I need some help...more mental than anything else

[Steve Anderson]

Sometimes you gotta take a break... life happens.

And believe it or not, putting two holes in cardboard doesn't always make the most sense in this crazy life.

Give it some time.

We'll be here when you get back.

Most of us, some of us.

Who knows?

[downrange72]

That's kind of what I'm thinking

[TommyD]

The title of this thread on the Latest Post section is: "I need some help...more men..."

With just about any sport or activity, when pushing it to the limit, youre gunna hit a wall. I look at shooting matches as having fun. Practice hard, shoot fun. Being overly hard on myself never really helps.

Edited October 12, 2012 by TommyD

[Lee B]

while you're on break, read Mastery by George Leonard. It will give you a different perspective on practice sessions and such.

[Chris iliff]

Mike,

Missed you at South Central. I employed my SIMPLIFY plan. It worked out pretty good.

I understand where your coming from. Hope to shoot with you in the future. Sometimes a break allows perspective.

[downrange72]

I shot a steel match the first weekend and I haven't really done anything since (working long hours) I'm shooting this weekend and shooting/working Indiana state match the following weekend. I miss shooting a little, but not to the "withdrawal" stage.

I have noticed that the pain in my ankle has diminished significantly. Im thinking that perhaps the ankle was interfering more than what I was perceiving. We will see what happens the next two weeks. Physically, I'm feeling better than I have in several months. Maybe this will make a difference in performance.

[downrange72]

I made it through the day. Had a great time. I had two misses. One was a piece of steel that I hit low and of course calibration was not kind. The other was a pull off on a 20 yard shot. Four Delta. I had one stage that inexplicably I shot the last 1/2 head shots only. That cost me some time and probably several alpha. The only thing I can think of is that the brain was still shooting over the no shoots

Bad news, the ankle is swollen again. I think I may have to shut 'er down after next week ss/prod match

Edited October 21, 2012 by downrange72

[zhuk]

Very interesting thread. I know I am having similar issues, for about the same time shooting but far less proficiency than you have downrange.

When I say I see the sights, I honestly believe I do. However, as I mentioned earlier, I could be staring over the rear or have the gun 'cock eyed'. This has happened in the past and I know it happens on steel.

Very awkward when you think for all the world that you are watching the front sight - but you are not! However the fall of shot will always tell you when you aren't doing this. I've had a very experienced shooter watch me, and when I was POSITIVE I was looking at the fs he would say "You were looking at the target on that last shot, I saw your body language change!"

Frustrating

[a matt]

"I generally don't practice. It is a lack of time (sometimes away from home all week)and funding issue. Yes I could dry fire more, no excuse here. I shoot nearly every weekend. My performance tends to peak in the summer and fall off in the winter"

Seriously?

Come back when you're ready to change that.

Or, accept that you just want to have fun shooting and quit looking at the results.

Nice!

You get out of it, what your are willing to put into it.

Shooting matches on the weekend and not practicing, Not dry firing is the

Slowest way to improve in shooting. IMHO.

Edited November 30, 2012 by a matt

[August]

I don't have any claim on having mastered the mental game. But, I will claim that things have improved a lot since I started working on it several years ago.

When I first started to work on visualization, it was all I could do to visualize the stage in a third person perspective. In other words, I would have to work very hard to "see" myself going through the stage and doing everything that was called for in the correct order. This got better over time. It was like watching a movie, "seeing" myself run the stage. There was a strong sense that this process was making things better, but there were still severe lapses in performance. I knew that I had to find a way to do the mental practice from a first person perspective, but just could not get more than one, or two shots in the rehearsal without losing attention. Doing it in first person was way-harder for me than the third person -- watching myself -- point of view.

After a couple of years, it was clear that rehearsing with a third person point of attention was not going to get me where I wanted to go. It helped, but never made running the stage fool proof.

It took a lot of effort and self-talk to force myself into a first person frame of mind during a match. Running the stage as if I were looking through my own eyes -- seeing the scenario as it would look as I shot -- was very hard to do. I don't know if others have had that much difficulty, but it was a bear for me. As time went along, I could get further and further into the stage procedure without losing my focus while rehearsing. When the day came that I could rehearse a whole stage -- beginning to end -- from a first person point of view, things really started to change in my shooting. When I spent all the time necessary to visualize every detail (that was important), I was shooting well past my physical ability, and more practice at the actual skills became necessary for feeding the new "power" I had discovered. It got to where I could turn this visualizing power on, and off, at will. Wow, talk about a secret weapon!

However, on first stages, or late in a match, I would get lazy, bored, disinterested -- who know what kind of mental distraction -- and wouldn't do the mental work necessary for success. I had the mental skill, but didn't always use it. I found I didn't do the work for an entire match, beginning to end.

When I realized how much I was letting myself down, and that there was nothing else to blame, I got serious about the things that make it possible to do the mental work for an entire match. It is very hard to do this. The people that do it well deserve to win -- and, they usually do.

Again, I am no expert by any means. But, this has been my personal experience.

[benos]

A person who knows once told me that individuals often have a preference for which way they can most easily visualize (first or third person).

