Dealing with a really bad performance

[Jeeper]

I was curious how people deal with a very disappointing outing? Either a really bad training day or match? How have you found to be the best way to put it behind you?

[L9X25]

Jeeper,

I think that I am more qualified than most to answer this question! Take whatever tidbits of useful information you learned from the event, block the rest out, and move on. Whether it is a bad match or a bad stage, you need to face the next one with a positive outlook and not allow what happened in the past to influence your mindset for the next stage. If you somehow try to "make up for" what happened in the past, you will surely crash again. From where I stand, this sport is 95% mental.

Leo

[lndshrk]

Just remember that it's all supposed to be fun, after all, a bad day of shooting is better than a good day of doing almost anything else!

[tightloop]

Sex, single malt scotch, a good cigar and a good nights sleep. Usually in that order...

[John Dunn]

Blame your equipment and move on.

[rhino]

I'm a well known, leading expert in the field of poor performance and failure. For me, the thing that matters is that I don't lose sight of why I'm doing it, regardless of the endeavor.

In the case of shooting, I don't forget that I do it because:

1. I carry a firearm all the time for personal defense and I want to be competent and comfortable with its operation and application.

2. I am there to have fun. It's fun to shoot even when it goes poorly.

I am inherently NOT goal-oriented. That is probably unusual for most people here and in the shooting sports. I just like the doing of it. I didn't practice for a long time because I didn't really enjoy doing it, but now I do, so I do it. The fact that I'm getting a little better is a bonus, not the real motivator.

There's a lot of references to Zen Buddhism on here, but in my opinion being overly goal-oriented is somewhat ... contradictory to that set of philosophies, but that's obviously a matter of interpretation. I just think that choosing to enjoy doing it is the most important thing.

[Sixgun]

Thw way I see it... I've never had a bullet, powder and primer just magically come back together in shootable form once I pulled the trigger. Once I shoot ,that shot's behind me forever. I don't dwell on "bad" performances, it's not worth beating myself up for. I'll try and figure out what I can do to do better and then implement that. I shoot because I enjoy it.

I shoot on a bowling pin league, and have had some absolute horrible runs the first half of the league. I didn't dwell on them. I finally figured out that I needed to make a spring weight change in my gun (I forgot that I changed the spring to shoot lighter loads and never put back my heavier spring....totally changed the way the gun felt timing wise.), and the next shoot I finished in the #1 spot with a personal best time. Dwelling on my dismal performances didn't get me there. A little analytical thinking and a renewed focus and concentration did.

Ray

[Steve Anderson]

I have just recently learned that it's very important to keep bad performance from becoming embedded in my self image.

If I see myself as someone who tanks big matches, guess who I become?

If a bad performance comes from lack of preparation or skill, I fix that problem in pratice. If a bad performance just happens...I forget it and move on to the next challenge.

I do make an effort to put the gun away on a high point so that memory gets filed in self-image.

SA

[shred]

What I do after tanking a stage is carefully write down what I screwed up on my copy of the scoresheet so I can practice it later, fold it up and stash it in my shooting bag. That gets rid of a lot of the pressure and negativity for me, even if I never actually get that paper back out and read it.

[Shooter Grrl]

Okay guys, I'm really good at this part

First, it's all in your head!

(Second, third fourth and fifth - it's all in your head!)

Approach the situation from a different angle Jeeper. Instead of telling yourself that you had a "bad situation" tell yourself all the great lessons you learned during that outing.

I had a great post on this subject a looong while back and can't find it now!

FLEX?!?!?!?! Can you help me find it?

[j1b]

IMO a bad performance is the ultimate learning ground. I shot incredibly bad this last weekend, and I was very dissappointed in my performance. On the other hand, I walked away with 4 or 5 solid things I needed to practice. I got home, and had dry fire drills created by the end of the day. I've gone through those drills every day since. Has the problem been fixed? I don't know - I'm guessing its closer than it was.

In a match, I am ok at getting over little mistakes, but horrible at getting over catastrophies. My first stage this weekend resulted in a miss and two no-shoots. Clearly a disaster and one that took me 4 stages to really get over - each stage getting worse and worse until the match was pointless. But I learned a lot.

The think I most like about myself is that I am incredibly consistent. When the buzzer goes off my mind doesn't know if I'm at nationals or at a local match. For many I think that's not the case - I can often times remember local matches where guys would be close and sometimes beat me - but when we got to a big match they would be 50 places behind me. The great thing about that is whatever I learn at a local match, or on the practice range crosses over to every forum of match shooting that I participate in.

Net net its a self confidence thing. All of us know what we can do, we just need to recognize that we can do it and then execute. As much as I'd like to adopt the "what's in the past is in the past" philosophy its not in me to do it. I punish myself for mistakes made, and by in large that helps to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. I know that sounds unhealthy, but its a practice I have used professionally, personally, and in shooting. For me - it seems to work well . . .

Sorry for the long post.

JB

[BigDave]

I kind of liken this to the "glass half full, or half empty question".

