Determinants of shooting performance in elite air rifle shooters

The purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of shooting performance in elite 10 m air rifle shooters. Twelve international-level 10 m air rifle shooters belonging to China's national team completed 60 shots using their normal shooting procedures. A SCATT MX-02 optoelectronic shooting test system was used to collect shooting score and shooting technical variables, while a footscan1.0 force platform was used to collect postural balance parameters. The principal component analysis identified five principal factors from 14 postural balance and shooting technical variables in elite 10 m air rifle shooters: holding and aiming, stability of triggering, time, A-P balance and M-L balance. Principal component regression analysis indicated that these five components explained the 83.1% variance of shooting performance. From these, the holding and aiming ability was the most important component, which could explain the 36.3% variance of shooting performance. The stability of triggering was the second important component, which could explain the 24.5% variance of shooting performance. The results of this study can be used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of performance-determining factors and to obtain more comprehensive information about the shooting action process during training.