Roderick Formosa, Attard
Aim small, miss small for life!
I would like to second the argument with regard to the correlation between the shooting sports and health in general through a personal experience.
I feel many associate healthy living simply with aesthetic value and that which is visible and tangible. People tend to overlook the importance of mental health. As a former university student I can testify to the help that sports and shooting sports in this regard offers. Besides the need to be mentally prepared for an event, a parallelism runs between your sport and your private life. I feel the mental preparation needed in sport can directly or indirectly help you mentally, especially in those situations in which concentration is of utmost importance and the pendulum needed to keep everything going.
Success in sports does not only give self gratification but also clocks your academic performance, especially when you realise the paramount importance of management skills to help cope with both.
The need to excel performance-wise will bring you to a point where you have to put some events aside to be able to boost one's performance. Shooting has probably been one of those few events that would make me opt for a night indoors so as to be able to wake up and perform soundly the next day. This approach and mindset is very similar to that administered before my exams.
As a young man who has also worked in the entertainment industry for the last six years, sadly I also acknowledge that most young people I meet are only focused on or are otherwise mislead to think that there are only a few events that can quench their thirst for pleasure. Simple pleasures like target shooting, fishing and the outdoors seem alien activities to them whereas other youths in the European Union seem to be more acquainted with such events. The importance of such events is also accredited by academic institutions abroad that give their students the opportunity to shoot with the school and with the university shooting team. These students shoot anything from 22 calibre rifles to full bore shooting on designated ranges.
The importance of target shooting from a young age is not as innovative as many believe. It can also be traced in history through events such as the Assize of Arms of 1252, which ensured that all Englishmen aged between 15 and 60 years old were ordered by law to equip themselves with a bow and arrows.
This was taken a step further when the Plantagenet King Edward III decreed the Archery Law in 1363, which commanded the compulsory practice of archery on Sundays and holidays!
Finally, the quest for a better position that would enable me to practise my sport and support it financially has been one of the reasons that led me to opt for post-graduate studies abroad.
It will not only enrich my academic background but also present a world of possibilities in the sporting scene. I would dare say that target shooting has been quite a positive catalyst in my life and I hope it will remain so, for me and for many others in my position.
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Lawrence Darmanin
Jul 20th 2008, 14:13
From my experience, target shooting is one of the most attractive sports to youngsters (and even maybe due to the wrong reasons since many children are being affected most negatively by films, playstations and computer games). Many young people shy away from sports especially contact sports either because they are lazy, afraid to be hurt, not good enough for their team or even due to their parents' outlook on sports in general.
In this respect target shooting is one of the few sports that can introduce them gradually to physical activitity as well as to psychological training that will serve them most positively not only in shooting better but most importantly in a healthier future life.
It is no coincidence that other countries are lowering ages for which this sport can be practised. Much reasearch and high level discussions by competent people and institutions are made before such decisions are taken at government level abroad.
For those who are still uncertain about the positive benefits obtained through this sport as well as the behaviour of all target shooters, are invited to visit our clubs so that they can see and judge for themselves on this highly popular sport.
L.Darmanin
Attard
Roderick Formosa
Jul 18th 2008, 11:57
Those run parallel and are a benefit to the shooter but not the main focus, so let’s keep focused and speak of it as a holistic experience in sports
Roderick Formosa
Jul 18th 2008, 11:57
The reason why I stressed on the mental aspect of the sport is precisely that I feel it is more of a mental game than a physical one although these are complimentary. I feel I am not qualified to discern the medical qualities or affiliations mentioned such as: ‘shooting does not improve muscular strength, cardio-vascular health, lungs, and bone strength whilst also reducing the possibility of diabetes’. Possibly, if one is looking for these benefits, he better get on a thread mill twice a week and get going.
On the other hand however I can testify to the mental aid it has provided to my holistic experience. Somehow I feel that trying to look into those specific traits such as cardio-vascular health in the shooting sports is like searching for the glory that sprinting gives you, in sports like weightlifting, horses for courses as the saying goes. Alternatively, you might be looking at the right sport for the wrong reasons or consecutively the right reasons in the wrong sport. Plainly speaking, the aim is to get the bullet on target, not to improve the muscle. .
Charles Micallef
Jul 18th 2008, 10:15
Dear Roderick, I like the way you defended Firearms shooting in a proper, humanly manner.
I agree that shooting relaxes you mentally & improves mental powers but this benefit is common with many other types of sport. However, we have to admit that unlike most other exercises such as running, shooting does not improve muscular strength, cardio-vascular health, lungs, and bone strength whilst also reducing the possibility of diabetes.