Keeping Calm

[Wynne G Oldman]

I've been shooting 10m Air Pistol for about a year now, and one of the biggest problems that I think I have is keeping calm when I shoot. When I shoot, I find that my heart rate goes up, my breathing quickens, and I have difficulty in keeping relaxed. I would love to hear other peoples solutions to this problem.

[Gwhite]

The simplest thing that helps is to take charge of your breathing. It's difficult to consciously slow your heart rate down, but it will drop a bit if you force your breathing to slow down. I don't know what the current one says, but an ancient version of the US Army Marksmanship Training Manual recommended taking several breaths as slowly as you can. Inhale slowly, and exhale slowly.

There's lots of info around on "mental management". That's the science of dealing with issues like this. Do a search, and you should find tons of resources.

[Rover]

I've found no problem with this if I have a cold or flu or was otherwise miserable. Another possibility, which I sometimes espouse, is to have a healthy belt of Mother's Sovereign Remedy. (I know you think I'm joking, but....).

[Gwhite]

Being ill has also worked for me. If you are too sick to really care about the results, you won't get the jitters.

There in lies the secret. You need to stop caring about the results so much, at least as far as winning. There's nothing you can do (legally) about how well the competition shoots. The most you can do is to shoot your very best, and the match results will sort themselves out one way or another. If you concentrate on shooting each shot well, and don't get too wound up in your total scores, the jitters should calm down at least a bit. Your score is made up from a collection of shots you have already fired. There's nothing you can do about them, so you are best off thinking hard about how to make the NEXT one a ten.

The thing that has helped me the most is to have really worked on my shot process in a conscious and deliberate manner. If you have developed a good shot process, really believe in it and follow it, the scores & matches will do just fine.

[gwsb]

I am a rifle shooter so pistol may be different.

However, the book written about the mental aspect of shooting would fill a large book shelf. I would recommend starting with Lanny Bassham's With Wining in Mind and continue to every thing you can find on the subject of sport psychology.

After about 10 years of study and practice you will be able to shoot.

[dronning]

+1 on Lanny Bassham's books/dvd's
http://mentalmanagement.com/?utm_source ... dium=email

You will find if you develop a solid shot process (ala Lanny's Mental Management) the nerves (mostly) go away because you are doing something familiar.

One simple suggestion is to yawn - yep yawn pro's use this technique when they develop tension during a match.

- Dave

[Wynne G Oldman]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. It's not nerves with me, it's more like excitement. I shoot 60 shots a day most days, and 180 shots a day at weekend. I usually calm down after the first 60, and find myself shooting better.

[toddinjax]

I've found no problem with this if I have a cold or flu or was otherwise miserable. Another possibility, which I sometimes espouse, is to have a healthy belt of Mother's Sovereign Remedy. (I know you think I'm joking, but....).

No, I don't think you're joking. Is there any evidence to back this up, even personal anecdotal evidence? Have you found your arc of mvt decreases with a beer before shooting?
A friend who knows of my 10m hobby suggested an organic flowering herbal extract called "Skullcap", saying it "soothes nerves". Anyone ever hear of or use it?

[v76]

Self-consciousness is a very "new" thing in modern research. I've read about it a fair bit for other reasons and made a few links that could be of interest for shooters. Most of those findings depend a lot on the personal mindset and level of the shooter: a beginner will have different expectations than an elite shooter. The beginner will focus on small tasks and results and the elite shooter will on the other hand, most likely focus on the bigger picture, flow and general linearity/grouping. That's akin to the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness. I don't know you enough to pretend to know what exactly is your problem but I think it'd be safe to say that you should clearly examine what your goals are and if you're on about them in the best way.

ie. Shooting the equivalent of 11 matches in a week is a lot of training. Why do you train that much? Is it the only way for you to train? It may be early to answer my own questions but I think I'd try to shift my focus away from the dry cut "match results" as a baseline for performance. Score is important, but not right now. And definitely not when you're shooting.

Edit: The substances talk is also interesting because 1) there is a physical effect to them and 2) they're also linked to the centers of addiction in the brain, like the insular cortex. I'm not exactly talking about binging on Scotch before a match but how the activation of those zones are linked to addiction/cravings (the "excitement" you're talking about) cues/triggers different from the ones you are actually experiencing: ie. alcohol/St.-John's wort/weed Vs. target shooting. Kind of in line with the "shift of focus" I'm talking about. Keep in mind, I'm only theorizing.

[Rover]

Toddinjax,

From my own experience ONE drink can be soothing. More than one and you go downhill. I've done it a few times, but it's not something I practice. I was at Camp Perry when MPs came out to the line and handcuffed the National Police Champion for being drunk.

I've reported it here before, but a Russian neurosurgeon told me they often have a shot or two of vodka before operating. He said it reduces essential tremor.

I had a touch of hangover this morning, but shot the best score I had in months (but I had been sick). We have an early morning practice (beat the morning rush) on Wed. I try to shoot a complete match plus sighters. I deep breathe and dry fire if I find myself coming apart in a match.

It's worth a shot, so to speak.

There was a fairly long thread on the subject a while back. Maybe you can Search it.

[FredB]

Don Nygord wrote a really good article about this subject quite a while ago - I don't remember the publication. But he approached it from the opposite viewpoint than everyone here is doing. IIRC - and that's a big "if" - he started talking about "arousal", rather than "nervousness". To paraphrase what I remember, of course you're aroused before a match, and isn't that a good thing? You're experiencing something more fully, which is why we do this in the first place. Do we want to sleepwalk through this experience? The key is to figure out how to use that arousal positively to benefit your performance, rather than depress it, and there are ways to do this. He was especially down on external depressants such as alcohol or drugs. He admitted that they could work, but he felt that using them deprived you of the essence of the experience (besides being against the rules).

