CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter the selection of subjects, selection of variables,

experimental design, construction and execution of imagery script,
experimental training procedure, administration of tests and collection
of data, and statistical procedure used are described.

Selection of Subjects

Thirty male students studying in various courses at Institute of

Professional Studies, Gwalior were randomly selected. Out of one
hundred ten students. These students were residing in the boys hostel
of the Institute in the academic session 2013-14. The thirty students
randomly selected were further randomly divided into three groups on
the basis of lottery system. These three groups were randomly
assigned to the two experimental and one control group by using a
lottery system. Each group consist of ten subjects. Their age ranged
from eighteen to twenty five years. Prior to the administration of tests,
a meeting of all the subjects selected for this study was called in which
the purpose of the study, and requirement of testing procedures were
explained to them in detail to make them understand about what they
are actually required to do during the experimental period of the study.
All the subjects agreed to cooperate in the testing procedures
explained to them. The experimental group A was randomly assigned
to PETTLEP treatment, the experimental group B was randomly
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assigned to physical practice treatment, and third group was randomly

assigned as the control group and was termed as group C.

SELECTION OF CRITERION VARIABLES

The researcher had gone through the literature pertaining to the

most important psychological factors, which play important role in
learning motor skills in different games and sports. The researcher also
consulted the experts in the area of sport psychology to decide about
administrative feasibility, in terms of cost, time, availability of subjects
and equipments required for measuring the learning rate in
fundamental skills of pistol shooting.

DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Random group design was used for this experimental study

because it was considered the most appropriate. Thirty subjects in
number were randomly divided into two experimental groups and one
control group and each group consisted of ten subjects.

PROCEDURE FOR ADMINISTRATION OF TEST AND

COLLECTION OF DATA

The data pertaining to pistol shooting performance was collected

as per below given procedures.

Purpose: To measure the accuracy ability of a subject.

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Equipment: Pistol, Pellets, Scoring Cards and 10 meter Air

Pistol Shooting Rang.

Marking: A target area is ten meter long from firing line and placed on
the wall 1400mm +/- 100mm.above the floor.1

Description: The subject with pistol in hand stood behind firing line
facing the target. On signal “go” subject shooted ten shots on target.

Scoring: Each subject fired 10 shots with an air pistol at 10 meters

distance. Scores range from one point for hitting the outside zone, to 10 for
a hit in the 10 ring ('bull'). If a shot hits the line between two zones, the
higher score is awarded.

Figure 1: Pictures of 10m. Air Pistol Shooting Stance, Equipments

and Scoring system.

1 Rules 6.3.12 and 6.3.15. General Technical Rules for all Shooting
Disciplines, International Shooting Sport Federation, January 16, 2006, archived from the
original on June 17, 2008,
2 www.telegraph.co.uk
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Figure 2: Picture of Air Pistol Shooting Range

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DESIGNING OF MENTAL IMAGERY TECHNIQUE PROGRAMME FOR

EIGHT WEEKS DURATION

There was thirty minutes program for a day for three alternate days in a
week for eight weeks was assigned for the imagery training. Each thirty
minutes of session included three components: initial relaxation,
concentration and mental reading for imagery mind/ body and imagery of
selected skills. The design of mental imagery training schedule is
presented in Table-1.

Table No. -1
First and Second Week Training Program
Content Duration
Relaxation Training 20 Minutes
Concentration Training 10 Minutes

Third and Fourth Week Training Program

Content Duration
Relaxation Training 10 Minutes
Concentration Training 05 Minutes
Imagery Training 15 Minutes

Fifth and Sixth Week Training Program

Content Duration
Relaxation Training 5 Minutes
Concentration Training 5 Minutes
Imagery Training 20 Minutes
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Seventh and Eighth Week Training Program

Content Duration and Repetitions
Relaxation Training 3 Minutes
Concentration Training 2 Minutes
Imagery Training 25 Minutes

ADMINISTRATION OF TRAINING PROGRAM

(A) Mental Imagery Method

The subjects were instructed to sit comfortably and concentrate on

a point in the middle of their forehead, close their eyes and relax. This
made the subjects to completely relax and concentrate. After about five
minutes of time, a switch way was made from relaxation and concentration
to the use of imagery instructions. Subjects were asked to imagine
themselves among the surroundings i.e. (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling)
then preparing and performing the pistol shooting in a real life shooting
situation. Thirty minutes a day for three alternate days in a week for eight
weeks was assigned for the imagery training. During above training, and
instructor verbally led the subjects emphasizing the auditory and visual
points of the task. Each thirty minutes of session included three
components: initial relaxation, mental reading for imagery mind/ body and
imagery of selected skills.

