TargetTalk

Or how an adrenaline surge affected the sensibility of my shooting hand during the development of a local match.


LOCAL LEAGUE. There’s this local SP match contest where scores are the sum of the two best matches of three shot during the yearly league. I shot none of those matches but the last one so I had virtually zero pressure since I had nothing to win or lose. My sole reason for attending that match yesterday was to have some fun with the buddies at the range.

STEEL NERVES. I felt really calm before the match, I felt really calm when it came to lay my stuff on my allocated shooting lane, I felt really calm when the order to load our magazines came, I felt really calm when I first raised my pistol, but I felt this surge of adrenaline flowing down my arteries and my heart starting to pound faster as soon as I started squeezing the trigger.

I’M NOT JERKING THE TRIGGER. I became very conscious of my agitated stimulation level and the accelerated rhythm of my heart—I needed an answer of what was happening to me and I needed it immediately: Why can’t I just squeeze the trigger like I do when I’m training? Why is the front sight wandering off the aiming area as soon as I start pulling the trigger? Why is the end product of my shots and ever increasing number of eights, sevens, even fives and fours? Why I feel like I cannot grip my pistol comfortably today? What am I doing wrong? Why the hour it takes to finish an SP match seems so slow to come to an end when things don’t go as expected?

THE LAST SHOT WAS NO BETTER THAN THE FIRST ONE. If anything, it seemed like I had enough time to travel around the world on a 10-second series. But why can’t I grip this pistol right today? Why am I feeling uncomfortable in my shooting stance? Do I really feel uncomfortable in my usual shooting stance? Do I trust what my sensory system is reporting back to my brain? Why can I overhear conversations held in a whisper a few lanes down the range while I’m wearing my hearing protection?

ANALYSIS. Later that day, I proceeded to the usual checking of the unloaded status of my Standard Pistol before placing it in storage when I told myself I should do some dry firing against a reduced target hanging on the wall—I was totally convinced I’d be releasing the trigger just fine after several hours had passed since that match. But it seems like we need to learn something new every day and today wasn’t going to be any different. I’m placing myself in my comfortable shooting stance, I’m gripping my pistol, I’m checking my grip with the sensory spots in my hand, everything seems right: up we go, we’re wandering on the aiming area, I’m squeezing the trigger, the front sight goes left, then up, then right, then low and left, the shot has been released and the sights are perfectly aligned now. What? Why did that front sight move so much? In hindsight, I know now that the same front sight wandering happened during the match.

ADRENALINE RUSHES AFFECT HUMAN SENSES. I soon realized that I was literally opening my hand —3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers—every time my trigger finger was going to release the trigger. I guess I’ll never know why I did that but it cost me a match. My theory is that I was relying on the sensitivity of my hand to report back to my brain whether my fingers where doing their work like I wanted to. Then, for some reason I got this adrenaline rush which may have desensitized somewhat the perceived feeling of my shooting hand. Now, I’m training at home placing all my attention on the proper gripping technique. I feel like I’m gripping too hard but I believe this is all sensory stuff so I’m not placing much attention on that sort of feedback. For now, all I want is my fingers applying pressure on the right spots and this pressure being maintained during the release of a shot—for every shot.

AFTERMATH. But why did I have an adrenaline rush on this local match where I was going to win or lose exactly nothing? What am I afraid of?

SIDE NOTE. Maybe someone wants to know what the actual score for that match was. It was a humbling 502 points. I scored 534 a few days ago in a training match and the expected score for any Standard Pistol match was between 520 and 538 points—peaks and lows aside.

You have described exactly what has happend to me many times during competitions. I am "the master" on the training only. I usually shoot 370 or 540 point but if I enter a competition my results falling down to 330 or 500 point and make me very frustrated.
I think that experience in competitions and regular training can help as to avoid described situations but some of relaxation exercises might be helpful too.

