Series Introduction
At Precision Shot Pro, we’re passionate about the people behind the sport—their discipline, setbacks, growth and the experiences that shape them.
In the second instalment of his Athlete Insights series, Precision Shot Pro Brand Ambassador Daniel Michael looks beyond the first shot and opens up about the chronic pain behind his introduction to pistol shooting, the early lessons that shaped his development and why his first medal meant far more than the result itself.
A Journey Born from Pain
In my first post, I wrote about the first time I shot a sport pistol.
But there was another reason Robbie took me to the range that day.
I think what Robbie was trying to do—and he did it from experience—was distract me from thinking about the pain.
Dismembering your limbs, it turns out, is not much fun at all.
And it comes with a whole lot of pain.
Like, so much pain.
My motorcycle accident happened on 9 November 2020. More than five years later, I am still in chronic pain every day.
While my ankle was fused, it wasn’t entirely successful, and I now need to wear an Ankle Foot Orthosis (an AFO) to keep everything held together.
The AFO is great as a walking aid, but it comes with its own drawbacks.
It allows me to walk further and more safely, but it gets tight and creates a unique pain of its own.
It is made from some kind of semi-flexible plastic with a carbon-fibre look to it and has two large straps that wrap around my seriously wasted-away left calf.
Most people think I have a prosthetic leg .... I have given up correcting them.
Robbie understood because he had been through something similarly horrific several years earlier and ultimately had a Syme amputation.
For him, it ended the pain. He now gets around with a prosthetic and even turns his own aluminium “feet” from solid blocks. And if he absolutely has to, he can still hobble around without it, although it is no good for his back or hips.
Unfortunately, I am stuck with a fused, mostly dead foot on the end of my leg that hurts a lot while also being mostly numb.
It doesn’t move or flex of its own accord whatsoever. It is kind of a curse!
I try not to let it get to me, but unrelenting pain is tiring.
Add to that a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 2009 and, well, all-in-all, I'm not exactly what you'd call a high-performance specimen of human health.
Robbie probably knew from the outset that this was going to be a long game.
So he got me into ISSF precision shooting.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
All In
I love everything about shooting.
The precision, mainly. But also the rules, the process, my shot routine and, of course, all the equipment and gadgets that come with it.
Back in 2021 and 2022, I was just so glad to be out of hospital, back home and doing something that I dove in head-first.
My journey wasn’t like everyone else’s.
I wasn’t the person who showed up and shot a B Grade score in their first practice session.
No.
That was not me.
I had to try a lot harder and practise a lot more than anyone I knew just to make C Grade.
But I did start to show some promise early on in Air Pistol.
Back then, I was obsessed with my scores. It was all about breaking grades, shooting tens and chasing bigger totals.
Robbie kept trying to teach me otherwise. He wanted me to focus on the shot process, but I was a short-fused, hyperactive dude who wanted to shoot all the matches right now.
We ended up falling out for a while because of it. It wasn’t great. I would go back and do it differently if I could because of what I know now, but the past is done.
Can’t be changed.
Just gotta move on to the next shot.
The good thing is that Robbie and I moved past it.
We are good mates again now and regularly shoot together at Opens.
The First TROPHY
I kept going.
In February 2022, I shot my first Open and won my first medal/trophy - a second place in D Grade Men’s 10m Air Pistol.
I think it is fair to say that, by this point, I was all in. Guns blazing!
I had won a few freestyle martial arts competitions as a junior back in South Australia more than 30 years earlier, but apart from that, I had never won anything in sport.
Mostly because I'm not really a sporty guy.
I'm tall, lean, built like a half-finished coat rack, and generally not what anyone would describe as naturally athletic.
I just don’t sport.
The closest thing I had to a sport was motorcycles, but that was never competitive. So this was a revelation to me.
And when I won that first glass cup?
I spent the next few days in the glorious afterglow of winning a trophy.
As mediocre as a second place in D Grade might have seemed to anyone else, it was everything to me.
Because it wasn't really about the trophy, it was about what it represented.
Proof that I could still build something.
Still improve.
Still compete.
Still care about something enough to chase it.
And most importantly of all:
“It was a total distraction from chronic pain.”
And that's not a small thing.
While i'm shooting, I can almost completely forget about the pain for the duration of a match.
Almost.
And if you live in pain long enough, "almost" starts to feel a lot like...
MAGIC.
Daniel Michael is a WSPS pistol athlete from Victoria, Australia, a member of the Victorian State Team, and a Precision Shot Pro brand ambassador. He found shooting later in life following a life-changing motorcycle accident, and what began as part of recovery has grown into an ongoing pursuit of performance, progression, and the dream of one day representing Australia on the world stage.
Passion Ignites
Daniel’s first medal confirmed that shooting had become far more than a distraction. Next, he shares how a new club, a growing training journal and a chance encounter with an Olympic medallist transformed that early obsession into a serious pursuit.
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