Remembering your game plan after the whistle blows

[waddo29]

As a new shooter to competition sports I would be interested in any tips or suggestions on stage prep. I can walk through the stage and visualize a plan, count thru targets and decide when I want to execute reloads and set up a decent game plan in my head, but once that buzzer goes of I start charging into the stage I almost instantly realize I have forgotten my whole plan. At that point I am just kind of running through the targets winging it. Still a great deal of fun, but not very effective when I end up forgetting one or two targets. Any tips or strategies would be greatly appreciated.

[Bluetip84]

I would say slow down. Dont get ahead of yourself and go slow enough that you can follow your plan.

[old506]

Nearly everyone is going to have a hard time with this when they start out, it will come to you.

I would suggest that you are on the right track, maybe you just need tweak a couple of things. In your walk through prior to the shooting starting, this is where you want to have your plan set in your mind. What I do from there is that when a shooter is shooting the stage, my eyes are closed and I am somewhere close enough to hear the "beep". If it is a stage where you start hands relaxed, I am hands relaxed, if it is wrists above shoulders, I am wrists above shoulders. As soon as the "beep" goes off for the other shooter in the squad, my hand goes to the grip of my gun and from there I shoot the stage in my head and see everything, my gun coming up, each target, each place where I need to put my foot, each prop requirement, everything. I even turn my body slightly for turns and my off hand goes for mag changes to the correct mag.

When I am "in the hole" I am done taping/resetting and I find a place away from the squad a little bit, I stretch and clear my mind of all thoughts and I run the whole stage over and over again in my head. After the shooter before me is done and everyone is taping/resetting, I do a "walk-through" as close to speed as I can. I am not making any changes on the final walk-through, (for better or worse) I am sticking to what I planned and rehearsed in my head.

When I get the "Make Ready" command, I make ready, re-holster and have a feeling of "nothing" washing over me, I let "nothing" wash over me, starting on my head and going all the way down to my feet, almost like someone pouring a pitcher of water on your head. I do this while gripping the gun in the holster so the RO wont' try to start me before I am ready, it only takes a second. My body kind of hits a relaxed state, especially in the shoulders and torso and from there the "beep" comes and whatever happens, happens.

Edited January 4, 2012 by old506

[waddo29]

Nearly everyone is going to have a hard time with this when they start out, it will come to you.

I would suggest that you are on the right track, maybe you just need tweak a couple of things. In your walk through prior to the shooting starting, this is where you want to have your plan set in your mind. What I do from there is that when a shooter is shooting the stage, my eyes are closed and I am somewhere close enough to hear the "beep". If it is a stage where you start hands relaxed, I am hands relaxed, if it is wrists above shoulders, I am wrists above shoulders. As soon as the "beep" goes off for the other shooter in the squad, my hand goes to the grip of my gun and from there I shoot the stage in my head and see everything, my gun coming up, each target, each place where I need to put my foot, each prop requirement, everything. I even turn my body slightly for turns and my off hand goes for mag changes to the correct mag.

When I am "in the hole" I am done taping/resetting and I find a place away from the squad a little bit, I stretch and clear my mind of all thoughts and I run the whole stage over and over again in my head. After the shooter before me is done and everyone is taping/resetting, I do a "walk-through" as close to speed as I can. I am not making any changes on the final walk-through, (for better or worse) I am sticking to what I planned and rehearsed in my head.

When I get the "Make Ready" command, I make ready, re-holster and have a feeling of "nothing" washing over me, I let "nothing" wash over me, starting on my head and going all the way down to my feet, almost like someone pouring a pitcher of water on your head. I do this while gripping the gun in the holster so the RO wont' try to start me before I am ready, it only takes a second. My body kind of hits a relaxed state, especially in the shoulders and torso and from there the "beep" comes and whatever happens, happens.

Thank you for taking the time to write all that out. A lot of good tips and advice for me to work on.

[benos]

In addition to that excellent info from old506, there is lots of good stuff in this thread.

be

[GrumpyOne]

Nearly everyone is going to have a hard time with this when they start out, it will come to you.

I would suggest that you are on the right track, maybe you just need tweak a couple of things. In your walk through prior to the shooting starting, this is where you want to have your plan set in your mind. What I do from there is that when a shooter is shooting the stage, my eyes are closed and I am somewhere close enough to hear the "beep". If it is a stage where you start hands relaxed, I am hands relaxed, if it is wrists above shoulders, I am wrists above shoulders. As soon as the "beep" goes off for the other shooter in the squad, my hand goes to the grip of my gun and from there I shoot the stage in my head and see everything, my gun coming up, each target, each place where I need to put my foot, each prop requirement, everything. I even turn my body slightly for turns and my off hand goes for mag changes to the correct mag.

When I am "in the hole" I am done taping/resetting and I find a place away from the squad a little bit, I stretch and clear my mind of all thoughts and I run the whole stage over and over again in my head. After the shooter before me is done and everyone is taping/resetting, I do a "walk-through" as close to speed as I can. I am not making any changes on the final walk-through, (for better or worse) I am sticking to what I planned and rehearsed in my head.

When I get the "Make Ready" command, I make ready, re-holster and have a feeling of "nothing" washing over me, I let "nothing" wash over me, starting on my head and going all the way down to my feet, almost like someone pouring a pitcher of water on your head. I do this while gripping the gun in the holster so the RO wont' try to start me before I am ready, it only takes a second. My body kind of hits a relaxed state, especially in the shoulders and torso and from there the "beep" comes and whatever happens, happens.

I think I can do all of that, and generally that's how I feel, right when the buzzer goes off, and I follow my plan until a hiccup, then it's gone, and it's improv time...Gotta stop having those hiccups....

[waddo29]

In addition to that excellent info from old506, there is lots of good stuff in this thread.

be

Thanks for the link Brian, a lot of good tips (and stories) in that thread.