Accomplished New Captain of Target Shooting, Paddy, Tells us About His Ambitions
In this interview, we are delighted to introduce Paddy, a remarkable student at Sedbergh School whose dedication and achievements extend far beyond the classroom. Paddy’s journey at Sedbergh began in year four, and after a brief stint at another school, he returned in year ten to continue his education. Now in his final year, Paddy is studying economics, geography, and religious studies, with aspirations to pursue a career in economics or agribusiness management—fields influenced by his family’s background in banking and farming.
Paddy’s commitment to excellence is evident in both his academic pursuits and in his extracurricular activities. Whilst he has played cricket and golf, it is in target shooting that he has truly excelled. Paddy’s target shooting journey began in prep school and has grown to become a significant part of his life. He has competed in various competitions, proudly representing the School and England.
In this interview, Paddy shares his experiences and insights into the world of target shooting, including the mental discipline it requires and how it has shaped his approach to challenges both on and off the range. He also discusses his future ambitions, the importance of resilience, and the values he holds dear as he prepares for the next steps in his academic and sporting career.
I understand that you are probably the UK’s best small bore shooter. Can you describe your journey to achieving such enormous success?
I started at prep school. I got into it through my dad, who’s been doing it since he was about my age. When I left the prep school in year four I had to take a little step back from that and did a little bit with my dad. I did that bit with him at club and then really started focusing it again in year 10.
The type of shooting I do at school is a prone shooting. I shoot inside over 25 yards and then full bore shooting outdoors, which is the long range stuff from 300 to a thousand yards.
So this year I shot a small bore competition, 25 yards indoor stuff. It was across four rounds, which is a whole national competition, and I won, which I was a bit surprised (nice surprise) about to be honest!
What does training look like for you?
I have two or three sessions a week and normally two of them I’ll actually shoot. I sort of practice my rhythm, how I shoot, how I get into it and everything like that. Then the final session is on a system called SCATT, which is basically an electronic system which goes on the end of your barrel and sort of scans where you are aiming and your shots. So you can tell if you’re dropping shots, where they’re going and why. We have two systems in school, which we rota through; a lot of the top end individual shooters will use one or have one at their home.
Does your shooting take you away from lessons or is it always outside of lessons?
My training fits really easily into my timetable. I always shoot in games and if there’s a reason why I can’t shoot in games, there are opportunities in sports. But I think that if you shoot too much, you kind of get shot out a bit. So it’s more of a mental thing. You don’t want to drain yourself.
How important is the mental side of shooting? Is there anything that you do to develop that mental side?
I’d say shooting is mainly mental. When you get the basics right, it’s all in your head after that. So if you hit a downturn, it’s quite hard to get out of it. When you do, you stay ‘up’ for quite a long time because you’re confident, you’re happy with it and you’re in a good place.
When I’m shooting, if I’m feeling unhappy, a little bit stressed, I sort of take a mental reset. I’ll sort of just breathe and I don’t think about my last shots because you can’t improve the shots you’ve had, you can just make sure you take the best ones you can after that.
I’d say that the calmness that I’ve had to develop for shooting, actually influences me quite a lot in the rest of my studies and life. After I started doing exercises when I’m shooting, I have felt definitely more relaxed. And in situations where I have more stress, in exams for example, I’m able to take myself out that situation and just completely reset so I’m not stressed anymore.
Have you represented England?
I shot for England this year in a small bore competition and that’s a team of eight against all the other UK nations, which we won. And then last summer in August I shot for a team called the UK Cadet rifle team, and that was towards Jersey and we won the match for that. And then this summer I’m shooting for the Athelings, which is the GB under eighteens.
What would you like to achieve next from your shooting?
My next goal in shooting is to get into something called the King’s Final, which is the main event at the UK meeting. Its at the end of July 2024 and that’s a long range competition, a 900 and a thousand yards, and if you win that, that’s the big one to win.
Which of the School’s values do you most identify with?
I’d say resilience. I see that a lot through shooting. I’ve had some periods where I’ve been quite low in my shooting. I’ve been annoyed about it and I’ve worked on it. I’ve seen that for other areas as well. Through exams when I didn’t do as well as I wanted to in my GCSEs. So, this year I really put the effort in and it’s paid off in my marks.