How do you get past 550

[Rover]

Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Don't mess with Mr. In-Between. (I think someone once said...)

[siordian1]

This is what happens to me,

10 shot strings,
92,93,91,87,89,93

I start off great, moving right along, and then bam! A 7, oh crap. and then a 8, maybe a 9, etc, etc. I must be losing focus, or something else. I think i will try the Rover trick of stopping and shooting a few dry fire shots. If you have had the same happen to you, let me know what you did to help get you thru. Thanks

[BEA]

My suggestion is to stop focusing so much on score. Try shooting 10 or 20 shots on a target with no scope. Discipline your mind to focus on technique, not score. If you are using proper technique, your consistency will improve. This should both increase your good shots and decrease your bad shots. If you want to, shoot 10 rounds for score every 20 or so rounds just to measure your progress. Train your mind to turn score off and proper technique on...on demand. There are lots of good comments here from some extremely good shooters, Jim H, John B and CR10X, just to recognize the ones I know. I love hearing the thoughts of shooters who have been there and done that. As a young shooter, I loved hanging around with good shooters, just to listen to what they said about their performance, asking questions, learning they way they think. I still do. Read and read again what CR10X had to say about training vs practicing. His thoughts make total sense to me. Putting lots of rounds down range does not entitle the shooter to high scores. As CR10X indicated, practicing improper technique will cause you to max out quickly. You might have a good target every now and then to give you a false impression, but that is just luck. Luck is seldom your friend. Good technique will help you establish what I referred to as my floor. This was my baseline, the performance that I could count on no matter what. As your floor gets higher, so does your comfort level, and your highs. Remember, the better you get, the harder it is to get better. It is battle between your conscious and subconscious mind. Your conscious mind is not up to the task of allowing your body to shoot your best possible score. Good luck.

[Gwhite]

You need to learn what a good shot looks like and feels like, which will help develop muscle memory and make it easier to shoot more. At the same time, you need to learn the subtle "indicators" that mean a shot isn't unfolding according to plan, so you can abort before you shoot a 7. The better you get, the more subtle the indicators become.

You can't do this efficiently if you don't scope your shots. EVERY shot is an opportunity to learn something, but that is wasted if you don't get the feedback. If you find you are too focused on score, black out the white lines in the center of the target, and shoot for tight groups.

[kevinweiho]

It's kinda like Yoda telling Luke...

[BEA]

There are different ways to get to where we want to go in terms of score. Training techniques and practice regimens will vary depending on the skill level you are at. How you train to get from 540 to 560 will be different than how you train to get from 575 to 580. You will get all kinds of opinions but in the end they are mostly different ways of saying the same thing. The bottom line is that you need to develop sound technique or you are just spinning you wheels. Scope, no scope, you pick. At least delay looking in your scope for a few seconds to do some serious shot analysis. Before looking in your scope, seriously think about what you expect to see. Sometimes I look in my scope to verify my call, other times I do not because I already know what is there. That is just my choice but it may not be yours.

[siordian1]

Thanks to all. I have gotten into the habit of scoping every shot. I think that is where I am getting into trouble. I need to train BETTER not just more. Thanks again.

[deadeyedick]

One last point:

It is my understanding that spotting scopes are not allowed in ISSF 60 shot Men’s Air Pistol.

With experience you should be able to analyse your shot and “call” the result rather than developing a dependence on a spotting scope that has no place on the shooting bench.

[JamesHH]

Too many people spend ages staring through the scope, it affects your vision which then takes minutes to recover, a quick glance is all thats needed.

[Gwhite]

One last point:

It is my understanding that spotting scopes are not allowed in ISSF 60 shot Men’s Air Pistol.

That's because they assume you are shooting at a high level with either electronic targets, or one or two shots per bull on paper (if anyone does that anymore...). They don't seem to care about people who are still trying to work their way up to an elite level.

