Well . . . not quite a magic elixir, but hopefully a collection of articles, photos and general advice that will "Ade" the competitive rifle shooter.    He or she may be a raw novice, just starting with that precious first BB gun from the local department store . . . or a many-year veteran of the sport hitting a low spot and needing some encouragement to revitalise his or her performance.

Over the years much has been expounded and written on the rifle shooting game . . . the equipment . . . the positional techniques . . . the mental conditioning of the shooter.    Some - good at the time of writing, has now been supplanted by latter-day improvements . . . other older ideas may need re-evaluating for re-introduction in light of changing styles of competition .

In my seventy-plus years of active competition and coaching, I have found it advantageous to harvest many such thoughts and facts . . . a scrap of paper filed away here . . . a photo or diagram there . . . a few words on an audio tape as a not-so-subtle reminder !    The advent of readily available home-based computers and the encyclopaedic nature of the resultant Internet has provided a further new and vast source for such information.    Personally, it has enabled the summarising of many scraps of "useful" data into a convenient CD/DVD format that I have offered as a memory-jog to my JROTC students and others.

So . . . now pushing the idea one step further . . . I will try to present this collected wisdom on the Internet for wider dissemination.        I take little credit for much of the information offered . . . much of it is written by some of the finest coaches of our modern era.    For the most part their writings are aimed at the shooter intent on formal competition at the highest National/International levels, using the most sophisticated equipment, clothing and mental conditioning techniques available.     In contrast, much of my own coaching effort is directed more to the grass-roots shooter . . . the youngster or "old fogey" intent on competing in the world of inexpensive hunting or sporting style rifles at his local club . . . games where possibly rapid or timed fire may play a large part . . . these generally require a somewhat different, yet equally precise, set of positional techniques.

Regardless of your end goals . . . Read !     Learn !     Enjoy !