First Stage Philosophies

[Fishin6061]

A good friend who is a master shooter has been telling me that “the first stage dictates the rest of the match”. My first stage tends to be my worst stage and I just block it out after I sign the score sheet. Any thoughts on different first stage philosophies? Thanks

[diehli]

I agree. It depends on how it goes. The caveat is pigeonholing it. Seems you both do that, which is a bad thing.

[eerw]

first stage is just that. it doesn't dictate how the rest of your match will go.

each stage deserves its focus and visualization.

if its in the morning..I am just a little more sleepy.

[CHA-LEE]

How about this...... Dry fire a simple stage at your house before you leave. That will be your "First" stage of the day so by the time you get to the match you are already one stage in compared to everyone else.

You can also take the stance of there not being a stage number. Each stage you shoot is just another stage. That way it does not matter if its your first, second, fifth or last stage. Its just another stage that needs to be figured out, programed, and shot.

[XRe]

Start treating your whole season as one big match. By the time you get to your first major for the year, you've shot how many stages before your so-called "first"...

And, any one stage only affects the ones that follow it if you allow it to. In the case of a bad performance, you need to learn how to move on from it, and put it in the past. In the case of a strong performance, you need to learn how to take the positive, confidence building aspects from that, and maintain that level of focus and discipline on the following effort. But, some magic notion that the first stage has to be good, or else the rest of the match will suck is just self-sabotage...

Of course, if you wanted to use it against the guy, he's given you the keys to his mental kingdom, so...

[carinab]

Dave makes a good point. The person that wins the match (the class, the category, or whatever) isn't the person who did the best. It's the person who screwed up the least. I don't think anyone is capable of the perfect match let alone the perfect stage (although some may come close). Manage expectations allowing yourself to do the best that you can on every stage and if it goes south, leave the bad stage behind. Otherwise your mind is drifting like a ghost ship between the past and the future, never moored in the present moment.

[jasmap]

Dave is right.....case in point is Max Michel at the 2009 Open Nationals. It was not his first stage of the match but Max ZERO'D a stage and still won the whole match. He did not dwell on one stage and he moved on mentally immediately following the stage. You rarely try to "go for it" on the next stage to make up for one bad stage.

The simple answer is to only shoot each stage by watching your sights and shooting A's as fast as you can.

Edited April 27, 2010 by jasmap

[Jman]

A couple bogeys are OK as long as you throw in a few birdies too. The advise you have been getting (till now ) has been excellent. Much of if coming from top National and Regional shooters.

Your post count is no indicator but I'm guessing the whole action pistol game is kind of new to you. 90% or more of your 1st stage performance "lag" will disappear when you have more matches under your belt. Fine. But what do you do until then? Just get aggressive. Find that stages soft spots and hammer the s#it out of them. Grab up as many points as possible and move on.

To barrow another golf phrase that fits perfectly here is: It's not how well you hit your good shots it's how well you hit your bad ones.

[lugnut]

Good thread. I don't find that my first stage is my "worst" stage... it's just that I usually warm up much better after that first stage!

It's mostly a mental thing IMO but there is something to getting warmed up. I try to be a little more conservative on my first stage to get a "feel" for my shooting on that day. That being said I still managed to get my only Mike on the first stage of my last match... on a target that was about 15 feet away. The skills aren't the problem... it's visual patience and mental discipline. As they say... move your eyes first and the gun will follow- just make sure to get your hits before moving your eyes! I wish it was easier.

[steel1212]

One match, one stage, one shot, at a time.

[benos]

My first stages also tended to be my worst.

I overcame that by programming an extra degree of backing off. I'd tell myself things like - I'm just going to cruise through this stage nice and smooth... and shoot good points. Just get a nice smooth run in the bag.

When I actually did that I'd often win the stage or at least be in the top three.

be

[Pezco]

My first stage is usually tentative, just trying to run it clean.

Good thread and advise, thanks all!

[el pres]

I have found that I get butterflies in the stomach right before the first stage even at most local matches. They come around right about when I'm called on deck, it's called adrenaline. I have no control over it, I am not stressing about anything to set it off, it's just my subconcious make up, forget about it !!

I Have learned to completely ignore it as to effecting that stages performance. Funny thing is they do not come back ever for the second stage and so on. I have learned that this has absolutely no negative effects on my performance and they are completely gone right at that first buzzer, so why stress and let it effect your first stage, it's all in the head..

Infact my first stage is usualy my best, so a little adrenaline can go a long way when utilized properly. My individual problem is the opposite as I become overconfident after the first stage and then ruin the second and third, cleaning it back up after that to salvage the match !!

Edited April 28, 2010 by P.Pres

[JeffWard]

In golf, you hit a few dozen range balls, and a few dozen putts before you tee it up.

In bowling, everybody rolls a few frames before they start the scoring.

In basketball, nobody would tip off without shooting a few lay-ups and jumpers before the game.

In baseball, you take BP, and fielding practice before you play.

WHY does the sport of USPSA expect competitors to step out of their car ice-cold, and do an extremely difficult, fast, and potential dangerous activity with NO preparation. WHY do clubs not set up a small bay area where a shooter can make a few draws, and squeeze off a dozen live rounds before they get into it for real? Assign one RO to the bay, and have at it.

This is something I've never understood about our sport, and I'd like to see changed.

The first stage would be SO much more a true representation of skill if you could warm up....

JeffWard

[XRe]

I have found that I get butterflies in the stomach right before the first stage even at most local matches. They come around right about when I'm called on deck, it's called areneline. I have no control over it, I am not stressing about anything to set it off, it's just my subconcious make up, forget about it !!

