By Helene Grønfeldt, SDKSkyt, Ballerup
I completed the POMW courses I-III for the first time in 2019, and what I remember most about the course in 2019 is how surprisingly difficult I found it to hit the target, and then how extremely scared I was of the guns. 😊
Since 2019, I have participated in regular shooting training, both indoors and outdoors. I don't feel so scared of the guns anymore – or maybe it's more fair to say that I feel more confident in my handling of the guns. I think it's fun to shoot, but I still have a tremendous amount of respect (and a little fear) for pistols.
In recent years, the training has primarily been with caliber .22 pistols, whereas shooting with 9 mm has been more rare. I had therefore looked forward to this shooting, and especially the shooting with the 9mm, with a bit of tension. I definitely feel more comfortable with the smaller caliber – cal .22.
POMW III, which was the last part of the year's POMW course, was held in September; three Sundays where we were at the shooting range from 7.30-20. Those were very long, but also very pleasant days, and even though we didn't have guns in hand all the time, there were a lot of shots - I've actually completely lost track of how many.
In connection with POMW this year, shooting with support has been introduced, i.e. where you rest the gun slightly on a surface, and thus get more stability when shooting. It makes it easier to shoot more precisely, and it has been a good tool to illustrate how important it is for shooting accuracy to keep the gun free in the air. When you can rest a bit when shooting, the precision depends primarily on how well you use the aiming devices and whether you make your trigger correctly. This means that the most basic errors are uncovered.
I got a lot out of introducing this new process because I could see how well I can actually shoot when I remove the challenge of holding the somewhat heavy gun out at arm's length. It gave me an insight into my potential, and it's not that bad at all 😊.
On the courses, there is a lot of talk about the fact that it is the process that is decisive, and that we should not be focused on what the discs show and how many points we get. But having said that, it is precisely the points from the discs that are noted and used as a result of the course - at least the result that can be calculated for future articles. And I have to admit that for me personally, it also means something - did I get as many points as I think I "deserved"?
My own conclusion from POMW 2024
If I have to conclude on my POMW course in 2024, the most obvious conclusion must be that I - still do not - get quite as many points as I would like. I can't remember my shooting results from my first POMW course, but it's clear that if I had trained as I should have in the intervening 5 years, I think the results would have been somewhat better this year than they were .
Because it seems so simple to aim for the center and frame, but in reality there is a little more to it - and yes, that is probably where I have to find the most obvious conclusion from this course for me. I - strangely enough - don't get better if I don't practice... I can't think of progress. And if I have to use POMW as a tool for the rest of the training in Shindenkan, then it is definitely a point I have to take with me. Thought, word and action. Or as one of our learning principles reads: "The future is created by your actions, and not by what you think or say you want to do". Mental training alone is not enough 😊.
After-reflections
One reflection I have made is that I am more of a competitive person than I want to admit - because I care a lot about the results on the scoreboard. I can tell myself and tell others that it's ok that I'm not the best shooter, but it still annoys the competitive person in me when I'm not as good as I'd like to be.
So why is it so important to me to “win”? It's probably something I need to spend a little more time thinking about...
A perhaps slightly deeper reflection I have made is about thoughts - about being afraid. Because how big of a difference is there really between the feeling that I'm scared when I have to handle a 9mm and that I'm scared when I'm in a Kumite situation? And can I use it for something, that I have gained a little more confidence in myself in relation to the handling of the gun? Is this something I can transfer to my karate? I will take that into consideration in the future.
So even though the mindset for shooting with modern weapons may seem far from karate and training with classic weapons, there is an incredible amount of learning across the disciplines and it's just really cool to experience 😊.
