Ways of the rifle At club and at high performance level, rifle shooting counts as one of the most popular leisure activities in the German-speaking European nations. Worldwide it is consistently one of the Olympic sports in which the largest number of countries participate, and features in both the summer and winter Olympics. The rifles are designed, and are used, exclusively for target shooting events governed by internationally agreed rules and strict safety procedures. It is possible to take up rifle shooting as a child and continue competing at high level well beyond middle age. As in all other sports, competition is the soul of the activity, and the excitement of big championships or of small tournaments provokes fun and ambition in equal measures. Target shooting forms spirit, mental skills and character as no other sport does. Responsibility for one's own safe conduct and the safety of others brings maturity. The sport demands unexpectedly many and different insights, which are needed to bring body and mind into a working harmony and heading in the right direction. Participation improves and teaches us how to manage nervousness in crisis. Top shooters succeed mostly by means of strength of personality, which is built up by the intensive inner journey of the competition experience. Rifle shooting is a sport which puts extreme emphasis on control of the body. Ten to fifteen years are required to perfect the positions. The fine motor control needed for aiming and shot release have to be perfected to an almost unimaginable degree. The Ways of the Rifle intends to describe all the facets of this fascinating sport, so most of the top athletes of the last decade are depicted. The classic techniques of rifle shooting are covered in sequence. Beginners, improvers, champions and coaches can all profit equally from this manual. It has been adopted as basic text for the coach education programme of the German Shooting Association (DSB), one of the largest national shooting sport federations in the world. Alongside the classic techniques come discussions of the individual variations used by some of the sport's more exceptional talents over the years. Even when the extremes adopted by some experts are hardly of use to more recreationally-minded club members, new ideas and the lust for experimentation are stimulated. Because techniques, performance levels and equipment are all constantly developing, even at club level there is a trend towards innovation. The Ways of the Rifle documents those trends which currently dominate in the highest level of the sport in 2009.