Ironic processes of concentration and suppression under pressure: A study on rifle shooting in Norwegian elite biathletes.

In rifle shooting, suppressing unwanted thoughts can backfire in one's performance, causing athletes to behave contrary to their desired intention and further deteriorate their performance. PURPOSE: This study examined how priming attentional and negative cues affected participants' shooting performances toward ironic error targets under cognitive load conditions in Stroop task across two experiments. METHODS: Semi-elite biathletes (Experiment 1, n = 10; Experiment 2, n = 9) participated in the study. The study used a within-subject quasi-experimental design, particularly a one-way repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance and a 2 × 2 fully repeated measures analysis of variance, to determine the participants' hit rates and shooting response times (RTs). In both experiments, the participants completed the reverse-Stroop-based target shooting performance under low- and high-cognitive load conditions while receiving frequent priming attentional and negative cues. RESULTS: The findings from Experiment 1 suggest that regulating repetitive priming attentional thoughts is efficacious in mitigating the likelihood of ironic performance errors and interference effects. The results of Experiment 2 show that repetitive priming negative cues resulted in negligible ironic error hit rates and slower RTs in target hits under high-cognitive load conditions. The Bayesian analyses provided evidence supporting the null hypotheses. CONCLUSION: Trying to control repetitive priming attentional and negative thoughts reduces ironic performance errors to a similar degree under cognitive load conditions among biathletes, regardless of interference effects. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of suppressing task-relevant negative instructions in reducing the likelihood of ironic performance errors under pressure.

Performance-determining factors in biathlon prone shooting without physical stress.

This study investigated the most important factors determining biathlon prone shooting performance. Ten female and 16 male biathletes (age 19.9 ± 2.9 years) from the national teams of Finland and Vuokatti-Ruka Sports Academy performed 6 × 5 biathlon prone shooting shots without physical stress under laboratory conditions. Shooting performance and multiple aiming point trajectory variables were measured together with an analysis of triggering force. Based on the aiming point trajectory data principal component analysis, we identified four technical components in biathlon prone shooting: stability of hold, aiming accuracy, cleanness of triggering, and timing of triggering. Multiple regression analysis (MRA) further determined that cleanness of triggering, aiming accuracy, and timing of triggering accounted for 80% of mean shooting performance (p < 0.001). Better stability of hold, aiming accuracy and cleanness of triggering were directly associated with better shooting performance (0.62 ≤ |r| ≥0.79, all p < 0.001). Better stability of hold measures were also associated with better cleanness of triggering, and higher pre-shot trigger force levels were associated with better stability of hold and cleanness of triggering. These results indicate that with both direct and indirect effects on performance, stability of hold seems to be a general prerequisite for successful biathlon shooting. The results also highlight the importance of aiming accuracy, cleanness and timing of triggering, along with a high pre-shot trigger force level. The variables identified in this study could be used to assess biathletes' performance in the most relevant shooting technical aspects to guide the emphasis of their shooting training.

Aiming strategy affects performance-related factors in biathlon standing shooting.

This study focused on investigating differences in shooting performance and performance-related factors between two different aiming strategies (HOLD, low radial velocity during the approach 0.4-0.2 seconds before triggering, and TIMING, high radial velocity) in biathlon standing shooting. A total of 23 biathletes fired 8 × 5 standing shots at rest (REST) and 2 × 5 shots during a race simulation (RACE). Shooting performance (hit point distance from the center of the target), aiming point trajectory and postural balance were measured from each shot. Shooting performance was similar both at REST (HOLD 33 ± 5 mm vs TIMING 38 ± 8 mm, P = .111) and in RACE (40 ± 11 mm vs 47 ± 12 mm, P = .194). Better shooting performance was related to smaller distance of the aiming point mean location (REST r = 0.93, P < .001, RACE r = 0.72, P = .018) and higher time spent within ⅔ of the distance of the hit area edge from the center 0.6-0.0 seconds before triggering (REST r=-0.88, P = .001, RACE r=-0.73, P = .016) in HOLD, and to lower aiming point total velocity 0.6-0.0 seconds before triggering (REST r = 0.77, P = .009, RACE r = 0.88, P = .001) and less aiming point movement 0.2-0.0 seconds before triggering (REST r = 0.82, P = .003, RACE r = 0.72, P = .012) in TIMING. Postural balance was related to shooting performance at REST in both groups and in RACE in TIMING. Biathletes using the hold strategy should focus on stabilizing the aiming point before triggering and aiming at the center, whereas biathletes using the timing strategy benefit of decreasing the total velocity during the final approach as well as minimizing the aiming point movement right before triggering.

Postural balance and rifle stability in a standing shooting position after specific physical effort in biathletes.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of maximal specific physical effort on postural balance and rifle stability in biathletes in a standing shooting position. The study included 10 junior elite biathletes. The measurements were taken with the Vicon system and AMTI force platform. Postural balance and rifle stability characteristics were determined at rest as well as 1 and 5 min post maximal specific physical effort which was performed on a ski ergometer and continued until exhaustion. Maximal physical effort exerted a significant effect on all examined postural sway and rifle sway characteristics. The duration of the post-exercise changes was longer than 5 minutes. Higher post-effort rifle sway was observed in the vertical direction than in the across the shooting line direction. Post-effort postural balance impairment in the shooting line was much greater than in the across the shooting line direction. Moreover, a strong correlation was found between postural balance and rifle stability. Maximal physical effort influenced postural balance and rifle stability during aiming. Rifle sway during aiming in a standing shooting position seems to be coordinated with the postural sway of the biathlete's body. Thus, an increase in postural sway contributes to greater sway and lesser stability of the rifle.

The Contribution From Cross-Country Skiing and Shooting Variables on Performance-Level and Sex Differences in Biathlon World Cup Individual Races.

