How Can We Make our Match Performances Equal Our Actual Skill Level?

[Robco]

I'm an A-class shooter on the journey to M, so take my input for what it's worth based on a ton of reading and learning I've been doing lately to try and understand my own inner workings better.

One thing I wanted to comment on: In your first post, you said "Trying, is by definition, a conscious override."

I think more completely it should read "Trying is, by definition, letting your self-image use your conscious to override your sub-conscious to try and accomplish something your subconscious cannot yet do." Your "actual" skill level is, by definition, what your subconscious is capable of. It's no wonder trying never works; you're purposefully forcing the three circles of conscious, sub-conscious and self-image out of balance. Self-image puffs out his chest and says "Hey conscious, let's be hot s^^t this stage...try really hard, but remember you can only do one thing at a time." Then your sub-conscious gets trampled on and never has a chance to take over, all while your conscious mind frantically tries to serialize the hundred things you have to do in a stage and get them done in full panic mode. Remember, multi-tasking is a myth.

If you strive to balance the three circles during your match, you WILL shoot at your skill level in that match. After all, your skill level at a match IS your skill level, whatever that is, but it always takes into account ego and desire, which are masterful at upsetting balance.

We use our conscious mind in practice because we're iterating individual tasks in isolation to build myelin (Thank you Mr. Anderson) that guides the sub-conscious.

So my thinking is, to perform at highest skill level in a match, investigate techniques that give your conscious mind something to do, and keep your self-image in check by not trying to exceed yourself, but to instead be yourself and accept that. Zen....Balance....Peace.

For me personally, I've committed to not looking at the Nook during the match. I don't want to see the scoreboard because it will cause me to focus on something I cannot control. That encourages my self-image to engage my conscious and now I'm out of whack. I've also committed to eliminating any negative thought or speech about my performance or my environment.

I love this stuff...I would never have thought about things like this if it weren't for this sport!

My Zen $0.02 for the day.

Kelly, obviously we are both quoting Lanny Bassham. Good stuff. You seem to have a good understanding of all of this. I did too, for over a year before I could actually execute on this knowledge effectively in matches. So don't get frustrated when it is not a linear journey. That is just the way it works, two steps forward, one back, for dozens of matches, hundred of hours of studying and training, and maybe even 30K or more rounds of ammo. And then, finally, you will just "let go" and things will come out right, almost effortlessly. That is when your match performance will finally benefit from all the hard work and learning and training. I am only a few steps ahead of you in this journey. I shot about 35 matches between December and the end of March in Arizona and Florida, trying to break through my self limiting barriers. My skill level had soared in the last 2 years, without any real improvement in match performance. Until finally, after being burned out by April this year, having not had the winter off, I came home, and took up my spring ranching chores and did not practice a single day since I left Arizona on March 30th, till today. I have shot 6 matches since April 1 and won 4 club matches, and screwed up at Area 6, then did well again last Saturday at your VA-MD sectional. This was the first "big" match in which I succeeded in not sabotaging myself. So I am apparently about to consistently move forward finally. Hang in there. I know you are a serious shooter and obviously you are very knowledgeable. Stick with it, despite seemingly constant setbacks and finally you will break through.

[QuickMick]

This is pretty good stuff, and thanks to all for contributing and sharing. Most of the things written here I learned the hard way in motorcycle racing, the conclusion: in competition don't try to be better than you are, do not take risk to compensate for poor skills and lack of training, accept your limitations and you'll grow. This is why I train for skills and reliable shooting techniques, and see a match/race as fact finding mission where I am compared to others. That might be sometimes annoying as progress seems not visible in the short term, but if you look at successful competitors no matter which sport - they all share -beyond passion- working on their skills, techniques, physical and psychological shape to have that "let it go" or even "let it happen" in race or during match.

Of course, that's not linear progress, everytime you find something to improve it will first take you back a step, or two. That's why you need passion to overcome that, and sometimes the strength to work against advice and habits.

In my mind to perform best at a match is to have confidence in my skills, have sufficient routine to focus just onto the stage's challenge(s) and knowing (!) that I can make every shot perfect. Like in motorcycle racing you don't win in the first corner/stage, you have to proof consistency throughout -perhaps- a whole day of competition.

[Nimitz]

being results oriented, and this actually takes many forms besides the obvious one of checking your scores every 5 mins during a match or trying to figure out what score you need to shoot during a match, is never a good thing. my latest epiphany of just turning off off the timer in training prior to a big match is what allowed me to shoot 4 personal match bests in a row and win HOA each time just before having my surgery. I hadn't realized how results oriented I had been. When I finally decided to "just shoot" I began to put up the same timnes at matches that I do in training.

i still have a ways to go in order to put up 6/7 or 8 top stage scores on the same day as even with those 4 personal best overall match times I still had a couple of 'ave' time stages.

one thing i have realized is that working on my mental program is currently more important than working on my physcial skills since with my rimfire classification sitting at 92.5% there isn't a lot more to go there but my mental game is certainly not at the same level ...

[kcobean]

I'm an A-class shooter on the journey to M, so take my input for what it's worth based on a ton of reading and learning I've been doing lately to try and understand my own inner workings better.

One thing I wanted to comment on: In your first post, you said "Trying, is by definition, a conscious override."

I think more completely it should read "Trying is, by definition, letting your self-image use your conscious to override your sub-conscious to try and accomplish something your subconscious cannot yet do." Your "actual" skill level is, by definition, what your subconscious is capable of. It's no wonder trying never works; you're purposefully forcing the three circles of conscious, sub-conscious and self-image out of balance. Self-image puffs out his chest and says "Hey conscious, let's be hot s^^t this stage...try really hard, but remember you can only do one thing at a time." Then your sub-conscious gets trampled on and never has a chance to take over, all while your conscious mind frantically tries to serialize the hundred things you have to do in a stage and get them done in full panic mode. Remember, multi-tasking is a myth.

If you strive to balance the three circles during your match, you WILL shoot at your skill level in that match. After all, your skill level at a match IS your skill level, whatever that is, but it always takes into account ego and desire, which are masterful at upsetting balance.

We use our conscious mind in practice because we're iterating individual tasks in isolation to build myelin (Thank you Mr. Anderson) that guides the sub-conscious.

So my thinking is, to perform at highest skill level in a match, investigate techniques that give your conscious mind something to do, and keep your self-image in check by not trying to exceed yourself, but to instead be yourself and accept that. Zen....Balance....Peace.

For me personally, I've committed to not looking at the Nook during the match. I don't want to see the scoreboard because it will cause me to focus on something I cannot control. That encourages my self-image to engage my conscious and now I'm out of whack. I've also committed to eliminating any negative thought or speech about my performance or my environment.

I love this stuff...I would never have thought about things like this if it weren't for this sport!

My Zen $0.02 for the day.

Kelly, obviously we are both quoting Lanny Bassham. Good stuff. You seem to have a good understanding of all of this. I did too, for over a year before I could actually execute on this knowledge effectively in matches. So don't get frustrated when it is not a linear journey. That is just the way it works, two steps forward, one back, for dozens of matches, hundred of hours of studying and training, and maybe even 30K or more rounds of ammo. And then, finally, you will just "let go" and things will come out right, almost effortlessly. That is when your match performance will finally benefit from all the hard work and learning and training. I am only a few steps ahead of you in this journey. I shot about 35 matches between December and the end of March in Arizona and Florida, trying to break through my self limiting barriers. My skill level had soared in the last 2 years, without any real improvement in match performance. Until finally, after being burned out by April this year, having not had the winter off, I came home, and took up my spring ranching chores and did not practice a single day since I left Arizona on March 30th, till today. I have shot 6 matches since April 1 and won 4 club matches, and screwed up at Area 6, then did well again last Saturday at your VA-MD sectional. This was the first "big" match in which I succeeded in not sabotaging myself. So I am apparently about to consistently move forward finally. Hang in there. I know you are a serious shooter and obviously you are very knowledgeable. Stick with it, despite seemingly constant setbacks and finally you will break through.

Thanks for the encouraging words Rob. I can't identify what's happened with me lately, but my desire to understand the mental aspect of this sport and the things I need to do to move ahead has really grown. I think it was my performance at Area 6, which was a combination of physical and mental self-defeat. I can't keep doing that if I'm going to keep shooting in this sport.

[benos]

On the "push or don't push" subtopic... I found this from an old post on that...

At any Steel or IPSC match, my goal is basically the same: To hit each target's maximum scoring area as quickly as possible.

Many subtleties lie in this. On a steel target, this means to hit it as quickly as possible (on the first shot). :-) It doesn't necessarily mean, however, to hit the target in the center. Therefore you must learn, at all times, to read the sights accurately enough so you will know, at each instant, where the bullet would go if the gun were to fire. Think about that sentence carefully. Apply this same concept to the A box of an IPSC target.

If you’re the type that tends to apply too much control - meaning you seldom shoot bad or uncalled shots, but feel your times are too slow - carefully analyze the above paragraph and re-evaluate your goals.

Until you realize that your pace should be the result of what you need to see to call the shot, we have the concept of "pushing," which basically serves to wake you up to the fact that your goals are incorrect. You are not seeing either what or all you need to see, at each moment. When you’ve trained to see “more,” you will no longer be aiming at a target and not be pulling the trigger.

If you’re the type that typically has uncalled misses or uncalled poor hits, again, employing the concept of “knowing where the gun is pointed at all times,” will awaken you to the wisdom of allowing what you are actually seeing to dictate the pace of the action.

The cool thing is the same medicine cures both diseases – uninterrupted total seeing - without the desire to exceed what you see.

If you seek mastery in a particular realm, it is beneficial to reduce what you’d like to accomplish to the bare essentials. Ask yourself – What must be done in order to hit a target as quickly as possible? (The goal.) You must find the target (visually), know that you have aimed the gun at the target, and hold it aimed at the target until the shot is released. That’s about it. The physical techniques you use to accomplish these fundamentals are another chapter.

[Robco]

On the "push or don't push" subtopic... I found this from an old post on that...

At any Steel or IPSC match, my goal is basically the same: To hit each target's maximum scoring area as quickly as possible.

Many subtleties lie in this. On a steel target, this means to hit it as quickly as possible (on the first shot). :-) It doesn't necessarily mean, however, to hit the target in the center. Therefore you must learn, at all times, to read the sights accurately enough so you will know, at each instant, where the bullet would go if the gun were to fire. Think about that sentence carefully. Apply this same concept to the A box of an IPSC target.

If you’re the type that tends to apply too much control - meaning you seldom shoot bad or uncalled shots, but feel your times are too slow - carefully analyze the above paragraph and re-evaluate your goals.

Until you realize that your pace should be the result of what you need to see to call the shot, we have the concept of "pushing," which basically serves to wake you up to the fact that your goals are incorrect. You are not seeing either what or all you need to see, at each moment. When you’ve trained to see “more,” you will no longer be aiming at a target and not be pulling the trigger.

If you’re the type that typically has uncalled misses or uncalled poor hits, again, employing the concept of “knowing where the gun is pointed at all times,” will awaken you to the wisdom of allowing what you are actually seeing to dictate the pace of the action.

The cool thing is the same medicine cures both diseases – uninterrupted total seeing - without the desire to exceed what you see.

If you seek mastery in a particular realm, it is beneficial to reduce what you’d like to accomplish to the bare essentials. Ask yourself – What must be done in order to hit a target as quickly as possible? (The goal.) You must find the target (visually), know that you have aimed the gun at the target, and hold it aimed at the target until the shot is released. That’s about it. The physical techniques you use to accomplish these fundamentals are another chapter.

This is something I have discovered in the last few months in my own shooting. Learning to CONTINUOUSLY see all, during a course of fire, takes a lot of practice, focus and training. But it is worth it. THEN, the logical next step in the pursuit of higher hit factor, is learning to settle for less than perfection in each "sight picture," for the sake of speeding up a little. It requires actual skill, as well as trusting in your own shooting. You have to KNOW the shot was good and move on, even though it was not as comfortable and confirmed as it was at a slower, less advanced skill level and pace. An A is an A, whether the pair was as 5 inch group or a near double in the center of the A zone. BUT the stage points are not the same, because the 5 inch pair of A's was faster, and therefore more points! It is exactly as Brian said above, a logical result of focusing on the goal of more points per second.

[CHA-LEE]

On the "push or don't push" subtopic... I found this from an old post on that...

At any Steel or IPSC match, my goal is basically the same: To hit each target's maximum scoring area as quickly as possible.

Many subtleties lie in this. On a steel target, this means to hit it as quickly as possible (on the first shot). :-) It doesn't necessarily mean, however, to hit the target in the center. Therefore you must learn, at all times, to read the sights accurately enough so you will know, at each instant, where the bullet would go if the gun were to fire. Think about that sentence carefully. Apply this same concept to the A box of an IPSC target.

If you’re the type that tends to apply too much control - meaning you seldom shoot bad or uncalled shots, but feel your times are too slow - carefully analyze the above paragraph and re-evaluate your goals.

Until you realize that your pace should be the result of what you need to see to call the shot, we have the concept of "pushing," which basically serves to wake you up to the fact that your goals are incorrect. You are not seeing either what or all you need to see, at each moment. When you’ve trained to see “more,” you will no longer be aiming at a target and not be pulling the trigger.

If you’re the type that typically has uncalled misses or uncalled poor hits, again, employing the concept of “knowing where the gun is pointed at all times,” will awaken you to the wisdom of allowing what you are actually seeing to dictate the pace of the action.

The cool thing is the same medicine cures both diseases – uninterrupted total seeing - without the desire to exceed what you see.

If you seek mastery in a particular realm, it is beneficial to reduce what you’d like to accomplish to the bare essentials. Ask yourself – What must be done in order to hit a target as quickly as possible? (The goal.) You must find the target (visually), know that you have aimed the gun at the target, and hold it aimed at the target until the shot is released. That’s about it. The physical techniques you use to accomplish these fundamentals are another chapter.

This post is priceless information that most shooters ignore or never actually "Get" but is the primary thing holding their shooting performance back.

[GunBugBit]

I'd say our match performances show our actual skill level relative to the other shooters. Everyone else at the match is dealing with the same conditions, such as weather, lighting, etc. Nearly all the competitors could shoot better than their match scores if given the chance to warm up. If one shooter posts better scores across all stages, he is very likely the better shooter that day. When we're both warmed up, he's probably better than me. When we're both cold, he's better then, too -- he just proved it at the match.

I'd like to know: how do we get our match shooting closer to our best shooting? If I could answer that, I'd probably be making good money as a sports psychologist.

Edited July 8, 2015 by GunBugBit

[CHA-LEE]

I'd say our match performances show our actual skill level relative to the other shooters. Everyone else at the match is dealing with the same conditions, such as weather, lighting, etc. Nearly all the competitors could shoot better than their match scores if given the chance to warm up. If one shooter posts better scores across all stages, he is very likely the better shooter that day. When we're both warmed up, he's probably better than me. When we're both cold, he's better then, too -- he just proved it at the match.

I'd like to know: how do we get our match shooting closer to our best shooting? If I could answer that, I'd probably be making good money as a sports psychologist.

Performing "Cold" at the best of your ability starts by training in those conditions. Most shooters go into a training session with a plan or strategy of shooting a crap ton of ammo and running stages or drills back to back to back to back until they perform it to their expectation. That type of training is completely opposite of what we are tasked with doing during a match.

Sure we all need to put in a crap ton of actual shooting to learn or relearn the fundamentals of shooting. But an equal amount of training effort needs to be put into figuring out how to dry fire a stage/drill like we are exposed to during a match. This includes mentally and physically preparing yourself to perform at your maximum potential from a "Cold" state. When you walk a stage at a match then mentally burn in the stage plan all of that needs to be just as effective as actually shooting the stage. The top shooters have effectively shot the stage mentally and in dry fire 10 - 20 times before they actually shoot it. They are getting ankle deep in dry fire brass on the stage when others are standing around jaw jacking with their buddies waiting for their turn to shoot. Then the Jaw Jackers wonder why they flounder when the buzzer goes off. Its because its their first experience of "shooting" the stage.

[drewbeck]

I'd say our match performances show our actual skill level relative to the other shooters. Everyone else at the match is dealing with the same conditions, such as weather, lighting, etc. Nearly all the competitors could shoot better than their match scores if given the chance to warm up. If one shooter posts better scores across all stages, he is very likely the better shooter that day. When we're both warmed up, he's probably better than me. When we're both cold, he's better then, too -- he just proved it at the match.

I'd like to know: how do we get our match shooting closer to our best shooting? If I could answer that, I'd probably be making good money as a sports psychologist.

I would tend to disagree with this based on the more I've realized that match performance and shooting skills are actually not as related as most of us choose or want to believe.

Match performance is the wholistic measurement of a lot of sub components that have to be balanced and hitting on all cylinders to have a good match performance.

The hardest part for me was/is realizing that a person (me) simply can not get good enough at the shooting skills themselves to overcome the failures and amount you get penalized in match standings for poor performance of the more intangible areas of the sport.

Things like stage planning, plan execution, simply paying attention to the sights, preparation before a stage, gear performance, ammo, all play a much more significant role in our overall match performance than any shooting skill itself. (At about B class level shooting skills).

