Our "In The Hoop" articles are interviews with major FITASC personalities. This time we bring you David Brian Radulovich or DBR as I like to call him. Though he has had major accomplishments in FITASC, make no mistake, this kid is an all around sporting shot. In 2009 he made headlines as the youngest ever competitor to win the NSCA U.S. Open at Elk Creek Hunt Club in Owenton, Kentucky.
International Sporting Clays: For those that don’t know you, tell us about yourself and some of your accomplishments as a shooter.
David Brian Radulovich: My name is David Radulovich; I am 18 years old and currently attending John Carroll University in Ohio majoring in Economics, Finance, and Management with a minor in Entrepreneurship. When I’m not shooting or studying I love to play golf. I have been golfing for about 6 years now and I use it as a way to test out some of my new mental game strategies (which gives me a good excuse to get my parents to pay for a good round of golf at a challenging golf course, which is generally the more expensive ones). Other than that I am about the biggest Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins fan around. Shooting and school take up most of my time though so I’m not able to do much else. I really enjoy a business environment, as you can obviously tell by my majors and minors. When I am stuck inside at college with nothing to do I will generally take out my acoustic guitar and start playing and trying to learn new things. My shooting coach is Wendell Cherry and for those of you who don’t know, he was once a great guitarist in Nashville. So my next goal is to become as good as him at playing guitar, and from watching him play – it is never going to happen.
As far as my shooting accomplishments go, I have won every major shoot multiple times in my concurrent. I am the youngest person to ever win a major FITASC title at age 11 at the Gamaliel Cup and also the youngest to shoot a perfect 100 score at a registered tournament at age 14. I was also the youngest person to be named onto Team USA at age 14. In 2009, I won the US Open in Kentucky and have been back to back Ohio State Champion, not just In-State, for the past 4 years. As far as FITASC goes, I have won the Grand Prix, RU at the North American, and HOA for the North American Cup for this year.
ISC: How is your year panning out so far?
DBR: So far this has been the absolute best shooting year of my life. I somewhat stumbled onto a breakthrough in my mental game and physical technique at the beginning of the year that has really improved my game. I have won a bunch of HOA’s and RU’s this year at various tournaments and am currently leading both the Team USA FITASC and Sporting Open teams. Although due to an unfortunate death in the family, I wasn’t able to attend the most recent qualification shoots for both teams so that position may slip, until Nationals at the end of this month when I make those points back.
ISC: Tell us about your win at the North American FITASC Grand Prix?
DBR: The Grand Prix went beautifully. I was so happy I had won it, although I will admit that while I was shooting I had absolutely no idea that my score was going to be tied for HOA. In fact, all three of us (Wendell Cherry, Anthony Matarese, and I) thought that somebody was going to beat us. I felt like I was shooting absolutely horrible throughout the event, and when you think about it a 179/200 is pretty poor. But actually all of the FITASC shoots have been around that score. The North-American was at 181/200 and the latest National FITASC Championship was 183/200. So I guess it was about right.
Anyway, it never really hit me how important of a shoot the Grand Prix was until I was actually in the shoot-off with Wendell and Anthony. This was really my first year that I started shooting the FITASC World Cup events, so I didn’t really know much about the whole thing. But during the shoot-off I just ran my normal routine and eventually got out of there with a 23/25 for the parcour, and that got me the win. It may seem weird but a lot of the pressure was off during that shoot-off just because I felt so comfortable with both Wendell and Anthony. We are all really good friends, which made it all the better being able to shoot off against the people I respect most in the sport.
ISC: How was the North American Championship at Caribou and how were the targets?
DBR: The targets at Caribou were so much fun! That was the first time I had ever been there, it’s crazy because as I was pulling up into the club I kept thinking, “This is it? This is where they are having the 2012 US Open? There isn’t even a hill within 5 miles! This is horrible terrain!” Man was I wrong! I don’t know how, but they really are a hidden gem! The terrain on that course is literally as hilly and extreme as Elk Creek in Kentucky. It was awesome! Not to mention the beautiful club house and awesome people. The targets were honestly world class. They hugged the terrain perfectly and made for some excellent challenging birds. They had this parcour there that was literally set up so that five feet in front of you was a drop-off cliff about forty feet high. It was the best parcour I’ve ever shot.
ISC: How was your experience at the World FITASC?
