Aiming for Perfection

While other little girls in Burke, Virginia, were playing Parcheesi, Emily Houston was rifle shooting.

The 19-year-old sophomore, who began target shooting at age eight, has won 10 national championship titles and holds 20 national records, the highest score for her age group ever recorded in the United States. She has competed in the Junior Olympics five times and plans to go to the Olympic trials in 2008.

Participating in more than 100 competitions in 20 states, she competed in her first national championship at 11, and at 15, she competed against the U.S. Army marksmanship unit, and beat them.

“She’s a standout,” says Jerry Mulloy, MIT’s head rifle coach. “Shooting is a mental game. It’s learning when not to shoot, rather than when to shoot. And let’s put it this way, she is real good. She could absolutely become an Olympic shooter.”

Houston was elected captain of the MIT varsity rifle team this season, and last season was chosen Most Valuable Player.

“Shooting is the only thing I can do perfectly,” says this young woman, who has won dozens of medals. “When I shoot a perfect shot, I can be perfect at that moment. It’s tangible evidence that I can do something completely right. I really love that feeling. I am always aiming for perfection.”

BE STILL

It is in the stillness, she says, that she is her best. “The goal is to be consistently still ever time you shoot. You try not to move at all from shot to shot, because if you shoot one shot perfectly, then you can do it over and over. The stillness brings you concentration.”

No observers at a shooting match cheer, whistle, or applaud, she says. It’s not good etiquette. “It’s like golf. You’re quiet.

“Shooting has helped me focus. I know I could not have gotten to MIT if I had not learned shooting. It gave me the discipline in athletics to apply to academics,” says Houston, who plans to major in mechanical engineering, and who says one day she hopes to help solve the world’s energy problems.

“I like thinking big, and I want to make other people’s lives better. I want to do something to change the world. I could have gone to a shooting school, like one of the service academies, and maybe I could make the Olympics, but that wouldn’t really help anybody but me. At MIT, I can apply the lessons I learn to society. People at MIT change the world. It’s really cool to be in their footsteps.”

TAKES YEARS

“It takes years to become the type of rifle shooter that Emily is,” says Mulloy. “She’s a hard worker, and she got to the level she is today because she worked hard at it. It’s not easy.”

At MIT, Houston shoots 10 hours a week. Mental training, she says, is key.

“You have to put as much time into mental training as into physical training. After I shoot a perfect shot, I write down what thoughts were going through my head at the time. Sometimes I have songs in my head with a positive message.

“For example, before every match I listen to John Williams and the Boston Pops play the Olympic theme on my iPod,” she says. “The music inspires me. I see in my mind the Olympic rings, and I visualize the parade of athletes marching into the arena. It always gets me in the mood to win.”

by Liz Karagianis

On Topic: students