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Lowering the Anxiety Level


David Benzick

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Lately I have spent a great deal of energy trying to improve my mental game in hopes that my shooting will become more consistant.  Trying to get my mind in the "correct" mode before I take on a stage has caused me a great deal of pre-stage anxiety at times.

When I mentioned this problem to a local GM, he shared with me a technique that has worked for him.  Instead of striving for awareness or subconscious shooting before the buzzer, he plans on shooting the first shots of the stage with conscious effort.  At some point his mind will switch to the subconcious mode and he's good to go.  The switch can occur as early as immeadiately after the buzzer or may take a few shots.  The point is he doesn't worry about getting there.

When I applied this technique to my practice Monday, it was as if a weight was lifted off me.  I no longer tried to shoot with a particular mental state, I only had to make a few quality hits and then slip into watching the gun move target to target.

When I look back at the good match shooting I've done in the last couple of months, the stages I did well on all had difficult shots right at the begining. These hard shots forced me to focus on what I needed to see to make the hit and then allowed me to slip into shooting with awareness.

Give it a try.  Walk through the stage and know where the targets are and how you want to engage them. Then just relax until it's time to pay attention to the first shot of the stage.

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David,

I'm with you on that approach. You might call it - finding or creating "keys." The reason it "works" is because being conscious and being aware are not different. Consciousness is personal or subjectively experienced awareness. And the function of awareness is (selfless) intelligence.

When intent, resolution, determination, and will are clearly established, wisdom (selfless intelligence) takes over.

be

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I've found that to make my anxiety as low as possible on a stage like a classifer for instance, I try to eliminate all variable that I have control of.

On the front cover of my Shooting Log.  I have my goal for 2002 written on it.  

On the other side of the cover I've written the seven perception stretchers I learned form the book "The Mental Edge"  

Also on that page I've written my 7P match reminders.

Bring a gun that works, the right ammo(checked),  shoot the speed I'm capable of that day, etc.  Basicaly this is where I remind myself to have any past reocurring problems taken care of.  This way when I shoot a stage I have a lot more "confidence" and tend to have a lot less stress.

(Edited by John Thompson at 9:10 pm on Feb. 24, 2002)

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I recently had a breakthrough of sorts.  I found that my anxiety was coming from a fear of poor performance.  My fear was making me miss steel and shoot too fast.  I am reading "The power of now" and realized that I was too foucused on the future.  When I got myself to focus on the moment, I found I became eager, or more accurate, excited about performing.  I found that I now step into the box with a focus I thought impossible before.  Now I can hit US poppers almost as fast as I can hit an A-zone on paper.  I have also noticed that when I step into a box, I am confident.  And I have begun to shoot more consistantly.

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I picked up a relaxation technique from a psychologist that had been hired to come into my Department and discuss relaxation and job related stress. What he suggested, and I applied to shooting,  is to concentrate on the air passing in and out of your nose as you breathe.  If you relax and pay attention you can actually feel the air on your skin as it passes by.  For me at least, it forces me to focus and something, anything, other than what is causing my anxiety before the buzzer goes off.

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Brian, it sure is!  For some reason Tolle (sp) explained it in a way I could understand.  It has really brought a new dimension to my shooting and life in general.  I now understand that quote from Bruce Lee you had in you book about not being able to teach someone their attitude.

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Austin,

That's cool. Yes, personal success or failure (in whatever realm) is a result of your attitude. Your attitude is observable in your internal dialogue, and since it is observable, it is transformable.

be

Surely, any psychological state can be changed.

[krishnamurti]

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