concentration and mentally putting in an issue before entering a stand

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evoracer

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 9, 2013
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780
Location
Kent
It seems I have a few niggles to sort out 

Been shooting since last august and I'd my shooting seems to have come on to a ok standard, past 2 weeks 77% at horne and 79% at hawley 

but say I'm shooting and say I miss a shot that I feel I shouldn't I get frustrated and do silly things like attempt to hit on the drop try to hit at distance when I'm in the stand I don't really think about it but when I come out of the cage I go into why the f*** did I do that mode it costs me like today 1 clay for the class win! I shot my first shot missed then fired the second barrel at the same clay missing both when in hindsight I hadn't missed the second clay in 4 shots but I had just wasted 2 shots at the harder first

then there are close up clays I know before I go into a cage with slow clays within 20ft that I'll miss 3/4 I know I can hit them but I put a mental barrier in the way 

I used to feel I was shooting better when my scores were lower now my scores are up a bit I don't generally feel I have good shoots but the card doesn't lie!

 
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Calm down, think about it, get a regime for concentrating correctly. Know what this will be before you start the first stand.

I feel that there are two halves to shooting competition (very broadly). Firstly, obviously, there is the whole technical / experience / skill set part. Secondly there is the art of how to fill a card in! That means knowing when to shoot one target twice, how to stop and think when you have missed, how to keep calm, how to step up the mood even. I had two bad stands today; one where I wasn't skilled enough and one where I got frustrated and didn't deal with it well. Either thing is able to ruin a card.

 
Two things stand out from your post.

1. You are letting your frustration turn in to unwanted aggression which in turn is making you 'give up' on the target and you then try to make an impossible shot.

2. You are reinforcing negative statements BEFORE you have even got in the stand to shoot!

Firstly, try and not let your frustration/anger get the better of you when you miss, just concentrate and killing the next target, then take a couple of deep breaths and set yourself for the next pair. Secondly, if you look at a target and think, I usually miss this, then chances are you will, you have to mentally picture yourself breaking them and say to yourself, no clay is going to beat you!

In order to shoot well you need confidence, self belief and self control. You will very rarely see George, Richard or Ed getting mad while shooting and if they do it is parked before the next stand.

 
thanks for the replies, I tend to agree I probably am letting a little frustration get the better of me and them getting aggressive trying to force the shot!

maybe i need to 


 
Sounds like you are not paying attention to what you need to do and have a plan BEFORE you enter the cage? 

The OH S!@#s must stop period and are caused by a flaw in you fundamentals...getting mad at yourself in an emotional and unrational response you must avoid.  You ask yourself is it worth dropping 5 birds a round?  I didn't think so.

One more thing concentration means paying attention but to take it to the next level consentration in this sport is only with the eyes and I mean that in its literal sense.  Think only eyes.  It begins and ends with your eyes.

 
All of the above but the real key is to have your 're-set' trigger worked out and in place well before you get near a shooting ground, and be able to use it for each shot if necessary so it needs to be short, maybe just a word/phrase in your head, flexing a hand, shrugging your shoulders, really you should try to develop a set pre-shot routine and use it for every single shot. Have to confess that I haven't fully developed one for clays yet as some shots/stands I've more or less mastered so my routine is pretty much developed for them. Others I'm still trying to get to grips with so of necessity my approach is a bit different but when I have locked onto them then the basic routine will be the same.

 
It might help to approach every stand as though you have never seen it before.  It isn't easy, I know, but if you are expecting high/low/fast/slow birds, and you know that you have a history of missing them, then you'll carry on missing them.

Try to take every shot as it comes, without any preconceived ideas about how you're going to miss it (!!), and you might find that you hit more than you thought you would.  :thumbsu:

 
Les I did the opposite at Westfield this weekend.  On Stand 6, I really looked hard at about four or five excellent shots who were up before me including Brett Hand and his Dad amongst other good shots.   I don't understand lead and I also tend to want to see the clay break so I haven't really registered what their guns are doing but I resisted the urge to see the clays break and concentrated on their barrels in relation to the clay - there was a big big gap and I had not really comprehended when Tony had told me that I would need the length of a pick up truck at least.  I often also do not have faith in pulling that trigger so far ahead of the clay and therefore just hang on and hang on until it is way too late.  In any event I had obviously paid attention because I knew what I had to do and came away with 7 out of the 8.  That stand made my day.  Its really weird because I understand that the clay will catch up with the shot (hopefully) but just believing it will is so hard when huge gaps are required.  Faith is required and I need more of that.

 
It might help to approach every stand as though you have never seen it before.  It isn't easy, I know, but if you are expecting high/low/fast/slow birds, and you know that you have a history of missing them, then you'll carry on missing them.

Try to take every shot as it comes, without any preconceived ideas about how you're going to miss it (!!), and you might find that you hit more than you thought you would.  :thumbsu:
yup, lways have to give your mind something positive to think about, assuming that you've hit one or something similar in the past before stepping onto the stand I'd think "I've dusted these in the past, if I can break one I can break all of them" on the stand it's a key word that triggers the "pull through shooting process" or is that just me :oops:

 

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