My boss and I were talking on the phone one day and she said "I've always been a glass half empty person. Now that I'm in management, I should probably try to start seeing it as half full, huh?" I replied "why not just acknowledge that there is a glass and there is stuff in it, who cares how full or empty it is?"

My point is that you and you alone decide what "bad" is or isn't. You can choose to get pissed off, mad, upset, or you can look at each performance as an being in and of itself, without comparison to anything that came before it. Just accept things as they come to you, moment to moment, and then adjust as it works to your advantage (whatever that is).

Just my opinion, and something I too am working on.

[Loves2Shoot]

All a bad performace is is a starting point for your next practice. There is nothing wrong with a bad performance if you want to get better. Do you really ever get better from focusing on what you are good at? I used to suck at everything, now I suck less, not because of my sucesses, but by learning from my many, many failures. Every time I succeed it is because of the leasons I've learn from doing things wrong.

[schmitz]

For me,

Leo's post covers almost everything (except for the 95%, in my opinion it's 99% ), learn from your mistakes and move on with a cleared mind.

Each stage offers new opportunities!

Allways move on!

DVC, Henny.

[rhino]

My performance was so bad today that I'm going to start another topic to make fun of it.

[carinab]

There hasn't been a post here for a bit but given my weakness, I'm going to use this opportunity to re-inforce something I once learned. I have de-railed myself so many times by not be able to let go of a bad stage. Problem one of course was having a judgement to start with. But given my nature I know I will make a judgement about a bad stage. To decide I won't have a judement is like trying to NOT think about a large pink elephant. So how then to let go?

Of all things, someone once recommended to me a book called "On death and Dying" by Kubler-Ross. In this book the author groups reaction to stress into the following categories:

denial (I couldn't have missed), anger (!#X$@>*!, I missed!), bargaining (maybe I shot a double?), depression (I WAS doing so well), and acceptance (oh well, next stage please). I can sometimes see people looping through the first four a bunch of times before finally hitting that acceptance part.

For me the first thing is I have to recognize that my thinking is in one of the above categories. Once I recognize that, it makes it easier to dismiss. "Oh, that's that depression thing again." I then find a rational statement. "Reality is that I don't suck as a shooter just because I drilled the hell out of the no shoot." Usually after that point, the negative thinking will run its course and disappear soon enough.

For those days when I really have the hair coat on and can't accept the mistake, I decide to accept that I am in a category. "Yes I'm tipped over about that stage but let's see how well I can do anyway." In other words, IPSC is an on demand sport so sometimes you just have to suck it up and get on with it. So long as I don't think while I shoot, it doesn't matter what sound track is playing in my head.

[Sterling White]

Sex, single malt scotch, a good cigar and a good nights sleep. Usually in that order...

Don't forget to kick the hogg (HD) in the gut!

[Harmon]

figure out what was goin on and what you did wrong, and dont duplicate it...

i was giving really crappy performances at matches and what it was i wasnt getting enough sleep the nite before...fix was go to bed at 9pm, eat big breakfast...

[blackdragon]

Never give up! you don't know what the guys in front of you are doing!

Ivan

SCS Vegas

[TriggerT]

Get Pissed OFF! Grumble about how I should just give up shooting, and then about 15 minutes later get WAY motivated to practice and improove. Best way for me to improove is shoot poorly at a match. Then I have the motivation to put the time I need to in, but only after I go for a little while thinking I should just give up USPSA shooting (like I ever really could do that). Been that way for as long as I can remember in everything I do, so I gues I am just told old to change.

[Hey QuicksDraw!]

I blame it on my equipment and childhood, then I go practice.

[9MX]

1. i look back and identify my mistakes

2. remember the lessons learned (to be repeated again )

3. know where i am and remind myself where i planned to go

4. never to try again but just be

[rhino]

Step 1. Shoot poorly

Step 2. Come home, go to Enosverse, complain and whine

Step 3. Repeat 1-2

[reneet]

Get Pissed OFF! Grumble about how I should just give up shooting, and then about 15 minutes later get WAY motivated to practice and improove. Best way for me to improove is shoot poorly at a match. Then I have the motivation to put the time I need to in, but only after I go for a little while thinking I should just give up USPSA shooting (like I ever really could do that). Been that way for as long as I can remember in everything I do, so I gues I am just told old to change.

I had forgotten that this works for me too. I loose to the same person 2 major matches in a row and it pisses me off enough to do something about it.

[Kimberkid]

I shot my first Nats this past week after only maybe 10 or 12 club matches. It was also the first time in a long time that I have really embarresed myself. On the upshot, I learned a ton. After shooting Bianchi exclusively since I began shooting, I find myself waiting for the perfect sight picture, getting all A's and taking so long to do it that it doesnt matter that I shot all A's, cause the rest of my squad is already back at the hotel smoking cigars with tightloop. I kinda decided that Im gonna not be so afraid of letting the speed demon out a bit more often. I also am in the process of recruiting a world class instructor to practice with me on fridays, and shoot as many matches as I can for the rest of the season. Like someone already said, once I break the trigger, that shot is gone, forget it and move on.