In anything other than a local match, I get a little concerned if I don't have that feeling before the first stage

I Have learned to completely ignore it as to effecting that stages performance. Funny thing is they do not come back ever for the second stage and so on. I have learned that this has absolutely no negative effects on my performance and they are completely gone right at that first buzzer, so why stress and let it effect your first stage, it's all in the head..

Those butterflies are just energy - and, yeah, part of the adrenaline dump you get as part of the process your brain kicks off when it knows you're about to do something "cool and exciting". I've learned to look forward to it, and to use it - I've found I can't effectively ignore it (the effects get worse for me, if I go that route), so I just use it. If you hit the hands shaking stage, take some slow, deep breaths - the extra O2 helps get a handle on the excess adrenaline and will help settle you up...

WHY does the sport of USPSA expect competitors to step out of their car ice-cold, and do an extremely difficult, fast, and potential dangerous activity with NO preparation.

You have a choice to prepare. You can do as many draws, reloads (unloaded mags, of course), etc, as you want in the safe area. You can also do calisthenics, stretches, etc, to get the body (and mind) warm to whatever degree you wish. There are a number of sports that mimic this - you can go through the motions beforehand all you want, but you can do the real thing until you get there - in fact, golf works like that, too. You can hit balls, putt on the practice green, etc, but you can't hit balls from the 1st tee, or put on the real greens until you get on the hole and tee off.

All of those things allow you to get loose and get your feel together, etc. You can do all of that, frankly just as effectively, with what we already have.

WHY do clubs not set up a small bay area where a shooter can make a few draws, and squeeze off a dozen live rounds before they get into it for real? Assign one RO to the bay, and have at it.

Try running some matches, and then you tell me. Which RO is going to sit there and not shoot the match, so you can come putz around "warming up"?

The first stage would be SO much more a true representation of skill if you could warm up....

Disagree. Cold performance is the true test of the skills you really own. If you have to warm up to be able to execute it, you don't fully own it.

[benos]

WHY does the sport of USPSA expect competitors to step out of their car ice-cold, and do an extremely difficult, fast, and potential dangerous activity with NO preparation. WHY do clubs not set up a small bay area where a shooter can make a few draws, and squeeze off a dozen live rounds before they get into it for real? Assign one RO to the bay, and have at it.

JeffWard

That's an aspect of the sport I really enjoyed. It adds a whole new level of challenge.

be

[Sam]

Otherwise your mind is drifting like a ghost ship between the past and the future, never moored in the present moment.

Carina, that'll be my great thought for the week. Thank you.

[Sam]

back on topic. I generally trash the first stage. (Rocky had to have Apollo Creed beat the snot out of him first.) Then, he was good to go.

In other words, I don't "turn the badger loose" until after he tears a hunk outta my rear end.

[j1b]

I'm a big momentum guy. As a philosophy I can intuitively figure out that momentum can be dictated but on an emotional level I am aware that it exists for me.

So I do tend to like to get off on the right foot. I like Dave's thoughts on looking at a whole season - I agree with that so in principle every stage after the first stage of your first match isn't a first stage - but my brain would hardly be able to accept that. I like getting nervous before a match. I like getting nervous before the first couple of stages. So the first stage of a match will always be that for me - the first stage.

I've blown them, and I've rocked them, and done everything in between. Ultimately I work to get off on a solid start. Do something that insures that out of the gates I haven't taken myself out of the match. If I do muck it up then I do tend to work on execution. In the old days I would have written myself off - but today I understand that one messed up stage does not a match make. So if it has to be the first, it's the first. And I focus on shooting the rest of the match as good as I can.

But getting off solid is important to me. And it helps me establish the foundation for the day and the match.

Not critical - but certainly something I want to do.

J

[Corey]

In golf, you hit a few dozen range balls, and a few dozen putts before you tee it up.

In bowling, everybody rolls a few frames before they start the scoring.

In basketball, nobody would tip off without shooting a few lay-ups and jumpers before the game.

In baseball, you take BP, and fielding practice before you play.

WHY does the sport of USPSA expect competitors to step out of their car ice-cold, and do an extremely difficult, fast, and potential dangerous activity with NO preparation. WHY do clubs not set up a small bay area where a shooter can make a few draws, and squeeze off a dozen live rounds before they get into it for real? Assign one RO to the bay, and have at it.

This is something I've never understood about our sport, and I'd like to see changed.

The first stage would be SO much more a true representation of skill if you could warm up....

JeffWard

I would personally love to see somethign like this! Idk why, but i get jumpy on stage 1 and my first couple live fire shots are akward. halfway thru the stage im better and the rest of the day im fine, but the first few are always weird feeling to me. If i could go shoot one mag worth of ammo 20 min before a stage, id love it!!

[Wicked Wrister]

I have had 1st stages that were simply the best stages I've ever shot and some, the worst. Something I have noticed with my personality is that when I start really strong, I put added pressure on myself to continue strong and small mistakes are magnified. On the contrary, when I want to leave after the first stage because it was so bad, I realize I have nothing to lose and tend to both relax and push myself harder through the remainder of the day, feeling like I may as well go for it. At the end of it all, my placement in various matches seems to balance out, regardless if I start strong or not. It is one of my struggles in life to not over-react to both positive and negative circumstances. I will say for certain that when I'm able to roll with the punches, I have better results.

Very interesting thread. So many people hem and haw over the weight of their gear or how many mags to carry or whether to wear plugs or muffs. I've always felt that controlling your emotions and impulses is more important than anything else.

[benos]

A good mental strategy for me was to shoot every stage of every match like all the stages were part of one big match.

be

[Wicked Wrister]

A good mental strategy for me was to shoot every stage of every match like all the stages were part of one big match.

be

This approach seems tough to manage if I am not competing very frequently... once a week or more, which I suppose makes the point that the more frequently I compete, the less these 1st stage ticks are even an issue.