Mental Training Tips Desperately Needed!

Mike McDaniel · Guest

I just shot in the World Muzzle-Loading Championships. And did wretchedly - my worst performance in several years.

The problem that I am encountering is nerves. The kind of tension that leaves your hand shaking and your knees knocking when you pick the pistol up.

I've had this problem at lesser meets, but have largely beaten it. N-SSA Nationals and the MLAIC Pacific Zones are no longer nerve-wracking. But the World Championships still has my number.

Any advice? Coaching that I can get? I'm fed up with not shooting to my potential - especially when that potential is good enough to win medals.

SteveT · Joined: 06 Mar 2004 Posts: 93 Location: IL

"Golf is not a Game of Perfect" by Bob Rotella.

Guest · Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:30 pm Post subject:

I too would be interested in any serious and helpful information/techniques that could be shared to help with this very real problem.

RobStubbs · Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 809 Location: Herts, England, UK

Do some searching on that here as it's been discussed before, however. Some suggestions - read 'With winning in mind' Lanny Bassham. Also start rehearsing the situations that make you nervous ahead of times. One of the causes of anxiety is fear of the unknown. Teach your subconscious that it is familiar and the nerves will go. You also need to learn coping strategies so that if nerves crop up you can control and ideally eliminate them. Lastly you should also have a fully mentally occupying shot routine. If your mind is fully occupied during the entire shot sequence then you don't have time toworry, just move on to the next shot.

Lastly don't forget to train for the nervous situations, just like for everything else. If you don't then you can't expect to be skilled at controlling them or handling the situation.

Rob.

CR10XGuest · Guest

Another book I would highly recommend is "Fearless Golf" by Dr. Gio Valiante.

Although I found it a little "rambling" (for want of a better word) it did provide some guidance in the areas that you mentioned.

The mental approach proposed in the book seemed to translate very well for the shooting sports from my perspective.

Cecil

PETE S · Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 122

My favorite book is:

Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time
ISBN: 1570280215
by Tom Hanson, Ken Ravizza

Very basic and practical, my freinds son read the entire book during a hockey game. And it makes very good points.

But frankly, Mike, you don't sound much like the fellow who attended my PTO a few months ago!

I know myself, even after shooting the nationals for several years in a row find it amazing how the heart starts to race a bit as the "Start" command is given and when I am about to switch from sighters to score.

Two things I have found help. One is to have well-rehearshed and trained in relaxation techniques. Just as you train for trigger squeeze and sight alignment, so must you have trained to relax.

Second is to echo what Rob Stubbs suggests. Having a mental drill for your shot process, the commands that start you into the correct frame of mind to focus on your technique and not anything else.

Final thought, one just has to have confidence. All this stuff is just to get you to the point of confidence in yourself and ability.

I heard it said that mental training in running is to get you an extra hundredth of a second or two to win the sprint at the big meet. At the big meet you better your best performance.

In shooting, mental training is so you can perform to the level of your best training. Not better than your best training but to meet that best level.

Warren · Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 58

I believe it all comes down to having a technique that works under the worst of conditions, not the best.

A shot process that produces a *good* technical shot every time. Not always a ten, but rarely outside the nine.

Instead of this we bang our heads against the wall trying to shoot the perfect ten every time, and as motor skills fail when we're under pressure, the fall becomes that much harder.

World class shooters are not immune to nerves. They accept them, accept the hold they have on the day, and maximize their potential with a positive trigger release within their optimum hold time. Because they know this will work.

But I really believe our greatest handicap is the way we rate every non-ten as a failure. The ten becomes the only result we're happy with, which creates a built-in fear of failing every time we raise the pistol. Of course, when it MATTERS MORE, this fear escalates and we get big match nerves.

I didn't mean for this to become so philisophical.

To simplify:

1. Use a positive approach to trigger release, or cancel. DO NOT take up first stage and create a topple or teeter point, waiting for the sight to look good before that last little tweak. This might work okay when you're calm and have fine motor control, but WILL NOT work when you're nervous.

2. A successful shot is one where you achieved a good technical performance. Attention on sight formation, clean release, good follow through. It won't always be a ten. Accept this. A good clean nine is far better than a lucky ten, since the former reinforces good technique, the latter reinforces a bad attitude.

3. Keep your head on the firing line. NOT in the scoring rings of your target.

isuguncoach · Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 11 Location: central illinois

Rob has a great context for preparing yourself. Mentally practice the environment you will be shooting, focus on your routine of loading, shooting, cleaning, and repeat. Your scores must be excellent enough to get you to that level of competition, so we know it is your mental attitude that "got you".

There is one thing that I work with my team, for lack of a better term, I call it practicing a "positive presence". Building the positive idea that I belong at whatever competition I am facing. I noticed the idea of a negative attitude with new shooters, expressed as "What am I doing shooting against those people." I work to build an idea of positive presence, "you belong here, your skill at shooting sports is just a good as theirs, go do it." Though the exact ideas are different with each shooter, the idea of focusing on the positive idea that you as a shooter belong in this compeition, your scores will put you in the field. Positive attitude about yourself is a must in any level of competitive shooting.

Patrick Haynes · Guest

First off, Rotella's books are great. I've read "The Golfer's Mind: Play to Play Great" and it was useful.

I would strongly recommend getting "Flow in Sports" by Susan A. Jackson and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Essentially, they state that the problem you are experiencing is due to a gap between your perceived degree of the challenge presented (big, Big BIG competition) and your perceived level of skill (ability) to perform successfully in that venue.

