Feb. 6, 2006

February 3-4, 2006 By James Han, USF Rifle

This past weekend, 35 ATC Physical Trainer students from the Fuji Athletic & Business College, of Tokyo, Japan visited the University of San Francisco campus as part of their stay in the United States. As part of their cultural exposure to American culture, the USF Rifle Team was given the opportunity to share with the visitors the fundamentals of firearms safety and marksmanship. Interested in the differences between Japanese and American culture, the Japanese students were excited in particular with the sport of Rifle, since the ownership of guns is prohibited in Japan with exception of the police and military.

With the help of USF student and translator Nanako Tamaoki, we successfully communicated with the Japanese students over a preliminary briefing about firearms safety on the first day. As the principal instructor for this session, I was given the opportunity to illustrate to them the basics of safety, the parts and operations of a rifle, and the basics of the three shooting positions. This segment was imperative to their understanding, since each of the visitors would be applying what they learned out on the range floor the very next morning.

Upon the Japanese students' arrival the next day, the Rifle Team had converted War Memorial Gymnasium into a vast, shooting range with six air rifle firing points and two stations setup with CURT laser shooting simulators. Each of the Rifle Team members served as instructors and coaches for our Japanese guests. By shooting air rifles in the standing position, our visitors were able to experience first hand the patience, coordination, and bodily conditioning required by any shooter to succeed in the sport.

Likewise, at the CURT simulator stations, each of our guests got a chance to handle a small bore rifle. The CURT system is a training tool used by shooters around the world which allows other people to see what the shooter sees through his or her sights. In this sense, our Japanese visitors greatly enjoyed seeing each other's performance that was captured and played on the computer monitors.

After having experienced shooting sports for the first time, it was apparent that each of our visitors gained a profound appreciation of firearms safety and marksmanship. Personally, I could see this from their focus, their determination to hit the target, and their excited reactions after hitting the targets. I thought that the entire experience went extremely well and I felt grateful for this chance to share our sport with foreign students who had never shot, let alone seen a rifle before. It is in our sincere hopes that this experience was one that our guests would take home with them, always remember, and share with others as part of their visit to the University of San Francisco. The Rifle Team looks forward to the next opportunity it has to share the sport.