Shooting: Father and son target same gold

Father and son duos competing at the same Commonwealth Games tend to be a rarity. Only in sports such as shooting and maybe bowls can such instances arise - it is fairly safe, for example, to assume there will never be a men's 100m track father-and-son combination.

Grant Taylor (55) and Ryan Taylor (26) are not only both shooters but are competing in the same event - as rivals in the individual smallbore rifle prone event and then as team-mates in the pairs (where their scores are combined).

They are aware they're a little bit different. Interest in them from the Australian media has started to grow and they will likely grow weary of repeating their story when the commonwealth's media arrive in force.

For now, talking to the Taylors - who hail from Levin - is like being caught up in an Abbott & Costello or perhaps a Monty Python skit.

Grant, the oldest competitor in the New Zealand team, looks like a man born in the 1950s. Neat hair, cut short and brushed flat. A tendency not to overstate things - a laid-back persona overlaying a strong core. Ryan has spiky hair, designer stubble and a propensity for finding the humour in things - their bickering and digs at the other's expense are all for show.

Grant is the straight man to Ryan's comedy but it all adds up to the fact that these two are comfortable with each other. The banter is a form of family pride.

Grant likes shooting in the wind. Ryan likes still conditions. Grant shoots in a New Zealand way, lying flatter to the ground, with Ryan trained in a more European style, raising his body and rifle higher off the ground. Grant likes to slow his heart to 45 beats a minute during competition. Ryan doesn't even think about heart rate.

"Your heart rate goes up when you see a pretty girl," Ryan laughed, as Grant tries to explain the mechanics behind lowering one's heart rate from 80-90 beats to 45 or lower.

"It's a technique where you imagine a hoop being passed over your body and you relax each muscle group as the hoop passes over you," said Grant. "It works really well. It allows you to focus better. The mental side of this game is really tough - I'd say it is about 80 per cent mental."

Ryan doesn't hold much truck with heart rates but knows the value of concentration, learned when he got in to the sport as an 11-year-old.

"I used to look around on my birthday and dad was never there," he said. "It turned out the nationals were always on the same day as my birthday and dad would quietly head off there. I used to look around and think: Where is he? When I got old enough to understand, I went down the local club to see what all the fuss was about."

In prone rifle shooting, which has military and hunting origins, the shooter must keep his wrist at least 10cm off the ground, so the arm is at a certain angle. Competitors have 75 minutes to take 60 shots at a tiny bullseye (smaller than a thumbnail) 50 metres away. Telescopic sights are not used. It's a bit like trying to shoot a postage stamp from across a football field.

Shooters got so good that the size of the bullseye has been more than halved over the years, hence Grant's assertion about the mental side of shooting. Small errors can mean a big loss.
Both are Olympians but at father-and-son ends of the scale. Grant shot for New Zealand in the 1976 Montreal Olympics and Ryan made his international debut at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Grant has been on the periphery of selection without making it back into the side until this year - 30 years after his Games debut.

He said: "There used to be what you might call a few selection malfunctions in this sport but I never really worried that much about it. I was a reserve for three Commonwealth Games teams so it's good to be here."

He looks over at Ryan and doesn't say it (but you know he is thinking: Especially with the boy.)

But if you think their links are sentimental, forget about it. They go as hard at each other as any backyard game between two brothers.

The pair come to Melbourne with some recent good form and no lack of confidence - but with Grant claiming the high ground.

He won the Commonwealth and Oceania championships in the build-up to Melbourne, leaving Ryan to take silver at the Oceania meeting. They took gold in the pairs.

"Yeah and I carried him in the pairs," quipped Ryan.

"That's right, he did," grinned Grant. "But it went down to a shoot-off in the individual - one shot each, sudden death. I shot a 10.9 - ask him what he shot," said Grant gesturing at his son.

"I scored...," said Ryan, before performing a mock cough into his hand to disguise his poor score as his father laughs at his discomfit.

If they win a medal in Melbourne - and maybe the pairs is their best shot - there won't be a lot of coughing into hands. These two will be too busy asserting bragging rights with each other.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY