We're back with another journal entry from KICK-EEZ Featured Shooter Tucker Simpson. Throughout each competitive shooting season, Tucker keeps in touch with us to share his progress in various events as well as feedback on what it takes to compete at the highest levels as a shooter. He's back with a new update after competing in the 2018 United States Spring Selection match in Tucson, Arizona.
The 2018 US Spring Selection
Tucson Trap and Skeet (
Coyote springs) held a great match in March this year. Many competitors including myself traveled to AZ to compete in the 2018 United States Spring Selection match. The Spring Selection match determines which individuals will claim a spot on this years world cup teams. USA Shooting takes the scores from the 2017 Fall Selection match as well as the scores from this Fall Selection Match and combines them to find out who makes the cut. You may be wondering why making a world cup team is relevant to making the Olympics in 2020. Great question! The answer is simple. At a global level, there is a committee/organization that sets the regulations for all competing countries. All countries who wish to compete in the Olympic games must follow these rules. Since shooting is such a popular sport globally there had to be a way to keep it controllable, but still have the best athletes compete. The challenge is that if each country who participates enters only one athlete into the games, there would be too many athletes to fit the time frame. So, the solution is hosting world cups.
World Cups are Like Mini Olympics
Think of a world cup as a mini Olympics. Several countries compete in these world cups. The athletes who succeed get what we call a ‘quota spot’, earning a spot to the next Olympic games. I know this is a simplified version, but if your curiosity is burning you can
visit ISSF.com and find more information there. Your next question may be, “how close are you to making these world cup teams?" My answer is closer than it may seem. This brings me to a review of my performance at this match, the 2018 Spring Selection match.
The Mental Side of Shooting
Before heading to this match I had a few goals I was hoping to meet. One of the goals was to change my early match scores because I have had a hard time in past matches starting strong. At this match, I put up a 45/50 on the first day. This is a major improvement from past competitions. It was such a relief to experience the payoff of the mental training I had been working on. With that goal in mind, I have full confidence in reaching the goals I have set for the future. It was an honor to represent
KICK-EEZ Sorbothane products. Others at the event showed lots of interest in these
recoil pads and I spent time answering several questions. I am looking forward to representing KICK-EEZ in the upcoming events. Keep in tune for the results from the next selection match in July! Next stop is Kerrville TX!
Thank you again for your support and I will be in touch soon with another update. Tucker Simpson