IMHO, this is great advice if you are in good physical shape and have trained properly in preparation. If you have a bad tremor, like I do, or some other physical problem, the depressants don't look so bad.

[Spencer]

I have a collection of Don's 'notes' at http://www.australiancynic.com/NYGORD.htm

[rmca]

I deep breathe and dry fire if I find myself coming apart in a match.

+1
Sometimes, just to stop for a minute and sit down does wonders for me. A sip of water also helps during the match.
You don't have to stand the whole match. This is pistol, not rifle! ;)

[Andre]

Toddinjax,
I was at Camp Perry when MPs came out to the line and handcuffed the National Police Champion for being drunk.

Although being drunk at a shooting competition could be somewhat dangerous, some of the MP's are a bit crazy and think they have more power than they do.
Just throwing this out there.........during a thunderstorm (at Perry you can shoot during rain but when it's lightning they pull a cold line because were holding lightning rods essentially)
As we were rushing to get our gear off the line (mainly rifles, other stuff was fine) a MP gave us a ticket for DOUBLE PARKING behind a PARKED TRAILER in the rush to load up stuff. The only free parking spot (legal in the mind of an MP) was behind a few buildings, a hundred yards or so. Carrying a 15lb rifle case that far in the rain isn't fun. I thank them for serving out country, but sometimes they are a bit tight.

[Wynne G Oldman]

Shooting the equivalent of 11 matches in a week is a lot of training. Why do you train that much? Is it the only way for you to train?

Firstly, thank you for your input, much appreciated. To answer your question, I shoot as often as I do for two reasons. The first is that I really enjoy it. If I didn't, I wouldn't do it. The second is I want to improve. I know at my age (49) I'm never going to get to the Olympics, or anything like that, it's just a hobby for me, but a highly addictive one all the same. It's just something that I enjoy, so why not spend my time doing it? I'd be really interested to find out how often other people shoot 10M Air Pistol.

[Rover]

I don't think you shoot too much. If anything, I would shoot 75 or 80 shots a session just to duplicate a match (with sighters).

Maybe you should shoot more sighters before your match (call them settlers) just to settle and get into the "zone". Sit down and relax every twenty shots unless you're solidly into the "zone" and really shooting well.

I do recall one guy on here that would only shoot 10 shots, but they had to be perfect. If not "perfect" it was discarded and the attempt continued.

Sounds good to me for training.

[v76]

I'm def. not judging you or your intentions. I assumed you were shooting matches as training since you specified 60 or multiples of 60 as your shooting regimen. It is a lot of "matches" if that's the case. If not, it's still a lot of shooting (or training?) if that's the bulk of your training. Anyway, that is not the point. Again, if so, how do you define and state your improvements after those 60 or 180 shots? This is one of the important points I was trying to make earlier. You can shoot 10 000 shots and you will still be stressed out if you do not address your mental conditioning, which also needs training (match simulation is one of the drills too). Practice Vs. Training.

I'll quote Daniel Chambliss in his research "Mundanity of Excellence": "High performers focus on qualitative, not quantitative improvements. [...] which produce significant changes in level of achievement."

There are many ways to go about it and I'll direct you to an online drive where I upload a lot of literature about this:
http://tinyurl.com/AirPistolTraining

For starters, check out "Mental training (in archery). the JP O'Connor folder (especially the "Choking Cures" article), Lanny Bassham, and the other choking articles.

Direct link if you don't feel like dl'ing: http://www.pilkguns.com/jparticles/OTFL ... _Cures.pdf

[Wynne G Oldman]

Thanks again for your advice folks. I shoot 60 shots every day at work, in my lunch break. I shoot in multiples of 60 shots so that I can compare my scores with match results. I don't have time to shoot any more than 60 in my lunch break. Thinking about it, I don't seem to have the same problem so much when I shoot in the evening. Perhaps it's because I'm rushing? I'm competing in The Cumbria and Northumbria postal league in teams from my club (Bury Rifle Club), and I'm doing reasonably well considering that I'd never even held an air pistol, or .22 LR until about a year ago. Thanks for the link to your excellent collection v76, I've already had a look at it but have much more to read.

[Rover]

Well, since you're trying to shoot a match on your lunch break, you're stressing yourself. A REAL match takes 105 minutes including sighters.

Try shooting only 30 shots plus sighters (or dry firing). Try to put more concentration into those shots, but more relaxed. It will be more realistic and less stressed.

You can still derive your "match score" from that.

[rmca]

Wynne

I bet you are rushing those 60 shots to fit them into your lunch break. That by itself is enough to add additional stress.
In a 60 shot match on paper targets you have, as rover said, 15 min of preparation and sighting time, plus 90 minutes of match time for the 60 shots.
If you divide those 90 minutes per 6, you have 15 minutes to do 10 shots.
Try to keep that pace when training. If you have 30 minutes to shoot, don't try to do 60 shots. 30 minutes is good for 20 to 30 shots maximum.

What I'm trying to say is that quantity in this sport doesn't equal quality.

You'll be better off in the long run to try and do 20 "good" shots in 30 minutes, than to try to squeeze as many as you can in the same time.

Hope this helps