DBR: I would definitely have to say that it was not at all as I expected. I heard stories about how horrible the people are in France and how the French referees cheat Americans out of targets and all this other horrible stuff that really made me not want to go. When we got to France, the people everywhere were so pleasant, the food was AWESOME and the referees could not have been better, at least that was my experience. I did hear some stuff about a certain incident involving a tree that I really was appalled with. I had a wonderful squad of guys from all over the place; England, Ukraine, France, and Belgium. By the end of the tournament, we were all really good friends. One of the coolest things about the whole shoot was how important it is to them. That was my very first World FITASC Championship, and compared to the World Sporting Championship it literally blows it out of the water. I felt like I was in a miniature Olympic Games. It was such an honor to represent my country in a sport that is actually shot all around the world, unlike Sporting Clays. Just that shoot alone really switched my interest from Sporting Clays to FITASC. I would recommend that everybody sign up for the 2012 World Championship at Northbrook. And even if you can’t shoot it, just come to watch. It will be worth it.
As far as my performance goes, I was actually really disappointed in the FITASC organization. I shot really well at the World Championship. Well enough to win my concurrent and place in the top five overall, beating both Digweed and Faulds. It was great to be able to finally whoop those guys. The thing that really bothered me though is the whole situation with the World Cup. Many people don’t actually know, but the World Cup is about the most prestigious thing you can win in FITASC. It is a combination of points from one Grand Prix Championship, one Continental Championship, and the World Championship. Being from the United States, it is extremely hard to win a World Cup medal because we can really only go to one Grand Prix and Continental. All the European shooters have a huge advantage from that because they have Grand Prix and Continental shoots what seems like every month. I shot well enough to win the North American Cup, which is a combination of the Grand Prix and North American Championship. However, after the World Championship, I should have won RU in the World Cup but unfortunately if you are a Junior you are not eligible to win it. I really do hope that they change that rule! I did however win the World Cup for the Junior concurrent.
ISC: Seems like senior Team USA (and to some extent the juniors) had some difficulty at the World FITASC, what’s your take on that?
DBR: I can’t really speak for anybody’s performance other than mine. I did speak with all of the members of the Senior team and can say with confidence that they all put their best effort into the match, unfortunately you just can’t shoot your best all the time. Everybody has bad days, it is what each person decides to do with those bad days that makes them a champion or just an average Joe. I really do respect each and every shooter that was on our team, I just can’t wait until we sweep the whole thing next year. The one thing that you have to realize though is that the World Championship really was just a pure American race. If you look at the top of the list, other than the first two guys who are French, there was a huge cluster of American shooters. And I will put money on the fact that you will not see those top two guys on the top of the list in 2012. America is going to become a powerhouse.
ISC: You set targets at an event in Ohio this year. How did that work out for you?
DBR: Yes, I ran a shoot at South Cuyahoga Sportsman’s Association called the Iron Clay 150. It was great, and is going to be even better in 2012! The shoot ran perfectly! I started setting targets for it about two weeks before the actual thing; I wasn’t able to do anything during the day though because of school. I could not have done it without the help of my friends Tommy Hugney, Kevin Coombes, and Ed Coyne who all came after I was done with school to help me move stuff around and give valuable input for targets. I would also like to thank Chuck Frazier, my all-time favorite target setter, for taking a day out of his work schedule after the East Coast and Grand Prix to give me some advice and show me some tricks out on his course. My plan was to set a course the way Chuck does, I’ve always enjoyed shooting targets that are close but somehow make you miss. I really feel like I accomplished that. I have fallen in love with setting targets and all of the work involved with it. I had an absolute blast setting it all up.
I felt so blessed to have such a great opportunity to be able to design my own course and bring some of my favorite international style targets to my home club to give the guys that don’t get to travel as much as I do a chance to shoot targets that they throw in tournaments internationally. I guess you could say that I have adapted a very technical style of setting targets. I have never and will never throw a target that causes a miss because of fast speed or long distance. I also have never and will never throw a straight line target. Every single target that I threw had a curl to it. I’ve always thought that it takes absolutely no skill to set a course where you pull the traps out and crank the springs up to get people to miss. The art in target setting is being able to beat the shooter at his or her own game.
I got so many wonderful comments about targets for the shoot. I will admit though, until you throw your own tournament, you will never realize how much heart and soul goes into doing it. I have a whole extra level of respect for gun club owners now. And as far as the 2012 Iron Clay goes, it is going to be a can’t miss. Two day event, the main event will be a one day 150 target course, prelim on Saturday with a FITASC event as well. I am going to try to emulate some World Championship FITASC targets. The payout is going to be pretty nice too, you can never argue with that! I would love to see some more out of state shooters!
ISC: Have you been practicing for the Nationals? Do you have a regimen before a major competition like that?
DBR: Because of school and everything else I haven’t really gotten a lot of good practice in yet. I have been pretty busy coaching and when I do that, I think it is important not to take my gun because I want to be fully focused on my client. I have however scheduled some alone time for the two weekends before the National Championship, giving me six days of solid practice before hand. That should be more than enough if I can do what I plan on doing. As far as a regiment goes, I have a whole pre-event routine that I do mentally to get prepared for tournaments, but being a student, it is always hard to get to physically practice very much.
