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Bullseye

I believe some people are born with certain talents, that is especially true for highly technical sports. Trying different things after I quit football was a smart decision, I could see what I like and what I don't like, what suited me and what didn't, I could choose to be the athlete that I always dreamed of. Trying different things gives you perspective on life, I absolutely believe that the choices I made shaped me into a better man or at least a different man.

There came a time when I came across a very fine sport, a very difficult but funny sport, I came across "Rifle Shooting". I got hooked on it on my second day of shooting. Until that point shooting was the hardest thing I've encountered in any of the sports I did, when I say the hardest I don't mean its difficult to shoot, I don't mean its physically very challenging, I mean it's difficult to be a good shot.
I came across this wonderful sport in an interesting way. Waking up early as always to walk around the city I decide to take another route that day, I had no reason to do it, I just decided that that was the way on that particular day. 'Quick walking' was something I always loved to do (still do it quite a lot), focused on breathing and thinking I would walk large distances and get lost on my thoughts, however, not that day.

Rifle Shooting when done at its best its an art form, I can't say I was great but I certainly gave it a shot! Someone may ask why did you transition from football to such a different sport like shooting?
Well the answer is rather simple, I was kinda 'tired' of team sports (even though I loved my team mates and I loved and still love football), I wanted to try something different, something which would calm me down in my stressful days, something which was mine and completely mine when I was in the shooting line.

I close my eyes and start breathing, trying to escape my thoughts I relax, ''breath, I have to breath and calm down''. .Opening my eyes, my mark is set downrange on the bullseye, I squeeze the trigger and execute a perfect shot. 

The feeling I got from a perfect shot was out of this world, the joy was incomparable to anything I have yet tried. You want to do more of it every time you make a perfect shot. Among the many benefits that shooting entails, one that was of huge importance to me was the calming of the mind and body. Sitting there, doing very small movements, even breathing slowly meant you relax a lot. Every bullet you shoot is some weight of your chest, every time you squeeze the trigger in your rifle is a new experience and a great lesson. I understood this early and it has helped me throughout my career. This adventure of mine didn't last very long sadly but as long as it lasted in helped me grow as a man understanding the nature of weapons and the true ways of marksmanship. Later in my life when I started archery I got my inspiration from my past experience with rifles and the experience I had with it and lessons I learned doing it helped me a lot to become a better archer.


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