Virginia Military Institute’s cadet-athletes have to juggle cadet life, heavy academic course loads, and their NCAA Division I sport. Committed to both academic and athletic pursuits, balancing their rigorous schedule in both sports and school requires a certain level of commitment and discipline. Behind the Balance is a series that focuses on those cadet-athletes and how they handle the hurdles of the day-to-day. 

LEXINGTON, Va. Dec. 5, 2023 — Christopher Hicks ’24 takes a deep breath, sets up his sight, braces his weapon, and fires. For Hicks, the sport of rifle is 90% mental. It’s also long and arduous.  

"If I'm having a rough last couple shots, I like to just put the gun down and then take a step back and try to regroup myself instead of letting the anger get to me,” he said.  

If he lets his anger and frustration get to him, he’ll just end up rolling the same set of bad shots.  

“I like to try to start over, reset my position," he said. “This is a new shot. Forget about the old shots.” 

How the sport of rifle works 

He has two separate kinds of shots — one set of 60 shots with a .22 rifle and another set of 60 shots with an air rifle.  

He said it’s about a shot a minute. There is a time limit for both sections of shots, a total of an hour and a half.  

“It's not rapid fire. You want to be one shot per minute,” he said. “Regroup yourself, go through the same routine, every shot. Make it the best shot you can.” 

It’s more than just shooting a gun. It’s about position and accuracy.  

When shooting the .22, you have three positions — prone, which is laying down; kneeling, with one knee down; and standing. Each position you get 20 shots, totaling 60 shots with the possibility of 600 points, 10 points per shot.  

For the air rifle, all 60 shots are from the standing position, with the same possibility of points. In this round, the athlete generally scores higher.  

Handling studies and sport

Rifle is one of the sports at Virginia Military Institute with one of the longest seasons. Starting in September until early-March. Hicks said the team practices daily from 4 to 5:30 p.m. 

Cadet-athletes at VMI not only have their responsibilities with their selected sport but cadet duties on top of that. Cadets are also required to take physical fitness classes twice a week, participate in ROTC all four years, prepare for room and uniform inspections, practice for parade, guard duty, and more.   

“I would say time management is the biggest thing,” he said. “Being able to know your schedule and then know when you have time and then fitting everything in. That's what's helped me the most because I know when I practice and when I have free time, and so I can fit in time for studying.” 

Hicks grew up hunting and knew his way around a gun, but he really got into it when he was part of Marine Corps Junior ROTC. The program has an extracurricular activity of rifle. 

The civil engineering major was originally going to commission, now he’s looking to use his degree in the civil sector. 

He wasn’t looking at schools specifically for rifle. He was selected for the team and entered a trial period. He said now, the team is making more recruiting efforts, but when he started, they were looking for people with prior experience in rifle.

Hicks said he’s a mix between a natural shot and a practiced one. He’s honed his skills on the range with practice — both mentally and in skill. The highest he’s scored is 591 in practice and 589 in competition.  

Drills like removing the monitor where you can gauge your shot also helps in feeling and seeing where you’re shooting, he said.

“Rather than just putting lead downrange and seeing where it goes, it helps you understand where you’re putting the shot and what's affecting the shot, like trigger pull or anything like that,” he said. 

Laura Peters Shapiro
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE