Choice of the US Army Marksmanship Unit                                                       ...and other World Class Shooters

Sport Shooter Training Systems from Noptel

Noptel ST-2000 products have been widely used all over the world since 1984. Top class shooters and other active sport shooters have chosen Noptel Training Systems to improve the quality of their training. Noptel Training Systems allow easy understanding of shooting performance using objective high precision analysis. Active learning in real-time and immediate feedback allow efficient correction of faults in technique. Juha Hirvi, silver medalist at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, is one of the satisfied users of Noptel Training Systems.

Technical shooting analysis Noptel ST-2000 products measure accurately the gun orientation path on the target surface both before and after the shot, and record the shot itself. This path indicates how the shot was generated. No two absolutely identical paths exist, i.e. each shot has a unique history. On average the gun orientation path forecasts the resulting score with remarkable accuracy, and it in fact contains almost all the information required for the technical evaluation of shooting performance! We at Noptel have collected tens of thousands of shots from shooters at all levels of skill and have developed a model to analyze the skill of shooters in an objective, reliable and understandable way.

The shot model

The success factors and their interconnections are described in the shot model.

The shooter's hold reveals his ability to control his muscles and prevent unwanted movement. His aim reveals the accuracy with, which he is able to direct the gun at the desired point on the target, and trigger control reveals the timing of the actual triggering event relative to the hold/aim process, and also the cleanness of triggering. The success factors interact with each other. The key position is occupied by the hold factor, which is linked to the others and to the result itself, i.e. it affects the result both directly and through aim and trigger control. In addition, the result may have a counter-effect on the hold etc.

Our NOS shooter training software makes it possible to analyze the success factors both graphically and numerically.
 

Effect of success factors on the result

Holding instability and aiming inaccuracy will reduce the actual achievable result level, while trigger control can either improve or further reduce the final result. The characteristics of the discipline define the role of each success factor. Holding ability has the greatest role in a standing position and in pistol shooting, for example, whereas the major element in military prone shooting is aiming ability.

Measurement of holding and aiming ability

The fastest method for analyzing a shot is to observe the basic target replay. The small blue cross shows the average gun orientation point, e.g. the aiming point during the selected statistical time (here 3 seconds). The green rectangle illustrates the area of gun movement horizontally and vertically, e.g. the holding area of the shot. Both aim and hold statistics are also available as numerical values.
 

Graphical hold analysis

Holding skills can be analyzed by observing the extend and symmetry of the movement (the hold box). Asymmetry in pistol shooting may indicate problems with shooting position, grip or muscle condition, for example. The picture illustrates four holding skills in basic target view. Logically, the shooter having the smallest area of movement will have the best basis for good results.

Graphical aim analysis

The Centre of Gravity - COG - is shown as a blue cross in the middle of the green hold box. The cross should be found in the middle of the target if the aiming picture (the sights with respect to the target) is correct. The next picture shows examples of good and poor aiming together with good and poor holding ability.

Graphical trigger control analysis

Triggering ability is easy to analyze using different replay views. Here the same shot is illustrated using the basic target and R(t) -replay views, revealing a bad jerk. The red arrow shows a bad triggering curve, which is quite different size and form from that of the hold stage. The triggering clearly introduces extra energy into the movement.

The trend curve of a average shot

The trend curve discloses the style of a shooter. The chart tells us how the average shot develops in the last 3 seconds for air rifle and air pistol shooting, and the last 300 milliseconds of this represents the reaction time, when more or less optimization appears. A shooter can be a holder, an optimizer or a reaction shooter. The following curves are measurement results and show the average trend calculated for hundreds of shooters.

Numerical skill analysis

The success factors are also quantified and can be used to compare shooters or to trace a shooter's development in time. The numerical box can be observed in the basic target view in order to obtain additional, more specific information for analysis. The first two values are for the hold, the next two are for the aim and the last two are for trigger control.