Someone much wiser than me likes to say that most B class shooters have GM level shooting and gun handling skills, they just simply can't their mind out of their own way to perform at that level.

I've thought a lot about this and came to the realization that what this really means is if a person had GM level match performance skills (prep, planning, execution, etc) but only had what we consider B class shooting skills (draw, splits, etc) they WOULD be a GM.

Now to look at it the other way, if someone has what we consider GM shooting skills (draw, transitions, splits, etc) but they are only at a level of B or C class for the match intangibles and performance skills, they ARE a floundering B shooter that likely gets told on a regular basis to just "slow down and get your hits".

I don't think you can ask the question of "how to make match performance equal to our practice performance" because like cha-lee said most of us simply don't practice "match performance" when we go to the range, instead we go out and practice shooting skills which for most of us is the area we probably need to do the least amount of work on and is definitely the area that has the least potential return on our time investment with regards to our match performance and standings.

It's kind of like the saying "you can't miss fast enough to win".

Only this time it's "you can't practice shooting skills enough to overcome poor planning and execution skills that you aren't practicing while you're out "practicing"

Once at a certain level of shooting skills need continual maintenance and match performance is what we need to really be practicing to make improvements in our match performance.

It's like asking,

why can't I run marathon at the normal speed I'm running my hundred yard dashes? I'm practicing and running them every day!

Just my thought

[GunBugBit]

Telling yourself you should be in a higher class than you are, based on your awesome shooting skills, is doing yourself a disservice. You might occasionally shoot an array of targets very impressively, but if you can't do what those in higher classes do when it counts, you don't merit that same higher classification. You might think or want to believe your shooting skills are at their level, but they probably aren't. Sure, you likely need work on your stage planning and that alone might move you to the next higher class, but if you think you've arrived at GM level shooting skills when you're in B class, I think you are deceived.

[drewbeck]

Telling yourself you should be in a higher class than you are, based on your awesome shooting skills, is doing yourself a disservice. You might occasionally shoot an array of targets very impressively, but if you can't do what those in higher classes do when it counts, you don't merit that same higher classification. You might think or want to believe your shooting skills are at their level, but they probably aren't. Sure, you likely need work on your stage planning and that alone might move you to the next higher class, but if you think you've arrived at GM level shooting skills when you're in B class, I think you are deceived.

Um ya, you missed the point of my post entirely.

How exactly did you get to the conclusion that I am telling myself that I should be in a higher class than I am currently in, or that I think I've arrived anywhere with my "awesome" shooting skills?

Maybe you should reread my post a little slower so you can grasp the concept of becoming a better match performer. Lastly while your reading it, keep in mind that the wiser person I refer to as the one making the statement and comparison of skills between a B shooter and GM is in fact a high level nationally competitive GM.

So to spell it out for you and correct your last statement, no I haven't been deceived. You got to the conclusion that I'm trying to compare myself and my shooting skills to those of a GM when I am not. But instead the reality is, this is coming from the perspective of a GM when comparing his shooting and skills to those of a B shooter and if you can read between the lines he is saying, "yes, I'm a slightly better shooter but where I really kick your ass up and down Main Street is on everything else that happens between the trigger pulls of the shooting"

[robport]

One of the hardest pills I've had to swallow is that my match performance actually does reflect my skill level.

I can just speak for me, but match performance is the result of all of those things discussed in Mr. Enos book.

I need the physical strength to control the pistol and the dexterity to manipulate the pistol quickly. If the muscles aren't capable, it ain't happening.

I need the physical stamina to keep your heart rate low enough to hold the sights until the shot breaks. Breathing hard after two steps isn't gonna help.

I need the muscle memory to draw, attain, and maintain a good grip on the pistol and the awareness to bring the pistol back to the sight picture without conscious thought. I'm working on that still.

I need the mental discipline (or practice, I haven't figured out which yet) to push all those other thoughts (what you just did, what you did last week, how others are shooting, the fact that your dog is likes a particular type of treat, whatever) out of your head and see that one shot. This is difficult for me.

I need the presence of mind to execute that one shot as part of a rehearsed plan burned into your brain and not get lost in that plan. I need to spend more time with this pre-stage.

I need the mental discipline to not lose your mind or that plan as soon as that nasty buzzer goes off. Still working on this one...a personal timer helps.

