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  COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin David Shin, Karen Fung and Samantha Lancaster (left to right) practice shooting at the racquetball courts at Wooden Center.

By Jessica Bach

Daily Bruin Contributor

When freshman Karen Fung goes to practice, her shots aren’t aimed at basketball hoops or soccer goals. She’s aiming at a bull’s eye exactly 10 meters away. As a member of UCLA’s shooting team, she is one of the five competitive students who dedicates time to practicing the highly technical sport.

The club was established in 1989 and offers a chance for a recreational and competitive training environment for students who are motivated to develop their skills in the art of shooting.

Of the 50 members involved, most participate in the recreational club. Those who are interested in competition must improve their skills on the developmental level. Once they have learned to consistently make the targets and have committed themselves both for time and resources, they will be moved up to the actual team, which meets separately.

“We are open to anyone as long as they are willing to listen,” assistant coach Bill Akers said.

“Most people have preconceived notions about shooting, but anyone can learn. It doesn’t matter even if they have poor vision. You just have to have the patience. Shooting is a mental sport,” said Akers.

No members of the team had experience with shooting before they came to UCLA, but all have now found an intricate and detailed sport that they never knew existed.

“Relatively few people are exposed to shooting as a competitive sport and have no idea the level of focus that must be reached,” said head coach Cliff Halenar, one of the only four coaches in the country who is certified in both conventional and international coaching. “You need to have the ability to focus the mind quickly and under pressure.”

“It is a simple act, but the simple act must be done perfectly over and over again,” he added. “The hardest thing to learn is to tune out the many distractions, both external and internal, and focus your anxiety level.”

The team only uses air pistols during competition. They must be able to shoot at the target 10 meters away. At the collegiate level, the women have 75 minutes to shoot 40 single shots while the men have an hour and 45 minutes to shoot 60 shots.

“It’s about not getting too excited during a match,” said sophomore Sergey Mougriak, a second-year shooter and one of the only two returning members.

“If you get a shot straight in the 10, you get excited,” said Mougriak, “But you have to keep calm and execute each shot correctly.”

The team has struggled on the collegiate level as they train only two hours a day, twice a week on a racquetball court while they must challenge schools who field varsity shooting teams and military teams. The Navy or the Air Force train as much as four hours a day, five days a week.

But they have had success in the past. In the 12-year history of the club, it has won one national champion and fielded six All-Americans, one of whom was an All-American in two categories.

“For any of my kids to compete at that level – it just astounds me,” Halenar said. “I’ve had to find people willing to reach that level of expertise because it requires a different mind-set than the recreational level. The difference would be that of a varsity football team at UCLA and a pick-up game of football on a Sunday afternoon in the park.”

The team will compete in their second match of the year on Sunday in Chino, Calif. With only two returning team members, it looks to be a rebuilding year for the Bruins, who lasts year were invited to compete in the national championships. However, the team has a good outlook on the year.

“We lost a lot of people to graduation last year,” Mougriak said. “But I don’t want to stop us from competing at the same level.”

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