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Date: Mon, 08 Dec 1997 21:25:57 -0500
To: topshot@indy.net
From: Michael Ray <topshot@indy.net
Subject: UIT Mailing List Vol. 2 - #10
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In this issue:

Re: Barrel cleaning
Re: Cold temperature effects on ammo
Wanted: Varsity rifle coach (NY)
Re: Cold temperature effects on ammo
Veteran shooter postal
Use of Pictorial Representations in Learning

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

AT A CLINIC I WENT TO WE LEARNED THAT THE CORRECT PROCEDURE IS TO USE 
ONLY
STAINLESS STEEL RODS (e.g. DEWEY) AND BRONZE BRUSHES.  THE THEORY WAS 
THAT
BECAUSE ALUMINUM IS SOFT THINGS THAT ARE REALLY HARD CAN BECOME 
EMBEDDED IN
IT AND SCRATCH THE BORE (CROWN).

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

I have no experience in travelling by airplane with my equipment, but 
we
do travel by car during the Wisconsin winters.  My experience is that 
the
big problem is not the effect of the cold, but the effect of 
condensation
when the ammo is warmed up when brought inside.  A brick of ammo has a
lot of themal inertia, so if it is in a car trunk at less than 0 
degrees
C (32 F) you can expect some condensation to form if the indoor 
humidity
is even moderately high.  (BTW, I have seen actual frost form on rifle
barrels after 4 hours in a -23 C (-10 F) car trunk.)

Solutions?  Keep your equipment warm if you can.  If you can't, let it
warm slowly.  This seems to minimize, but not eliminate, the problem.
Once the stuff has warmed, it seems to be OK.

Good shooting!

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

Wanted: Varsity Rifle Coach=20
I am the Varsity Rifle Team Head Coach at the Clarence High School
outside of Buffalo New York. I am looking for a successor as I will be
preping for the Bar Exam full time next year and will (hopefully) be
practicing Law the year after that. The Clarence Rifle Team is the team
Olympic Medalist Bob Foth came from before OTC. We have a rich and 
proud
history as a State and League Champion team. I will not accept second 
rate
coaches and would rather the program close altogether if no sutable
replacement was found. If you or anyone else you know think they might 
by
up to the task and live in the Western New York area, please contact 
me.=20

This is a serious offer and only serious replies will be given=
 consideration.

Best regards,

Peter Vasilion
vasilion@acsu.buffalo.edu

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

Hello Michael,  Congrats on your son!  My daughter showed up last 
friday
2 months early.  Boy is she small!  Anyway, in reference to your 
comment
on weither cold has a effect on ammo.  I have noticed a difference in
Eley 10-X more so than R-50.  The longer it was in the colder
temperature the ammo opened up at a steady rate to a 9-ring hold.  The
distance I shoot indoors is 60 feet.  It may be possible that it is not
the actual temp. but the act of warming up or cooling down.  In other
words, once the ammo has reached a steady temp. either up or down, it
will shoot consistent again.  I have never done any research into that
area. In between targets I keep the bolt closed (not locked) to prevent
any drafts blowing heat out of the barrel.

Henry Gerow

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

A call for entries: veteran shooter postal match

It is very special call for all of the shooters who know older ones
former shooters and can help them to rebuilt the ties with performing 
it
actively again. It is very tedious task to motivate older athletes to
start again. But do believe me it is worth much more then effort 
spend.=20
On my page indicated below one can find the simple rules for veteran
e-postal shooting competition scheduled for age 45+, 55+, 65+ on 
January
1..3  1998.

The results are not as important as participation. Try motivate them or
try it yourself!


http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/8181/veterans.html

Wiktor Kobylinski <wiko@iname.com

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

USE OF PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION IN LEARNING=20

Skinner, C. L. (1972). The Mental Art of World Class Competitive 
Shooting,
Chapter 1 and 4. Pictorial representations and mental training.

