Getting your head back in the game

[Dave S]

Shot the Area 3 match over the weekend and had a complete melt down. The implosion was so bad that at one point I had to walk away from my squad and take a minute to gather myself back together. I know that you shouldn't let your emotions effect your shooting but sometimes that can be difficult.

At this point I feel that I have lost some confidence in my ability (B class 68%). I know I just need to forget about what happened and move on. Keep working at my weakness and learn from my mistakes. Sometimes it is just hard to put those things behind and keep working. I don't even feel like picking up my gun right now.

I am sure others have been down this road, any advice ?

TIA,

Nick

I go through this often and seem to be stalled at my current level at times. The only advice I have is in Saul Kirsch's book: "Thinking Practical Shooting."

Forget the bad days/runs. They are poison. And when you come off a bad stage, you NEED to be able to forget it or it will kill the rest of the match. Attitude is a downward spiral (or upward spiral). Focus on what you did well. I had a crappy run yesterday and hit 3 penalty targets, but I cleared a texas star quickly, shot another array accurately (all As) and two of my NSs were on the perf (edge of A zone on the target). The other one I made up immediately because I recognized the poor sight picture and shot it again before I saw the hole. So I think, well, I need to work on sight picture and trigger control, but I'm now a good Texas Star shooter. And I'll get faster when I learn to trust my eyes enough to move on when I "know" I've got a hit. It's amazing that when I thought I was a bad star shooter I would miss. But when I visualize the hits, they happen.

That's my advice. I'm by no means a great shooter, but I feel much better after the match when I focus on the ground that I've gained, and immediately forget about the mistakes.

My next crucial step is to recall the memory of the mistakes later so I can practice what I need to work on.

PS: I did what you did at Area 6 - then I read the book: I swear he must have been following me around documenting all I was doing wrong attitude-wise.

I highly agree and really liked Saul`s book. Good reading about the mental game within us all

[GrumpyOne]

This weekend I drove 800 miles to do a 2 day match for the Northwest Section Championship. (800 miles of driving in a 48 hour span is a lot for this kid from Hawaii). On Saturday of the match I had a lot of mental errors. Ran past a target on a jungle run, left a steel standing - totally avoidable but I was getting ahead of myself. I just have to remind myself that I'm out to have a good time shooting and hanging with my friends. Scores are just a result of being at the match. The sucess metric that I'm trying to go by is fun-factor. If I'm not having fun, I may as well have stayed home.

Last stage, last array of that match, I finally relaxed and was able to shoot at a smooth cadence. Better late than never. Just gotta get my head there sooner

~Mitch

+1 I'd be lying if I said I didn't care how I shot, but when I look at the big picture, Hey, we're just shooting, it's supposed to be fun! When it becomes work (or like work), well, it's time to move on! When I screw up, most the time I end up laughing cause what I did was just plain stupid, or I was going to fast when I knew I should go slower, etc. Forget about classes, points, grades, just have fun.

[GmanCdp]

nick, if you have the place to reset part of or all of the stage backup,it may help to just rerun it several times..to me when this happens,seems like i'll have the same or part of the stage in the next couple matchs i go to. i like rerunning a stage if all at possible...

[Victor_R]

Great advice guy's. At my resent first State match I was so upset with myself from shooting the first stage that I had to take a breather and step away to gather my thought's. I told myself that I cant get upset and just to do better on the next stage. I stuck with that knowing I wouldn't place in the top 3 and just stop thinking about me placing and more on having fun and shooting to my skill level. Well to my surprise I won in my classification, ESP MM. It was the best feeling in the world when you don't expect it.. So I know not to go to a match hoping to place as I just started shooting IDPA in February and concentrating on shooting to my skill level. Another thing that helped me was I had 3 close friends in my squad that made me feel more comfortable.

[Hank Ellis]

Just an update on my situation.

Pondered a while and figured I needed to do a couple things. Bury myself in shooting for a few days. Spend all day from opening to closing shooting anything and everything over 3 or 4 days. And learn a new skill. Get some training on a shooting skill that I'm either weak at or haven't tried before.

Ended up combining the two. Started off on Thursday shooting Trap. Spent the day tinkering with different shades of shooting glass lens and tape over the cross dominate eye. Tinkered with my shooting position. Found one that worked. Soon the scores were back on track. Friday was spent shooting Handicap, rimfire 50yd prone, sighting in the rifles for the weekend coming up, and dragging out the old 686 for wheelgun fun. Took what I had learned on Thursday and applied it to Handicap. In the middle of one box it hit. Focus. That is what happened, I somehow lost the focus I needed. After that I couldn't miss. Didn't matter what I shot that day I was hitting. I had a good feeling for what was in store for the weekend.

Signed up for an Appleseed workshop. Two days of quality instruction learning the proper way to shoot position rifle. Never had any formal instruction on rifle shooting so I'm plowing new dirt. Ended up shooting 350 rounds of rimfire and 150 rounds of centerfire for those two days. The course of fire is done in 4 stages and early on we were allowed to view the targets between stages. I didn't. When the shoot boss asked why I didn't go look I responded "The score is what it is and there is nothing I can do to change it. I'd rather spend my time preparing for the next stage." He smiled and nodded with that look of 'he gets it'. Out of 18 shooters only 5 or 6 qualified with at least 210/250. I was one of them and did it with both the 10/22 and the AR.

The confidence is back. The focus is back.

This thread's theme is always the result of caring too much about results, and not enough about what you are actually going to do.

Pay attention to what you think about before, and while at the match. That's where all the answers are.

Every time you notice you're thinking about results - where you might finish, who you might beat or might beat you - replace those thoughts with thoughts relating to what you know you can do. Like, just relax and be smooth, shoot the sights... or, a mental command/mantra that worked good for me - If I only shoot as fast as I know I'm getting my hits, I will shoot to my ability. That's the best you can do.

be

I get it now.

[sirveyr]

Nick,

I know this post is old and that you've moved on, but I wanted to chime in. I know exactly how you felt. You have witnessed nearly all of my "meltdowns" and you must admit...some I them were spectacular! I have wanted to throw away my equipment on multiple occasions. I kept hanging on due to my great group of friends. Every time I shoot a match, I try to remember a story that Dave told a few years ago, it has changed my outlook on shooting and I feel improved my shooting. Without telling the story, the moral of it and the question that you must ask yourself is: Why do you shoot? I shoot because it is fun. When shooting is no longer fun, I will quit altogether or maybe all I really need to do is step back and take a breath and remember that this is supposed to be fun.

Good luck at the Nat's! All of you fellas are gonna shoot great. I wish I would've made the trip with Team SSF, but someone needs to stay home with the women.

[blownhemi]

Sometimes we need a complete meltdown to keep moving forward. Mine came at my first Australian Nationals when I tanked the first stage of a three day match with seven misses. I didn't zero it but it was close, the score I got, I would have done much better by just walking around to the targets and shooting them almost point blank even if it had taken 100sec or more to do I would have gotten a MUCH better score on that stage. After that my confidence was shot and I either shot the stages so slow that I became irrelevent or I blased the stage with the potentially winning time but with a miss or a PT or both. Getting 18 misses and 4 PT's at a match will really screw with your head, but it'll also force you to re-evaluate your shooting.

After a good look at what I was doing wrong, and some coaching time with Brodie McIntosh I'm shooting better (I just came away from the first match I've ever shot without a miss or a PT) and looking forward to some more matches.