Depressed DTL rant !!!

gofaster_s13

Up to three weeks ago I was shooting on average 23's/24's at DTL, last week I was hitting 16's/17's, and last night I went out and missed the first eight straight on my first squad of the night, and worst of all I knew as soon as the trigger is pulled I've missed, it's as if the gun just has taken a disliking to me as it just feels wrong as soon as I shoulder it:mad:

bayliner

oh we have all had spells like this well i know i have any way:D
earlier in the year i was hitting good scores(sporting) 45 to 47 from 50 and was buzzing on it then for 3 weeks or so started scoring between 38 and 42(still not entirely crap for me anyway, but a fair drop all the same) so put the gun away for 2 weeks (was practising twice a week so 2 weeks was or felt like a long time:D).... and went fishing:)
when started up again scores were back up again so maybe just take a break????

gofaster_s13

Was considering taking a break alright, cause once I start missing my mind starts overthinking every shot which is really sending me wrong:mad:

bayliner

dont even LOOK at the gun for a while:D....
or maybe even go shoot at different trap for a bit ,,,,,
the main thing is tell yourself a short break from it will fix the prob...
if you believe this, then IT WILL WORK.....
now i know some people say "no keep at it and you will come out the other side of this"..and that prob works for some people but def not for me . i get worse then the brain starts doing overtime,frustration sets in and then i am lost, thats when i put it away and try forget about it for while..... its all in the head though isnt it?:)

dresden8

If you keep banging away while you're arsing it up, it will only get worse.

Practice doesn't make perfect, it makes permanent.

Same goes for any sport.

It wasn't me!

Agreed. You have to find some routine for getting back on the horse after a miss/bad score/bad match.

I was trying to work mine out at my last training session, as if I got a 9, and immediately went on to try and sort things, I'd end up with a string of them. What I found worked for me was to busy myself with everything but the shot for a minute: Have a drink, clear some brass off my mat, shove my ammo box around a little, then, when the last shot has been sufficiently forgotten, reload and get right back in. Worked for me, but it needs real discipline, or you do what I do and stick a 91 between a 97 and a 96. :rolleyes:

Sparks

Can't help much with the technical end, but for the mental end (and face it, if you could hit a clay before now, this is a mental problem not a technical one), I'd recommend looking over golf.

Seriously. Competition golf has the same mental game as target shooting. The setup for each shot, how they approach a match, all of it is exceptionally similar to our stuff. Working my way through Every shot must have a purpose at the moment and it's exceptionally applicable.

There are shooting-specific books, but I'm finding that with the non-shooting-specific books, I have to do a little work to figure out how they map to shooting; and that bit of work is what it takes to get the ideas to stick in my head, so it works better for me that way.

Other titles might be Peak Performance. And I'd also recommend Lanny Bassham's With winning in mind even if it is specific to shooting.

Bassham's website on mental training might be of use as well.

Sparks

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

Was considering taking a break alright, cause once I start missing my mind starts overthinking every shot which is really sending me wrong:mad:

Happens to all of us, and in every sport as well. Welcome to the mental side of the sport

The Every shot must have a purpose book has a nice explanation of how to cope with this - you can't. You have to learn to shoot while overthinking it. It's a different skill, to the point where shooting in practise is almost a different sport from shooting in competition. Which, by the way, is why shooting matches (and only shooting matches) is not proper practise - proper practise is where you do a particular exercise to address a particular aspect of your technique. Sometimes you'd shoot a full match, but that's just working on your match handling aspect. Most of the time you're working on trigger control or sight picture or shot routine or whatever, and those are very different exercises.

pullandbang

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

and worst of all I knew as soon as the trigger is pulled I've missed, it's as if the gun just has taken a disliking to me as it just feels wrong as soon as I shoulder it:mad:

There's part of your problem. You've already missed the clay in your mind before you call for it.

Taking a break is not necessarily the right thing to do, but constantly practising when something is obviously wrong is not good either.

Without physically seeing what you're doing I'd only be guessing, but one thing you should look at is your physical condition at the moment. Have you a cold? Are you run down? Are you under pressure at work?
If you are any way not up to your usual form, and if you have an eye dominance issue - it can come to the surface at times like these. If you think you are on the clay when you fire, and you're missing that many, then it seems the gun is not pointing where you think it's pointing!
Have a look at www.easyhit.co.uk that might help!

If things don't improve have a chat with a coach. There's a list of them here - http://www.icpsa.ie/coaching/coach_find/553.html

jwshooter

next time your shooting ask some one to watch you shoot from your firing side get them to watch you through the shot .you are most lightly lifting or moving your head to see the clay and or kill

gofaster_s13

pullandbang wrote: »

If you think you are on the clay when you fire, and you're missing that many, then it seems the gun is not pointing where you think it's pointing!
Have a look at www.easyhit.co.uk that might help!

If things don't improve have a chat with a coach. There's a list of them here - http://www.icpsa.ie/coaching/coach_find/553.html

After pulling the trigger, the gun now seems to be sitting to the left of the clay where before if you asked me where I was on the clay I couldnt have told you, the clay was just broken and I had just followed through on my swing. The only clays I always had some problem with were the ones going out to the right.

pullandbang

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

After pulling the trigger, the gun now seems to be sitting to the left of the clay where before if you asked me where I was on the clay I couldnt have told you, the clay was just broken and I had just followed through on my swing. The only clays I always had some problem with were the ones going out to the right.

Assuming you are shooting off the right shoulder and you're missing clays to the right, and the gun is sitting to the left of the clay after you've fired then it looks like you're stopping the swing at the moment of firing. This causes you then to miss behind the clay - hence you see the gun to the left as the clay sails away unharmed! The main cause of this is "rifling" - looking back at your bead to check it's position in relation to the clay.
This can be as a result of poor gun fit leaving you feeling uncomfortable about your mount and wanting to mentally "check your gun fit" during your swing.

Do take JW's advice and get someone to look at you shooting to make sure you're not lifting your head.