Hey all, I wrote this short piece this arvo on the difference that cycling has made to my practical shooting. Anyone else got any other experiences of the impact of cycling on other sports they partake in? Positive and Negative please 
This is probably poorly written and not make a whole lot of sense, and the terminology isnt really there, but I had to write it so my mum would understand!
For those of you that are interested
So as many of you may know, I shoot what is called ‘Practical Pistol’ as part of the International Practical Shooting Confederation- or in short IPSC. You also may know that I now do a lot of cycling. Around 150km’s a week minimum, on a Fixed Gear Bicycle, also known as a Track bike, Fixie etc. The rear cog on these bikes are ‘fixed’ to the rear hub so that as long as the wheel is spinning, the pedals are spinning. Naturally this means that they are only one speed/gear.
What I am trying to do is look at how Cycling is improving my Shooting. Seems like a strange link, but I am going to start documenting my notes from now on.
Since I moved to Western Australia late last year I have not been able to shoot at all. A combination of not being licenced in WA for firearms, and refusing to ‘hire’ club pistols and purchase someone elses reloaded ammunition was a big factor in this. So instead of shooting on weekends I would find other things to do, namely cycle. This continued onto weeknights and is almost a daily duty now unless I am too knackered from work or have something else on.
Practical Pistol is more than just standing still and shooting at targets. It involves movement, strategy/pre-planning and ultimately, last-minute-think-on-your-feet decisions. It can be fast paced, it can be slow paced, and ‘Stages’ or ‘Courses of fire’ can have as little as 6 or 8 Shots right through to 32. To put it simply, the most exciting ‘Stages’ (in my opinion) are those that you are running through at a fast pace shooting targets (that could be moving) through doorways, windows, ports, on your knees or on your stomach, moving rapidly, then having to stop suddenly etc etc. Plenty of videos on youtube demonstrating this. Just search IPSC.
How does riding fixies improve on this? Well as I said, movement between targets is key in IPSC and where valuable time can be gained (or lost) depending on how you look at it. It’s easy enough to piss-bolt between targets, but stopping at the next designated point to shoot is the difficult part. The movements are explosive, and you need to stop on a dime, give yourself a steady platform to shoot from and first and foremost, BE SAFE. And this is all in the legs. Riding a normal bike is great, you build muscle and stamina and all sorts of good things, but you are forever PUSHING. And that’s great, from all your roadie riding you may be able to sprint like Ussain Bolt, but can you stop at the end? Riding fixie’s brings resistance into the equation. Using those same muscles in a different manner to fight the pedals resist rotation, or even ‘shockload’ your limbs and stop pedalling altogether causing you to skid. (I understand that I’m not being very technical with some of these words but I am trying to make this as easy to understand as possible for EVERYONE, not just cyclists, or shooters- haterz gonna hate).
So basically after 9 months of not shooting my own Pistol in competition, I finally got myself licenced and got out to shoot this weekend. A match was being held at the local Pistol club so I entered. I was feeling good, I was pumped to shoot, but I did have the expectation that I would be off the pace, both score wise and time wise but boy did I get the suprise of my life.
Yes my scores were not crash hot with several misses and one penalty target being recorded, but the movement between targets/through the courses of fire was phenomenal. I was quick, I was fluid, and I could come to a dead stop nice and have a nice strong frame to shoot from instantly, as if I were not running at all. As a result, my time’s were up there with the quickest guys - at most only 1 or 2 seconds off the pace. Something that I had not done for a long time prior to my hiatus from the sport. I attribute this to the massive (they aren’t really that big) ‘track legs’ that I have now got after so much riding pushing a big gear to accelerate, and stop. Something that I did not have 1 year ago. The other benefit was that I was not coming out of long, movement intensive, stages gasping for breath feeling like I wanted to die. I was coming out fresh, feeling that I could move faster… if only the trigger finger/arms/eyes could keep up. My increased leg strength allowed me to get moving much quicker, from standing straight or squatting or any other position, and then could slow me up giving me a nice solid platform to shoot from incredibly quickly. Yes at some of these stops I was carrying huge momentum, but the increased strength that I had in my legs did a suprisingly good job to curb it.
The other major thing that I noticed was the lack of now arm definition/strength that I was carrying compared to my legs. My legs were propelling me forward and stopping me so quickly that my arms felt slow and I just couldn’t get the firearm onto target quick enough, and solidly enough that I could gurantee accurate shots. I am sure part of this is just getting back into the sport and will take time, but there was definately a major strength imbalance that I did notice and this is now something that I will work on in the future.
So as bad as fixie riding is for your knees, it certainly has it’s benefits, and I am keen to see what it will do for me in the future.
All in all a good day, I came 6th overall (what a suprise!! I did not think I was shooting that well, but my quick times saved me!), and won my grade. Funnily enough, I beat everyone in the 2 grade’s above me as well - (I’m graded too low anyway) so I think I will be regraded soon enough! If you got this far, thanks for reading. Just thought I’d put this down as I find it interesting.
and thats boring as shit target rifle anyway 