motosapiens Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 hmmmmm .... 77 views but no other posts .... surely I am not the only one with a comprehensive mental program ....? Well, I don't have one, Although my ex-wife will back me up when I say I don't have a self-image problem. I don't know why that is except that in all aspects of my life I have the attitude of fixing problems, not dwelling on them. In shooting (or any other competitive activity), any subpar performance is an opportunity to identify and fix a problem, thereby improving. Even if everything goes perfectly, there will be things that could have gone better. Even in a train wreck, there are elements that will have been performed well due to good training. So I just shoot, and worry about analyzing the performance later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 Rob - sounds like you are starting to break the code, keep it up! One of the important things about keeping a good Performance Log is so that you KNOW what your current skills are so that if you don't perform up to them at a match you correctly indentify what you need to fix. If your typical training session results in 80% points shot & you are a Production shooter then while you may have issues with your mental game, your first priority needs to address that your current skills are not where they should be. But if you are like where you and I are WRT documented skill levels skills of USPSA & Steel Challenge but could not repeat those in a match the only reasonable conclusion is it must be the lack of our mental skills that is the difference. Now that I have started to have this under control I'm going to have to start hitting the training hard again to produce better skills since my current skill level is not at my goal level. Hopefully, I won't let this gap creep in again between my actual skills & match demonstarted skills with the exception of the normal delay between acquiring new skills and being able to reproduce them in a match bacuse they have become subconscious skills ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robco Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Rob - sounds like you are starting to break the code, keep it up! One of the important things about keeping a good Performance Log is so that you KNOW what your current skills are so that if you don't perform up to them at a match you correctly indentify what you need to fix. If your typical training session results in 80% points shot & you are a Production shooter then while you may have issues with your mental game, your first priority needs to address that your current skills are not where they should be. But if you are like where you and I are WRT documented skill levels skills of USPSA & Steel Challenge but could not repeat those in a match the only reasonable conclusion is it must be the lack of our mental skills that is the difference. Now that I have started to have this under control I'm going to have to start hitting the training hard again to produce better skills since my current skill level is not at my goal level. Hopefully, I won't let this gap creep in again between my actual skills & match demonstarted skills with the exception of the normal delay between acquiring new skills and being able to reproduce them in a match bacuse they have become subconscious skills ... Right on Ken! I shot 94.55% of possible points Sunday, with no penalties and only one D, and wasted about 4 seconds on makeup shots I could have done without. So this is where I need to be right now. Saturday, in a 231 round 5 stage match I shot 92.6% of points possible with 2 mikes. A real hosefest by I stayed the course throughout the match. I am hoping that now that I have "seen the light" finally on all of this, that it will be like riding a bicycle, and I will never stray again. And you are right, once we are actually executing to our best abilities consistently in matches, then we need to increase our abilities via training! And enjoy an UPWARD spiral for a change! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robco Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 hmmmmm .... 77 views but no other posts .... surely I am not the only one with a comprehensive mental program ....? Well, I don't have one, Although my ex-wife will back me up when I say I don't have a self-image problem. I don't know why that is except that in all aspects of my life I have the attitude of fixing problems, not dwelling on them. In shooting (or any other competitive activity), any subpar performance is an opportunity to identify and fix a problem, thereby improving. Even if everything goes perfectly, there will be things that could have gone better. Even in a train wreck, there are elements that will have been performed well due to good training. So I just shoot, and worry about analyzing the performance later. Well said Motosapiens. I learn more from my mistakes, when honestly analyzed, than from successes. Achieving true, 100% consistency is something perhaps only 10 shooters in the world do. The rest of us have to feast on the occasional good thing(s) we do and try to make them more and more frequent. We become consistent, one array at a time, and then one stage a match, and then two stages per match, and then eventually ALL stages in a match, hopefully. It is not a "0 to 60" process. And our first goals should be to get out of our own way, by eliminating mistakes. Only then can our good parts of the performance shine through in the results. And of course, in USPSA there is never a "perfect score" because we could always be faster! Good stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 no one who as ever hung around me for at least 1 day would ever say I have a 'self image' problem but the self image we're concerned about here is not the same, or at least not all of it ... I don't suffer from lack of confidence in my abilities (self doubt) or a lack of motivation; typical things people who are not involved in highly competitve activities believe 'self image' is about. My 'self image issues had to do with the classic 'trying too hard'. I suspect for most folks who are not involved in a competitive activity, they would not consider 'trying too hard' to be a problem. But we know differently how destructive this is. My wife commented yesterday after finding out that I took HOA for the 2nd straight week "I hope you haven't expended all your MoJo before the Nationals" because she is not into competitive things like I am and doesn't realize that what is happening recently couldn't be any better for me .