I need the mental presence to realize when you need a deviation from your plan. I'm no where near good enough to even worry about this one yet.

I haven't figured out how to do it all together yet. I'm at a point where the same shots I can't seem to miss in practice, I can completely flub in a match. I'm assuming that I need to concentrate on more of the mental stuff for me. I just haven't figured out how yet.

I'm not sure if some of it is the chicken or the egg stuff though...do the pistol handling skills gives you the confidence to release the mental anxieties and break each shot without the world creeping in? How much of it is social programming over the years all the way to childhood? I can see that self confidence plays a huge role in success. Way too much thought for this early in the morning...lol.

[Robco]

One of the hardest pills I've had to swallow is that my match performance actually does reflect my skill level.

I can just speak for me, but match performance is the result of all of those things discussed in Mr. Enos book.

I need the physical strength to control the pistol and the dexterity to manipulate the pistol quickly. If the muscles aren't capable, it ain't happening.

I need the physical stamina to keep your heart rate low enough to hold the sights until the shot breaks. Breathing hard after two steps isn't gonna help.

I need the muscle memory to draw, attain, and maintain a good grip on the pistol and the awareness to bring the pistol back to the sight picture without conscious thought. I'm working on that still.

I need the mental discipline (or practice, I haven't figured out which yet) to push all those other thoughts (what you just did, what you did last week, how others are shooting, the fact that your dog is likes a particular type of treat, whatever) out of your head and see that one shot. This is difficult for me.

I need the presence of mind to execute that one shot as part of a rehearsed plan burned into your brain and not get lost in that plan. I need to spend more time with this pre-stage.

I need the mental discipline to not lose your mind or that plan as soon as that nasty buzzer goes off. Still working on this one...a personal timer helps.

I need the mental presence to realize when you need a deviation from your plan. I'm no where near good enough to even worry about this one yet.

I haven't figured out how to do it all together yet. I'm at a point where the same shots I can't seem to miss in practice, I can completely flub in a match. I'm assuming that I need to concentrate on more of the mental stuff for me. I just haven't figured out how yet.

I'm not sure if some of it is the chicken or the egg stuff though...do the pistol handling skills gives you the confidence to release the mental anxieties and break each shot without the world creeping in? How much of it is social programming over the years all the way to childhood? I can see that self confidence plays a huge role in success. Way too much thought for this early in the morning...lol.

I think robport makes the important point that there are MANY elements involved in match performance, and therein lies the complexity that makes high level match performance so ephemeral. It is frustrating for new and intermediate shooters to discover, or at least experience, that more practice and better specific gun-handling and shooting skills alone help in a match, but yet the "win" stays consistently out of reach, tantalizing and seemingly unattainable. As we develop we find ourselves in a constant revolving list of screw-ups in our matches. When you consider that a good match performance requires hitting on ALL cylinders, consistently, for almost every shot, on every target, on every array, in every stage, for the whole entire match, all these actions multiplied times the huge number of skills necessary to actually achieve EACH of those mini-'wins" (executed shots), the permutations of how many things have to be done completely right and the endless possibilities of how many single failures can sink your boat, it is literally amazing when we actually do as well as we do!

Get one mike on a stage, and you had better do EVERYTHING else right and be fast as hell to score better than 87% of a top shooter on that stage alone. One mistake, 13% or more down. That is a pretty unforgiving performance bar. Assume you do three "mistakes" on a stage, say a mike, a feed jam (4 seconds), forgot a reload and did a standing load (2 seconds). On an average 6 HF stage (without the mistakes) now you are 57% of a top shooter. EVEN if you shoot all A's except for the Mike.

Now assume there are 8 stages in the match, and you do well on 6 of them, but have problems like the above on 2 stages. Assuming a top performer does well on all 8, with only minor disappointments on a couple, such as a D hit along with their 6 C and 24 A hits, and you shoot 87% of the winner on 6 stages, and 57% on the other two stages. Your match average standing (this is illustrative math only) is now 79% of the winner, and that is being VERY charitable. I have been M class for over 2 years, in which 2 year time period I shot over 17 Area matches, A dozen Section and State championships, and 3 Nationals and about 100 club matches and my BEST finish level in an Area match (2014 Area 7) against Travis T and Matt Sweeney, was 79%.

I have been on a tear for the last two years of my 4 year USPSA shooting experience, and my knowledge, skills and match experience has soared. I would say I am twice as good as I was 2 years ago. BUT, I was stuck in 72- 76% land in big matches for the whole time.

