Help with consistency

[upnorth35]

I have been shooting USPSA for a solid 2 years now. Started regularly last year in Production. Switched to Carry optics this year. I was scrolling through some of the current post on here and read this response "Great run! Sometimes it seems like everything just falls into place and the gun just runs itself. It's an amazing thing to experience!"

This really hit home with me. I know exactly what they are referring to and have experienced it a number of times this year. Most of the time for one or 2 stages and very rarely an entire match. So what i am wondering is how a person hones that in to be the case the majority of the time. I am usually good for 1 or 2 really nice stages during a match and rarely can I string a pile of great stages together, but when that happens it feels great. Any advice is appreciated.

[Twilk73]

I have the same problem. I do better when I focus and visualize and I do worse when I disrespect a stage and don’t focus. I believe some of my problem is also that I’m still learning and not everything is natural yet which means we are still working pretty hard mentally and we see the effects both in our mistakes and also while the mistake is happening. What I mean is the mistake is a result of our skill and the consequences that follow for me at least are a result of my brain rebooting from the mistake. During the reboot I go into autopilot, the things I do well I continue to do well. Everything else is off until the brain works again, this used to take the rest of the stage, now its a few seconds. The better I get, the better autopilot is, the better I get the easier it is to focus on the stage and less about what I should be doing while running that stage. 
 

When I knew nothing the game was simple, all I did was work the stage. Now I’m thinking enter here, get the gun up here, slow down here, move and shoot here exit on that target while leaning out and decrease splits on the far target. When I can stop thinking about all these things I’ll be killing it. Got to just do it over and over and over until it’s engrained in our brain. 

Edited August 25 by Twilk73

[IVC]

Bad run is usually when you rush and you start wishing instead of seeing. If you see what you need to see, you won't miss. And misses make bad runs (assuming you're not talking about forgetting stage plan or moving around sloppily). 

 

What I found useful, even though I wasn't searching for a solution, was to shoot local Virginia count steel matches with time plus scoring. It forces you to see what you need to see even when it feels like it is taking a long time to settle the sights down. When a miss carries a hefty penalty and there are no make-up shots, you focus on hitting the target (visual cues) and not on imagined required pace (preconceived distraction). But this patience, where the eyes and visual processing are dictating the pace, is what is required (no exceptions) for good runs in any shooting game. 

 

In USPSA it's easy to "push the pace" and work off of some internal clock of how fast the run "should feel" only to end up with deltas, mikes and make-up shots on steel. If you go instead off of what you see, you'll be shooting to the level of your training. And a freebie benefit of being able to shoot at the level of your training is that if it's slow or you want to be faster you will know what you have to work on - getting on target sooner, settling sooner, seeing sooner. 

Edited August 26 by IVC

[upnorth35]

Thanks guys. Those are two posts that both make perfect sense. Wishing instead of seeing could very easily be what I do most of the time. Thank you both!

[shred]

Brian Enos calls it "rushing" or "getting in a rush".  You should be able to find some wisdom using that for search terms too.

 

[upnorth35]

Thanks for that, I will certainly search those phrases and read up!

[StefVanHauwe]

Fyi: on my YT Channel I have a public playlist dedicated to "the mental game" with my own and third party videos: