Page 30 - RADC Bulletin 2021

SPORT & AT
Clay Target Shooting
Sgt G Phillips
Is it a plane? Is it a pigeon? No, it’s a clay!
Clay Target Shooting is a growing sport of shooting clay targets with a shotgun. It is a great leveller as it’s a sport that can involve people regardless of age and physical ability. Hitting the target requires skill, timing and hand eye coordination. There are three
main disciplines involved when it comes to Clay Target Shooting (CTS); Skeet, English Sporting and Trap.
Some of you may have tried this before on previous RADC Annual Corps events. This was when I was first introduced to the sport a few years ago. I did not realise the Army and certain Corps had teams in CTS until recently. In July, I attended a Women in Sport CTS Open Day organised by the Army CTS Team at Bisley National Shooting Centre. Everyone who took part was assessed
for potential in each discipline and then encouraged to progress and to attend further courses. The Army team are holding another open day for everyone on 14th September 2021 and this will hopefully provide more talent spotting/training days in the future.
The open day I attended was well organised and a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and it was great meeting new people with an interest in the sport. After an initial briefing, we were put into groups of four. Each person was given 3 pieces of paper, one for each discipline, which the instructor at each relevant range used to make
notes about our individual performance. Each range had either an Army CTS Team Instructor or a previous Olympic athlete coaching us, and they would explain step
by step what to expect and how to aim the shotgun. As army personnel mainly use
rifles for ACMT’s etc getting used to aiming a shotgun was a little bit of an adjustment.
Enjoying trying to hit two clay targets one after the other from different points.
Ideally you should have both eyes open and follow the clay target at certain points.
I discovered that Down the Line was a type of Trap discipline where clay targets are projected up from the ground or away from you. I found this one the easiest as I hit several clays and was allowed to have a go at shooting multiple clays. In the Skeet discipline, clays are projected from
a tower in front of you and fly horizontally across the sky past your position. I really enjoyed the instruction I received and tried to grasp the technical parts of aiming the shotgun in this discipline. English Sporting, was the most popular discipline. I enjoyed English Sporting but found it difficult when presented with harder targets because the clays are projected up through and across different terrain to emulated different types of game. Shooters also stand in a shooting
cage (simple wooden frame) that prevents them from moving the gun too far in any direction that would be unsafe.
After participating in this event, I applied for the Army Clay Target Shotgun Skills (Basic & Advanced) held at Bisley for further development. I have liaised with members of the Army CTS Team and Development Team and will be potentially starting up
an AMS CTS Team via a Grass Roots exercise. If people show interest then we will evidently have more justification to start this up, therefore anyone who may be interested please contact me (gemma. phillips857@mod.gov.uk). Any information regarding this, I will send to the CRSM
for distribution. If anyone is interested
in applying for CTS courses: https:// armysportcontrolboard.com/wp-content/ uploads/2021/02/2021DIN07-016.pdf
Attempting the Skeet discipline, clays are projected from a high point across the sky.
Free paella for lunch!
28 RADC BULLETIN 2021