So my point is, it is the CONSISTENCY that sets a top performer apart from the rest of us. Top performers make mistakes, but usually they are minimal in cost and few and far between. It is NOT because of their technical shooting skills alone. I have proven that more matches, more rounds downrange, more live and dry fire practice alone, are NOT the missing links which holds me back in the match performance. They were, and still are to a minor extent (I am still learning and getting better and have a lot of skill level improvement ahead of me), but my lack of consistency in the execution of all of these in a match environment is the decisive and obvious issue. If it wasn't one thing I would fail on, it was something else. You can literally do 95% of everything right on 95% of the stages and still end up at 73% of the winner's match points.

I found through my extensive efforts and training and studying to try to accomplish "getting out of my own way" in matches, that TRYING too hard actually undermines your advancement and match performance. The more we work at getting better, the more importance we place on the outcome and the higher the expectations we set for ourselves in matches, all of which puts pressure on us and causes us to fail. A careful and consistent analysis of my match performances showed me that: 1) I needed to eliminate mistakes (gun issues, Mikes, D's and No-shoots) and 2) trust my shooting more (wasting 3 to 6 additional "insurance" shots per stage costs me as much as 15% of the points in time); 3) focus on calling each shot (instead of on "going fast" or whatever other mental malfunction I suffered).

Confidence in yourself, and your shooting, and the COURAGE to simply shoot your own match, honestly without caring what you look like or how you compare to anyone else, is the key. We can only be consistent at being ourselves, and shooting at 100% of our speed and ability. Trying to shoot or perform at 101% is a sure fire way to sabotage yourself every time.

VISUAL PATIENCE takes only about 3/100ths of a second more per shot, to let the sights settle and get the A every time, do the math and PROVE that this is the most effective "tactic" you can employ to eliminate mistakes and let you shoot your own personal best in a match.

Training and practice is for pushing, matches are for doing. Think about that statement. It is the key to unlocking your own BEST performance on match day, and thus getting out of your own way.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Robco

[QuickMick]

Match performance is reflecting your skill level, or: nothing else but a match results tells your level of skills correctly. The challenge is that in a match there are so many different skills required you never think about. And you never train them. Threads like this one seem to look for snakeoil, but at the end -as I have the pleasure to train with two excellent shooters- there is none, just passion, dedication and hard work. Though, I think the mental aspect is a very important one, my result's analysis show me there is plenty of room for improvement in stage planning, accuracy and speed, WHO/SHO shooting, different start positions, moving through the COF.....some stages are at 80%, but most others well below......most important thing for me is the match day and preparation for the match, there one can do a lot of things wrong such that being a brilliant shooter doesn't help anymore. Just my 2cents....

[doc88]

I think the primary issue most shooters have in performing worse in match conditions verses practice is that their practice shooting is performed way differently than what happens in a match. Many shooters bring a shit ton of ammo to practice and blast away doing drills or stages in rapid succession. Then they finally get "into the groove" once they are 200 - 300 rounds into the practice session. Doing this invalidly enforces the REQUIREMENT of shooting a bunch of ammo before you are actually ready to perform. When do you get to shoot 200 - 300 rounds of ammo BEFORE you start a match? Never.

Every time I have a fellow shooter or student ask me why they perform better in practice verses a match the first thing I ask them is how many rounds do they normally shoot in practice. I also ask them how many times do they dry fire the practice drill or stage before they actually shoot it. The vast majority of the time they shoot a bunch of ammo and never dry fire the drill or stage before they shoot it in practice. I then ask them how closely does that type of practice mimic what they are tasked with doing in a match. At that point, the light bulb usually goes on when they realize they are practicing in a method that is opposite of what happens at a match. If you are entering a Marathon race and only practice 60 foot sprints, how well are you going to do in the Marathon? Not so good because you will be totally out of your element on race day.

Ask yourself this. How many times have you gone to the range with ONLY 100 rounds of ammo and spent 2 - 3 solid hours of training using only those 100 rounds mixed with dry fire? If you never have, thank you for your donation because you are behind the curve when the match starts.

I did the last parargraph of this quote the other day except I did take 200 rounds. Dry fired the drill first and then relaxed and payed special attention to every shot. Best practiced I've ever had. Times did not suffer and hits were better. Much more efficient practice. Thanks CHA-LEE.