Practice made my game worse or burnt out

[shooterbenedetto]

Hello Hosers'

Preparing for a Big match, I'm pretending to treat my local match as BIG MATCHES to see what would

be my performance would be or to find my peak performance.

for the past week, I have been dryfiring and shooting everyday at the range. The result you would

think would be good right? WRONG!! Yesterday's match was the worse match I ever shot. As I was driving to go to the local match, I was excited and couldn't wait to shoot. But when I got there and shot the first stage, my game plan stategy

would not work? No matter how I burnt the stage in my head, I would forget a target or couldnt focus? I was also tense and this has never happened to me but it was happening for the next 4 stages. after 5 and 6th, I started to get back on my game. has this happened to anyone? I will post my findings this end of the week and would just dry fire daily.

[HoMiE]

I think you really need to look at what your practice routine is. Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. When I feel burnt, i take a break for a few days, helps me get focus back.

[markcic]

If they have a function fire bay, run a mag or two or sight in your pistol. It takes the jitters out. I also seem to do much better when I do that.

[Joe4d]

do you own a .22 ? spend a little time making small groups with it. dont worry about drills.

[Catfish]

There are times when a lot of practice leads to certain expectations. As in, "I've practiced all week for the match so I really expected to win my class."

Those thoughts lead to the dark side! Lose the expectations and just shoot the best you can. Worry about results after the match.

[FranDoc]

... I was also tense and this has never happened to me but it was happening for the next 4 stages. after 5 and 6th, I started to get back on my game. has this happened to anyone? ....

Sounds like you went in with too much anxiety/stress, too many expectations. Been there, done that, shot like crap.

If you haven't read Lanny Bassham's book (Brian has it in the Forum store, someone near you may have a copy to loan), do that. "Your conscious mind can only focus on one thing at a time". What was the 'one thing' running through your head when you felt tense -- was it 'I can do this well' or 'don't screw up'? There's a difference.

I recently got this piece of advice: work on speed and accuracy separately in practice, both dry and live fire, then try to bring the two together in practice. In matches, the only focus is alpha, alpha, alpha; don't give in to the time pressure. Yes, that seems like the wrong way to do it, but I'm finding that it's very right.

Functionally:

- determine what YOU need to see to call an Alpha on every shot, ignore the time, concentrate your focus on what an alpha shot looks like. Repeat. A lot.

- determine how fast you can move and keep the shots more or less on paper. Yes, you can do this dry as well as live-fire.

- try to bring speed into the Alpha focus

Shot 2 matches this weekend after practicing the above for a couple of weeks. It works better than any previous approach.

Good luck.

[davecutts]

Ed:

don't try so hard, just shoot.

[Ben Stoeger]

I was also tense and this has never happened to me but it was happening for the next 4 stages. after 5 and 6th, I started to get back on my game. has this happened to anyone?

You are beginning to put more into your game. You want to do better. You are getting nervous because you know that if you don't do better now, (after working at it) then your work was for nothing.

This game gets a lot harder once you decide to measure your self worth by how you shoot.

[Loves2Shoot]

If you don't trust yourself nothing really matters.

You need to know:

1. You can call your shot and make all the shots

2. You are fast enough

3. What you need to do in the stage

Then you just need to go and do it.

Good luck and keep your chin up. Everyone gets frustrated who tries to improve.

ps. Sometimes when you shoot a lot you start getting sloppy, as Homie said and knows, good practice is what make you get better.

Edited October 15, 2007 by Loves2Shoot

[Hank Ellis]

Overpractice can be worse than no practice. Been there, done that. And not just in shooting.

Walking in to a competition with an expectation of doing a certain level of performance much above what you are currently capable of leads to not coming close to that level. You put all that work into it and you believed that a certain performance should result. The expectation rattling around in the grey matter is what screwed you up. After the expectation went away after the first few stages you began to shoot.

I've become a firm believer in 'just shoot the gun'. Don't think. Don't have any expectations. Do what matters, sight focus and calling your shots. The rest will fall into place.

A story.

Years ago when I was competing in formation skydiving we were getting ready to do our last practice prior to the US Nationals in two weeks. Suited, geared, ready to dirt dive. Our coach looked at our dive plan, wadded it up and threw it in the trash. "You know what you know and practice today will gain you nothing. Let's go play." Spent the day doing fun jumps with our friends. Got gold in 8-way and a solid finish in 4-way.

