the great experiment

[ErikW]

It's Friday, Oct. 18 in Las Vegas. I've got my foo-foo gun on my hip, shooting Open division at the Infinity Open. I'm experimenting with something different after a multitude of humiliating matches in Limited where for some reason I missed a lot of shots. I plan to stick to my Open strategy: call the shots and shoot lots of points, no misses or no-shoots, speed be damned.

First stage (#9, The Door), I've got a little bit of match butterflies, some nervous anxiety. I shoot it feeling very uncomfortable. I'm clearly pulling off targets early, too eager to get to the next target. I get an uncalled miss on an open target, plus D hits.

Second stage, the anxiety is minimal. Magazine fails, timer fails, and I get the golden reshoot. I tear it up, shooting above my comfort level, again too eager to find the next target and move the gun to it. I get lucky and the few hoper shots find their mark, no thanks to me as I didn't follow through on them. I end on the swinger, with my first shot on it, but it's going away and I don't like my second shot, so I hose a few more at it, or rather, where it used to be. Blazing fast time, Miss on the swinger.

Third and remaining stages, the anxiety is gone, I'm fully within my comfort zone, shooting beaucoup points, no Ds, slower than my first two stages, penalty-free. My biggest mistakes cost me time, not points.

So it seems the big problem is not following through the second shot on a target, pulling off it too early. Symptomatic of match nerves which cause me to push beyond my comfort zone.

Is that it? Can it be that simple? Have I found the source of all my troubles? Or am I just deluding myself? (Mazu Moko!)

[Detlef]

you're deluding yourself! First off, let's face it, nine stages is a small match. Some club matches here have 7 or 8 stages. Statistics is bad, *any*thing is possible, almost *any*one can win, or lose, do well, or terribly. In truly big matches (15 and up stages) I found that inattention to detail has a habit of raising its ugly head at any unexpected point. One is particularly susceptible at beginning and end (tired!), but it can come at *any* time, even when you're grooved in. What you experienced is probably some sort of statistical fluctuation, not the solution per se.

--Detlef

[ErikW]

But I felt absolutely, quanitifiably different those first two stages. Both uncomfortable and insecure. Like subconsciously I knew I was f'ing up. The kind of mistakes I made then are not the kind I make when I'm tired and inattentive; the opposite is true. The tired and inattentive mistakes showed up on the blackjack stage where I took 13 seconds instead of 10 because I couldn't acquire targets, couldn't steady the sight, missed an easy steel, and I screwed up the engagement order.

Ten stages is big to me. I only do a few matches a year with that many.

Maybe it had something to do with arriving a few hours before my squad had to shoot, eyeballing the stages, and getting all amped up and uptight before I actually shot them. The next morning I showed up at 8:00 AM and got right into my groove, comfortable, confident but not cocky, accurate, and quick enough.

[Detlef]

I find that feelings and failure early in the morning are  totally different from feelings and failure whern I'm *grooved in*. The former are due to jitters and nervousness that I cannot control, the latter almost always due to lack of attention or carelessness (the *saw that shot was bad, but didn't shoot a follow-up because I was hoping* kind-of-thing). The best I found for the former is i) follow TTs advice on running/working out about 20 min in the morning on every match day. This really reduces jitters for me; and ii) accept that I'm nervous, and act accordingly (be doubly careful, cautious stage strategy, fire lotsa follow-ups if there's only a slither of doubt). I have not found medication against the latter suite of problems!

But then, everyone is different.

--Detlef

[PaulW]

Erik.....

I can relate to exactly what you are saying.  My first stage at the Infinity open was the planks, a super simple straight forward stage right?  Geez, I was shaking so bad that I almost fell off the planks, and you know how wide they were. Just terrible.  I'm usually a pretty confident guy, not cocky, but quietly confident.  I started to have flashes of what if's also.  What if I miss the reload, what if I do fall of the Planks, what if I don't hit the poppers on the first target, all kinds of S%$t like that was in my head.  After that first stage I pulled head out of my a$$ and said you know what, I have done all of this thousands of times.  Do what you need to do and see what you need to see.  Ripped the nest stage, not perfect but a thousand times better than the first.  The only other time I was really bad was when I had not taotally committed myself on shooting a stage one way or another.  Deciding while you are loading making ready is way to late, and it cost me.

[benos]

Erik

When I read the subtitle - "identifying The Big Match Problem" (before reading your post) - a single word formed in my mind - rushing.

[ErikW]

Yeah I felt rushed those first two stages. But I didn't feel rushed at the Race Gun Nats where I tanked. I wonder if I can be rushing without knowing it.

I guess what I'll try to do to avoid it at the Desert Classic is follow through more on the shots. I don't think I can "force" myself to "relax." I'm also going to try to visualize my runs more. I often set the shooting pace in my head before a run, maybe I can set the transition and movement pace. But then maybe setting a pace is shooting to a rhythm, not to the required vision (seeing what you need to see).

[SiG Lady]

I don't think I can "force" myself to "relax"... (EW)

It was weird in and of itself seeing those two words used in the same sentence... Kinda like "trying" to "meditate." Now, I'm far from expert on beating the tension that can happen in competition (and I know what it's like), but I will attest to having found some of what it takes. One has to "let" (allow, give permission to, back off, chill out, release) oneself relax. Tension is this halo of static you wear and neither brain and body can function under it, as it turns out. The "relaxing" thing raised my scoring about 20% the first week. No lie.

