match focus

[John Thompson]

In the book "Rifle & Pistol Shooting-Winning with the mental Edge" author Mark Taylor had an interresting chapter on how to stay focused between stages, while changing targets, or when ever a shooter has time to focus on the last stage or talk with another shooter.  The part about thinking(worrying) about prior stages and talking too(getting talked at) fellow comptetitors was particularly relavant to a match to a big match I shot last Sunday.  Taylor wrote about how if you had a mistake on a stage you don't want to be thinkging about this negative prior to going into the next stage because all your doing is programing your mind to do it again.  As we all know the negative is a lot more effective motivator to our conscious mind than the positive is.  Note what you did wrong on a stage, correct it with visualization, then move on.  The great thing about action pistol shooting as compared to other shooting sports is that a bad stage is not the end of the match and a mediocre stage means all most nothing.  The other topic of speaking to other shooters is how they can plant the seed of destruction in your mind either intentionaly or unintentionaly.  Example, I shot the Toledo three gun match last Sunday(by the way the range was sold last week to a developer).  I was shooting after working the midnight shift, driving two hours, helping set up 11 stages(great match), and was dead tired.  On this day I needed to be focused.  On the first stage I shot fast and had 95% A hits. I also had two no shoots.  A guy on my squad made a joke about my hitting the no shoots while doing the walk through on the next very tight shots shooting stage( thus planting the seeds of destruction).  On that stage I again had a good time, 95% A hits, and two no shoot hits right in the upper A zone.  That other competitor went to joke again about it and I let it help tank the rest of my match.  He didn't do it on purpose but if he had wanted to it would have been effective. On my end I knew I was going to be shooting under duress and I needed to accept that rather than giving up.  Prior to the 1980 Mr. Olympia ruthless competitor Arnold Schwartzenager told expected winner Mike Metzer that he looked bloated.  Metzer got so upset by that comment that he forgot to flex his abs during the competition and lost to an almost out of shape Arnold.  

Taloyr recommended not talking to other shooters during the match.  That's fine but I like to talk and find the social aspect of shooting part of the appeal.  The only other solution is to decide how much stage prep time is needed and always make sure that you stick to it.  I shot a classifer the other day and while waiting for the start beep I could hear a guy running his mouth behind me.  I was so focused that I still shot a great stage.  Now if I could only do that all the time...

[Bill H]

If you don't talk to the other competitors how do you mess with their minds?

Bill Hearne

[Chriss Grube]

Bill,

You didn't place nice as a kid either did you? Actually When I'm in the hole I'll walk off away from everybody and go over the stage and get my head straight. I don't talk to anyone from that point until the stage is over.

[38supPat]

Man I talk to EVERYONE...lol. I like to make my plan, focus on it, get it locked....then walk away. I hate getting too wrapped up in it. It'll twist your mind with all kinds of irrelevant thoughts. Just get the plan, load it up, save it, and play it back when you need it.

Pat

[kellyn]

I'm with Pat.  I talk to everyone that will talk back.  You get different ideas, perspectives, strategies.  You don't have to use them but other's ideas only add to your data base.  Sometimes others may have built a better mousetrap.

I try to not get too caught up in plans.  A plan is important but sometimes after the buzzer goes off, your shooting can take you far beyond the limitations of your plan.

[Flexmoney]

JT,

I love the Arnold reference.  When I used to work at a gym ther was this guy that came in...I would sometimes ask him if he was losing weight.  That was all it took to mess with his mind for the day.  He would go around asking people if they thought he looked smaller.  

Probably helped his workout though.

[bird]

I am very new to competition but I talk to everyone (that will talk).

I ask people how they are going to shoot the stage, what kind of load, pistol etc that they are using.(anything to take my mind off the match pressure).

I also love to joke and laugh between stages, I find that it really helps me relax.

I am still nervous as hell when I step up to the line but I try not to let anyone know this.

I have met some great people so far and I always have a great time.

Any type of shooting is just plain fun.

[bonedaddy]

   Maybe everyone has a different mental edge?  Think of the different personality types.  As for me, I do plenty of shooting with no one at all to talk to.  If I have to get all "snake eyes" and avoid conversation with people that I like in order to win, I'd rather not win.   But, I do hope that I will always respect the personal space of someone who puts winning ahead of having fun.  This is a personal choice and I don't want to be yammering away if another guy is trying to hone his "edge".  

[Julien Boit]

I'm just like pat,

I talk to everyone in the squad, but I do not talk to people who wait to shoot as most of them "wouldn't hear".

As soon as I heard the "load and make ready" for the guy just before me, I switch off my electronic earmuff, and start thinking about my stage, reapeating it  and most of it , visualize it .

Then I'm the one who "wouldn't hear" !

An important thing for me is to talk with others shooters at the briefing and during the reccons .

They can have a better plans to shoot the stage, as kellyn told in his post.

DVC

Julien :-)

(Edited by Julien Boit at 11:17 pm on Aug. 9, 2001)

[lenard]

The guys I compete with love these little mind games. We have become experts at making each other miss. Innocent little comments and suggestions may not be so innocent. We lie about our scores and times,number of penalties etc. We praise, intimidate, do just about anything to unsettle each other. It is so effective!

