Rifle Shooting Research Articles

Neurofeedback Training Protocols in Sports: A Systematic Review of Recent Advances in Performance, Anxiety, and Emotional Regulation.

(1) Background. Neurofeedback has been used in sports since the 1990s, frequently showing positive outcomes in enhancing athletic performance. This systematic review provides an updated analysis of neurofeedback training in sports, evaluating reaction time, cognitive performance, and emotional regulation to address literature gaps and suggest future research directions. (2) Methods. A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Web of Science databases for articles published from January 2016 to April 2023. The search included only original articles written in English, resulting in 24 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. (3) Results. The reviewed studies cover a wide range of sports, including golf, basketball, swimming, rifle shooting, football, volleyball, athletics, judo, ice hockey, triathlon, handball, fencing, taekwondo, and darts. They involved athletes of varying experience levels (beginners, professionals, and experts) and utilized neurofeedback training targeting different frequency bands (alpha, beta, theta, and SMR), either individually or in mixed protocols. Findings show improvements in sports and cognitive performance, emotional regulation, and anxiety management. (4) Conclusions. This systematic review supports the effectiveness of neurofeedback in enhancing sports and cognitive performance across various disciplines and experience levels. Notable improvements were observed in technical skills, physical performance parameters, scoring, attention, concentration, reaction time, short-term and working memory, self-regulation, and cognitive anxiety. Future research should standardize protocols, include more diverse samples, and explore long-term effects to further validate these findings.

Effects of inter- and intraindividual compensation-sensitive shot styles on performance in Olympic air rifle shooting

Background: Aiming point analysis systems (APAS) are commonly used in sports shooting but face four main challenges: they do not account for intra-session variations, they overlook inter-individual shooter preferences, they ignore compensation mechanisms of technical features, and they do not respect the real shot location at the target. Methods: To address the first three challenges, we developed and validated an automated approach detector algorithm (ADA) for movement phase detection. When compared to three independent expert ratings, the ADA demonstrated a high correlation (r = .811). Building on the ADA and addressing challenge 3 and 4, this study applied cluster-analysis and ANOVA to determine the performance relevance of compensation-sensitive shot styles using datasets from a single athlete and 26 advanced to elite level athletes. Results: Significant performance differences in shot styles for both datasets, with each shot style distinctively differing from the others could be found. Conclusions: Shot styles which allow for compensation and intra-individual movement phase differences exhibit performance variations. Coaches and athletes should emphasize holistic training, focusing on combinations of features that allow for compensation.

Effects of Armor Design and Marksmanship Posture on Performance, Postural Sway and Perceived Workload During a Military Rifle Marksmanship Task.

This study investigated the effects of mass and vertical center-of-mass position of combat items attached to a tactical vest, as well as marksmanship posture on rifle marksmanship performance, postural sway, and perceived workload during a simulated rifle shooting task. A tactical vest serves as a load carriage system in addition to providing body protection. Its design, particularly the mass and vertical position of attached combat items, may impact postural control during rifle shooting and thus marksmanship performance. Thirty-two participants performed a simulated rifle shooting task on a force plate with a tactical vest on. Three independent variables were considered: load mass (4 levels), vertical load center-of-mass position (4 levels), and marksmanship posture (2 levels). The dependent variables were: 6 rifle marksmanship performance measures, 7 postural sway measures, and a perceived workload measure. Heavier load mass significantly degraded rifle marksmanship performance, and increased postural sway and perceived workload. Marksmanship posture significantly affected rifle marksmanship performance and postural sway. The kneeling posture resulted in less postural sway and better marksmanship performance than the standing posture. Vertical load center-of-mass position affected only part of the marksmanship performance measures and did not affect the measures of postural sway and perceived workload. Reducing combat item mass on tactical vests and enhancing soldier postural control ability would improve rifle marksmanship and soldier lethality. The study findings inform the development of future military tactical vests and rifle marksmanship training, highlighting the need for lightweight gear design and postural control training.

