Shooting Sports Psychology

sporting shot

I was once told that in shooting "winning follows winning". I've reached a relatively successful level in sporting clays and was kinda interested in the whole Sports Psychology side of things. Overall, I want to know if I can improve from another angle!

Has anyone been involved in it from a clay shooting prospective? I know the ICPSA high performance team have participated in it, but I dont know the overall results from it. I'm wondering if there is any information on paper or dvd, etc out there to give an extra mental/successful side in competition.

Bananaman

I have shot a lot of IPSC and most of the training material and courses on that are focused on psychology and the mental preperation for the matches. I know it is not a direct corolloray but I have seen the proof in the pudding.

If you listen to people after a match a lot of the time they are focusing on the negatives such as counting their misses

"I was 5 off the possible",
"I dropped an awful easy bird on the 2nd stand"

instead of discussing the fact that

"I got 245 hits" or
"I smoked all of the driven birds" or
"Every bird I hit I got with the first barrel"

It sounds like a lot of codswallop when you first get told to
o picture yourelf winning,
o see yourself breaking the clay as you pull the trigger
o if you miss, forget the miss and focus on the next hit,
etc.

but maintaining a positive attitude WILL make you a better shooter as it removes distractions.

I've not taken part in anything like that for clays - yet - I'm sure others will pipe in - but it does make a difference.

B'Man

jwshooter

there is a guy called lanny bassham ,he made the Olympics in rifle shooting ,he has same interesting studies done.

how many hours a week do you spend dry mounting ?

Bananaman

I did a course with Saul Kirsch who used to shoot Olympic Rifle for Israel but packed it in to shoot IPSC - now one of the top guys in the world in that sport.

He has some books on the 'mental game' which are quite good, however, they will be geared towards IPSC.

how many hours a week do you spend dry mounting ?

Bit of a peronal question for the guy don't you think

B'Man

jwshooter

Bananaman wrote: »

I did a course with Saul Kirsch who used to shoot Olympic Rifle for Israel but packed it in to shoot IPSC - now one of the top guys in the world in that sport.

He has some books on the 'mental game' which are quite good, however, they will be geared towards IPSC.



Bit of a peronal question for the guy don't you think

B'Man

i would say all pro and top shooters dry mount ,especially in sporting its beneficial to dry swing .
To mentally picture a target and shoot it .

there is a few reasons for this .

it builds muscle memory .
builds stamina
it encourages you to stand correct for targets .to get to know your body where you tighten up .
where your body naturally pulls the gun down or rises it.

how to address a target ,hold points etc.

It wasn't me!

Mad as it sounds, thinking out your shot routine in exhausting detail is near as damnit the same as spending that time at the range. I've become far more process-oriented than results-oriented in my thinking in the past while, and my shooting is benefiting enormously from it. You score tens by doing the right things, so focus on doing the right things, rather than focussing on shooting tens. The distiction is fine, but it's the difference between struggling to put together mediocre scores and easily cruising through scores and continuously advancing. Certainly has been for me.

sporting shot

Thanks for that everyone.

Does anyone have any insight to the high perfrmance programme in this respect?

packas

jwshooter wrote: »

there is a guy called lanny bassham ,he made the Olympics in rifle shooting ,he has same interesting studies done.

how many hours a week do you spend dry mounting ?

Lanny's book is called "With Winning in Mind." It's well worth getting. He's done a lot of work with the worlds top IPSC shooters.

jwshooter

sporting shot wrote: »

Thanks for that everyone.

Does anyone have any insight to the high perfrmance programme in this respect?

the high performance covers issf disciplines ,not english sporting .


there is talk about a version of fitasc/sports trap been introduced into the olympics in the future but the turn down in the global economy might put a halt to this.

Sparks

jwshooter wrote: »

there is talk about a version of fitasc/sports trap been introduced into the olympics in the future but the turn down in the global economy might put a halt to this.