Denis, M. (1985). Visual imagery representation and the use of mental
practice in the development of motor skills. Canadian Journal of 
Applied
Sport Science, 10, 4S-16S.=20

Pictorial representation allows athletes to anticipate events, 
therefore,
it may be a vehicle for training untried forms of response. Pictorial
representation during mental practice also acts as a functional device 
that
enhances the memorization and kinesthetic responses. If the kinesthetic
responses can be discriminated, such as after a good skill action, then
learning should be accelerated. It is suggested that if individuals are
taught how to generate pictorial representations, less errors and 
faster
learning can and will occur.=20

Mental practice/pictorial representation is a composite of mental
activities involving the recall of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic 
cues,
not pictorial representations alone. For it to be effective, it 
requires
three major properties.=20

1. Vividness. Better athletes using mental practice learn better thus, 
it
most probably will be necessary to instruct individuals how to perform
pictorial representations effectively.  Mastery of an overt skill 
increases
the vividness of pictorial representation. That is why superior 
athletes
can use pictorial representation during mental practice of their skills 
and
competitions better than lesser trained individuals.=20

2. Controllability. This is the capacity to generate persistent and
consistent pictorial representations within mental practice and
competitions. Without persistent pictorial representations precise
repetitions will not be possible and thus, learning would be retarded. 
Some
forms of skill practice, for example those involved in archery and
shooting, require high levels of concentration which facilitates both
mental pictorial representation control and vividness.=20

3. Exactness of reference. The event has to be accurately represented 
for
the effects of the mental activity to transfer beneficially to the
real-life situation. Research has shown that practicing the wrong 
pictorial
representations (errors) produces a tendency to perform those 
errors.=20

Uses of Pictorial representation with mental practice.

Mental practice seems to have greater effects on tasks with high 
cognitive
components (e.g., focused accuracy) and lesser effects on tasks with 
low
cognitive use (e.g., muscular endurance). It would seem that tasks 
which
yield clearly recalled experiences (e.g., a perfect bull's-eye) would
benefit more from mental practice.  The mental processes involved in 
mental
practice change with the stages of learning. Eventually, there has to 
be
some physical experience so that internal representations of movements 
will
be correct.=20

=95 In early learning, the mental representations seem to be 
organizational
("schema") and provide cognitive control.=20
=95 In later learning stages, the mental activity changes to recalling
internal (particularly kinesthetic) sensations and mental pictorial
representations.=20

The role of individual differences must always be considered in mental
practice training and descriptions. It is possible that some 
individuals
will favor the recall of some senses over others, however, kinesthetic
recall is possibly the necessary sense for all mental practice of
movements.=20

There are two theories commonly espoused as to why mental practice 
works.=20

1. Symbolic perceptual theory. This involves the cognitive processing 
of
how and what to do. Cognitive processing is a major factor in all 
stages of
skill learning.

2. Psychoneuromuscular theory. A mental pictorial representation 
provokes
subliminal innovations of the movement patterns in the pictorial
representation. This constitutes a repetition of the response pattern 
and
could contribute to an increase in the precision of the skill. Since 
this
involves the recognition of the appropriate skill characteristics, it 
is
only appropriate when a skill has already been learned and is performed
with considerable consistency.

These two theories are not incompatible. They both address different 
stages
and forms of  mental representations of a skill.=20

Conclusion.   The more exposure to a functional incident that athletes
experience, the more vivid is the functional experiences when mental
pictorial representations were used.  This suggest that mental practice 
for
performance enhancement would be more effective when athletes have had
physical and mental practice sessions which more closely resemble
situations that may arise in training and competitions.

The Mental Art of World Class Competitive Shooting
Chet Skinner, Coach
Entity Sports International
cskinner@clarksville.com

******************************************************************
End of UIT Mailing List #10

Michael Ray - Systems Engineer
Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. Rifle Coach
UIT Shooting Page - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1190/index.htm




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