If you are trying to break 550, and you are shooting in typical 5 shot per target matches, a spotting scope can help you catch technique errors before they trash all 5 shots. The local clubs that run 5-shot per target matches allow spotting scopes.

[deadeyedick]

You are fortunate...ISSF rules are strictly enforced at our Club.

[jetpoweredchicken]

The closer you get to 600 the closer you get to human capability. From here out, you TRAIN rather than practice. At 90% you have already demonstrated the basic abilities and can hit a 10, albeit sometimes and not most of the time. Now you have to move from hoping for a 10 and being happy with a 9 to only accepting a 10.

I suggest the following things:
First, forget score and focus on the current shot. We do not have mental room to do both effectively.
Train your process. Shoot your process. You can tweak your process over time.
Decide what perfect looks like and shoot that every single time. No longer take shots that are simply shooting a shot. If you put your hand in the gun, you are working on a set script that leads towards a perfect shot. NEVER ANYTHING LESS. Refine script as needed.
Instead of focusing on sight align and trigger pull.... focus on perfect sight align and follow through. What this does in makes trigger pull a part of your follow through. They should be the same thing. This helps consistency.
Up your dry fire practice (learn to make exactly the same thing happen every single time at the front sights)
Up your weight lifting. You need a stronger arm to hold a smaller group size. This will also allow you to TRUST your hold and allow you to focus on sights and follow through.
If you do not have a mental training program, start learning this skill and make it part of your life. Research this.

[thirdwheel]

Some very thoughtful posts on this subject but jetpoweredchicken has nailed it! but you must read and reread all of the articles in the link posted by ryanA they just say it all and are superbly written and referenced.

[David M]

We are only talking about getting past 550.
A lot of the above skills are for getting past 580.
Don't make it too complicated and over think it, you will go backwards.
For now just work on the gross errors and keep it simple.

[Azmodan]

i shoot around 550 normally with the occasional exceptional day (lucky) when i reach 560.
but all i do is practice - shoot matches (40 or 60 shots) over and over. i have no idea how to train. there is no material online.

even here in this thread, people say that you must train trigger control, sight alignment, follow through, position, etc... but i could find NO documentation on how to train those. what exercises to do in a training session to improve trigger control, sight alignment, etc.
same for mental preparation. only that you must do it but nothing on how to do it

has anyone some training schedule or exercises?
something like steps for a training session for: trigger, position, sight, mental, physical, etc

for example: training session for trigger:
- exercise 1 - do this for 10 mins or 20 repetitions
- exercise 2 - do that for 5 mins
- exercise 3 - keep doing this for 30 mins

thanx

[Ramon OP]

I have published a couple trainings and notes:

https://www.olympicpistol.com/pistol-tr ... lle-notes/

https://www.olympicpistol.com/pistol-tr ... lle-notes/

https://www.olympicpistol.com/my-first- ... g-program/

There's definitely not enough detailed training information online and the books are scant too.

Unfortunately not all trainers allow for the programs they give me to be published.

For books check https://www.olympicpistol.com/shooting-books/

[spektr]

Well every time I upgrade my gun, I get to a higher state of performance........

If I buy 4 more, I can get there.....

[andrew53]

Thank-you, everyone, very much for all your constructive, generous and positive replies.
Exactly what I needed.

I know your considerations will soon move me beyond this stage
looking forward to the next plateau.

Tks. Andrew53

[jetpoweredchicken]

On the subject of training...

https://www.sportpsych.org/nine-mental-skills-overview

This seems a good outline of the issues covered in mental training as well as a good springboard for relevant search terms. There is much out there, you might need to look for it. Most everybody will tell you that shooting is <enter high percentage here> mental. Yeah, the next question and answer are too obvious so I will spare you.

This is stuff for those who want to win.
It is a discipline.

Jet

[Ramon OP]

You may want to work with a coach. In this directory you will find coaches to contact. Some work online, others in person: https://www.olympicpistol.com/coaches/