But regardless, even if first person visualization isn't your strong point, you can improve on it with dedicated practice.

You might try to run down a book or two on the topic.

be

[daves_not_here]

Brain,

Any recommended books on visualization? Working through Lanny Bassham's first book now.

DNH

[benos]

Not really DNH. MANY years ago, I read the then classic book on visualization, Creative Visualization:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Visualization-Power-Imagination-Create/dp/1577316363/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355353701&sr=8-1&keywords=creative+visualization

... But thinking back on it, it just didn't really connect with me at the time I read it. I think I was just too young to get it. But then many, many years later, I realized that once I had all my skill sets mastered, my performance all came down my ability to visualize what I was going to do. I realized then, that I'd self-taught myself to visualize, pretty much just form experience.

[Powder Finger]

you may find this at a used book store

Seeing with the mind's eye

it has sections on everything from religion to healing to .........

it's a pretty detailed book on relaxation and visualization.

[Sam]

I never put much faith in visualization until I started to shoot in higher levels of competition. Even then, it seemed kind of like wishful thinking for a while. But, I have come to understand how the things that we clearly visualize (set our minds on with clear intent) actually do manifest.

The problem I had was the same one that causes most of our problems. Faith! I had a lot more faith in trying than I did in visualizing. So, even when I did visualize a stage, trying usually prevailed. Now, it's clear to me that whatever I clearly visualize before the beep, is pretty much how I going to shoot the stage. Trying doesn't have a job anymore. Everyone of us is a little bit different in how we preocess information. But, this is what I know to be true for me: If I don't do a detailed visuaization and just let it flow, I will try. Trying in itself is defeat. Think about what the word means. I tried... but I struck out. I tried...but I came up short. The very word is an excuse!

For me this is a true statement: "I tried....because I did not visualize and flow with it.

[daves_not_here]

Trying in itself is defeat. Think about what the word means. I tried... but I struck out. I tried...but I came up short. The very word is an excuse!

For me this is a true statement: "I tried....because I did not visualize and flow with it.

I think you frame it well. By using the word try gives up winning just to protect the ego from doing poorly.

Thanks,

DNH

[JAustin]

About seeing your sights try this.

Next practice session shoot at nothing, no target, just you and the front sight.

Step #1

Learn to shoot without blinking. With a focus on the front sight as sharp as reading print.

Step #2

Adjust wrist tension to get your sights to go straight up and straight back down.

Step#3

Adjust wrist tension to get your front to stop lined up with your rear sight, the same position that the sights started at the beginning of recoil.

Step #4

Goose bumps, caused by your realizing that you just saw the whole process happen and your still looking and have in sharp focus the front sight and the fact that the gun is waiting for you to give it another shot.

Step #4

Is probably the most important because if you do not experience this phase of making a shot theres a real good chance that your next shot is going somewhere else.

IE how many times have you seen guys shoot an A and a C on several targets in a row. There simply short circuiting the process and totally loosing the second shot.

Now when you have mastered this apply some of the mental points others have made hear to solidify this ideal in your brain.

As a Grand Master ICORE shooter I can tell you that this is all I do for every shot I make no matter how close the target is. When I start getting ahead of myself and stop seeing these four steps I stop refocus on the front sight and get going again on track.

At the beginning of every practice I shoot without a target to retune these four step.

Took me a long time to learn that this is what I need to be seeing and now is seems so simple.

Front Sight.

James

[Steve Anderson]

The thing about visualizing a stage is you have to do it over and over.

Then, at make ready, you must STOP visualizing the stage and give your conscious mind a new job.

This involves trusting the visualization that you've done, and trusting that it will be there.

If you continue to think about navigating the stage, your conscious mind will do that and NOT the job you want it to do.

Which is: _____________________________________.

SA

[mikeg1005]

You need to practice... on a regular basis, that is the solution, if you go for periods, even a week without rehersing the fundmentals then you'll spend 1/2 the match relearning what you did a week ago instead of performing at your best.

I can tell you this from your videos. You look like me when I took a break for hunting season the past couple months... I picked the gun back and and was trying to shoot like I know how to... but it wasn't working. Becuase I was recalling how to shoot(no practice) instead of shooting like I know how to.

It takes practice... I went from a middle C class to a B in one month just by adding 15 minutes of basic dry firing 3-4 times a week. 3 targets, practicing draws, reloads, and transitions. A few months later I made A class and was capable of shooting like one... I plan to finally shoot classifiers this spring(not much time last summer) and stop sandbagging A class haha.

In order to improve you need to put the right mindset into it, and the right practice. Shooting is a diminishing skill, you get out of it what you put in.

Start dry firing.

Stop trying to memorize entire stages.

Visualize them... and then when its time to shoot, stop thinking, and just pay attention to what is going on. (caution going BE here). Plans/memories are based on past tense. Shooting happens in the present tense. Don't shoot off a plan, shoot of what you observe at the moment you are shooting. Once I accepted this, I became significantly smoother, faster, and more accurate while running a stage.

Mike.

Edited December 28, 2012 by mikeg1005