By Per Vedel, Jokokan Slagelse, 4th kyu Yakami Shinsei-ryu Karate-do, 3rd kyu Bujutsu Kodosokukai Gensei-ryu Karate-do, June 2012

On Friday afternoon in the gym on the Tjørnelyschool. Air guns were lined up on one table, magazines on another, the targets hangs in line on the wall and the radiator from the projector is buzzing. It is now time for us participants, to see if 5 weeks of dry firing would create success.

For POMW I TSM-B, we were told that we had to go home and train every day, with proper body position, proper grip on the gun, and correct use of the sights and proper handling of the gun in general. In short, focus on safety and basic training – the nine basic rules. This will, with the right attitude, lead to that we would be significantly better at hitting the black center of the target zone.

Just like karate, where the movements of the kata is to be repeated again and again so that the kata is performed properly, shooting technique is repeated again and again so that we would be able to shoot well and hit the target.

The day starts with news about the SDK including a presentation of the new approved coat-of-arms. A recap from earlier times: POMW: Why? The two reasons: Minouchi Sensei theory and that we have to deal with our time, and finally a repeat of proper shooting technique.

Then we started shooting: First on 3 meters then on 5, 7 and 11 and then gradually back to 3 meters to demonstrate that you actually hit better than before. And always remember proper shooting technique: keep the focus on the sights etc. like practice of kata, we start to perform in the 20% rate to 50% and 80-100%, and then go back to 20%, for here also to note that it was better to perform the kata correctly, so here’s a link. It is clear, however, that it is much easier to hit the bulls-eye when shooting, than to hit the “bulls-eye” in for example Kata Ten-in.

We all note that the 5 weeks of dry firing has been a success. We all hit far better than five weeks ago, at all distances.

After shooting with the SIRT laser guns, evaluation, group photo and cleanup with Shindenkan efficiency, it was time to go home.