[j1b]

There are times when a lot of practice leads to certain expectations. As in, "I've practiced all week for the match so I really expected to win my class."

Those thoughts lead to the dark side! Lose the expectations and just shoot the best you can. Worry about results after the match.

Now that's some good advice.

Even Brian wrote in his book about going to a steel challenge (or some other match) feeling super about his shooting only to put in a poor performance.

Sometimes I think over-preparation causes us to believe we can take a little attention off and things will be ok. That all that practice is what's going to make the match come through.

So here's my question. In practice did you really focus on the fundamentals? Smooth, sights, seeing, crisp yada yada yada? And then when you went to the match did you place those things in second place (because you'd practiced them so much) and started focusing on "shaving a second here" or "Shoot these on the move - I couldn't before but I can now . . ." type stuff? In other words, did you do all the things that have lead to success in practice over the past few weeks? Or did you not do them, because you had seen successful, and by virtue of that did you let go of the one thing that was in fact allowing you to succeed?

Crap that "simple" question got screwy. I should quit.

J

[Loves2Shoot]

Thinking is the biggest distraction from "doing." Practice is so you can "do" without thinking. If you start thinking, then you stop "doing" and that road is a rough one. I've never had a great stage that I thought my way through.

[pjb45]

I have experienced the same thing. I started by changing my practice format. Practice can consist of two parts: skill acquisition and match practice. I try to keep the two separate in a single session. But I always end with shooting groups with accuracy. My practices usually begin and end with an emphasis on accuracy. I find that this lends itself well improved match performance. As the above person states, shoot for two alpha and the improved performance will follow.

Let me expand on practices: I like Matt Burkett's philosophy of shooting for accuracy in the beginning of the session. I do a series of draws, strong weak hand drills and some precision shooting. Next I work on whatever skills I feel I need to improve. Then I progress to doing controlled chaos drills simulating an array as in a match. I usually end with doing some group shooting with emphasis on what Mike Seeklander calls the shooting cycle. Then when I get to a match, I really try to focus on shooting nothing but As--the adage of shoot slow and move fast has really helped me improve my match performance.

[BSeevers]

I see a lot of performance go in what I call peaks, plateau, and maybe valleys.

Fire makes the steel stronger and you, yourself said you were tense, so work on that first.

[SouthpawG26]

It hasn't been brought up yet so far, but practicing hard within the last week before the match, is probably not the way to go for steady improvement. I happen to coach a team of 25-30 shooters, and we work our butts off for months before a big match and taper our training load in the last week or 2, just as in most other sports. You really can't get much better in a week's time (or much worse, for that matter), IMO.

Edited October 16, 2007 by SouthpawG26

[ChuckS]

Ed,

Remember that day you won Open class at Norco? Remember what you did that day and repeat...

You'll be fine. Cut back on the Red Bull and let it flow. It is already in you.

Later,

Chuck

[pjb45]

SouthpawG26,

I remember when Jean Claude Killey won three gold medals. He talked about training hard then taking 2 weeks off from a hard training schedule to relax.

I remember test taking strategies being in the same vain. Don't cram before an exam, cram days before then the night before the exam, just review the material. My test scores soared by utilizing this philosophy, I ended up with almost all As in my graduate program.

So I see real value in your approach.

[shooterbenedetto]

So far I'm parctice starting with accuracy then weak areas then finish off with accuracy. Still dryfire every night for

at least 30min. Thanks for the respose guys and keep it coming!!

[SouthpawG26]

SouthpawG26,

I remember when Jean Claude Killey won three gold medals. He talked about training hard then taking 2 weeks off from a hard training schedule to relax.

I remember test taking strategies being in the same vain. Don't cram before an exam, cram days before then the night before the exam, just review the material. My test scores soared by utilizing this philosophy, I ended up with almost all As in my graduate program.

So I see real value in your approach.

As Lanny Bassham states, your subconsious skill base has (or should have) been built up over a longer period of intense training, and there's little you add to that in the last week. Saul Kirsh also mentiones that a little tapering of the training load right before a big match may sharpen the senses and their input, as well as overall awareness.