couple of YPS tutor road trips.
Rifle courses on the Road
May started with a return to Filey for a YPS Tutor’s course. This time it wasn’t in the grips of Storms Dudley and Eunice, and I got to see a little more of what was going on outside. I may just be unlucky, but even in May I had to contend with a mighty thunderstorm. The course was great fun again though and well received.
More miles in the car saw me move on to Norwich for a YPS Tutor’s course on behalf of Norfolk Scouts. It was raining in Buxton, but sunny in Norwich, so I picked the right place to be that weekend. This was another great group, a mixture of people who were new to air rifle and some old hands. Everyone went away with something they may not have learned before. I’m looking forward to a return trip in June.
Pony Club and Pistols
After 2 road trips it was time to run another course in Buxton. This time it was the YPS Tutors course in air pistol. This was a single day for those who had already had the YPST rifle qualification. This meant we learned a lot of technique on top of pistol safety. As we worked through the skills needed to shoot the pistol the group went from novices to pretty good shots during the day.
As an added bonus, one of the participants was attending to learn the skills for the Pony Club shooting competition. Rather than precision shooting, the Pony Club Competition requires the participants shoot single shots within 4 seconds. This is not something we normally cover with the YPS Tutor’s pistol course, but I’m always up for a challenge. With the process we worked through for precision shooting suitably tweaked to execute a shot safely and accurately in 4 seconds the group all had a go. The results were surprisingly good after such a short introduction. Hopefully this will help those competing in Pony Club Competitions going forwards.
I’m looking forward to June now. I have variety again, with an NSRA Club Instructor course in Buxton for airgun. This is followed by a couple of YPS tutor courses in air rifle in Wales and Norwich.
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