South of the Border USA Shooting Goes to Mexico to Help Conduct CAT Shooting Congress By Wanda Jewell, USA Shooting Director of Operations GUADALAJARA, Mexico - August, 2002. In an effort spearheaded by the Leaders of the Shooting Confederation of the Americas (CAT), a special congress was held in Guadalajara, Mexico this past August to foster the development of shooting in the Americas. This congress is a result of a recognition by the leaders that shooting in the Americas lags behind European and Asian programs. The Leaders decided that something should be done to train high-level coaches, judges and shooters in the Western Hemisphere. The goal of the congress was to share and improve shooting, coaching and officiating information amongst junior shooters, coaches and competition officials from all over the Americas An additional objective of the Guadalajara clinic was to introduce three-position air rifle as a program to countries that are struggling with a lack of ranges and increased gun and ammunition controls. Three-position air rifle directly transitions to international style shooting and could be a tremendous aid for programs that face government restrictions on guns and ammunition. Mr. Jesus Elizondo Najera, Secretary General of CAT, was instrumental in bringing all of the key players together to establish the congress. USA Shooting was asked to take the lead in providing expert instructors for the clinics while Paulino Diaz, President of the Mexican Shooting Federation (FEMETI), served as the host and congress organizer in Guadalajara.

Eric Buljung giving pistol instruction   USA Shooting provided all of the instructors for the congress. Gary Anderson and Duane Tallman taught the ISSF Judges Course. Erich Buljung led the pistol coaches' course and I instructed the rifle coaches' course. The coaches were given the Advanced Rifle Coaches Course or the Advanced Pistol Coaches Course, co-produced by the National Rifle Association, Civilian Marksmanship Program and USA Shooting, for coach certification in the United States. Pete Carrion and Robert Foth were the chief instructors for the rifle shooters while Ralph Santibanez fulfilled the same role in pistol. Participants included 15 judges, 20 coaches and 46 shooters from nine Mexican states and the countries of Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands. The schedule for the congress was very full. All participants arrived on the same day and were separated into groups of shooters, coaches and judges. The judges and coaches received the required classroom instruction for ISSF and USA Shooting certifications, while shooters went to the range for technical instruction. After two days of instruction, the judges and coaches joined the shooters at the range. The coaches then gained practical experience by coaching the shooters in different positions. They were also provided additional instruction on the rulebook, nutrition, shooting fitness and basic mental training. Three-position air rifle was introduced to all congress participants. The positions and techniques used to compete with the air rifle were discussed and demonstrated. Additional instruction was given to rifle shooters in air rifle standing. Pistol shooters received instruction on advanced techniques for competition air pistol. All shooters, rifle and pistol, received three days of intensive training followed by two days of international-style matches with finals. The instructors spent a great deal of time with the individual shooters and their coaches going over inexpensive equipment modifications to update or improve results. The students in the Judges Course conducted the competitions on the last two days of the congress just as if they were international competitions. After completing the classroom instruction and gaining practical experience from conducting two days of international style competition, the Judges Course students can become ISSF-certified B Judges when they complete the final test for ISSF certification. The experience of officiating a match immediately following the classroom portion of the certification was considered critical to their training and was very positively received. These newly trained judges are now scheduled to officiate in the Central American Games this November. . The biggest challenge encountered by the instructors was teaching through translators. Most materials were in English and most instructors knew little or no Spanish. However, the translators were very good and everyone worked hard to overcome the language challenges. Originally it was felt that the schedule might be too   Two junior shooters in the Guadalajara congress work together in a shot-calling exercise. ambitious and that it would be difficult to complete. Because the number of participants in each part of the congress was small, the instructors were able to follow the schedule and get everything accomplished. Future congresses of this type may need to have a slightly different format to accommodate larger numbers of participants. The Guadalajara congress proved to be a positive and innovative way to advance the shooting sports in the Americas. An important result of this program is what it did to build a base of the certified coaches and judges who can now pass their knowledge and experience on to other coaches and judges in their home countries. "Our intent was to give the most-active coaches in these countries new insights into intermediate and advanced coaching methods and training techniques and to help them develop more range officers and officials who can officiate at international competitions" observed Erich Buljung, U. S. National Pistol Coach. "We could see improvement in the athletes on the firing line as the coaches picked up more errors and the range officers and officials became more confident in their roles for running a competition," Buljung concluded. "The Guadalajara Congress of Clinics represented a great step forward in relationships between USA Shooting and shooting federations of the Americas," observed CMP Director and ISSF Vice President Gary Anderson. "It not only demonstrated USA Shooting's commitment to help develop the shooting sports in the Americas, but this particular clinic format did the best job I have seen anywhere of combining the training of judges, coaches and shooters into one tremendously effective unit." "As part of our international relations plan, we at USA Shooting are committed to promoting the shooting sports in the Western hemisphere," observed Robert Mitchell, USA Shooting CEO. "If we at USA Shooting don't promote our sports in this hemisphere, no one will. It's in everyone's best interest to build our sport in the Americas. When USA Shooting hosted the 2001 Confederation of the Americas Championship at Ft. Benning, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, the success of that event gave us tremendous credibility with CAT member federations," continued Mitchell. During that Championship, we discussed how we could do more to promote our sport. Some wanted to train officials to conduct major matches in the hemisphere, some wanted a coaching development program and others wanted to work directly with the athletes. In the end we decided to do all three activities at once." "The Mexican Federation agreed to host a congress to do this and they did a great job of planning and organizing the event," concluded Mitchell. "Participation in all three activities exceeded our expectations. If this endeavor is going to have a lasting impact on the shooting sports in the Western Hemisphere, we will need to continue this program. In a few years we will have made a major impact, by increasing both participant numbers and the skill levels of athletes, coaches and officials in those nations that are part of the Confederation of the Americas family."