lenard Posted June 10, 2001 Share Posted June 10, 2001 How do you cure burnout? A big match is coming up , lots at stake.Sometimes i cant even bear lookin at my gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38supPat Posted June 10, 2001 Share Posted June 10, 2001 BTDT. I think you've got to motivate yourself. Instead of focusing on the match ahead, focus on learning, period. Pick specific drills, if match stages are posted on the web look them over and see if there is a common thread, eg at this years Canadian Nationals most of the stages appear to start with hands crossed or touching opposite shoulders (Murray is a bit twisted so I'm not sure why he feels this is a relevant start position). Look at your basic techniques, go back to square one, as if you had never learned to shoot and re-evaluate everything. Make it interesting for yourself again, challenge yourself. Do drills you've never done before. Too often we get in a self imposed 'Rut'. We practice draws or reloads 'til we're knee deep in brass, past the point where we care about learning, we're just going through the motions. Shoot groups at 100 yds, strong hand or weak hand at 50yds (thats what I did yesterday. Strong and weak hand at 35 yds. Mucho learning there...lol) Pay attention to how you pull the trigger. Try shooting with both of your arms bent at 45 degrees just to see what happens. Shoot the walk back drill, or make one up on your own. It doesn't have to be IPSC specific, make it fun and see what you can learn from it. Go and find a newbie and work through all of it with him. Learn as you instruct, you might find his enthusiasm (being new, is infectuous). This forum board has been a huge motivator for me. I've had to think about the things I do, even if I have forgotten that I do them. Look within yourself to find the cause of the burnout, generally burnout can be replaced with the word 'bored'. Find out why you are bored with what you are doing, and make it interesting again. Hope this helps Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriss Grube Posted June 10, 2001 Share Posted June 10, 2001 Just think that the alternative is doing real work. I'll go shooting any day over writing reports! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyn Posted June 11, 2001 Share Posted June 11, 2001 I like to "cross train." Go shoot something else: skeet, clays, highpower, palma, silhouette, 3 gun, archery, whatever. Most other shooting sports (except the shotgun ones) are more accuracy oriented than IPSC. Anything you learn knocking over a ram at 500 meters or hitting an X at 600 can only help your IPSC shooting. As for pistol shooting, I would start focusing on any weak points: accuracy, weakhand, strong hand only, or whatever they may be. This will give you some new hurdles/challenges to direct your attention to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Merricks Posted June 11, 2001 Share Posted June 11, 2001 Lenard, I am not a pro by any means but I think the answer is simple. Make shooting fun. I too have been burned out by training in a diffrent area than you. But what I had to do was to come up with some thing I have never done before but would increase my proformance. Why do you shoot. Because it is fun. If you cant get back into the grove dont pick up a gun until the day of your big match. Go to the match and have fun. If you suck the day of the match I bet you will be so motivated by the time the next one comes around you will kick butt. I hope this is of some help. If not, completely ignore everything I just wrote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted June 11, 2001 Share Posted June 11, 2001 I'm with Jon on the "make it fun." If I need a change up, I'll do "unusual" practices like, shooting with my eyes closed (described in the recently posted "break out with some fun" practive in the Training Drills Forum.) Or some shooting on one foot stuff, or just think up something crazy that you haven't done before. Before you know it, you'll be shooting again. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenard Posted June 12, 2001 Author Share Posted June 12, 2001 Thank you , thank you all. Unfortunately, I dont have time to cross train as the big match is 5 weeks away. And I definitely can't suck on the day of the match because Im a member of a standard team my country is sending. Yikes! But I will try to keep the practice sessions fun. Any advice on the mental game required to shoot a Level 4, 24 stage match? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38supPat Posted June 12, 2001 Share Posted June 12, 2001 No mental game, just go and do what you can do. Just pay attention to what you are doing as you're doing it. Shoot steady, don't try to win stages, build up your points. Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Merricks Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 Maybe the not picking up a gun idea wasnt such a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Fletcher Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 I made the mistake of 'Not picking up the gun.' It took almost four month to get back in the habbit of dry firing and just getting to the range. I lost a lot. Lost the feel of the gun. I'am just getting back onto it. Falling into the rut cost me a good part a season. Do your best to keep some sort of rotine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulW Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 When I was playing golf a lot a friend of mine gave me some advice once. He said I should not pick up a club for 3 weeks, then, quit all together! HAHA...keep shooting, your going to do something, might as well shoot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Leong Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 I agree. Heck, go swimming or something. Biking. Golf. Bungee jumping. And when you're damgling there by your feet, you say to yourself "gee, now isn't shooting better than THIS?" :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kline Posted August 23, 2001 Share Posted August 23, 2001 Chriss Grube, I definitely know the writing reports thing. That gets old quick. That's why when the Training Unit asks me if I want to instruct on the range for a day instead of taking calls and writing reports, I jump at the chance. Lenard, I 2nd Pat Harrison's post. Be consistent throughout the match and don't try to win every stage. Just shoot your game at your pace and consistently you will build your match points. You will do better that way than the guy who wins 7 stages out of 10, but crashes and burns on the other 3. Also, I will not look at the scores that are posted until I have shot my last stage and I'm done for the match. I was told this before I shot my first stage and it is some of the best big match advice I have. If you start looking at the posted scores or paying attention to others Hit Factors before you are finished with the match and see you aren't doing well, you will "push it" and try to go faster than your ability and most likely crash and burn. Shoot your game and let only pay attention to yourself. Kevin/IPSC Supercop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Leong Posted September 20, 2001 Share Posted September 20, 2001 Here's something that may help. When I was apprenticing (yes, I was probably one of the last of the apprenticeship generation) my boss (gov'nor in British) used to say (this was photography, now shooting, alas) "at the end of each year, take all your negatives, put them in a pile, and burn them". Now, I never actually did that (I sent them to a stock library service instead, gotta retire someday, you know), but I got the drift - when you die, you carry nothing with you except maybe what you learned inside, time moves forwards for a reason, and all that. So what you carry with you is inside, your skill, experience, memories. After awhile it's time to refresh, to begin again, set aside, move on. I went back to precision shooting last week, just one session of slow fire. just for kicks. All 10s or better, groups much, much better than they were when I was "taking it seriously". That's more than 50 single shots at 50 meters slow fire, BTW, so no flash-in-the-pan there. (So then I start thinking, well maybe it works in reverse, y'know? if I shot more slow fire, d'ya think my IPSC scores will get better? :-) yeah right) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bird Posted September 20, 2001 Share Posted September 20, 2001 Hi Chris, Your words of wisdom couldn't have come at a better time. After 12 years of marriage my life is going to move on in the form of a divorce from my wife. From my previous post (many months ago) my wife and her drug addiction (which almost ended her life) has produced many unresolved demons in her life which will result in what my 3 kids (15,11,8) have feared for awhile. She feels that my absence will give her the happiness she seeks... God please help her find her way... I am sorry to digress from the topic but me and my kids are very sad. anyway, Competition shooting is very much a passion in my life and burnout is along way from me now. I shoot at an indoor range 2x's per week with the focus on slow accuracy. I feel that this does help me when it comes to the fast IPSC style of shooting... I have only been shooting IPSC for 6 weeks and am very, new but accuracy in group shooting is the way to go.. Matt's class really taught me alot.. Burnout is a state of mind and as long as you can find ways to enjoy shooing (trap and skeet, rifle, et al.) then you will always be fresh. I hope to someday shoot again with you Chris, as you are good people. bird Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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