I participated in the 3rd International match of this season yesterday; my match goal was a near miss. It was less irritating not to achieve the goal for this month than the reason why I missed my number - one really, really bad target.

Air Pistol was much improved over last month, almost a 50 point increase in the final match score. The grip modifications made a big difference, and my match technique is improving. One key finding - I was holding the pistol in a death grip for the entire series of shots on each target (in this case, 12 shots). I started to really fatigue in the middle of the match, and my scores dipped somewhat. I started making a conscious effort to rest and regroup after each 3-shot bull, and scored my two PB targets to finish the match. All-in-all a very pleasing result.

Standard Pistol was an up-and-down performance. My Precision scores improved dramatically - the troubleshooting efforts of the last month have paid off. In the second string of timed fire, however, I had an alibi. As is typical for me, I went immediately to pieces - out of 5 alibi shots, two 6's and a 3 (aaarrrggh!). As these represented the only three shots out of the black for the entire match, that was pretty irritating. I did manage to improve my final score over last month by a few points, but factoring in a 68 point target really hurt my results overall. Next time, no alibis!

In summary, I have not resolved all of the problems that are holding my scores down, but have made measurable and significant progress in the right direction. The next match is not scheduled until September 29th - I will be looking for something in the interim.