From a shooter thats been there. Remember that no matter what approach you use to deliver the shot the method must be tested in competition . Try to create the same conditions that exist in a match for every practice session. One shot at a time except when you shoot three tens in a row, then shoot another ten. That is one way to create the addrenilin rush you will encounter in competition. Shoot with a friend that can out shoot you and work to beat the friend. Every shot you deliver on the target should be shot with the goal of shooting the best you can. Never allow yourself to just practice with nothing to loose. Every shot you shoot is important. Good Shooting Bill Horton

I have this trouble as well If i shoot air or free at a club match I can do fine. possibly as there is nobody there that can beat me but just every now and then I will shoot sport pistol in training. the other day I did it in a club match and everything fell apart like air does at an open shoot. In training and club event im shooting a lot of scores in the 570s in air now but I have been to 6 opens the year and I have shot 549 549 553 549 549 549. how much fun is that.

Anonymous wrote:You have described exactly what has happend to me many times during competitions. I am "the master" on the training only. I usually shoot 370 or 540 point but if I enter a competition my results falling down to 330 or 500 point and make me very frustrated.
I think that experience in competitions and regular training can help as to avoid described situations but some of relaxation exercises might be helpful too.

I beg to differ, as you are (or should be) training to shoot well in competitions. If you are dropping 40 points then you have not got the training correct. You need to do some mental training and re-shift your focus. Learn to do exactly what you do in training, concentrate on getting the process right, and work on developing calming strategies so that you know how to calm yourself down when you experience poor performance.

Mental training takes a lot of time to master but it will enable you to not only close the gap, but to shoot better in competitions than training - if you get it spot on.

Rob.

Thanks Rob for your advice, you are right that I do my trainig incorrect - I am absolutely calm during training without any distracters in my mind !!!
I need more rivalry to learn how to cope with stress, tense, deconcentration, adrenaline, etc. If I'm completely calm on training I shoot 93, 94, 95, 96 p but in competition I usually get 84, 85, 86, 87 p. :(
Could you give me some examples of mental exercise or sources I can get some information about this type of training?

Anonymous wrote:Thanks Rob for your advice, you are right that I do my trainig incorrect - I am absolutely calm during training without any distracters in my mind !!!
I need more rivalry to learn how to cope with stress, tense, deconcentration, adrenaline, etc. If I'm completely calm on training I shoot 93, 94, 95, 96 p but in competition I usually get 84, 85, 86, 87 p. :(
Could you give me some examples of mental exercise or sources I can get some information about this type of training?

Well the best option is to get a coach experienced in mental training. Next best is look at some of the sport psychology books. Lanny Basshams 'with winning in mind' is a good start, one of the ones by Terry Orlick is also good. Then there's a mental training book for shooting that I forget the name of, but I'm sute our hosts sell it.

I would also suggest that your goal is to 'de-stress' in comps and not to build up pressure in training, learning to relax down a bit will help you shoot like you know you're able to.

Oh and one last comment. Forget string scores just concentrate on good shot execution to shoot a ten and repeat that single shot process. Once you can do that in comps you're well on your way.

Rob.

"Mental Training in Shooting" by Jeppesen & Pensgaard is probably the book Rob was thinking of. Bassham's stuff is also very good.

How about a little "Practice With Pressure"?

viewtopic.php?t=23535

You might even win a prize. It is really "International" competition.

The U.S. Olympic Tng Center has two books I would recommend. One is for the athlete the other is for the coach. Both are excellent. They can be found here:
http://videos.usoc.org/athleteservices/ ... sorces.pdf

Good shooting.
Jack

After talking about this with a friend he suggested me the following:

One of the ways in which we deal with emotional states we find unsettling is to compartmentalize them, split them off from our "normal" conscious thought. They are still there, we are just not aware of them for the moment. I think that the anxiety reflex about shooting a match is learned behavior, like flinching, and will occur, to a greater or lesser degree, no matter what the importance of the match may be. Your body's actions preparing for the shot will trigger the anxiety and the associated "fight or flight" symptoms of too much adrenalin in the system. Do I have an answer to this analysis? Possibly. You need to integrate this anxiety into your normal consciousness instead of leaving it in the unconscious so that you are able to take steps to counter it. Again, as always, it will require setting up and practicing under the effects of the anxiety until you are able to "absorb" it into your consciousness, and no longer be controlled by it. Does this make sense? It does from a theoretical standpoint but I have never heard of it being applied to shooting in quite this way.