Ironic processes of concentration and suppression under pressure: A study on rifle shooting in Norwegian elite biathletes.

This study examined how priming attentional and negative cues affected participants' shooting performances toward ironic error targets under cognitive load conditions in Stroop task across two experiments. Semi-elite biathletes (Experiment 1, n = 10; Experiment 2, n = 9) participated in the study. The study used a within-subject quasi-experimental design, particularly a one-way repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance and a 2 × 2 fully repeated measures analysis of variance, to determine the participants' hit rates and shooting response times (RTs). In both experiments, the participants completed the reverse-Stroop-based target shooting performance under low- and high-cognitive load conditions while receiving frequent priming attentional and negative cues. The findings from Experiment 1 suggest that regulating repetitive priming attentional thoughts is efficacious in mitigating the likelihood of ironic performance errors and interference effects. The results of Experiment 2 show that repetitive priming negative cues resulted in negligible ironic error hit rates and slower RTs in target hits under high-cognitive load conditions. The Bayesian analyses provided evidence supporting the null hypotheses. Trying to control repetitive priming attentional and negative thoughts reduces ironic performance errors to a similar degree under cognitive load conditions among biathletes, regardless of interference effects. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of suppressing task-relevant negative instructions in reducing the likelihood of ironic performance errors under pressure.

Особенности мотивации студентов, занимающихся пулевой стрельбой (по опроснику Sport Motivation Scale)

In this article the author studies the motivation of students involved in rifle shooting in the sport club of the uni-versity, using the Sport Motivation Scale questionnaire. The study involves 68 student shooters. It is empha-sized that the results of processing the answers provided by the respondents revealed intrinsic motivation as the leading one for the students-shooters of different courses. Demotivation of learners is investigated in detail in the study. Demotivation is correlated with internal motivation and the motive of goal displacement. Shooting students of the second and third years of study, especially those without sports categories, have a high level of demotivation; they also have a lower level of motives for self-development and learning new things. It is as-sumed that increased levels of demotivation are associated with poor sports results. Also, the levels of motiva-tion and demotivation depend more on the duration of classes, including in combination with existing catego-ries, rather than on sports categories as such.

Technical determinants of air rifle and pistol shooting performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The study aimed to investigate the influence of key technical determinants on shooting performance in both air rifle and pistol shooting disciplines. Following a systematic search across four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane Library), a total of 22 articles were included. The findings indicate that there was a significant correlation between the stability of hold component, as measured by DEV_X ( r = −0.60; 95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.69 to −0.49; p < 0.001) and HITf ( r = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.56 to 0.79; p < 0.001) and shooting performance in both shooting disciplines. In addition, HITr, another stability component, revealed a significant positive correlation for shooting performance ( r = 0.60; 95% CI = 0.35 to 0.77; p < 0.001) in air pistol shooting. Furthermore, in both disciplines, there was a significant positive correlation between shooting performance and measures of aiming accuracy such as COGhit ( r = 0.64; 95% CI = 0.49 to 0.75; p < 0.001), Targetf ( r = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.63 to 0.84; p < 0.001), and Targetr ( r = 0.60; 95% CI = 0.33 to 0.78; p < 0.001). In both disciplines, there was a strong negative correlation between the cleanliness of triggering and shooting performance ( r = −0.63; 95% CI = −0.75 to −0.48; p < 0.001). Time on target measure significantly correlated with shooting performance ( r = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.31 to 0.68; p < 0.001) across both disciplines. The relationship between postural balance and shooting performance in air rifle shooting was negative, indicating that better postural balance is associated with improved shooting ( r = −0.53; 95% CI = −0.69 to −0.33; p < 0.001). This review emphasizes the significance of various technical components in both air rifle and pistol disciplines.

