Trigger Happy
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 29, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin David Shin, Karen
Fung and Samantha Lancaster (left to
right) practice shooting at the racquetball courts at Wooden
Center.
By Jessica Bach
Daily Bruin Contributor
When freshman Karen Fung goes to practice, her shots
aren’t aimed at basketball hoops or soccer goals. She’s
aiming at a bull’s eye exactly 10 meters away. As a member of
UCLA’s shooting team, she is one of the five competitive
students who dedicates time to practicing the highly technical
sport.
The club was established in 1989 and offers a chance for a
recreational and competitive training environment for students who
are motivated to develop their skills in the art of shooting.
Of the 50 members involved, most participate in the recreational
club. Those who are interested in competition must improve their
skills on the developmental level. Once they have learned to
consistently make the targets and have committed themselves both
for time and resources, they will be moved up to the actual team,
which meets separately.
“We are open to anyone as long as they are willing to
listen,” assistant coach Bill Akers said.
“Most people have preconceived notions about shooting, but
anyone can learn. It doesn’t matter even if they have poor
vision. You just have to have the patience. Shooting is a mental
sport,” said Akers.
No members of the team had experience with shooting before they
came to UCLA, but all have now found an intricate and detailed
sport that they never knew existed.
“Relatively few people are exposed to shooting as a
competitive sport and have no idea the level of focus that must be
reached,” said head coach Cliff Halenar, one of the only four
coaches in the country who is certified in both conventional and
international coaching. “You need to have the ability to
focus the mind quickly and under pressure.”
“It is a simple act, but the simple act must be done
perfectly over and over again,” he added. “The hardest
thing to learn is to tune out the many distractions, both external
and internal, and focus your anxiety level.”
The team only uses air pistols during competition. They must be
able to shoot at the target 10 meters away. At the collegiate
level, the women have 75 minutes to shoot 40 single shots while the
men have an hour and 45 minutes to shoot 60 shots.
“It’s about not getting too excited during a
match,” said sophomore Sergey Mougriak, a second-year shooter
and one of the only two returning members.
“If you get a shot straight in the 10, you get
excited,” said Mougriak, “But you have to keep calm and
execute each shot correctly.”
The team has struggled on the collegiate level as they train
only two hours a day, twice a week on a racquetball court while
they must challenge schools who field varsity shooting teams and
military teams. The Navy or the Air Force train as much as four
hours a day, five days a week.
But they have had success in the past. In the 12-year history of
the club, it has won one national champion and fielded six
All-Americans, one of whom was an All-American in two
categories.
“For any of my kids to compete at that level ““ it
just astounds me,” Halenar said. “I’ve had to
find people willing to reach that level of expertise because it
requires a different mind-set than the recreational level. The
difference would be that of a varsity football team at UCLA and a
pick-up game of football on a Sunday afternoon in the
park.”
The team will compete in their second match of the year on
Sunday in Chino, Calif. With only two returning team members, it
looks to be a rebuilding year for the Bruins, who lasts year were
invited to compete in the national championships. However, the team
has a good outlook on the year.
“We lost a lot of people to graduation last year,”
Mougriak said. “But I don’t want to stop us from
competing at the same level.”