During the practice of relaxation technique the subjects were

instructed to follow the relaxation script given below.
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A-I Relaxation Script

Take a deep breath and slowly exhale. Think “relax” (pause). Inhale
deeply… exhale slowly… Inhale deeply… exhale slowly. Now focus all your
attention in your forehead just relax the tension in your forehead. Relax
…(pause). Relax even deeper… and deeper… and deeper.

Feel any tension in your jaw or other facial muscles. Just relax the
tension in these muscles. Feel the tension flow away. Now feel tension in
your arms, forearms, and hands. Just relax the muscles in your arms.
relax…(pause).

Feel any tension in your hands, fingers, arms and just relax the
tension in these muscles. See the tension flow out your body. Inhale
deeply… exhale slowly. Feel the relaxation in your arms and hands.
Relax…(pause). Inhale deeply… exhale slowly…(pause). Relax even
deeper… and deeper …and deeper.

Now faces your attention on your neck and upper back. Feel any
tension in the muscles of your neck and upper back. Just relax the tension
in these muscles. Relax…(pause). See the tension flow out of your body.
Inhale deeply…exhale slowly. Feel the relaxation in these muscles.
Relax…(pause). Inhale deeply… exhale slowly (pause). Relax even
deeper…and deeper… and deeper.

Now feel any tension in your back and stomach muscles. Faces all
your attention on these muscles and ask them to relax. Relax these muscles
fully. Feel the tension flow away. Inhale deeply….exhale slowly(pause).
Relax even deeper and deeper…..and deeper.

Now feel any tension in your upper legs both the front and back.
Focus all your attention on these muscles and ask them to relax. Relax
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these muscles fully. Feel the tension flow away. Inhale deeply………exhale
slowly. Feel the relaxation in your upper legs. Relax….(pause). Inhale
deeply…exhale slowly(pause). Relax even deeper….and deeper.

Now feel any tension in your lower legs and your feet. Focus all your
attention on these muscles and ask them to relax. Relax these muscles
fully. Feel the tension flow away. Inhale deeply………exhale slowly. Feel the
relaxation in your lower legs and feet. Relax….(pause). Inhale
deeply…exhale slowly(pause). Relax even deeper….and deeper.

Now relax your entire body. Relax it completely. Feel all the tension
flow away from your facial muscles…..your arms and hands…..your neck
and upper back….. your lower back and stomach....your upper legs…...and
your lower legs and feet.3

A-II Concentration Technique

Regarding the concentration technique, the subjects were asked to

inhale and exhale deeply for five times and after wards utter the word
“OM” for five times.

After two weeks of learning of relaxation and concentration

technique, imagery technique of the skill was taught. The researcher wrote
the imagery script of shooting skill and distributed to all the subjects for
reading. Then they were asked to practice it in sitting position with closed
eyes without any physical movement. Next the subjects were asked to
visualize the skills demonstrated and explained by the investigator and
practice it in sitting position with closed eyes without performing the
physical movement. Next the subjects were shown the visual images and

3Rainer Marten, Coaches Guide to Sport Psychology, Human Kinetics Publishers,

Champaign, Illinois, USA, 1987, p. 123.
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were asked to practice the skill mentally in sitting position with closed
eyes without any physical movement.

A-III Imagery Technique For Pistol Shooting Skill

The subjects were taught as to how to create a mental picture of the

shooting skill to be executed. The subjects should mentally “see” an
effective pistol shooting skill performed.

PETTLEP Imagery Script. The imagery script that was used as a part of
the intervention was developed based on the PETTLEP model (Holmes and
Collins).

Physical and Environment : Participants were present at the same place

on the shooting range where testing was conducted for the imagery
session with the proper pistol in hand.

Task : Participants imaged their natural stance for shooting exactly as it

occurs during play .

Timing and Perspective :The researcher also used response training to

help increase the participant’s awareness regarding the process of their
individual shooting style. In the response training, each participant was
given a notebook to write down as much as they could about how their
pistol looked and felt as they made the target necessary for the 10 meter
shot used in testing. This exercise is designed to increase the participants’
visual and kinesthetic awareness of their target used in testing. The
participants were instructed to image their target and shot in real time
from either an internal or external perspective.