ISC: How do you handle school and your practice and competition time?
DBR: Basically my whole shooting career I have been a high school student. I have never gotten to practice during the week days out on the range during the school year. My practice would be from tournament to tournament during the school year, during the summer is a different story though. Generally during the whole summer I am home a handful of days at most, which is why I have always shot my best during the summer. Other than that I always have to schedule all my tournaments around school. I very rarely get to shoot preliminary events, it’s usually just show up, shoot the main event, and leave before the awards ceremony. The hardest part for me is keeping up with All-American points; I gave up on those a long time ago. Being where I am from and also trying to juggle school and practice and golf, it’s literally impossible to make the first team.
ISC: You’ve started coaching now. What can people expect when they take a lesson from you?
DBR: Yes, I have actually been coaching for about five years now; I have only been coaching adults for the past three years though. It is only just recently that I have decided to start taking it to a much bigger level. I have found that I am really starting to develop an awesome coaching technique and I have fallen in even more love with it, and all the people I meet through it. Now that I am in college, I decided to take it up as an actual job rather than a hobby, and I can say that I am already more than happy with the success I have had with it. It has been amazing to see the amount of help I have received and suggestions that I have gotten on how to improve my business from my friends and shooting buddies, it has been great!
I have even been using my business as a project in my entrepreneurship class in college, my professor has been feeding me awesome ideas that I am planning on implementing in the near future once I get a larger concrete client base. My goal is to change the way people look at coaching. I really do believe that there are so many more resources out there that other coaches don’t even think about using. I have also started doing mental game coaching as well, which is a huge success! It is really convenient for the client because they don’t even have to leave their house. I’ve coached two guys on it so far, both were done over the phone after work. It’s a continuous process of phone calls for each person, slowly fine tuning and developing new mental processes but it has been working extremely well. It is also much cheaper than those mental game clinics that people put on.
As far as what people can expect, it is pretty simple. I will promise you that I am not, and I repeat; not, going to be an instructor, I am a coach. I want to develop a relationship with my clients so that I can use that to better improve their shooting. I want them to call me after their tournament and tell me how it went, or let me know how their practice was. I feel like that’s the best way to coach somebody; truly know them. I have no problem with my students calling me at night with a question that they just couldn’t figure out during practice. I want to help them. I guess you could say that I’m the kind of coach who wants his students to beat him. I’m not going to let anybody beat me, but if it happens, I would love it! I will also never waste anybody’s time by telling them if they are in front or behind the target. That is useless information. It’s essentially like giving the answers to a multiple choice test to a college student, of course he will ace the test but is he going to know anything? No. I stress the importance of process before product. I will teach you the technique that you will need to break each target, that way when I am not there you can take that information and apply it in different degrees in order to break the target. I am not going to lie; one lesson is not going to get you to have perfect form. I have been getting lessons from my coach Wendell Cherry for 8 years and I am still learning new things. There is no “quick fix” that everybody seems to be looking for in order to be the best, it takes practice and the correct techniques. I will guarantee, and I truly mean it, that if you take a lesson with me and you actually go home and work on what I tell you to work on, your scores will go up. But it takes work, like anything else.
ISC: Where do you give lessons and do you plan to travel around and do clinics?
DBR: I don’t have a home club for giving lessons, that is I am not contracted out with any club in my area. I don’t want to be. The closest gun club to me that is open during the week is Hill’n Dale Club in Medina, Ohio. However, I have no problem traveling to any other club within a couple hours of where I am located. I don’t mind driving, if anything it will improve my business by expanding my client area. So if you are interested in lessons, I encourage you to give me a call just to see what we can work out.
As far as clinics go, I am in the process of putting together a few at some nice resorts around my area. I have already been contacted by the management there, but in interest of not wanting to put anything out before they start advertising, I don’t want to name any place in particular. But it will be out soon! I am also looking at putting together a few various weekend clinics at clubs. Within the next few months I am going to start scheduling some clinics down in Texas during some of my breaks off of school. Hopefully they will work out, I surely am pretty excited!
ISC: How can people contact you?
DBR: If you are interested in talking to me about lessons, the fastest and easiest way to get in contact with me is my cell phone. Either a call or text message is fine. My cell phone number is (440) 829-7598. My email is another great way to catch me, that is radulovichf3@gmail.com. Lastly, which is probably the most important, my website is www.radulovichcoaching.com. That has all the up to date information as far as where I will be and when I am coaching, shooting, or practicing. All of my contact information as well as testimonials and online forums can be found there. I look forward to talking to you!
Photos courtesy of Lynne Green @ GreenGirlPhotos.com
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