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59Bassman

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I think this has some applicability in USPSA, at least I'm trying to apply it...

What seems like a long time ago, I was shooting A LOT of skeet. While I was primarily a Sporting Clays shooter, skeet is like eating your vegetables for Sporting - it gives you a lot of the fundamental building blocks you need to get better at the game. My shooting partner was AAA in all 4 gauges, and it was a rare, rare round when Bill dropped a bird. I was still struggling with my first 25 straight. I would always seem to get to station 5 and then drop one. Or I'd clear 5 and then miss high 6 (a cardinal sin, it's just hanging right there!) I'd go clean for the rest of the round, and had logged I don't know how many 24's out of 25.

After several months of this, Bill stopped me on our way to station #5, and he asked "If you knew you were up against a Japanese Zero, would you rather be in a Corsair or a Hellcat?" Both Bill and I were warbird buffs, and had been going to airshows together. But the timing of the question floored me. I stammered for a while, and couldn't figure out how to answer. By the time I stammered out "Corsair, I think", it was my turn to shoot. I cleared #5.

Before #6, he asked me if I'd rather be in a P-47 or a Hawker Tempest in a ground-attack role. Again it spun my head around and I kept working on an answer until I had to shoot. I cleaned #6.

On #7, he asked me a question about early jet fighters, and how I thought they would have stacked up had the war gone on a bit longer. I stopped thinking about hitting low 7 and how the German jets were superior to the early Allied jets. All 4 targets broke on #7.

On station 8, I think it was a question about light bombers. When it was my turn, I stepped into High 8, broke it. We kept talking about light bombers, and then when I stepped onto low 8, Bill had to tell me to load 2 shells. I had no idea I was clean up until then. I broke both targets, and got my first 25 straight.

Afterwards, Bill shared with me that he thought of focus as being like a muscle. As you improve, you have more stamina with it. But what he saw me doing was focusing just as hard watching the targets that everyone else shot as I did on the ones that I shot. He told me that I was exhausting my focus by station #5 or #6, and then making a simple mistake. Even if you're not watching the targets, you're counting score, he said. So by talking to me about something completely unrelated, he got my focus relaxed until it was my turn to shoot, and I knew how to break all of the targets. Bill told me that at major tournaments, he'd do his grocery list, plan the order he'd do his laundry, whatever he could to take his mind off the shooting in between his turns.

So my question is, do you all try to "turn off" until you're in the box? Once you've made a plan on your walkthrough, are you able to think of something else until you shoot, or are you focused on each shooter, measuring their plan against yours? I'm not good at it yet in USPSA, but it's something I work on.

I often wonder what people thought after that, when Bill and I would be talking about anything other than guns or shooting when we were at major tournaments. I recall one heated discussion about mulching vs. bagging mowers that got us through one in particular. :)

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I think this has some applicability in USPSA, at least I'm trying to apply it...

What seems like a long time ago, I was shooting A LOT of skeet. While I was primarily a Sporting Clays shooter, skeet is like eating your vegetables for Sporting - it gives you a lot of the fundamental building blocks you need to get better at the game. My shooting partner was AAA in all 4 gauges, and it was a rare, rare round when Bill dropped a bird. I was still struggling with my first 25 straight. I would always seem to get to station 5 and then drop one. Or I'd clear 5 and then miss high 6 (a cardinal sin, it's just hanging right there!) I'd go clean for the rest of the round, and had logged I don't know how many 24's out of 25.

After several months of this, Bill stopped me on our way to station #5, and he asked "If you knew you were up against a Japanese Zero, would you rather be in a Corsair or a Hellcat?" Both Bill and I were warbird buffs, and had been going to airshows together. But the timing of the question floored me. I stammered for a while, and couldn't figure out how to answer. By the time I stammered out "Corsair, I think", it was my turn to shoot. I cleared #5.

Before #6, he asked me if I'd rather be in a P-47 or a Hawker Tempest in a ground-attack role. Again it spun my head around and I kept working on an answer until I had to shoot. I cleaned #6.

On #7, he asked me a question about early jet fighters, and how I thought they would have stacked up had the war gone on a bit longer. I stopped thinking about hitting low 7 and how the German jets were superior to the early Allied jets. All 4 targets broke on #7.

On station 8, I think it was a question about light bombers. When it was my turn, I stepped into High 8, broke it. We kept talking about light bombers, and then when I stepped onto low 8, Bill had to tell me to load 2 shells. I had no idea I was clean up until then. I broke both targets, and got my first 25 straight.

Afterwards, Bill shared with me that he thought of focus as being like a muscle. As you improve, you have more stamina with it. But what he saw me doing was focusing just as hard watching the targets that everyone else shot as I did on the ones that I shot. He told me that I was exhausting my focus by station #5 or #6, and then making a simple mistake. Even if you're not watching the targets, you're counting score, he said. So by talking to me about something completely unrelated, he got my focus relaxed until it was my turn to shoot, and I knew how to break all of the targets. Bill told me that at major tournaments, he'd do his grocery list, plan the order he'd do his laundry, whatever he could to take his mind off the shooting in between his turns.

