Juniors at the Reading Rifle Club’s third annual Junior Highpower Clinic retrieving their targets.

Despite the rain, cold and wind the 2008 Reading Rifle Club Junior Highpower Clinic, held 3-4 May, was a great success. This was the third year that the Reading, MA club has held a highpower clinic for juniors and coaches in the spring, and the program has seen a great deal of growth in that time.

Safety and efficiency were the key issues addresses at this year’s clinic, and a new format was developed for the overall clinic presentation. To help address the needs of new shooters attending the clinic, more hands-on instruction was incorporated this year.

The classroom portion of the clinic was trimmed down to just three hours. This instruction primarily consisted of safety instruction with just an overview of topics like positions and scoring, saving most of the in-depth position instruction for the range.

After lunch, the juniors were broken up into groups of two and assigned a coach that would help them for the remaining time in the two-day clinic. Each of these coaches held classifications of Master or High Master, providing valuable experience for the beginning shooters.

Most of the instruction was held on the Reading Rifle Club's 100-yard range.  Athletes were outfitted with the club’s coats, gloves, slings and rifles. Athletes only dry-fired on the first day so that the focus was on the position rather than the target downrange. The range was only large enough for half the group to be on the line at one time, so while half of the juniors were dry-firing or shooting, the other half were being trained on scoring and the shot values on the target.

The match on the second day had to be modified due to rain, with all firing taking place from the 100-yard-line. Unfortunately this meant that the new shooters would not get the full highpower experience of pulling targets and being in the pits, but there were still plenty of new experiences offered that day.

Once the match was over and equipment put away, the event was concluded with an awards ceremony. The Top Shooter of the Clinic was awarded to C.J. Camerato, Newton, MA, who shot a 563-07X.

The Reading Rifle Club extends thanks to the great coaching staff and the dedication of the volunteers on and off the line who helped make this a great success. We also owe thanks to the CMP that helped with supplies and reading materials.

This growing clinic should be even bigger and better next year, thanks to the learning experiences gained this year.  For more information on the Reading Rifle Club, or the club’s Junior Highpower program please contact Maureen Trickett at maureentrickett@tiradordeelite.com.

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