Some very good advice here.
The corollary of all this is that once you break a performance barrier at an actual match, you can have a very liberating mental experience. You have broken through a barrier where you have transported your best mental and training performances into the actual arena.
Now you know, without a doubt, that since you've done it once, you can do it again. Particularly if your match is composed of more than one string of fire and all were equally good. In other words, high performance was not an outlier, but a repeatable process.
Match tension
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Time to post some results aswell then:
Today I had the finals of the National Dutch Championships, at the same range I shot my dramatic 572 score last month.
I went there, imprinted in my mind I had no pressure, I had no reason to be nervous; I have done this a million times. In the beginning it was still a tiny bit wobbly, but after the 10th shot I just went in a state of trance. Resut: I shot 584, my match record so far, and I became National Juniors champion :)
Its still far from my training score, but at least I felt completely relaxt, so there is progress to be reported :)
I did however order the book Mental Training in Shooting, for future progress :)
Today I had the finals of the National Dutch Championships, at the same range I shot my dramatic 572 score last month.
I went there, imprinted in my mind I had no pressure, I had no reason to be nervous; I have done this a million times. In the beginning it was still a tiny bit wobbly, but after the 10th shot I just went in a state of trance. Resut: I shot 584, my match record so far, and I became National Juniors champion :)
Its still far from my training score, but at least I felt completely relaxt, so there is progress to be reported :)
I did however order the book Mental Training in Shooting, for future progress :)
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Guest
I used to get very nervous in competitions - club, postals..
I can hold a 9 ring+ all day in practice but in a match I've been known to miss the target when really struggling with pressure.
But I did find lately that I managed to dramatically reduce the pressure by rehearsing a shot plan. I stand on the line Breath deeply using abdomen rather then chest. I then close my eyes and plan the shot..
Extend, Settle, Sight Picture, 1st Stage, Sight - Focus Front - 2nd Stage, Follow Through - got it from a book its a slowfire plan. Open my eyes and repeat I'm so busy thinking about the shot I forget about the Match. As someone once said "Its 60 x 1 shot matches not 1 x 60 Shot Match" don't dwell on an error shot - learn and move on.
I can hold a 9 ring+ all day in practice but in a match I've been known to miss the target when really struggling with pressure.
But I did find lately that I managed to dramatically reduce the pressure by rehearsing a shot plan. I stand on the line Breath deeply using abdomen rather then chest. I then close my eyes and plan the shot..
Extend, Settle, Sight Picture, 1st Stage, Sight - Focus Front - 2nd Stage, Follow Through - got it from a book its a slowfire plan. Open my eyes and repeat I'm so busy thinking about the shot I forget about the Match. As someone once said "Its 60 x 1 shot matches not 1 x 60 Shot Match" don't dwell on an error shot - learn and move on.