Thanks for your advice, Bill! I also appreciate all the other comments and I'm very grateful that other shooters may benefit from my limited experience. :-)

Somethig I found out is that symptoms of anxiety tend to surface whenever I'm forced to shoot in a timely manner. Or in other words, I tend to choke when someone puts pressure on me to finish training before a specified time--I.e. the staff needs the range free for maintenance or someone would like to train right after me but before the sun sets and, of course, during a competition where a range official is telling the shooters when to shoot. I believe this is just one more pointer to difficulties managing performance anxiety.

I see that except of technical skills, state of our mind is more important than we realized about.
What I do and what I think can be helpful for you to obtain better results, are some relaxation exercises taken from:
- yoga
- Jacobs-Schultz relaxation method
- sophrologie
- Tai-Chie
- meditation
There are a lot of information to get on the internet about above methods.

Just try to do it regularly and you will see that it works very well. To get more relaxed will be easier to obtain.

Anonymous wrote: Somethig I found out is that symptoms of anxiety tend to surface whenever I'm forced to shoot in a timely manner. Or in other words, I tend to choke when someone puts pressure on me to finish training before a specified time--I.e. the staff needs the range free for maintenance or someone would like to train right after me but before the sun sets and, of course, during a competition where a range official is telling the shooters when to shoot. I believe this is just one more pointer to difficulties managing performance anxiety.

I understand the point but it's easy enough to train it 'out of your system'. In comps you have a specific time, so train using the same timeframe. Have a clock with you so you can check, but if you know how long you take you won't induce anxiety. Another thing is to time a shot. If for example it takes on average 40 seconds in AP to fire one shot sequence, then you can tell how well you can cope if for example you think you may be running out of time.

Again though the same overall philosophy applies. Think only of the shot in the gun and firing a technically good shot. Then move on to the next one. I think the key is being able to switch your focus back to the task and forgetting everything else.

Rob.

i call it simply chicken finger its nerves and nothing else in training i cut the bull out as soon as i put a match card up i start to shake so my answer was to print out stickers the same size as the match card stickers i just wrote anything on them put them onto practice cards and every card i shoot is now a match card this helped me a lot, give it a try it may help you

remember that famous NIKE sport logo, "JUST DO IT".

Just do it, now, now, now. Not thinking about past or future. But focus on this very thin line of now, now, now. Even this now, now, now sentence has become past, past, past before you finish this sentence.

So focus, refocus, refocus on now, the new-now, and new-now.

Just do it, now, and now, and now. That is the basis of sport psychology.

Seamaster wrote:remember that famous NIKE sport logo, "JUST DO IT".

Just do it, now, now, now. Not thinking about past or future. But focus on this very thin line of now, now, now. Even this now, now, now sentence has become past, past, past before you finish this sentence.

So focus, refocus, refocus on now, the new-now, and new-now.

Just do it, now, and now, and now. That is the basis of sport psychology.

well how do you follow that LOL :-)

last week i inter competition. My training score range from 560 to 569.
my first series shooting not good 92, 91, 89

it because i think about how to win and how to shoot 10. The sudden happen. Some one shoot my target (cross fire) than i shoot 7 (89 on this series). That is terrible shooting, i thing i will lose this game. SO after that almost not think about winning i just shoot shoot and shoot more faster. than last 3 series i shoot 94, 94 and 98. It easy to shoot 10 when you're not think of it.

hope it will help

I subscribe to Shooter Newbes comment. Just let the target catch the bullet/ pellet. Pay no attention to the score. Shoot technique only The technique that is most reliable. The one you have trained with. Have total confidence in what you bring to the competition. Use it! Good Shooting Bill Horton

The day I shot my personal best I had a vehement argument with my wife.

That day I just shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. I was shooting rather fast, not thniking, but subconsciously knowing I am shooting angrily.

I was not afraid to shoot that day. No tentativeness at all. Very pissed off. Shot personal best.