March 12, 2009

By Brinkley Meyers; Navy Sports Information - To most, shooting a gun at a target is a pastime. However for the members of the Navy rifle team, hitting the bulls-eye is an art that takes an intense amount of practice and a high level of expertise. Navy's team captain, senior Lisa Kunzelman, spends just as much of her time in the rifle range as she does out, continuously perfecting her aim to hit the center ten.

Kunzelman began her rifle career late in the game. A junior year trip to a wilderness camp in her home state of New York where she was embarrassed to be the only one not to have shooting experience drove Kunzelman to challenge herself to learn. She joined her high school's rifle team, where she won the New York state individual title and led her team to the state championship.

"The trick is to take breaks," says Kunzelman. "Most people stand up for the full hour and forty-five minutes, propping the gun up with their bodies. It gets tiring. If you take breaks, you don't get as tired and your aim stays on target."

There are two types of competition rifles: air rifles and smallbores. An air rifle is like a modified beebee gun. It uses pellets that are shot out of the barrel by compressed air or gas as opposed to gunpowder, and is shot 60 times during a full course. Smallbores use live bullets that are ejected from the barrel using a gunpowder charge. They are shot 60 times during a full course, 20 shots each from the prone, standing, and kneeling positions.

While favoring the smallbore, Kunzelman excels at both rifles. To this point in her collegiate career, she has been a three time NRA All-American and All-MAC several times in both air rifle and smallbore. In 2006, Kunzelman earned a spot on the U.S. World Junior Championship Team, where she placed second in the 10-meter air rifle competition.

"The majority of shooting is simply muscle memory," attests Kunzelman. "You need to train your body to prop the gun at the correct level using your bone structure. The gun rests propped on your hand, which is propped up by the bones in your forearm and elbow, which is then rested on your hip and the rest of your leg."

Due to the unique nature of their sport, the rifle team does not have a lifting or running schedule as do many other athletic teams. Any change in their physique could potentially throw off their aim. Daily practice focuses primarily on honing muscle memory and perfecting aim.

"It starts and ends with repetition," advises Kunzelman. "We get up in groups of three and practice going from the resting position into our stances and taking the shot, over and over and over again. Sometimes Coach Kelley will have certain things for us to work on, but mostly he helps individually perfect our stances."

Their regime has proven effective. To date, the Midshipmen have had a nearly perfect season, either winning or coming in first in all but one competition.

Though sad about this being her last season at the Academy, ship-bound Kunzelman is proud of the strides that the team has made over her four-year run, improving from nine total wins during her freshman season, to having tallied 17 this year.

"We made the team smaller, cutting down to only the toughest competitors," says Kunzelman. "The whole team has the same winning mentality and extremely hard work ethic, which motivates us all to push our limits."

This weekend, the Naval Academy rifle team will attempt to finish out their season with the same momentum as they go up against their toughest competition yet at the NCAA Smallbore and Air Rifle Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.

# GO NAVY #