WEST POINT — One shot. One goal.
It sounds simple, but when your breathing accelerates and you can hear your heart pounding and you see how the beats shake your hands, focusing on one shot can be a daunting task.
Now imagine shooting competitively and having to forget a bad shot so you can move on and have a successful round.
West Point’s Julia Rae East has only been shooting about seven years, but the 12-year-old is learning how to balance her nerves and the challenges of competition. She has come to enjoy the rigors of competitive shooting so much that the Oak Hill Academy middle-schooler hopes one day she will get a chance to represent the U.S. in the Olympics.
“I just tell myself you have to think about the next shot and think it is going to be a 10,” East said. “You can’t think about any other shots because you can’t go back and change them. You have to focus on that one shot, and only that one shot. That is not easy. It is just mental.”
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The mental part of East’s game was strong last month at the National Rifle Association (NRA) National Open Air Gun Championships on May 28-29 at Centreville, Virginia.
East won the Individual Sporter Sub Junior division (14-and-under age group) with a two-match score of 1,198.5. She had a score of 400.1 in the prone position, a 345.5 from the standing position, and a 372.7 from the kneeling position for a qualification score of 1,118.3. She scored an 80.2 in the final (standing position) for her final tally of 1,198.5.
“I was really nervous,” East said, “but it was really fun.”
Julia Rae’s father, Michael, who serves as the coach for the Oak Hill Academy club rifle team, of which Julia Rae is a member, said sporter air rifle is the “entry level” or more inexpensive route in which competitors use a standardized sporter air rifle. He said the precision air rifle is more of an advanced competition. Julia Rae competes in both categories.
“The sport is probably 90 percent mental,” Michael East said. “You don’t have to be able to bench press 500 pounds. It is about being still, controlling your breathing and your heart rate (and blocking out all of the other distractions).”
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Michael East has served as coach of the Oak Hill Academy team for two years. This past season, the team, which has competitors from grades 6-12, had eight members. He hopes more people will participate in the sport as they learn more about it.
“Rifle shooting is similar to golf,” East said. “You may play or compete on a team, but really your main competitor is yourself. In golf, you’re trying to get the lowest score. In shooting, you’re trying to get the highest score. It is a shot-by-shot technique, so every shot is almost like a new match. Even though you may be on the line with 20 other kids or have three other team members there with you, it really is an individual sport.”
Michael East said Julia Rae has made the biggest strides in her mental approach. He said she is learning to put a bad shot behind her and move on to the next one. He said that is an essential part of being a successful shooter.
Julia Rae said she enjoys the competitive aspect of the sport. She said it has been fun to test herself against her peers and older shooters. She discovered last year that success made competing even more enjoyable.
“Once I started making the finals, that pushed me to start thinking if I work harder I can pull up and win,” Julia Rae said.
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East started shooting with the Clay County 4-H Club when she was about 5 years old, but it wasn’t until she was 8 that she started competing with 4-H, which is a youth development program of the Cooperative Extension System of land-grant universities. It is based on the values of Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. Michael East said Julia Rae started to compete in events when she was 9 1/2 years old. She started shooting a five-meter BB gun. She also shoots small bore, which is a .22-caliber rifle shot at 50 feet, 50 yards, 50 meters, and a 100 yards with the Starkville Gun Club.
Michael East said most of the competitions Julia Rae participates in are held in the state of Alabama. He said the University of Mississippi and Kentucky are two Southeastern Conference-member schools that have varsity rifle programs.
It remains to be seen if East will move on to one of those schools, but she said her goal is to earn a scholarship to shoot in college. She also doesn’t hesitate when asked about her future after that. She understands advancing to the Olympics is extremely difficult, but she feels she has matured in a short amount of time and has learned to love the precision needed to be a successful shooter.
“It is going to take a lot of practice,” East said. “It is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication. I think I will be ready to do that.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino in Twitter at ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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