Learning : It was encouraged to participants that as awareness of their

pistol shooting increased and their comfort with imagery increased, they
could adapt their script in their notebook.
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Emotion : Finally, any emotions that the athletes mentioned during the
response training or interviews were added as part of the script for each
participant.4

Figure 3: Imagery Technique For Pistol Shooting Skill

4P.S. Holmes, & D. J. Collins, The PETTLEP Approach to Motor Imagery: A Functional
Equivalence Model for Sport Psychologists. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,13,
2001,p.p.60-83.
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Physical Practice Method

The investigator assembled all the subjects and explained about the
physical practice of the pistol shooting. First the subjects were asked to do
general warm-up with mobility exercises. After one week of training, the
researcher asked the subjects to practice the stance and techniques of the
skill in sequence. Then the subjects were assigned to practice the skills.
They were asked to do practice.

The subjects were thus asked to practice for thirty minutes with the
air pistol in the shooting range for three days in a week alternately for a
period of eight weeks. The detail of teaching and practice of pistol shooting
skill is presented below:

Pistol Shooting skill

To shoot a pistol accurately, it is first necessary to learn and

understand the fundamentals or basic essential components of pistol
shooting. These fundamentals must be properly performed every time a
pistol is fired. The fundamentals are:

• Position

• Grip

• Breathing control

• Sight alignment

• Trigger squeeze

• Follow-through
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Position:

1. Stand comfortably and naturally with your feet about shoulder

width apart.

2. Weight distribution should be equal on each foot (50/50) and

slightly forward (about 55% on the ball of the foot, and 45% on the
heels.) Furthermore, the feet should be turned slightly outward for
sway control.

3. Knees should not be locked backward, nor should the thighs or

calves be flexed. Relax the legs such that you feel a little bit of
muscular tension.

4. Back and neck should be aligned straight. The shoulders should be

relaxed. Keep your head up and stand tall.

5. Your non-shooting hand must be anchored; otherwise, it will swing

(moving while shooting is 'bad') and throw you off your stance.
Place it either in your trouser front pocket or tuck it into your
trousers or belt. Don't stick it in the back pocket or in the back of
your trousers as I believe that this induces a twist in your spine,
throwing off its natural alignment.

6. The elbow and wrist of your shooting arm should be locked during
the lift and until you have completed your follow-through after the
shot is released. Keep both of your eyes open, looking as straight
ahead as possible. Aim with your dominant eye which is usually the
same eye as your shooting hand (although not always so.) You may
wish to put a translucent blinder in front of your non-aiming eye to
help you focus on your front sight.
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Grip:

1. Pick up the pistol with your non-shooting hand and place it firmly in
your shooting hand.

2. The pistol is seated deep into the web of the hand (that fleshy area
between the base of the thumb and the base of the index finger.)
You're trying to make the pistol barrel a natural straight-line
extension of your arm.

3. The thumb is loose and relaxed along the thumb rest.

4. The primary gripping pressure is produced by middle finger.

5. Secondary pressure is provided by third finger (the one beside the

little finger.) Also this finger can produce tiny changes in front sight
elevation by increasing/decreasing its pressure.

6. The little finger (or pinkie) is loose and not exerting any noticeable
pressure. Essentially, it is just along for the ride.

7. The fingertips do not exert pressure on the pistol grip. Imagine that
your fingers are tri-sectional: they are essentially 3 bones with two
joints connecting them, attaching them to the hand with a third
joint. Your fingers should be in contact with the pistol, gripping it
with the second or middle section of the fingers. This ensures that
you are pulling the grip straight back into the web of your hand, not
pushing or pulling the pistol to the right or left.

8. The trigger finger must not be in contact with the grip at all.

9. Lastly, the trigger finger must be able to flex at the middle knuckle
without moving the pistol OR varying the pressure of any other
fingers. This is important and demands lots of practice. You must be
able to pull the trigger without moving the other fingers.
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Unfortunately, the hand is made to work all fingers together: you

must train to overcome it.

The photo below illustrates the clearance between the trigger finger
and the pistol grip and the positioning of the finger on the trigger.

Breathing control:

1. Once you are in position and ready to fire, take two or three slow,
deep breaths. (This makes sure that your system is fully
oxygenated.) Make sure that you do not hyperventilate by breathing
fast and deep.

2. As you raise the pistol, breathe slowly in (inhale).

3. As you settle on the target, exhale completely, but don't force the
last bit of air out of your lungs. Just breathe out naturally. At this
point, you're at a natural point between breathing in and out. Your
body is accustomed to a pause at this stage.

4. During this pause (lasting 6 - 10 seconds) don't breathe. Finish

obtaining the perfect sight picture and squeeze the trigger.