If you think that the competition is unimportant or that your skill level far outmatches your opponents, you may be bored and uninvolved, ending up performing poorly due to under-activation.

If you think the competition is extremely important or that your skill level is significantly below what is required to succeed, then you'll be nervous, jittery and perform poorly due to over-activation.

Jackson and Csikszentmihalyi found that by being moderately challenged (competition is important but not overwhelming, and skill is sufficient to meet the challenge without being overly dominant), the athlete more easily achieves a flow state, which in turn supports best performances.

This model explains why people do well in sighters or practice (important but no big deal) but poor at matches that they "really want to win".

I would suggest downplaying the level of the match's significance and elevate your faith in your skill/ability. Focus on performance (what you control) versus winning (other folks are outside of your sphere of influence). Set goals which realistically match your skills. Practice and prepare in a manner which supports your goals and builds credibility in your mind. (Knowing that you could have trained better prior to your big match is a surefire way to build doubt.)

I'd also monitor your self-talk and take notes. Find out what is going through your mind during training and competition. Look for patterns and make adjustments accordingly. Are you supporting personal excellence or just crushing yourself with negativity?

Lots of good ides out there. Key is to find what works for you.

Best regards.
Patrick Haynes
TargetShooting Canada
http://www.targetshooting.ca

Elmas · Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 44 Location: 11264 Egypt

Here's my two cents worth ; Anxiety of the kind you describe can be caused by not really being 'in the moment' .... You are either in the future, imagining some botch-up or catastrophe and fearing it .. or remembering something in your past and fearing its repetition.

A remedy would be to practice "living in the moment" , to concentrate on the 'here and now' ... keeping your mind on what you are physically doing at the time... concentrating on the sensory input of your senses in the present moment.

When I am anxious , I tend to try and make myself remember my past successes in similar situations... and stop myself thinking of the future, especially stopping myself imagining scary scenarios of failure when they did not happen and probably wont.

.

Mental training and coach · Guest

Mental train will not come from Bassham. But if you want mental training knowledge then give me a message and I will send you some. I know you will not receive this as theeree is an illigal consperisory to stop my positions. But I will be glad to help you out with your mental problems.
cskinner@vzavenue.net

Steve Swartz · Guest

He-e-e-e-ees Ba-a-a-a-a-a-aack . . . . !

Load up the random gobbledegook generator Mr. Spock, and prepare to engage the Nonsensicans!

Me · Guest

Elmas · Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 44 Location: 11264 Egypt

Elmas · Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 44 Location: 11264 Egypt

Me · Guest

Guest · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:17 am Post subject:

full moon? how about once in a blue moon?

roughly once every 2 and a half years btw. next one coming up in june 2007 look out for it ;)

Steve Swartz · Guest

To the Newbies:

Once upon a time, in the land called Target Talk, lived a man who sought to be thought of as a great wizard. Having never been a great wizard; nor even being on very freindly terms any moderately successful wizards, this man figured, "Hey! If only I can learn some technical sounding jargon, and then bash other wizards at every opportunity (never imaprting true knowledge of any sort, just uncorking a stream of random babble), I should develop a reputation among the acolytes (who don't really know any better, but wish to do well and try really hard) as a great wizard!

And so Chet the Skinner launched his quest. Things went well for while- until the Pure of Heart Seeking hte True Knowledge bagan aasking pesky questions. Like "Oh Great Chet, if [fill in the blank with any reputable coach knowledgeable in mental management techniques] is so full of Balderdash; what then, prithee, is the True Knowldege of Which You Speak?"

And the Great Chet would invariably answer:

- It's too complicated to explain here, you must buy my pamphlet!
- Ask XYZ, my Champion Shooter (who, when contacted, would answer "Chet Who?)!
- The Id tells the SuperEgo to Wal-Mart the random panty ponies, sniggling the penultimate grubish!

And so the cycle continued thread by thread; each challenge going unmet by The Chet with any True Knowledge, until in disgust the Seekers would just give up and figure they guy was a loon. Until after a couple of months, another Chett-ing would occur until verily, the populace rose up in anger and smote the Fraudulent by either a) ignoring him; or b) Having Great Sport by continually pressing him for cogent details of His True Way until he disappeared. For a while.

Eventually the villagers of Target Talk lost amusement with his criticism of Real Wizards; indeed, The Chet's rantings became so bellicose that he was Banished From the Land of Target Talk.

However, in the dark of the night- lit only by the smoky glimmer of a carbide lamp, the elders would tell the children Stories of the Chet to frighten them- Be Ever Vigilant of The Front Sight, little ones,

LEST THE CHET RETURN AND TEAR OUT YOUR SUBBCONSCIOUS!!!!!!

Steve Swartz

Guest · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:54 pm Post subject:

am i glad i dropped him when he offered to help me over the net lol.

(well i still have a long way to go as far as consistency is concerned)

ColinC · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 92 Location: Victoria, Australia

Steve,
I must say it was always entertaining when the great wizard was being baited. I'd say that you have cast the bait pefectly and have also explained the suituation for newcomers so they don't get hooked.

pilkguns · Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:39 pm Post subject:

Steve,

now thats funny, I don't care who you are.

coincedentally enough I was getting some e-mails from the wannabe wizzard last week, full of things that could easily be baited upon. But lo, my live is too short, and I have had my hands in deep in the belly of that tar baby before, and this Brer Fox has learned that lesson.

But if your really bored Colin I can forward them too you.