So you think you want to Shoot Trap in the Olympics

Are you thinking about trying to make the 2020 Olympic Trap team? Have you thought about what it will take?

I became interested in trap shooting at age 9 when I took a NRA Shotgun Class. In this class, I learned about the parts of the gun and most importantly gun safety. This is when I was able to try many of the shotgun sports like American Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays and Wobble Trap. The instructor suggested to my Dad that I should look into competing. My Dad was recommended that I look into Olympic style shooting. We found Keystone Shooting Park only one hour from our house.  That is when I met Allen Chubb, my Coach, and discovered Olympic Trap. I immediately loved the sport. I decided at 9 years old to fully commit to my dream of representing my country in the 2020 Olympic Summer games in Tokyo Japan. Since then, I’ve been practicing consistently for 5 years and have been competing for 4 years. Below is a list of things that I feel is needed in order to reach the goal.

Disclaimer: Even if you do everything I suggest, I can’t guarantee you will make the Olympic team. It takes skill, luck, and more. I can help you with the skill part.

Here’s what you need.

Committed Support Team: This is the most important part. Your mother, father, family, friends and school must understand there will be demands on you and your family’s time.  You AND your family will have to make sacrifices. You will miss family events, vacations, parties, dances, and sporting events because of competitions, training and practicing.  Without a committed support team behind you, it will impossible.

Shooting Range: Find a range or “bunker” to train. Only 50 or fewer bunkers are left in the USA. Of those, many have limited access which can pose a problem for you. Many athletes arrange with their club to help run the bunker in exchange for more availability. More fortunate athletes may build their own bunker in their backyard. I train at Keystone Shooting Park, open 365 days a year, 12 hours a day. As far as I know, Keystone is the only Bunker in the US with lights for nighttime practice. 

Coach: A good coach with International experience is vital. They can help you identify strengths and challenges you may not see yourself. This sport is full of peaks and valleys; a good coach helps you navigate. Coaching Olympic Trap is very different than ATA or any other shooting sport. Finding a coach with expertise in this sport is difficult. Check with other shooters or with USA Shooting to find a qualified coach near you.

Gun: Many people start off with semi-auto shotguns, but eventually most end up with an over and under. Many brands make specific Trap guns: Perazzi, Krieghoff, Blazer, and Beretta to name a few. Your selection is a personal choice. Access to a good gunsmith is important when considering a gun because you will need your gun serviced regularly. These guns are quite expensive, but you are paying for longevity and durability. Many of the less expensive guns simply cannot handle the hundreds of thousands of rounds you will be shooting.

Ammunition: Olympic trap requires specific ammunition. The payload is limited to 24 grams (about 7/8oz.) The other important variable is velocity. A velocity of 1325 foot/second to 1365 foot/ second is standard with 1410 feet/second being on the higher end of the scale. It can be difficult to find Olympic Trap ammunition and it is quite expensive -- about $75.00 to $100.00 a case. One case gets you one day of practice (4-5 rounds). Or, you can reload your own ammunition. This will cost you around $40.00 to $45.00 per case.

Vision: Yes, your actual eyesight. It’s the area most people ignore. You will need to know which is your dominant eye, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Most shooters don’t do much to improve their visual performance. That’s too bad because improving vision can give you an advantage. You can actually exercise your eyes and improve how quickly and how clearly you see the target! As an aspiring Olympic athlete, it’s important to understand your visual strengths and weaknesses. The eyes are the most important aspect of your ability to shoot the target. You spend time and money to get the best equipment for this sport; I really recommend that you make your vision the best it can be. I use software called Vizual Edge? https://www.vizualedge.com. It was developed by ophthalmologist Dr. Barry L. Seiller, and it helps improve many aspects of your vision like visual alignment, depth perception, visual flexibility, visual recognition, and visual tracking. The software evaluates your vision, then recommends how to optimize your visual system. I have seen pretty impressive improvements in my accuracy because of this training.

Apparel: Olympic trap has a dress code that is enforced at the bigger matches. It’s about wearing things that keep you safe and show that you have respect for the sport. I recommend having a shooting uniform that includes a good quality shooting vest with pockets big enough to hold 50 rounds of ammo, good earplugs or earmuffs, high quality shooting glasses with exchangeable lenses, comfortable t-shirt and long sleeve undershirt for chilly mornings, comfortable athletic shorts and pants, and low platform athletic shoes for stability.

Since this is an Olympic sport, you are considered an athlete. You get the best equipment money can buy, but if you do not prepare body and mind, you will not be able to perform to the best of your ability. Shooting requires good cardiovascular fitness, strength, flexibility, balance, good visual acuity, razor-sharp focus, and the ability to perform under tremendous pressure.

Cardio: Most people laugh when you say a shotgun shooter needs good cardiovascular fitness. But, think about this. What happens to your body when it is stressed? What happens to your heart rate? It increases. Sometimes a lot! Having good cardio fitness helps you manage your heart rate. A fit person’s heart will recover much faster than the heart of someone not as fit. Your heart’s ability to recover is a serious advantage when stress is at its max. Good cardiovascular fitness gives you better control over your body’s ability to recover from stress. This improves your overall performance. 

Strength, Balance and Flexibility: Physical fitness is an important for every athlete. Don’t worry. You don’t have to lift heavy weights or run super-fast or jump very high. But, you do have to react really fast to a 4-inch disc traveling at over 70mph. You must calculate its trajectory, move an 8-pound gun with laser accuracy, and determine the precise time to pull the trigger to ensure you will break the target. All this happens in less than 72 hundredths of a second. You will be required to do this 100 to 125 times each day for sometimes 4 days in a row. Trust me; your muscular endurance will be important as the competition goes on. You can improve your strength with functional exercises such as gun mounts. You can improve your balance by using a balance board. When you get really good, you can practice gun mounts on a balance board. Yoga is great for flexibility, core strength, and balance.

Mental Game: I talked a little bit about stress. The mental part of the game is so important. Shooting is a physical activity and requires lots of practice. You can improve your strength, balance, flexibility, and vision. You can have the VERY best equipment and coaches in the world. But, if you are not mentally ready for the stress and pressure you will experience in a competition, you will fail. Sorry, but it’s true. The logic is simple if you can break one target you surely can break two, if you can break 24 you can break 25. Sounds easy, it’s not. Every shooter who has competed for more than a year has lost a competition by one target. In World Cups there have been shooters earn a perfect score, 125 targets out of 125 targets. However, they get into the finals and fall apart. He didn’t all of a sudden forget how to shoot. It’s exactly the same targets, same gun, same ammo, so why could the shooter fall down on the last 15 targets to win the medal? The reason is, the MENTAL GAME. Pressure and stress can and will have an effect on your performance. It is how you manage that stress and pressure that will determine the outcome. The only matches that really mean anything to an Olympic Trap Shooter in the USA are: the Fall and Spring Selection Matches where they select the World Cup teams; the National Junior Olympics Championships and the National Championships where they select the National Team. The other matches are really just valuable practice for those matches. My team even travels to Europe to compete in matches to get used to shooting in a foreign country, competing against people you only get to read about in magazines. This helps not only build confidence and provide valuable experience shooting at ranges we may someday see in a World Cup or Olympics, we also make many friends with shooters from all over the world.  

So, that’s my advice based on my own experience. There are many paths to reach the lofty goal of the Olympic Games. I am enjoying every second of the journey. I feel very blessed to have these opportunities and experiences regardless of the final outcome. Shooting has afforded me chances I could not even have imagined, and to think, I am just getting started!