Trusting your abilities

[KyalSharpe]

Firstly, I'm a 15 year old junior shooter from Australia, love the sport more than anything, so much that I dropped everything else I was doing this year to focus on the sport. Over the year I have seen a large improvement in my own abilities, going from shooting 50% up to 89% at a recent selection match. But I have come to a problem with my consistency.

I have found in recent matches that I am not trusting my abilities and second guessing myself. As I result I am making stupid mistakes in stages, such as not trusting myself to call shots on targets, or over thinking stage craft. During dry fire or practice I generally shoot to my full potential because my conscious mind is trusting my abilities, but I just can't get into the same mentality at matches.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any advice?

Thanks in advance

-Kyal

[jroback]

Have you read Lanny Bassham's book? It has been helping me...

http://www.amazon.com/With-Winning-Mind-3rd-Ed/dp/1934324264

[KyalSharpe]

Was actually going to order that this week

[WheelGunHunter]

I have this problem too and believe me, to have an unshakable faith in trusting your shooting abilities is way easier said than done. Reading With Winning In Mind has helped me tremendously with trusting my abilities and performing consistently well. I can't tell you what is causing you to not trust your abilities in a match setting but when you get with winning in mind pay close attention to the chapters about dealing with match pressure and balancing your conscious mind, subconscious mind, and self Image. One last thing, I never knew about mental training until I read this book and the concepts were foreign to me to say the least. So, if you really want to get the most out of this book reread it a couple of times because I have read this book 3 times now and I am still learning new things. Good luck!