“These fi ne adjustments in
position are things only some- one who has been doing it 15 years can tell you how to do. They’ve really helped me out with so many pointers that I would have been stuck…heck, just about anyone I’ve come in contact with has helped me in some fashion.” “John is an extremely-
talented athlete,” said Parker. “He’s one of the unique shoot- ers that can pick up any gun and shoot it well. His defi ning characteristic as an athlete is his intense will to succeed at whatever he is doing. When you combine that with his carefree sense of humor, you end up with a great teammate and a true champion... It is especially fun to watch him train fi nals with Mike and Eric. He’s never afraid to express his prediction of beating them before the Final, and he always makes sure they know he beat them when he wins.” Joss was recruited into the
then newly-formed Para- lympic section in USAMU in 2013 when he was running the track at Fort Benning for physical therapy. Joss lost a
portion of his lower right leg as a result of injuries suffered when his vehicle was caught in an ambush during combat in Iraq. Joss wasn’t looking to switch jobs within the Army at the time he was recruited to USAMU – he was previously instructing other soldiers to shoot mortar guns – but when orders would have required him to move, he followed up with the section recruiter to ar- range a tryout. “He said we’ll see how you
shoot and see what kind of person you are, and needless to say, I guess I passed both of those criteria,” Joss said proudly. “I was a soldier with no elite shooting experience, I was good marksman, but I didn’t have any college shoot- ing or anything like that.” Two years later, Joss is
confi dent he’ll earn a quota at the upcoming IPC World Cup in Sydney, Australia. Earning one in both disciplines would make him “one happy son of a gun” — and he is focused on building his experience to get back on top of those podiums. “I’m just a confi dent dude, that’s just how I was raised.
26 USA Shooting News | September 2015
Just believe in yourself,” Joss said matter-of-factly. ”If you believe in yourself, everyone else is going to as well. It’s not that anyone can’t beat me, I just need to stop beat- ing myself and doing dumb things. I’ve got a really good
shooting gun, I’ve got some of the best shooters on planet earth shooting around me all the time, I’ve got the train- ing environment; basically the only thing that’s kept me from destroying everyone is that I’ve been mentally weak. That comes with time and that comes with experience, but it’s getting better every day. You have to work on it every day. You can be the best damn shooter all day long, but they put you in a match and they say ‘record fi re, go,’ it all changes. Just working on those experiences, and taking those experiences from Ga- bala and Nationals and put- ting them in my head like ‘Hey man, you shot with the best in the world, and you didn’t look bad — you beat 60% of them. Let’s shoot against these guys and beat them too.’”
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