Influence of Dry Fire Practice on Rifle Shooting Performance of School Going Students

Abstract: Purpose-The purpose of the study is to find out the Influence of dry fire practice on rifle shooting performance of school-going students. This study is helpful for various rifle and pistol shooting events. Methodology: For the present study the sample consisted of thirty (30) school-going boys students who were randomly selected from Dr.Nandurkar Vidyalaya, Yavatmal, Maharashtra. Whose ages ranged between 14 to 16 years. The rifle shooting performance was evaluated through .22 long rifle shooting target board by researchers on the scoring system. For the analysis of data statistical mean, S.D. and ‘T’-test was used. The level of significance was set at 0.05 levels. Result -The outcome shows that Dry fire practice improving the rifle shotting performance. After six week dry fire practice of experimental group mean score 12 ± 3.84 and control group mean score 7.47± 2.45 Conclusion- With the help of the study, it is concluded that there are significant differences was found in dry fire practice on rifle shooting performance of the experimental and control groups.

Explaining rifle shooting factors through multi-sensor body tracking1

There is a lack of data-driven training instructions for sports shooters, as instruction has commonly been based on subjective assessments. Many studies have correlated body posture and balance to shooting performance in rifle shooting tasks, but have mostly focused on single aspects of postural control. This study has focused on finding relevant rifle shooting factors by examining the entire body over sequences of time. A data collection was performed with 13 human participants carrying out live rifle shooting scenarios while being recorded with multiple body tracking sensors. A pre-processing pipeline produced a novel skeleton sequence representation, which was used to train a transformer model. The predictions from this model could be explained on a per sample basis using the attention mechanism, and visualised in an interactive format for humans to interpret. It was possible to separate the different phases of a shooting scenario from body posture with a high classification accuracy (80%). Shooting performance could be detected to an extent by separating participants using their strong and weak shooting hand. The dataset and pre-processing pipeline, as well as the techniques for generating explainable predictions presented in this study have laid the groundwork for future research in the sports shooting domain.

Developments in the Quantitative Assessment of Welfare Outcomes in Hunted Mammals Subject to Shooting

Knowledge gaps surrounding animal welfare assessment in hunted terrestrial wild mammals and seals were highlighted in the reviews by Knudsen (2005) and EFSA (2007). Following these reviews, the present paper aims to report on developments in the quantitative assessment of welfare outcomes in wild mammals killed via rifle shooting, and modern explosive harpoon grenades used in the killing of whales. Time to death (TTD) and instantaneous death rate (IDR) are widely accepted ante-mortem variables for assessing the duration of suffering during the killing process. The addition of post-mortem assessments allows for validation of TTD and IDR, thus providing a more accurate appraisal of animal welfare during hunting. While this combined assessment for large cetaceans has been implemented since the 1980s in the Norwegian minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) hunt, we report that this approach has been implemented in studies of the Icelandic minke and fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) hunts, as well as the Canadian and Norwegian commercial harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) hunts. Additionally, this approach has been incorporated into welfare studies in terrestrial herbivore management programmes. Quantitative welfare assessment during hunts is capable of effectively evaluating the weapons used and judging modifiable variables such as projectile choice, optimal shooting procedure, as well as identifying areas for improvement in hunter training. In moving towards a standardised approach for welfare outcome assessment, an established framework can effectively allow all hunts to be contrasted and allow for identification of optimal strategies that minimise animal suffering.

Ottó Simonyi: The sniper

Aim: The article presents the book of the best-known Hungarian police sniper on precision rifle shooting, including autobiographical elements.Methodology: Detailed study of the volume, comparison with recently published Hungarian and international books and articles.Findings: In addition to a demanding and readable text, the volume includes several previously unpublished photographs, which, in addition to showing the development of armament, dress and shooting techniques, are also remarkable in terms of uniform history and law enforcement history.Value: This book gives the reader an insight into the advanced level of sniping, as well as the author’s career and motivation.

