Learn › Track 06 · Competing
Coaching rules, protests & fees
Halfway through qualification your coach can see you are rushing: shots coming every 40 seconds, holds getting short. They want to tell you. How they do it decides whether it helps or costs you points.
Think first: In qualification, which of these is allowed?
- The coach calls your name and tells you to slow down
- The coach holds up a card that says “SLOW”
- The coach walks up behind you and whispers
- The coach sends you a text message
Coaching on the field of play
A card, a gesture, a whiteboard: all fine. If you want to talk, the rule puts the decision with you, and makes it cost a little time.
- Unload the pistol.
- Insert the safety flag.
- Leave the firing line.
- Now you and your coach can talk. The match clock keeps running.
The coach may not call you off the line. Coaching that breaks these rules earns a warning first, then a 2-point deduction. In a final, only non-verbal coaching is allowed. In the mixed team final, each team has one coach and one 30-second time-out.
From the 2026 World Championship, only coaches with an ISSF "A" or "B" licence may be on the field of play.
Non-verbal coaching allowed in all events. Verbal coaching only after the athlete unloads, inserts the safety flag and leaves the line; the coach may not call the athlete off. Violation: warning, then 2 points. Finals: non-verbal only.
Agree your signals with your coach before the season and test them in training matches: what each one means, and what you will do when you see it. A signal you have to decode costs more attention than it saves.
Protests: fast, written, and not free
If you think a decision is wrong — a score, a penalty, a ruling on a malfunction — you can protest. The process has tight deadlines and real costs.
- At once — Verbal protest — Tell the officials straight away.
- ≤ 20 min — Written protest — If the verbal answer doesn’t settle it. Fee €50.
- ≤ 10 min — Score protest — Within 10 minutes of the preliminary results being posted.
- Before next shot — EST shot value — Before your next shot, or within 3 minutes of your last shot.
- ≤ 30 min — Appeal — To the Jury of Appeal. Fee €100. Its decision is final.
A protest about the value of a shot on an electronic target is rejected if the shot is within two decimal rings of the value displayed. And a protest that fails costs 2 points on top of the fee.
Think first: You lodge a written protest, and it fails. You appeal, and that fails too. How much have you paid in fees, in euros?
Finals are different
Finals move too fast for a written process.
Think first: In a final, you think your 9.8 was really a 10.1. What can you do?
- Lodge a written score protest with the €50 fee
- Nothing about the score: finals have no score protests
- Appeal to the Jury of Appeal
- Ask to re-fire the shot
The fees in one place
| Item | Fee |
| Entry, per start | €170 (late €220) |
| ISSF ID | €50 (express €100) |
| Replacement Equipment Control card | €10 |
| Coach licence A/B · C/D | €100 · €50 |
| Judge licence | €50 |
| Written protest | €50 |
| Appeal | €100 |
Verbal protest first; written within 20 minutes, €50. Score protests within 10 minutes of preliminary results. EST shot-value protests before the next shot or within 3 minutes of the last shot; rejected if the shot is within 2 decimal rings of the displayed value. Failed protest: 2 points plus the fee. Appeal within 30 minutes, €100; the Jury of Appeal is final.
- Non-verbal coaching is allowed in all events. Talking needs unload, safety flag, off the line.
- Finals: non-verbal coaching only. From the 2026 World Championship, only A/B-licensed coaches on the field of play.
- Protest verbally first; written within 20 min (€50); appeal within 30 min (€100).
- EST shot-value protests: before the next shot; rejected within 2 decimal rings of the displayed value.
- A failed protest costs 2 points plus the fee. Finals have no score protests.