and I'm tired of being B class, so help me get my post count up!

What have y'all been up to today? What did you eat for supper? I had chicken noodle soup.

Don't mind if I do get my count up too, but let's at least keep it shooting related.

I'm currently working on trying to not take a "known" bad shot. Sure we all miss for one reason or another, but I'm talking about those obvious bad shots. You know, like when you are holding your breath too long because the dot just won't get on the right animal. About 50-60% of the time now I just release my air and start over. I would rather only make 3 or 4 shots and make them HITS with good discipline, than just throw 5 bullets down range and "accidentally" hit 3 or 4. I know that percentage sounds low, but like I said, that's what I'm working on right now. Besides, I only push the hold at most 2 times per match.

Let's talk

ShootingStar

I'm trying to focus on getting my hold/stance more consistent, and making sure my natural point of aim is on target.

I also occasionally suffer from "premature triggulation" as someone on this board once called it.

AddictedtoSB, at this time you have to build muscle memory (read you need to shoot a whole lot). Is not unusual for top shooters to shoot several cases of ammo a year at least at the beginning when they are trying to improve. That is how you train your subconscious mind which is the one that does the best job when shooting. It's always good to have good eye/trigger finger coordination.
If you are thinking about what you are doing while shooting more than likely you are going to be late on your trigger release because of the time lag between your brain ordering and your trigger finger responding without taking into consideration other things like your rifle's lock time and barrel time. Once you have the mechanics down path and you have the best equipment and ammo that you can afford you will notice that you will be more consistent and you scores slowly but surely are going to improve. A very important part of becoming a good competitive shooter is being able to handle the "match pressure" that a lot of shooters feel. When you go to the Nationals next week you are going to notice that during sighting in periods or practice nobody misses much but once the match starts is a different thing where some of the top master shooters are getting near perfect scores and a lot of the other shooters that could not miss during practice will have a hard time hitting more than 50% of their targets. That is because they do not know who to control or manage their minds during competition.
My advice to you is to relax, do not worry about the competition, shoot one shot matches, make a commitment to yourself to only shoot high percentage shots, if you do well DO NOT CELEBRATE until the very end (I have seen up and coming shooters hit five in a row and then get one or none in the second five). Read books that deal with performing under pressure, they do not need to be about shooting, there are some good books written by tennis players or even golf players. If you look around in past publications like USA shooting sports a lot of the great US shooters have written articles that deal with the subject. OK, I think you have a lot work to do. Do not worry about how the rest of the competition is doing some of us have more than 30 years doing what you are starting to do now on the other hand there was no Internet or anybody giving FREE advice to us and the learning curve was a lot longer. My 2 cents worth. Tony Tello

Since we are talking about stuff like stances i have been working on both my stance/mechanics and a mantra. I take know bad shots too but with me talking to myself that has helped. In fact I have been working very hard to develop a routine for each and every shot.

So far I feel like it has helped much but I am going to keep at it. I have noticed that if I can keep talking to myself while setting up and taking the shot I don't think about things like, "How many hits do I need to break ten animals or twenty animals or the maximum score I can possibly receive during the middle of a match." I find that stuff to be very distracting!

Does anyone else use the mantra/talking to yourself method while they are shooting?

I'm currently working on trying to not take a "known" bad shot.

ShootingStar

When you get that problem of mine figgured out start working on my other problem. Most of my misses are well centered but high over the back. Seems like I jerk the trigger way too soon as I am comming down on the animal.

We like to think that our sport is hard and very complicated but if you were to ask Agustin Sanchez Jr. (won 20 times rifle silhouette National Championships in seven years) how he does it or what he things about when he shoots he would tell you to keep it simple. Just put the dot inside the silhouette and pull the trigger, no thinking involved. Another great champion Tim Kurreck would advice people that ask to "shoot stupid" meaning no to over think what they were doing. Master the mechanics and do the same thing every time with out letting your thinking or emotions get involved. Tony Tello

lone ringer wrote:We like to think that our sport is hard and very complicated but if you were to ask Agustin Sanchez Jr. (won 20 times rifle silhouette National Championships in seven years) how he does it or what he things about when he shoots he would tell you to keep it simple. Just put the dot inside the silhouette and pull the trigger, no thinking involved. Another great champion Tim Kurreck would advice people that ask to "shoot stupid" meaning no to over think what they were doing. Master the mechanics and do the same thing every time with out letting your thinking or emotions get involved. Tony Tello

Great advice, as usual, Tony

This has all been good advice! . . .

I guess I'm still learning the mechanics, so I'm still very conscious - or at least try to be - with what I'm doing. I know, after watching several of the top shooters like Cathy Winstead, that I am NOT doing the same thing every time. I'm working on that consciously for now so that I get the correct muscle memory built. I'm working on NPA and holding in the circle at home to help reduce the wobble. When I can do these things with regularity, I have seen my scores rise slowly and steadily. I'm still just shooting in the middle of my class - AA in both guns - but I am getting more consistant scores 22, 23 & 24. 24 is my PB so far, but have shot it 4 times so far - all this year!!!

Keep the ideas coming! I know I should "shoot stupid", i.e. without thinking, but for now I need to know what to think/do before I can then not think about it!!!

Thanks

Yep, lots of great tips so far. I know that I do best when I manage to tune out the distractions and just think about putting the dot in the center of the animal. I like the idea of trying to have a mantra you use all the time to try not to overthink things.