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robco Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 no one who as ever hung around me for at least 1 day would ever say I have a 'self image' problem but the self image we're concerned about here is not the same, or at least not all of it ... I don't suffer from lack of confidence in my abilities (self doubt) or a lack of motivation; typical things people who are not involved in highly competitve activities believe 'self image' is about. My 'self image issues had to do with the classic 'trying too hard'. I suspect for most folks who are not involved in a competitive activity, they would not consider 'trying too hard' to be a problem. But we know differently how destructive this is. My wife commented yesterday after finding out that I took HOA for the 2nd straight week "I hope you haven't expended all your MoJo before the Nationals" because she is not into competitive things like I am and doesn't realize that what is happening recently couldn't be any better for me .... Exactly right Nimitz. Self image is the last thing I ever would have thought about needing work on for shooting competition. Until Lanny Bassham made it clear to me. And now, of course, it is essentially the single MOST important weakness in my game, and the ONLY one holding me back (until this weekend!). See my post earlier in this string concerning balance . Specifically, for me, the think holding me back was lack of confidence in my shooting ability. The very definition of a conscious override like thinking "I am going to try hard this run," is literally telling our subconscious skill set that it is not good enough. = lack of confidence, which creates cognitive dissonance and undermines our performance. The answer is to change our belief system so we trust that our training is indeed good enough, so that can free up our potential. Self image is what this is all about. "... ALL three need to be in balance relative to the other two. Our skill set is in the subconscious. Conscious is our attitudes and thoughts and knowledge. And self image is our belief system. " http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=211733#entry2355827 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 no one who as ever hung around me for at least 1 day would ever say I have a 'self image' problem but the self image we're concerned about here is not the same, or at least not all of it ... I don't suffer from lack of confidence in my abilities (self doubt) or a lack of motivation; typical things people who are not involved in highly competitve activities believe 'self image' is about. My 'self image issues had to do with the classic 'trying too hard'. I suspect for most folks who are not involved in a competitive activity, they would not consider 'trying too hard' to be a problem. But we know differently how destructive this is. I see what you mean. I'm not sure why 'trying too hard' hasn't been much of a problem for me. Perhaps because of my background in motorcycle and mtn bike racing where trying too hard gets you instant feedback (crashing on a downhill, or physically blowing up on a climb). Success at those sports requires consistency and punishes mistakes far more than it rewards taking chances. Particularly on a bicycle, there is no amount of 'trying' that will do you any good on race day. All you can do is execute with minimal mistakes, and if you want to get better, you have to do it in training. I guess I've brought that same attitude over to shooting. I have occasionally found myself in a situation where I wasn't sure I could make the shots (at swingers, for example, or long shots on small poppers), but that is pretty easy to fix in practice. Once you know you can make all the shots, all you have to do is execute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robco Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 (edited) no one who as ever hung around me for at least 1 day would ever say I have a 'self image' problem but the self image we're concerned about here is not the same, or at least not all of it ... I don't suffer from lack of confidence in my abilities (self doubt) or a lack of motivation; typical things people who are not involved in highly competitve activities believe 'self image' is about. My 'self image issues had to do with the classic 'trying too hard'. I suspect for most folks who are not involved in a competitive activity, they would not consider 'trying too hard' to be a problem. But we know differently how destructive this is. I see what you mean. I'm not sure why 'trying too hard' hasn't been much of a problem for me. Perhaps because of my background in motorcycle and mtn bike racing where trying too hard gets you instant feedback (crashing on a downhill, or physically blowing up on a climb). Success at those sports requires consistency and punishes mistakes far more than it rewards taking chances. Particularly on a bicycle, there is no amount of 'trying' that will do you any good on race day. All you can do is execute with minimal mistakes, and if you want to get better, you have to do it in training. I guess I've brought that same attitude over to shooting. I have occasionally found myself in a situation where I wasn't sure I could make the shots (at swingers, for example, or long shots on small poppers), but that is pretty easy to fix in practice. Once you know you can make all the shots, all you have to do is execute. Exactly. I race go-karts on dirt, and that same effect applies. Push it too hard on the corners and you will spin out or at least lose traction, which means spinning wheels and getting nowhere fast as you lose your tire lock up with the track. What has helped me in the last couple of days, in matches, is just shooting the sights. NOT thinking about how fast to shoot each shot, but instead literally letting each sight picture, one by one drive the gun speed. Amazing how simple this is, and how difficult to accomplish under pressure for so many of us. Especially ones trying to be competitive. And as a result, we drive ourselves out of control and are way slower and less accurate. Realizing, by actual detailed experimentation on the clock, in practice drills, that the FASTEST was to shoot a stage, is one shot-one hit on steel and paper. Makeups and additional "insurance" shots are very expensive in time and therefore points lost. Simple to prove to oneself, for instance on cleaning a plate rack. To shoot all 6 without a miss, only takes perhaps 5/100ths added per plate to let the sights settle and guaranty all hits, run after run. That would add, say, 3/10ths to each run. But, compare that to running the gun faster, and consistently having one miss per run, and the avg makeup time to hit the missed plate of approx .5 seconds minimum, and you see the math makes shooting it slower (i.e., at a controllable speed) ends up being faster on the clock! Add to the fast scenario, the RISK added for other arrays, such as N/Ss and Hard Cover or missing an activator which is all timed, and the cost goes way up for misses and bad hits. Now, I shoot matches with not a single penalty for the most part (we DO control that if you think about it - there is seldom a shot in a match you cannot make given adequate time - other than wicked fast movers). That is getting out of my own way. That is giving my actual skill level a chance to shine thru and show up on the results/standings. Penalties are almost ALWAYS a result of rushing the shooting. So we should keep in mind that, not only does shooting within our own skill level faster on the clock, but it is also creating 100% risk avoidance. How can you miss or hit a N/S if you aim, execute properly and then call each shot? Hard to do. Edited March 17, 2015 by Robco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) I tell new shooters all the time at Steel Challenge matches that SC is not about going fast, it's about never missing - EVER. When I train with new SC shooters I make sure they get to see teh difference in their times when they go 5/5 vice 1 or more misses. 5/5 is ALWAYS faster. The problem is that our preception makes it feel slow when we are transitioning correctly and so we TRY to speed up with predictable results. We've all heard this before but I know must do not truely understand what it means .... train hard & compete easy ..... (this is the path to shooting greatness and all the top competitiors in the world do this) Edited March 18, 2015 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now