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“…he sat me down and said “Mike, I want to tell you something. I think you have
the makings of being a perennial All-
An iTrapshooter.com interview
Copyright 2011.
All Rights Reserved.
Mike Blaisdell
8 Time All-
30 New Hampshire State Titles
Other State Titles -
9 Times Captain
Past
President, New Hampshire
Trapshooting Association
5 – Eastern Zone Titles
(Including
2011 Eastern Zone
Doubles Championship and All Around)
2005 Eastern Zone Singles Champion
ATA
Record Shoot-
12 Grand American Trophies
15 Satellite Grand Trophies
All-
Copyright 2011
The champion and instructor talks about the game, and his last five targets at the 2005 Eastern Zone shoot-off.
iTrapshooter.com: Mike, we’ve heard you’re now teaching classes?
Mike: Yes, I started last January. Someone had approached me and they mentioned they really wanted to take some lessons from me. It was sort of one of those moments in your life when someone presents you with something and you choose to either walk through it or you don’t. I chose to walk through it and after that, just by word of mouth people kept calling me, talking to me and it’s been pretty good.
iTrapshooter.com: That’s terrific - what is your niche, what you like to do?
Mike: My niche has been private – one-on-one with a student. Quite surprisingly, a lot of these students of mine are non-ATA shooters. They’re club shooters. I will take up to five right now. I want to make sure they get a good value for my time.
Everyone’s different. I like to see that aspect of people. I like to talk to them about what their goals are. What do they expect out of the clinic. What do they want to achieve, and if their goals are attainable then we go from there.
iTrapshooter.com: Who did you do a lot of your training with in your shooting career - who was your mentor?
The champion and instructor talks about the game, and his last five targets at the 2005 Eastern Zone shoot-
iTrapshooter.com: Mike, we’ve heard you’re now teaching classes?
Mike: Yes, I started last January. Someone had approached me and they mentioned they really wanted to take some lessons from me. It was sort of one of those moments in your life when someone presents you with something and you choose to either walk through it or you don’t. I chose to walk through it and after that, just by word of mouth people kept calling me, talking to me and it’s been pretty good.
iTrapshooter.com: That’s terrific -
Mike: My niche has been private – one-
Everyone’s different. I like to see that aspect of people. I like to talk to them about what their goals are. What do they expect out of the clinic. What do they want to achieve, and if their goals are attainable then we go from there.
iTrapshooter.com: Who did you do a lot of your training with in your shooting career -
Mike: I took a lot of classes from a lot of different people. I started out with Frank Little, got to know Frank very well. Met Kay Ohye. He was the one who kind of pushed me in to the next level.
I happened to be at the Virginia State Shoot. I had an opportunity, I had known Kay over the years and he had an opening on his squad. I shot with them and after about a day or so he sat me down and said “Mike, I want to tell you something. I think you have the makings of being a perennial All-American….but, you need to do some things.” So I said, “Explain it to me”, and it was basically about training. He needed me to do the full buy-in to the program. I asked him what it entailed and he told me all about it. I told him, “I don’t know how much time and resources I have, but let me think about it”.
The next day I went back and said, “I’ll do this on three conditions – my family comes first, second my business and third is trapshooting. Those are my priorities and if you can accept me under those conditions, let’s go to work”. He accepted it and in fact, that year I made the All-American team for the first time.
So, Kay was a very big influence in my life and and in my career. I like to think of him as a very good friend. Over the years, I’ve gotten to shoot with him quite a bit, including his daughter Debbie and son-in-law Don Neilson. I shoot a lot down in Elysburg, PA and spend a lot of time with him.
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