An alternative ranking system for biathlon pursuit races

Biathlon is an Olympic sport combining cross-country skiing with rifle shooting, giving a penalty for each target miss. The biathletes ran different race formats, including the pursuit race. During this race, the biathletes chase the leader with a start time identical to the result of the sprint race previously achieved. So, pursuit involves different skills (such as tactics or management of emotional pressure) that are not present during races with an interval-start procedure like sprint. Nevertheless, final pursuit rankings are strongly correlated to sprint ones, which prevents a spectacular comeback after a disappointing sprint race. We present here an alternative pursuit ranking system that is nearly decorrelated to sprint rankings. This simple ranking system is based on comparisons with previous pursuit results. The current and the alternative rankings were then compared on different pursuit rankings, using a database of 148 results from men pursuit world cups. The alternative ranking was shown to strongly modify a single pursuit ranking but these modifications were smoothed on a whole world cup season. Advantages and limitations of the alternative ranking system are discussed, paving the way to a fairer modification of the current pursuit ranking to increase surprise and suspense in biathlon pursuit races.

Effect of a training curriculum for the development of some functional variables and the level of achievement in the effectiveness of air rifle shooting

There are significant differences between the pre and post-tests in favor of the post-test in the tests) stroke volume (S.V), cardiac thrust (C.O.P), left ventricular volume, maximum oxygen consumption Vo2max), which indicates the effect of the proposed training approach.There are significant differences between the pre and post-tests in favor of the post-test in the achievement level test with air rifle shooting for young female shooters, which indicates the effect of the proposed training curriculum.There are no significant differences between the pre and post-tests in the tests (heart rate (HR) before exercise, heart rate (HR) after exercise, systolic blood pressure rate before exercise, systolic blood pressure rate after exercise, anaerobic step test (ability) Lactic Anoxa, Harvard Step Test(

Female military pentathlon athletes and scientific research - a mini-review

Aim: to compile existing information in the scientific literature on female military pentathlon athletes. Methods: searches were performed on Pubmed/Medline, Scielo, and Scholar Google databases with specific strings in English and Portuguese. Results: military pentathlon is a discipline that comprises five events, namely: rifle shooting, obstacle run, obstacle swimming, throwing, and cross country running. Our search initially identified 275 records, which were reduced to the final list of 14 after the eligibility criteria analysis was performed in two phases: title + abstract reading and full-text reading. The first record was published in 2007 (recent field of study) and most studies were cross-sectional ones (scarcity of experimental studies), investigating outcomes like psychological, anthropometric, biochemical, biomechanics, cardiopulmonary, nutritional, skin temperature, performance, and prevalence of injury. The female military pentathlon athletes present low values of body fat, energy intake, and high weekly training volume, so professionals must be aware to prevent relative energy deficiency in sports (RED-S) syndrome. The obstacle run was the most investigated event, with lower blood lactate and skin temperature for women athletes. It was also observed that anthropometric, muscle power, and cardiopulmonary variables are well correlated with athletic performance and in some studies, these correlations were stronger for female athletes. Conclusion: scientific research with female military pentathlon athletes is still incipient, especially for experimental design researches, which are highly encouraged in future studies.

Factors influencing assault rifle shooting

Factors influencing assault rifle shooting

Biathlon Performance: Heart Rate, Hit Rate, Speed and Physiological Variables

Aim: Biathlon is a sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. The athlete is fast in the cross-country skiing section, in the gun shooting section, the heart rate should be low. This study aims to determine the hitting rate of the shots made with different training loads on low altitude in elite biathletes in terms of maximum speed and physiological variables. Methods: To evaluate shooting performances first with the resting pulse and then after 2.5 km skiing respectively with 50%, 70% and 100% pulse rate which is separately calculated for each athlete according to karvonen formula. Results: Our findings show that while there was negative relation between maximum speed and body fat there was a positive relation with lean body mass. It has been determined that low body fat percentage and high lean body mass are effective at the athletes’ maximum speed and the pulse level with the highest target shooting accuracy rate was at rest and 70% in the second level. Conclusion: Since the pulse of the athlete who comes to the shooting area cannot be reduced to a resting level in a short time, focusing the 70% pulse zone may be beneficial in terms of shooting accuracy and acceleration after the shot. The lowest results in target shooting accuracy were seen at 50% and 100% loads. Keywords: Athletes, performance, heart, rate, lean body mass.

Fall Avoidance: Motion Parallax Cues and Balance Control Therapy

Background: Apart from vision correction, there appears to be a need for a method of increasing the success of balance exercises by using more sensitive methods of detecting postural sway. Methods: Reference to relevant articles from a wide range of sources were used to examine how the well-established theoretical basis for motion parallax phenomena, and the examples of rifle and pistol shooting, can be used to explain the practical application of those principles to balance exercises. Results: An approach to balance enhancement exercises has been developed and a step by step set of instructions have been prepared that enable fall-risk patients to make motion parallax observations which detect small degrees of postural sway, and so allow for appropriate minor corrections to be achieved so that balance is maintained. Conclusions: These instructions provide a mechanism whereby balance can be maintained during balance improvement exercises with associated reduced need for major postural sway corrections which would otherwise risk over-correction and loss of balance. Improved performance during balance exercises may have the potential to promote the development and consolidation of the sensory integration required for maintaining balance outside the remedial balance exercise setting. Apart from helping to build confidence during a variety of balance exercises, these methods of balance control also appear to have relevance as supportive adjuncts to some strength and endurance exercises which are used to improve balance maintenance.

RETRACTED: Simulation of police shooting stability training based on FPGA and sensors

Stability training refers to the practice, while the surface is unstable and activation stabilizer muscles of the trunk and goals, which may ignore other forms of exercise. For stability, the train network control system is caused by network latency and packet drop out of school. The current study aimed to analyze the accuracy of necessary shooting skills and check the balanced posture, stability, and rifle shooting performance bracelets. There is no burden on the body in different performance groups. No. Equivalent continuous-time model, proposed account. The train network control system model uses Romanov theory, some new analytical techniques to get in, and less conservative results. It will be completed. The effectiveness of the proposed method of numerical display. The proposed training in the correct use of architecture to shape muscle memory training interns position signal trainee lead to incorrect behavior. Students warned that the recent shooting would be suspended after the retry using the selected function when needed for phase detection of unnecessary or excessive exercise pistol. Combined with real-time biofeedback applications, it can lead to accelerated learning, training the number of shots that poverty can be reduced, thereby saving time and costs.

Analiza tačnosti i preciznosti gađanja automatskim puškama domaće proizvodnje primenom AHP metode

The paper presents the selection of the most accurate and precise automatic rifle, as a significant weapon primarily for the realization of combat tasks of the army. The size of the image of the scattering of shots and its distance from the target determine the degree of accuracy and precision of the automatic rifle. These indicators determine the probability of hitting, which affects the efficiency of solving fire tasks with an automatic rifle. The complexity of the problem is due to the different tactical and technical characteristics of automatic rifles and different shooting results. The paper presents and describes the results of shooting automatic rifles of domestic production, as follows: AR 7.62 mm M70 AB2, AR M21 5.56 mm, MAR M17 6.5 mm. Using the AHP method, the calculation of the weight coefficients of the criteria was performed. Using the AHP method, an analysis of the accuracy and precision of automatic rifle shooting was performed and a conclusion was made about the rifle that has the best results depending on the shooting distance. The obtained results enable the definition of proposals for equipping the Serbian Armed Forces units with an adequate automatic rifle.

Contribution from cross-country skiing, start time and shooting components to the overall and isolated biathlon pursuit race performance.

Biathlon is an Olympic sport combining 3-5 laps of cross-country skiing with rifle shooting, alternating between the prone and standing shooting positions between laps. The individual distance and the sprint are extensively examined whereas the pursuit, with start times based on the sprint results, is unexplored. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the contribution from start time, cross-country skiing time, penalty time, shooting time and range time to the overall and isolated performance in biathlon World Cup pursuit races. 38 and 37 stepwise linear regression analyses for each of the races were performed, including 112 and 128 unique athletes where 20 and 13 athletes had more than 20 results within top 30 during the seasons 2011/2012-2015/2016 in men and women, respectively. Start time (i.e. sprint race performance) together with penalty time, explained ~80% of the performance-variance (R2) in overall pursuit performance in most races (p<0.01). For isolated pursuit performance, penalty time was the most important component, explaining >54% of the performance-variance in the majority of races, followed by course time (accumulated R2 = .91-.92) and shooting time (accumulated R2 = .98-.99) (p<0.01). Approximately the same rankings of factors were found when comparing standardized coefficients and correlation coefficients of the independent variables included in the regression. Start time (i.e. sprint race performance) is the most important component for overall pursuit performance in biathlon, whereas shooting performance followed by course time are the most important components for the isolated pursuit race performance.

Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life by Lakhtikova Anastasia (review)

SEER, 98, 3, JULY 2020 588 After Finnish independence in December 1917, Eimeleus remained in Finland and served in senior Finnish Government positions until his death in 1935. It would be surprising if he had not had influence on the Finns’ employment of ski troops, and this would be worthy of further research. The lessons of Finland were taken on board in the Soviet Voroshilov reforms, and in 1941–42 Soviet ski troops were used successfully in counter-offensives against the Germans. That lay in the future, but Eimeleus’s book, which in some senses is more about skiing than war, had another legacy. Eimeleus had not done very well in the Modern Pentathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, but at the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924 there was an event called ‘Military Patrol’, in which teams of four competed in cross-country skiing, ski mountaineering and rifle shooting. It was, to all intents and purposes, the modern biathlon, whose rules are very similar. London Chris Bellamy Lakhtikova, Anastasia; Brintlinger, Angela and Glushchenko, Irina (eds). Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 2019. xix + 373 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $35.00 (paperback). It is a strange feeling to be reading and reviewing this largely fascinating collected volume in April 2020, as much of the world stays at home, adapting to what seems to be entirely new worlds of work, of study, of play, and of consumption, cooking and eating. This last world seems to have taken on particular importance in our new pandemic moment in multiple ways. On the one hand there are the many, many Instagram accounts devoted to showing off pandemic cooking and the joking tales of nurturing sourdough starters instead of watching sports (mine is named Sam). On the other, there are the laments that this good or that good — flour, yeast, eggs — are gone from the shelves. This new Western encounter with ‘deficit goods’, as they were known in the late Soviet Union, brings up obvious parallels to much of the discussion in this volume, ones I hear from friends who grew up in the late Soviet Union, or public figures who did, and now tweet about it. As Julia Ioffe put it, ‘I have to say that, as a child of the USSR, it’s really jarring and upsetting to go grocery shopping these days and see so many empty shelves, to go back to how my grandmothers used to cook: you don’t make what you want, but what the ingredients in stock allow you to make’ (@juliaioffe, Twitter, 27 April 2020). The association of today’s empty shelves with the empty shelves of the Soviet Union is probably not too surprising, but one of the remarkable insights of the REVIEWS 589 edited volume, Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life, is the degree to which there are parallels between the obsession with pandemic cooking as a performance and the late Soviet experience. As several of the chapters note, despite or perhaps because of the fact that a persistent theme of the late-Soviet experience of food was, as Darra Goldstein notes in her forward, one of scarcity — by this point rarely the outright hunger and even starvation of earlier eras other than in the still present labour camps chillingly described by Ona Renner-Fahey’s chapter on Irina Ratushinskaya’s camp memoir, but certainly of limited options caused by the ‘economy of nochoice ’ described by Anastasia Lakhtikova and Angela Brintlinger in their introduction (p. 11) — cooking and eating often played a role that went well beyond providing sustenance. In books and on film, displays of food and cooking envisioned an ideal Soviet life that lived up to Mikoyan’s dream of socialist consumption or to the post-war return to bourgeois domesticity. Or they hinted at the moral challenges Soviet realities could create, as privation led to greed but prosperity led to immorality (Sutcliffe, p. 126). In real life, Soviet women traded recipes, creating elaborate manuscript cookbooks, and used those recipes to cook up elaborate feasts for family and friends (Lakhtikova). It is not that men did not also...