There was zero hope of that before the downturn. Shooting sports are under enormous pressure in the programme as it is, with the big money sports looking to get in, and with TV sponsorship wanting to watch girls in bikinis whack a volleyball about on the beach rather than watch real sports, it's not likely we're going to see new shooting or archery or other sporting disciplines added any time soon

And Lanny won the Olympics, btw Silver in '72, Gold in '76. He's been working ever since as a mental coach to everyone from corporate retreat courses to the US Navy SEALs.

Bananaman

Good man - wouldn't be a good idea have to people discussing having an Olympic winner coaching IPSC unless you could dilute that to him coaching anything and everything such as corporate retreats.

B'man

Sparks

Good man B'man - it wouldn't do to relate the facts as they actually are, now would it?

Bananaman

Natural Born Coaches (c)

target

The regular use of sports psychology within the Olympic shooting sports is a relatively new area of development and one which is slowly creeping out onto the World Cup circuit. Funnily enough, it was Ireland who helped lead the way by bringing in Prof. Peter Terry to work with the ICPSA High Performance programme.

We now see sports psychologists regularly accompany teams to world cup events and perhaps the greatest example of that is Beijing Olympic gold medallist in Trap David Kostelecky, who travels to every competition with no coach just his sports psychologist and to whom he credited his win in Beijing.

Just like coaching, Sports Psychology is not a band aid in fixing the “heebie jeebies” on the day of a competition or for putting someone in a “winning frame of mind” on the day of a competition. Its primary purpose as used within our programme was to develop an understanding of the shooter and what make them “tick” as a shooter. What motivates them to do well and what de-motivates them. It’s not a therapy session lying on a couch, but constant feedback before, during and after training and competition over a very prolonged period of time. Looking for the emotional triggers and visible triggers that give insight to the conscious and subconscious thinking and how that ultimately conveys to the actual performance.

Most of the work is mundane, boring and the monotonous recording of information and in particular profiling the mood and motivational state of the shooter. Over time, observation and conversation build a profile which the sports psychologist can utilise to detect and modify the emotional state of the shooter.

It is the emotional state which has the greatest impact on athletic performance and it is by no coincidence also the hardest state to modify.

So in summary, Sports Psychology can have a very positive impact in helping to produce a performance but it won’t create the performance on its own. That capability has to be there already, through hard work with a coach and the years upon years of training. The best combination for a successful shooter is a coach who has worked with you for many years and a sports psychologist who knows you, has travelled with you and seen your good times and the bad.

It’s no coincidence that the ISSF Training Academy places so much emphasis on Sports Psychology that it forms such a large part of the syllabus for all of their coaching licences.

demonloop

There's several books available on mental training in sport, a few specific to shooting. Some good, others not so good IMO

I was told by a coach I have great respect for that a (ISSF) competition is not a competition of 60 shots, its 60 competitions of 1 shot.

In other words the only important shot is the one you're about to take, you have to apply everything you know into getting that one into the ten ring.

I personally think momentum is the greatest road to success in any sport, shooting included. To agree with a previous poster, winning breeds winning.

On a good day when I'm stringing tens they're in the ten before they leave the barrel.

jwshooter

there is one point every one should remember .

you cant make a race horse out of a donkey.

G17

jwshooter wrote: »

there is one point every one should remember .

you cant make a race horse out of a donkey.

However, with subtle lip gloss, shoes, and the right stylist, you can at least increase your chances..................:D:D:D:D

It wasn't me!

I dunno, some people have a natural bent towards shooting; others are superb learners; some people are both (fcukers ). It might be more of a slog for some, but I think anyone can be made a very proficient shot.

And as demonloop says, state of mind is everything. If you're on form, you can fill in your scores before you even get to the range; everything is so easy and tens follow tens because everything becomes obvious.

Sparks

jwshooter wrote: »

there is one point every one should remember .
you cant make a race horse out of a donkey.

The other point you have to keep in mind when remembering that however, is that a race horse that's too lazy to run is never going to win a race with a donkey that runs as best it can.

demonloop

Sparks wrote: »

The other point you have to keep in mind when remembering that however, is that a race horse that's too lazy to run is never going to win a race with a donkey that runs as best it can.

I've heard that one put a better way - and its so true...

Hard work will always beat talent that does not work hard.