5. Complete your follow through after the shot, and then inhale as you
lower your pistol.

6. After the shot, ensure normal breathing takes place.

7. Note: As an alternative to exhaling as you settle into your shooting

position, you could exhale half a breath. This keeps some oxygen in
your lungs. At this half breath point, you pause and fire. After
following through, exhale completely as you lower your gun. This
forces an unnatural pause in your breathing cycle, but some people
feel more comfortable with this method.
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Sight alignment:

Try to shoot with both eyes open - place a blinder over your non-
dominant eye. Eyes in line with sights. Elbow and wrist of shooting arm
straight. Hold in the white area below the black. Focus on the front-sight
only. Maintain a steady, balanced sight-picture.

Trigger squeeze:

When you draw on the trigger, only your trigger finger moves. The
trigger must be activated smoothly and progressively. When you decide to
fire the shot and activate the trigger, the action should be very fluid from
start to finish. That is to say, when you start, increase pressure on the
trigger at a steady rate. Draw it back in one motion, not start and stop,
start and stop. There is an old Jedi saying that applies here: "Do or do not.
Trying there is not." Either pull the trigger or don’t pull the trigger.
Anything in between will either cause problems or indicate that a problem
exists (i.e. lack of concentration or looking at the target.)

Follow-through:

1. The shot breaks.

2. Maintain your hold, sight alignment and sight picture for a count of 1 or
2 seconds.

3. Allow the pistol to recover from the recoil, and settle back into your
natural point of aim.

4. Review the following items:

 What did the sight alignment look like?

 What did the sight picture look like?

 Did your natural point of aim return to your aiming point on the
target?
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 How did the grip feel?

 How did your trigger action feel?

5. From the above review, call where the shot landed on the target (i.e. 7
ring/high right, or 10 ring at 9 o’clock.)

6. Lower the pistol.

7. Confirm your shot call with a spotting scope or recalling your target. If
there is a difference between what you called and where it actually
landed, try to figure out why this took place. (Calling shots is a learned
skill. It takes time and repetition. Don’t give up if you’re having
difficulty.)

8. Analyze what went right and congratulate yourself. If the shot could be
improved, decide what element needs to be worked on, and develop a
positive action plan to work from.

Follow through is often overlooked, especially when one becomes

overly concerned with scores. Instead of allowing the shot to leave the
barrel, they are rushing to the scope to see how they did. As a result, they
undo all of their hard work. Take the shot and follow through. Your groups
will get smaller and you'll learn a lot about your shooting.5

Method of Teaching Pistol Shooting Performance

Before a new element is taken up for teaching and training

(i) The importance of the task to be taught,
(ii) Demonstration of the skill and
(iii) An explanation of the skill were emphasized to the subjects.

5 www.tenrings.co.uk pistol@tenrings.co.uk
 69

a. The subjects will occupy the stance. The investigator will check up
the position i.e. the placement of the hands, the position of the wrist,
trunk, fingers etc. must be attended to and to be corrected.
b. The subjects will hold the pistol and checks the position of the
fingers etc.
c. The subjects will occupy the stance at the distance of 10 meter from
target and makes the dummy practice (without pellet). The
investigator will check up the coordinated movements of whole
body i.e., the arms, feet, trunk, wrist etc., and correction should be
made if any.
The details of training schedule for eight weeks duration for physical
practice is presented in Table 2.

Table No.-2
Training Schedule of Physical Practice for Eight Weeks Duration

First and Second Week Training Program

Content Duration
Warming up 10 Minutes
Teaching of skill of Shooting 10 Minutes
Practice of skill of Shooting 10 Minutes

Third and Fourth Week Training Program

Content Duration and Repetitions
Warming up 08 Minutes
Teaching of skill of Shooting 08 Minutes
Practice of skill of Shooting 14 Minutes
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Fifth and Sixth Week Training Program

Content Duration and Repetitions
Warming up 08 Minutes
Practice of skill of Shooting 22 Minutes

Seventh and Eighth Week Training Program

Content Duration and Repetitions
Warming up of Shooting 05 Minutes
Practice of skill of Shooting 25 Minutes

Figure 4: Pistol Shooting Skill

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(C) Control Group

The subjects of the control group were not involved in any of the
experimental treatments. The subjects were tested before the
commencement of the experiment and after the experiment period of
eight weeks to examine the effect of natural growth and development
of their various systems taking place in the body in the body during the
period of experimentation.

STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES

To find out the significance of mean differences between pre and

posttest and adjusted mean, analysis of covariance technique was
employed. Ancova was used to analyze the significance of differences
among the training effects brought out by different training methods.
Further Scheffe’s post hoc test was employed to find out whether the
difference between the means of groups was significant or not. For
testing the hypothesis, the level of significance was set at 0.05 levels.