Highpower Competitor Develops App To Track Progress, Improve Scores
Jeff Minder (right) at the 2023 Highpower National Matches at Camp Perry in Ohio.
(Editor’s Note: This story arrives courtesy of the Civilian Marksmanship Program.)
Jeff Minder, from Charlotte, N.C., got involved with competitive shooting to get out of the house in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. At first, he was satisfied with just hitting the paper, but after several matches he noticed improvements and identified the need to start tracking his progress.
If you want to get better at any sport, one crucial step to follow is tracking your progress. This will help with monitoring progress over time, identifying patterns and adjusting to further your goals.
When Jeff first started tracking his scores he recorded them on paper. He recalled, “I got tired of losing pieces of paper that I jammed in my pocket, but I always had my phone.” Thus, the idea for the HighPower XTC Score Tracking App was born.
The HighPower XTC Score Tracking App, which can be used on a web browser, or mobile device, can track a variety of things, including scores, ammo type, elevation and wind. Users are encouraged to “slice and dice all that stuff every which way you want.” The bare minimum you can put in it is the scores. Basically, make the app work for your specific needs.
The app also provides graphs to visualize the data and help you identify patterns more easily. The more data and matches that you record, the more insight the app can provide.
I should also note that the app is made with highpower shooting in mind. Competitors of other disciplines are welcome to use it, but some of the features are designed specifically for highpower shooting. (Minder joked “You don’t do much pistol shooting from a sitting position.”)
Users can tailor the app to their preferences — adding as much or as little data as they like.
At this point, the app is still in a private beta mode, but Jeff welcomes anyone who wants to try it out and provide feedback to do so. The app has many different features, and Jeff encourages people to use the parts of it that they find useful.
Minder’s goal is to one day get the app available for download in the App Store, but that is still a long way away. He noted, “It takes a lot more resources than I anticipated so right now I’m trying to work with people to test it and tell me what makes sense and what might need to change.”
He’s hoping, eventually, app sales can help support his shooting problem, err, habit.
Try the app yourself! Follow this link for instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1teabXC0PxYNs467ym26L2ynsBr_hNErGMPz_mH0mLtw/edit#heading=h.6jynaot9cbnq
For more info on upcoming matches to test out the app, visit: https://ct.thecmp.org/app/v1/index.php?do=match&task=search
