Senior shooter and ageing

[Davidf92]

Hi,
I'm wondering how other senior shooters experience ageing and feeling evolution in some physical/mind abilities.

For instance I'll soon turn 55 and my vision begins to deteriorate, which is normal at that age. It is mostly the easiness to control precise eye focus and keep that for a long time at the highest level I can, like in a competition. Another thing is some tiny muscular tremor that tends to increase at some moments in the day, and more generally irregular physical strength along the day, which affects my body stability and the shoulder/arm very stable strength required for pistol shooting. But good things at least to me comprise always increasing breath control, better ability to shoot between heartbeats, better proprioception in general which helps feel the need to abort your shooting sequence when all is not correctly in place, and better ability to immerge into the activity and letting everything else away, therefore better mind focus...

Any experience anyone would like to share on this subject?

 

[TimRB]

My word--55 is a senior shooter? I'm in real trouble.

Tim

 

[Davidf92]

I'm in real trouble

Actually I'm "Senior 2" in our national scale. Twice the trouble . From 60 on is Senior 3. Walking with a crutch doesn't qualify you for handicapped though. The good thing is, a fairly good Senior 2 score makes you a serious Senior 3 challenger, so as long as you keep having fun it doesn't take much to become better and better

 

[Old Lefty]

Hi,
I'm wondering how other senior shooters experience ageing and feeling evolution in some physical/mind abilities.

For instance I'll soon turn 55 and my vision begins to deteriorate, which is normal at that age. It is mostly the easiness to control precise eye focus and keep that for a long time at the highest level I can, like in a competition. Another thing is some tiny muscular tremor that tends to increase at some moments in the day, and more generally irregular physical strength along the day, which affects my body stability and the shoulder/arm very stable strength required for pistol shooting. But good things at least to me comprise always increasing breath control, better ability to shoot between heartbeats, better proprioception in general which helps feel the need to abort your shooting sequence when all is not correctly in place, and better ability to immerge into the activity and letting everything else away, therefore better mind focus...

Any experience anyone would like to share on this subject?

Only 55????? I'm 73 and National Champion having started competitive shooting 10 years ago. I don't think age is necessarily a hindrance provided you have the correct attitude, practice regularly and self-analyse your shooting.
To be honest I don't think anyone under 65 should be classified as senior nowadays!

 

[Davidf92]

I don't think anyone under 65 should be classified as senior

That's because sports age categories need to be identified, and we name 'senior' anything above 'junior' (more or less teenager). Nothing to do with senior in everyday language.

This being said, although I entirely agree with you that age should not be a barrier it still affects some physical abilities which can supposedly be dealt with in many different ways. Don't tell me that at 73 you have as much physical strength and endurance as you had at 20. However you may well have a better ability to resist psychological stress in competition.
Want to share your experience on this?

 

[Willi]

Am I with 83 Dead now?