A small gap between three and four as I was away shooting last week. All very nice, if not quite the outcome I was seeking. C’est la vie, as they say in Fort Augustus.

To work. This week’s tome is “Pistol Shooting” with “As a sport” in lower case, written by Hans Standl, in German, and translated in to Angle by Anita Pennington in 1975. A long time ago.

Of course it’s ages since I’ve looked at these books – and, yes, there are some shotgun ones coming – but the interesting thing is the opening pages (1 & 2) are “The Coach.” Very interesting. I’ve always felt that when I write my book, (it’s coming) the first chapter will only say “Get a Coach” over and over again.

Its actually a very good book, with all sorts of practical stuff and several sections on, what he calls “Theoretical Training.” 108 pages of that(!) so you can see there’s a lot in there. I’ll thrill you with some of it:

Pre start nerves and competition stress, Negative Influences, Sleeplessness, Excuses, Success and It’s Price, Planning your Training, Psychology and Tactics, Wishful Thinking (oh yes!) and Determination and Purpose to finish. This list is tiny compared to the actual contents of the book. There’s a lot in there.

I like a wee acknowledgement at the beginning where there’s a nod to a couple of books. “Das Training des Sportschutzen” and, even better, “Die besten Tips der besten Schutzen.” The last one’s a cracker!

I bet I loved this book when I got it. There’s a ton of stuff with even an annual training plan all laid out. Oh joy. You always got asked for an annual training plan at the ISSF academy. They must have hundreds of them now, hopefully not mouldering in boxes (from my days of things being submitted on paper in big folders) to discs to these wee stick things they use now. Lets hope someone has bothered to look at them all, collate them, see what’s similar and dissimilar and make something of them to help others.

Somehow I doubt it!