The Australasian Championsips 2 weeks ago was a perfect example. Most of the stages were 8-9 rounders with 2-3 very fast movers per stage. Guys in the squad who have finished shooting would loudly complain about the speed of the swingers, or how far the targets were. You can really see fear on the eyes of the shooter on deck! ;-)You really cant escape. They'll take you aside and tell you to be carefull of the fast movers, 2 misses and you get a zero for the stage. At first you are grateful for the concern, but you soon realize this has a way of sticking in your mind as you are about to shoot especially when the pressure level is high. After the first day, I was the only one in the squad who didnt have a penalty so I soon became the target of their "affection". They began to comment that I was shooting so slow that i should have registered in revolver division( I shoot in Standard div. ). Amateur schoolyard stuff and I just tried to ignore it. Hah! easier said than done! They kept on repeating it and in front of other people that I finally decided I just had to shoot faster. Sure enough, I racked up 5 penalties n the second day! It would take up too much space to enumerate all the fun and games we played on each other on that fun filled week ;-)

Do you guys do this on big matches? Does it still affect you? Yes I've read Brian's book, Bruce Lee, Inner game of ... etc tons of Sport Psychology books, but in the end, the pressure still got to me. I guess I need more experiences with big matches.

I like this line from one of the Michael Jordan autobio's:

"What separates the Superstars from the other talented players? It's the ability to make the shot when the game is on the line."

[Julien Boit]

In the squad, we do it all the time.

Some are doing it for fun (like me) and some are doing it to try to break you down.

This year, as we were shooting to select people that would go to the european championship, it was harder !

I always have a "don't care about that" mindset .

I'm here to shoot my stage as I planned .

One of the favorite jokes in the squad is :

"are you sure you're major ? "

This happens all the time when one of those bloody poppers just "cling" and don't fall !

[Kevin Kline]

I guess I'm also like Pat. After the walk through, I get my plan set in my head and depending on how far down the list I am, I then joke around and crack comments with others until I am on double deck or the hole, then I stop and really start getting into "the zone".

Joking around helps me with the tension and nervousness. It helps that we have great guys to shoot with.

Kevin/IPSC Supercop

[tightloop]

Let's update this thread.

What is your plan to to get ready to shoot a stage, what do you visualize, plan for, etc and do you heckel your shooting buds...

[j1b]

I talk a lot at the matches. I don't talk when I need to focus on something - I chat it up when I feel like I can.

I'd hate to assign too much value to something as casual as conversation. I can't think of a time when I let some other competitor's assessment of my performance effect my eventual performance. I am by far my worst critic - if I shot two no shoots on a stage there is nothing anyone can say to me that would be more impactful than the focus and direction I have going on in myself to fix whatever happened.

There are probably right ways to approach things and "not so right" ways to approach things. I could have a not shoot on a stage and go into the next one thinking one of two things. 1) Don't hit another no-shoot or 2) Watch those sights and drill A's. Anyone ever mountain biked before? If you want to insure you're going to hit that big huge rock - just stare at it a little longer. You'll probably hit it. Same with shooting. If you stare at the no-shoot to insure you won't hit it - you're going to hit it! Its inevitable.

You know people play mind games all the time. I don't know how valid they are. When I get to the line my thoughts are on what I need to do to complete the stage. If I screw up the second stage like I did the first I would personally assign more fault to some process I am doing wrong than a seed planted by some other shooter.

There is no doubt this is a mind game. No doubt. The extent that it is a mind game though is limited only by how much we allow it to be.

JB

[Singlestack]

Anyone ever mountain biked before? If you want to insure you're going to hit that big huge rock - just stare at it a little longer. You'll probably hit it. Same with shooting. If you stare at the no-shoot to insure you won't hit it - you're going to hit it! Its inevitable.

The same is true for White Water Kayaking. I believe it is because of the weight of our heads. WW kayaks are very sensitive to any weight shift and the key to going where you want to go is look there. To successfully shred a class IV rapid, and I mean to be in complete control, catch (stop in) every eddy, play with all the features and make it look easy you have to totally ignore everything except where you are going and know you will get there. If doubt creeps in and you let your eyes dart to the danger that is making your survival instincts scream, you are in trouble.

Does that apply to our sport or what?

I really do try to not look at no shoots.

[bob7]

tightloop,

Thanks for bringing this thread back; wouldn't have seen it. I've been thinking alot about this and talking about it w/ friends. The best advise came from a new shooter in our group who played college volleyball. She said her coach would have them visualize what they had to do, ie. bump, volley, spike, over and over again using only positive thought and thinking in real time speed.

The key for me was rehearsing in my mind w/ realtime speed. Before, it was slow motion, John Woo Hong Kong movie slow motion. Very dramatic, but useless. I also find it a lot harder to think through a whole stage full speed, but when I get close it has made me shoot better.

bob7

[lynn jones]

The key for me was rehearsing in my mind w/ realtime speed.

good point. thanks