Mind Outrunning my Abilities

[Rangertim]

Shot Area 8 yesterday and it never fails, I'll tell myself over and over smooth is fast and to not think I'm faster and better than I actually am. Stage 3 had 4 crazy fast clam shells activated with a pressure pad. Even after watching a handful of shooters in front of me and knowing I wasn't fast enough to get all 4 shots on both before they closed, and telling myself over and over I wasn't going to try it...I did. Dropped 2 misses and a No-shoot. I swear every one of my match screw ups are ones I see coming, tell myself not to do, and end up doing it anyway!

-Was still a great match though!

[wide45]

Did you have a solid plan for the stage?

Teach your eyes to go to the targets in the proper order.

[Rangertim]

I had a good plan lined up, but my transitions weren't fast enough to beat the 2nd clam shell. I should have listened to myself when I said it, but tried to push the limit anyway.

[Parallax3D]

Happens to me all of the time. My mind is on the next target before I've got two good hits on the target I'm on currently. Result is usually several Mikes because I'm trying to transition too quickly. (Probably why I'm stil a C shooter after a year of competition.)

[raz-0]

I had a good plan lined up, but my transitions weren't fast enough to beat the 2nd clam shell.  I should have listened to myself when I said it, but tried to push the limit anyway.

Ok, I' have to ask what was your plan?  Just from reading your post, it sounds like you planned to NOT do a bunch of things. I used to do this a lot.  IT made for a lot of mental screw ups. IMO plans need to be a simple set of consecutive things to do, more or less one at a time. If things are going to plan, the only thing your brain has to deal with is what to do next.  If things go wrong, like a malfunction, a mike, etc, you reduce the remedy to something you can practice into unconscious immediacy, and get back to what has to happen next. 

If I think of it like "get over there, and don't do this and don't do that and don't.... " it kills me. Brain fart city, or I wind up continually at odds with my mental process and in the worst cases, get into a negative feedback loop. 

[BillD]

Lotsa folks, including some in the Super Squad, couldn't get those clamshells either.

[benos]

Two words: visual patience. Do an Advanced, All Forums, Thread Title Only, search for "visual patience" (in quotes) and you'll find some good discussions on that topic.

be

[Joe4d]

Always push the limits, Id rather walk away from a stage with 2 mikes and a hit on a no shoot knowing I gave it my all and shot to win, then walk away knowing I could have tried harder.

But yeh never have a plan, dont do this dont do that,, always have a plan of Do's.

[Cy Soto]

Always push the limits, Id rather walk away from a stage with 2 mikes and a hit on a no shoot knowing I gave it my all and shot to win, then walk away knowing I could have tried harder.

But yeh never have a plan, dont do this dont do that,, always have a plan of Do's.

I am not trying to be confrontational but I must respectfully disagree. If I walk away from a stage with two mikes and a hit on a no-shoot, I would not consider that I was shooting to win. I wholeheartedly agree that, in order to win, you have to recognize where your limits are and play at that level. The problem is that if I try to push the limits (instead of allowing the subconscious to do its thing and shoot only as fast as I can see my sights), I can sometimes get lucky and walk away with a stage win but, most times, this may not be the case.

Don't get me wrong, I have tried the "hero or zero" approach a few times and have managed to pull it off. Other times I have crashed hard and lost the opportunity for a match win.

[BillD]

Always push the limits, Id rather walk away from a stage with 2 mikes and a hit on a no shoot knowing I gave it my all and shot to win, then walk away knowing I could have tried harder.

But yeh never have a plan, dont do this dont do that,, always have a plan of Do's.

I gotta agree with the poster above. If I walked away with 2 mikes and a NS, I know I just blew the stage, not gave it my all and with no hope of winning.

IMO, 2 mikes and a NS means the shooter did not have visual patience and outran his abilities and the shooter was hoping for luck to get a stage win.

I've tried it that way with routinely disastrous results.

[benos]

I also agree with the above two posts. I would never shoot to my ability if there was any trying involved.

be

[professor]

To quote Dirty Harry, "A man's got to know his limitations."

That Manix stage turned out to be my best stage finish at Area 8. After seeing the speed of those clamshells closing, I knew there was no way that I'd get off 4 good shots after activating them. So I got 2 good shots on one target as it was closing up, then took 2 careful shots at the available head zone on the other target. Did the same thing on the other set.

[SteelDown]

Shot Area 8 yesterday and it never fails, I'll tell myself over and over smooth is fast and to not think I'm faster and better than I actually am. Stage 3 had 4 crazy fast clam shells activated with a pressure pad. Even after watching a handful of shooters in front of me and knowing I wasn't fast enough to get all 4 shots on both before they closed, and telling myself over and over I wasn't going to try it...I did. Dropped 2 misses and a No-shoot. I swear every one of my match screw ups are ones I see coming, tell myself not to do, and end up doing it anyway!

-Was still a great match though!

Sounds like the classic case of "don't think about the pink elephant". Our brain doesn't process the do or don't part of the sentence just the pink elephant. So in your stage plans tell yourself what to do. Like 2 clean hits on the first target and 2 head shots on the 2nd target. Now your brain is programmed to look for the head shots. If you see the screw ups coming remember to tell yourself what to do and avoid the what not to do thinking.