How do you overcome...

[Loves2Shoot]

Great advice everyone!!!

I think BE's example of TGO's method and his illustrates something important, have fun and have confidence. TGO appears to have more fun than most, having fun makes it easier to relax, being relaxed makes it easier to shoot, easier shooting means better scores.

Being a short attention person myself, I find that if I go over my movement instead of my shooting the targets, that I shoot stages in less time with better hits. When the buzzer goes off I just focus on what TGO said, getting from target to target and breaking good shots.

(Edited by Loves2Shoot at 12:14 pm on Dec. 27, 2002)

[mcoliver]

Ok, since you guys brought this thing back up I'll share my thoughts. Several months after discovering IPSC I tried doing visualizations before doing any shooting (practice or match.)  What I did was to *watch* myself do the shooting, like you're watching another shooter. I realized I was not getting the results I wanted. Then shifted my visualization of actually doing the shooting; how the sight looks like when on the target, the feeling of the recoil, how the sight would jump up, etc.  Then I re-inforce some of those visualizations by taking sight pics after the LAMR.  I guess it worked a bit bec. I started to really see things after some time. Things like a blank rear notch and yet still break the shot..but that's for another thread.

[BSeevers]

I agree.

I can help most shooters advance a class or 15% in match performance with one word.

RELAX

Tension limits, desire enables

[Steve Anderson]

There's a bunch of us that do well in matches and shoot classifiers below our ability (NO, NOT SANDBAGGERS )

It's the tension.

Stage 4, the classifier...I wanna move up gotta do well reload to weak hand OH

that's hard didn't practice it what if I miss better shoot slow can't shoot slow but I need a good score to wipe out a bad one oh crap I'm up.

We gotta change the channel on that. I'm learning to...slowly.

SA

(Edited by Steve Anderson at 10:46 am on Dec. 28, 2002)

[Jack Suber]

Shooter Grrl,

Check out a book titled "The Mental Edge" by Kenneth Baum.  This book has "exercises" to learn how to relax in a competative environment (sports) and provides a training regime to learn how to incorporate visualization into your training and competition.  Match nerves have always been a killer for me (both in local and major matches).  I would get so nervous that I could not focus on what I was doing or I would let a certain aspect of the stage dominate my thinking to the point that I would screw everything else up.  This book has really helped.  

  I also think that diet and rest are essential.  If you are not rested, you can not function or think at your potential.  If your body and mind are not fed properly, they will not fuction properly.  For mental clarity and focus, look for foods or suppliments with Choline in them.  (Choline has been determined to help kids with ADD focus better and longer).  Many professional athletes are using choline to increase their focus during games because it is safe and legal in NCAA and professional leagues.  Certain types of caffiene help provided they are not combined with other chemicals that will over stimulate the body and result in shaking (i.e coffee and sodas).  Choline has really helped me not only in shooting, but after lunch at work, and during my workouts.  Just something to think about.  Take care.

[kimel]

Hmmm...you have some references about the Choline angle?  I am very interested in that.  Never been diagnosed with it but would not be at all surprised to find I have an adult form of ADD.

One way to look at "match anxiety" is that it is very similar to the anxiety we all get when having to peform in public.  Public speaking is a good example.

Wonder if Toast Master's or something similar would help some of you?  I used to suffer from public speaking anxiety.  Then I got shoved into chairing a large committee at work and I do the public speaking (on closed-circuit TV to boot) several times a month and think nothing of it anymore.

Just a thought.

Cheers!

Kevin