So my question is, do you all try to "turn off" until you're in the box? Once you've made a plan on your walkthrough, are you able to think of something else until you shoot, or are you focused on each shooter, measuring their plan against yours? I'm not good at it yet in USPSA, but it's something I work on.

I often wonder what people thought after that, when Bill and I would be talking about anything other than guns or shooting when we were at major tournaments. I recall one heated discussion about mulching vs. bagging mowers that got us through one in particular. :)

Somewhat coincidentally, I'm getting back into USPS after a 20+ year break but have been shooting sporting clay competition for the last number of years. My routine at SC/FITASC was to come up with my plan for the stand or peg then wander away and listen to my ipod and visualize a bit being as exacting as possible.......how does the ground feel beneath my feet in the stand, how big and slow the targets look, how smooth the gun moves, etc., etc. The last thing I would ever do was watch everyone shoot or discuss my plan/choke/etc. with others. When I was on deck I'd might watch a pair or two BUT ONLY if the person shooting had excellent technique and was very likely to be breaking the targets as I planned to [order/break points].

As you know, conscious thought is the deal breaker when we should be running a zombie program subconsciously. That's the approach I'll be bringing to my UPSA shooting. I'm pretty excited to get back shooting USPAS because my 'mental game' is about 1000 times better then it use to be and I'm interested to see how it works.

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59B, that's a great story. Thanks for posting it.

I would agree that spending too much time watching others shoot can wear you out, especially if you are already a bit nervous. For me, I would spend a good bit of time during the walk through programming my plan and focusing on some of the nuances that might be a bit trickier than others. But afterwards, as long as I wasn't due to shoot soon, I would mostly switch off. Fortunately, I've always been pretty social and could spend most of my time, while waiting to shoot, chatting with folks, telling jokes, etc. It was always fun, and a great distraction from the task that awaited me. At times, I might mentally revisit the COF or a particular part of it, and I also watched other shooters but without too much seriousness. When brassing, that would give me one last chance to revisit any part of the COF since I would be down range. But once I was in the hole, or on deck, I would walk away from the activity and isolate myself. During that time I'd would not think about shooting. Rather, I'd do some simple stretches and focus on my muscles, trying release any tension. Many times I found a lot of peace in just observing nature; the trees, sky, birds, etc. It was just a complete mental break from what I was about to do. But once the person in front of me fired their last shot, I'd switch back on and mentally "get up" for what I was about to do.

Grunt

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I generally don't think too hard on stages, even when breaking them down. I think it bogs the mind down too much. I walk through, see targets, try to find any hidden ones, adjust, and walk through a couple more times and visualize. After the walkthrough time is up, I generally have a song in my head and kind of meander until I am in the hole. Once I am third in line, I walk through while taping to make sure, and then once more when I am on deck. After that, I am confident I know the stage.

One tip - never hesitate to go tape or help with the scoring. A lot of guys avoid it, but I jump on it, especially when I am down the list in shooting order becasue it gets me extra reps knowing where the targets are.

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Really good post.

You often hear that it is impossible for a person to stay hard focused and maintain 100 percent concentration for a complete trapshoot event(100). And I believe it too.

Clearing your head a short time before you call pull is hard enough. After the shot, I think you should relax your mind a little. Even if it means counting birds down, thinking about a girl is about to beat you, or any other random bullshit. As long as you quiet your mind and eyes before you call for the target, you should be fine.

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I was taught not to watch other shooters. Make your stage plan and then spend the time before you shoot visualizing your plan. Not quite the same but at least I'm not focusing on the other shooters . I'm still so new to uspsa that I need all the time before its my turn to make sure my plan is solid and I know it cold before its my turn so I can't worry what others are doing ...

Edited by Nimitz
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  • 1 month later...

When I shoot trap, I usually think of what they are serving for lunch etc. while the others are shooting until the person shooting just before me shoot. I then concentrate on his bird, then raise my gun, put my two pre-call thoughts in my head (eye on the bird, head on the stock), and then call for my bird.

I think it is true you can't concentrate the whole time you are shooting a round of trap.

I don't know yet how I will prepare for USPSA shooting since I am just starting out, but reading the tips on this forum is certainly helping me.

Jim

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

This is a very enlightening post as it describes the symptom of what repeatedly happens to me during competition. I've shot about 35 matches now, mostly IDPA but also USPSA and Steel Challenge. I generally do better during the early stages of a match, but find myself losing focus (and shots!) later on. The same pattern happened during an action pistol match yesterday. Afterward I'm self-analyzing, trying to figure out just why the wheels fell off. Then I stumbled upon this thread which describes exactly what happened (LIGHT BULB ON, EYES WIDE OPEN!). During the first stages I was ignoring what the others were doing and going with my own instincts. Then, without realizing it at the time, I started closely watching the shooters before me, intently discussing stage strategy with other waiting shooters, creating a mental checklist of "I need to do this here" and "remember to do that over there". My apprehension level jumped up and I took myself out. Thanks for this thread - recognizing a problem is a big step toward fixing it.

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