Top Shot TV Competitor Kelly Bachand Speaks Out
Kelly Bachand, the youngest competitor on the Top Shot TV series, is a regular contributor to AccurateShooter.com. Currently an electrical engineering major at the Univ. of Washington, Kelly is a talented Palma rifle shooter who has managed to hold his own in other shooting disciplines. Kelly is the real deal — a genuine marksman, and we know many readers have been pulling for him through the grueling Top Shot elimination process.
There’s a fascinating full-page interview with Kelly in the Cheaper Than Dirt Blog. The first half of the interview covers Kelly’s background and marksmanship training. In the second half, Kelly discusses his Top Shot experience, revealing secrets about the show and the inter-personal rivalries which have become such a staple of the series. Kelly also explains how he managed to survive three elimination rounds.
| Q: During the first elimination challenge you shot rifles and sent Mike Seeklander home. That was a pretty stunning defeat and seemed to surprise everybody. It does seem like your mental attitude has really helped you through all of the elimination challenges you’ve been through.
Kelly: I do have a certain mental ability that I’ve kind of picked up and practiced and begun to get better at over the last year, year and a half, to kind of shut other things out while I’m actually shooting. I’ll be extremely nervous up until the point I’m actually shooting, extremely nervous. At the Beretta Xtrema [shotgun] challenge I got up to the line, and I’m way outside of my comfort zone holding this Beretta. I’ve fired it all of about 20 times now, and I got up there, I focused on what I need to do, and I make the shot. It all kind of goes away. What I do is I just repeat a mantra in my head. I just ask myself, “OK, what do I need to do to make this a perfect shot?”. Then I tell myself over and over what I need to do. If I continually force feed myself good thoughts — positive thoughts about what I need to do to make it perfect — I typically make very good shots. That’s right out of Lanny R. Bassham’s book With Winning in Mind. |
Whether you love the Top Shot show (for the shooting) or hate it (for the Hollywood reality-show nonsense), we recommend reading Kelly Bachand’s interview. Kelly has managed to adapt and learn quickly and that’s why he’s still “in the running” while other, more experienced competitors have been eliminated. Kelly offers many insights that can help any competitive shooter.
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Tags: History Channel, kelly bachand, Palma, Top Shot
Hang in there Kelly. You are the only one I feel is deserving of making it. They should have to give you money just for putting up the “show”
Very nice article, and after reading it I can see why Kelly is still in the mix. Thanks Paul for the article and link. It’s going to get interesting now that the red team has lost so many of their members.
Kelly has been my sole reason for watching the show. He has more dedication to winning than any other person competing. He may be the youngest on the show, but he was the most mature and disciplined competitor on the Red team, and surpassed most of the Blue team as well.
Anyone that can keep his head in the game after doing as well as he has and having his teammates reward him by trying to send him home has incredible mental strength and dedication.
I truly feel he is a winner regardless of the show’s outcome, as he has learned and adapted more than all the others combined.
Good luck Kelly, not only in the show, but your shooting career in general.
same here, basically no matter who wins the ‘prize’ Kelly has won respect.
Totally agree with Kenny474. Kelly’s maturity, business approach, and refusal to get into backbiting off range made him my immediate favorite. I agree with his statement that he lost the final challenge by going 1st; not due to marksmanship. However, I guess somebody had to go first. Kelly proved himself more than he should have had to. Note to producers: I tuned in to watch marksmen. I will not stick around if the focus becomes personality clashes and voting off the island type issues. Hope to see Kelly down the road. A young man I would love to have my kids adopt as a role model.
Kelly has the best attitude of all of the shooters, yet they all don’t like him. I guess it’s because he depends on his own shooting. The others depend on everyone else doing badly.