[Jake Di Vita]

Usually I am also confident, I don't rush and I make my hits, I almost never have match nerves. My mistakes on only the first stages at the MI State USPSA, OH State USPSA, and and IDPA Nats combined end up to be 4 mikes, 8 misses on a popper, and one FTN. I attribute this not only to rushing, but not thinking in the moment. On those first stages I was always thinking about the next shot, which caused be to crash and burn. I even catch myself doing it when I practice. Relaxation is easier said than done, but it is the key.

[Flexmoney]

This stuff is great.

BE--  "identifying The Big Match Problem" - rushing

SL-- Tension is this halo of static you wear and neither brain and body can function under it...

TIS--  Relaxation is easier said than done, but it is the key.

[benos]

"I wonder if I can be rushing without knowing it."

lol. I'd bet dollars to donuts on a big fat yes.

"I don't think I can "force" myself to "relax."

Yea, that's a real tough one, probably impossible. It's also very difficult to shoot an IPSC stage without some sort of TRYING going on. Subtly, it's always lurking. To counteract the effect of match pressure/adrenaline, instead of trying to relax, or trying not to rush or hurry, substitute the positive attitude of "backing off." Then, when I shoot a stage (successfully) after backing down to about 80 or 90% of my "current speed capacity, [CSC]" it FELT like I WAS very relaxed. So in a way, the relaxed feeling is the outcome of not trying anything.

Shooting IPSC is a lot like running the 100 yard dash. It's almost impossible (for your average speed-freak-IPSC-shooter) to not TRY to go/run fast. Hence the old sprinter's experiment of running the 100 yard dash at about 85% capacity. Most ran faster than when they tried to run as fast as they FELT they should. Often, our feelings are misleading.

be

[Steve Anderson]

It's amazing to me how we think we "solve" these problems and then are so surprised when they occur again.

I'm on a pretty good streak of relaxation.

After tanking the Penn tri-state because my head was !!!!!!?????*****%%%%$$$$$$###@@##$$, I realized that everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and no match could ever be that bad again.

Now if I get anxious or tense, I just tell myself it ain't as bad as that day in Pennsylvania...

Kinda like jumping out of a plane, I guess. ( never done it) But after you land safely, Ladders probly aren't very scary anymore.

I think about rushing like this (today)

I have never lost a stage because I shot too slow.

I have lost MANY stages because I shot too fast.

But, I don't belive we ever "solve" this, and I'm not sure we should try too hard to do so.

Instead, confidence in ability should remind us that we can do this stuff.

SA

(Edited by Steve Anderson at 9:35 pm on Oct. 24, 2002)

[benos]

Steve,

"I have lost MANY stages because I shot too fast."

Underlying shooting too fast, the uncertainty of doubt births trying and rushing.

be

[ErikW]

Saturday I shot three stages: two misses, six misses, and one miss. Sunday I shot three stages, dropped some Cs and a D or two.

Saturday I had zero visual patience. Nada, zip. (I realized what Open shooters mean when they say they don't have the patience to shoot Limited.) One sight picture, two shots. All I did differently Sunday was see the sights for each shot, for times and scores among the best.

[ErikW]

Bennie Cooley was giving me a hard time for my stupid-ass rifle shooting this weekend. I was rushing, not following through.

So maybe rushing is my problem at the pistol matches.

[Duane Thomas]

Strange. Shot a match this past weekend, a little 5-stager. I wasn't happy with my performance on any of the stages, especially Stage 3 on which I had a Miss. There wasn't a stage out there I couldn't have done differently, and better. And yet I won the match - 1st Lim-10, 1st Overall. And after running a particular stage, as well as after the match, I was getting complimented on how well I was shooting. "You're so fast, you're so smooth." WTF? **I** sure as hell didn't feel that way.

[Singlestack]

If someone can figure out how NOT to rush, I'd like to know. I don't do it on purpose, I know it when it happens, yet it still manages to bite me on at least 1 stage a match. It usually happens like Erik said, second shot on a target before a move or a mag change. Eyes were somewhere else.

I hate it when I get a "alpha, mike".

(Edited by Singlestack at 6:48 pm on Nov. 4, 2002)

[benos]

SS,

Yea, nobody does it (rushes) on purpose - the nature of the sport invites it.

I think it's natural to tense up and strain, when what we perceive we are doing or going to do appears "difficult." Watch it in a young (one to two years) child - they strain without encouragement.

There is no way to overcome it.

Why did I say that?

[EricW]

I had a run while shooting sporting clays one day where I was just groovin'.  I was so relaxed and confident, that I would call for birds before I finished loading my gun.  I just *knew* that I had all the time in the world to smash them.  I think *knowing* I had time was the key to making the most of it.

[Rich Bagoly]

I Think that is called trusting.

I have been exploring my own ability to trust.

Sometimes you just accept that you will learn how to "make the shot", from what you are seeing, and feeling, as it happens.

If I want to calm myself before a stage, I tell myself I know everything I kneed to know, to shoot this.  

[ErikW]

Well I shot the A2DC without crashing and burning. One Alpha-Mike target in the "shopping" stage where you repeatedly swing from the left side of the range to the right, which is a huge invitation to rush and pull off target early. Another Alpha-Mike target in the OK Corral, hitting the popper activator, then rushing the hardcovered static before swinging back to the swinger. (The Miss hit low in the black, still in the A zone.)

I got away with rushing a few other targets like that. But, man, that is a fine line between tearing it up and crashing and burning.

[benos]

Rich,

Yes, when you trust that you first -

Know EXACTLY what you must do,

and furthermore -

that is ALL you are going to do,

then you can set your will to act with a sense of deliberateness.

Purposeful action is usually successful action.

be