Biathlon is an Olympic winter sport that combines rifle shooting and cross-country skiing in various race formats. In the individual distance (15 km for women and 20 km for men), athletes compete over 5 laps of skiing with shooting between each 2 laps (ie, 4 shootings). The aim of the current study was to compare total race time differences, as well as the contribution from cross-country skiing and shooting variables to this difference, between biathletes of different performance levels and sexes in individual races in the Biathlon World Cup. Based on the publicly available race reports, the authors compared these factors between top-10 results (G1-10) and results within rank 21-30 (G21-30), as well as the corresponding sex differences. G21-30 among men/women were on average 4%/6% behind G1-10 in total race time, in which course time accounted for 42%/54% of the overall performance difference, followed by 53%/44% explained by penalty time caused by shooting performance (ie, the number of hits). The remaining 2-3% was explained by differences in shooting time and range time. Women G1-10 were on average 15% slower in skiing speed than men G1-10, which accounted for 92% of the overall performance difference between sexes. In total, among G1-10, men shot on average 15 s faster than women, and total penalty time was 18 s shorter. In conclusion, course time and penalty time contributed approximately equally to the performance-level differences, whereas course time explained above 90% of the sex differences in individual World Cup biathlon races.

Evaluation on Directed Functional Brain Connectivity during the Expert Rifle Pre-shot Period.

Experts require long-term and intense practice to acquire extraordinary motor skills that be known as the brain function regulator. However, the brain function network mechanism of rifle shooters is still unclear. The generalized orthogonalized partial directed coherence (gOPDC) algorithm and local efficiency significance analysis method (LESA) was applied to quantify the difference in directed functional networks between expert and novice rifle shooters during the pre-shot period. The more directed functional connections were observed in alpha and low-beta frequency bands as compared to other bands. Moreover, comparing with the novice's fluctuant connection, the values of connection (P3→C3) strength were increasing steadily in the experts during the pre-shot period. Fewer connections in left hemisphere networks were obtained in the experts than in the novices. The results validated the "neural efficiency" hypothesis in experts. Moreover, the strength of the functional connection (P3→C3) in the alpha and beta bands serves as a distinguishing feature between experts and novices.

Analysis of a Biathlon Sprint Competition and Associated Laboratory Determinants of Performance.

Biathlon is an Olympic winter-sport where cross-country (XC) skiing in the skating technique is combined with rifle shooting. In the biathlon sprint competition for men, three laps of 3.3-km are interspersed with a 5-shot shooting sequence in the prone and standing position. Our purpose was to investigate the contribution from overall XC skiing performance, the performance in different terrain sections and shooting performance to the overall biathlon sprint race performance, as well as the relationship to laboratory-measured capacities obtained during treadmill roller ski skating. Eleven elite male biathletes were tracked by a Global Positioning System (GPS) device and a heart rate (HR) monitor during an international 10-km biathlon sprint competition. Within a period of 6 weeks prior to the competition, physiological responses, and performance during submaximal and maximal treadmill roller skiing were measured. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that XC skiing time, shooting performance, shooting time and range time explained 84, 14, 1.8, and 0.2% of the overall sprint race performance (all p < 0.01). Time in uphill, varied, and downhill terrains were all significantly correlated to the total XC skiing time (r = 0.95, 0.82, 0.72, respectively, all p < 0.05). Percent of maximal HR (HRmax) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) during submaximal roller skiing, and time-to-exhaustion during incremental roller skiing correlated significantly with overall biathlon sprint race performance and overall XC skiing time (r = 0.64-0.95, all p < 0.05). In conclusion, XC skiing performance provided greatest impact on biathlon sprint performance, with most of the variance determined by XC skiing performance in the uphill terrain sections. Furthermore, the ability to roller ski with a low RPE and %HRmax during submaximal speeds, as well as time-to-exhaustion during incremental roller skiing significantly predicted biathlon performance. Such laboratory-derived measures may therefore be validly used to distinguish biathletes of different performance levels and to track progress of their XC skiing capacity.

[Efficient connectivity analysis of electroencephalogram in the pre-shot phase of rifle shooting based on causality method].

The directed functional connectivity in cerebral cortical is the key to understanding the pattern of the behavioral tissue. This process was studied to explore the directed functional network of rifle shooters at cerebral cortical rhythms from electroencephalogram (EEG) data, aiming to provide neurosciences basis for the future development of accelerating rifle skill learning method. The generalized orthogonalized partial directed coherence (gOPDC) algorithm was used to calculate the effective directed functional connectivity of the experts and novices in the pre-shot period. The results showed that the frontal, frontal-central, central, parietal and occipital regions were activated. Moreover, the more directed functional connections numbers in right hemispheres were observed compared to the left hemispheres. Furthermore, as compared to experts, novices had more activated regions, the stronger strength of connections and the lower value of the global efficiency during the pre-shot period. Those indirectly supported the conclusion that the novices needed to recruit more brain resources to accomplish tasks, which was consistent with "neural efficiency" hypothesis of the functional cerebral cortical in experts.

External barrel temperature of a small bore olympic rifle and shooting precision.

Investigations on changes in a rifle's barrel temperature during shooting in a rhythm typical for practitioners of Olympic shooting sports are presented. Walther KK300 (cal. 5.6 mm), a typical rifle often used in Olympic competitions, R50 RWS ammunition and a high speed thermographic camera were used in the study. Altair version 5 software was used to process thermal images and a stationary wavelet transform was applied to denoise signals for all the studied points. It was found that the temperature of the rifle barrel does not exceed 0.3°C after one shot whereas the total temperature increase does not exceed 5°C after taking 40 shots and does not affect the position of the hitting point on a target. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the so-called "warming shots" are not done for barrel heating but for cleaning of remnants in the barrel.