Original research Which technical factors explain competition performance in air rifle shooting? Simo Ihalainen 1,2 , Kaisu Mononen 1 , Vesa Linnamo 2 and Sami Kuitunen 1 Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the same shooting technical components determining performance in testing situation also affect performance in competition situation and how the technical skill level of these components changes from training to competition. Thirteen Finnish national (10) and junior national (3) rifle team members parti- cipated in the study. Participants were measured in competition and training situation within a five-day period. Shooting score, aiming point trajectory and postural balance were measured from both situations. Shooting performance decreased from training to competition situation (10.31  0.13 vs. 10.14  0.17, p < 0.05), accompanied by a decrease in holding ability, aiming accuracy, cleanness of triggering and postural balance. A multiple regression equation based on holding ability, aiming accuracy, cleanness of triggering and timing of triggering correlated with the competition situation shooting results (R ¼ 0.76, p < 0.01). Changes in shooting performance from training to competition situation were most strongly related to the changes in horizontal holding ability (R ¼ 0.71, p < 0.01). Athletes and coaches should develop competition strategies and psychological training interventions in order to be able to maintain the horizontal holding ability in competition at training situation level. Keywords Aiming accuracy, biomechanics, postural balance, technique measurement Introduction Air rifle shooting technical components have been identified previously in training situations. 1,2 The sta- bility of hold has been shown to be the most important aspect of shooting technique, accounting for 54% of the variance in shooting score. Other identified shoot- ing technical components affecting air rifle shooting performance have been aiming at accuracy, cleanness of triggering, timing of triggering, and postural bal- ance. 1,3–5 Postural balance has been shown to affect performance both directly and indirectly through a more stable holding ability. 1,4,5 To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies reporting air rifle shooting technique measures obtained from a competition situation. Shooting tech- nique measures obtained from the training situation have been shown to correlate with the shooting results in competitions, although the correlations between the test measures and competition results were not as strong as between the test measures and the test shoot- ing scores. 4 Also postural balance measured before the competition was shown to differ between the national and elite level shooters, but had no statistically signifi- cant relation to the competition shooting scores. 6 Air rifle competitions are psychologically stressful situations for the shooters. Anticipation of perform- ance has been shown to increase anxiety, heart rate and blood pressure in musicians. 7 Relationships between state anxiety, heart rate, blood pressure and postural balance 7,8 are possible reasons why state anx- iety has been shown to be related to shooting perform- ance in competition situation. 9 Solberg et al. 10 showed Reviewers: Marko Laaksonen (Mid Sweden University, Sweden) Daniel Mon (VU University, The Netherlands) 1 KIHU – Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Jyva ¨skyla ¨, Finland 2 Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyva ¨skyla ¨, Jyva ¨skyla ¨, Finland Corresponding author: Simo Ihalainen, KIHU – Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Rautpohjankatu 6, Jyva ¨skyla ¨ 40700, Finland. Email: simo.ihalainen@kihu.fi International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 2018, Vol. 13(1) 78–85 ! The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1747954117707481 journals.sagepub.com/home/spo