May The Force Be With You

Lost-dead Sir, out with 7. Good Lord but that hurt! That miss cost me my opportunity for HOA and shouldn’t have. Complaining aside, it wasn’t just the miss but why I missed. All on me.

Before we continue, please allow me to dedicate this article to all those caring souls who work so patiently with our youths in their shooting programs. In addition to everyone who is visiting with us today, the following is humbly and constructively offered to those of you who are teaching and your students.

Many believe the mental game holds some mysterious, secret step – if I do this, something magical will happen. Folks – please don’t shoot the messenger – there is no secret step. There are, however, actions one can take in the mental game, each one hugely advantageous to the person motivated to learn and execute them. Speaking of those actions, in all my lessons, I’m diligent about helping my student's attention in the right place before we reach for the guns. I do so because, later, that early preparation pays off generously, right on time when sorely needed. 

OK, back to that miss…

I went into this tournament determined to work. I did that. Both days, Saturday and Sunday. One shell – one target – one swing – first target to last. Late Sunday, HOA on the line, he and I shook hands before the shoot-off. Up first after the coin toss, he went 8 for 8 on a tough pair. Stepping into the box, I was cool hand, Luke. No reason not to be. My standing here was not an accident. First pair, dead-dead. XX. Second pair, dead-dead. XXXX. Again, on my third pair, gun loaded, I waited, rehearsing each swing cadence. I imaged the two sight pictures. PULL. Dead-dead. XXXXXX. Final pair, again, I waited. I rehearsed. Gun up, I moved to my first hold point, concentrating hard. Joke finished, the crowd behind me broke into raucous laughter. Concentration broken, my attention shifted to behind me. 

Gun still up on my hold point, time froze. This I remember all too well. Go for it or step back and start over? PULL. Lost-dead Sir, out with 7. XXXXXXOX. I just gave that target away. A costly mistake. I knew better – did what I tell my students not to do – shot an “anyway.” My attention was in the wrong place. I wasn’t ready and called for the target anyway.

Was I upset? Truthfully? That day I was. Not the end of the story though, because every missed target, in my opinion, should be a lesson, not a loss. This you can believe, I learned from that lesson.

Vince Lombardi said, “Winning is a habit. So is losing.” Once the worst is behind us, are we looking ahead or reveling in our misery? This begs these questions. What did we learn today? What were the lessons?

DON’T LOOK BACK.

You’re not going that way.

Making our shooting stronger doesn’t come from winning. It comes from our unending, shell-by-shell struggle to overcome, to correct what’s not working in our game. 0XX00XOO. Regardless of the sport, those who excel walk this trouble-filled, tiresome, trial and error path. Those who strive to improve their game – never step off this path. There is no finish line. Progress – real improvement – is an ongoing, perpetual process, not an event. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Michael Phelps and a very long list of world-class athletes, all have walked this path.

Here's a classic example of someone successfully walking that path.

As last Sunday’s Masters tournament concluded everyone was watching the leader. Count me in on that. But there was another fierce battle going on, inside another player, Cameron Smith.

To set the stage, Sunday opened with Cameron in second place, only a few strokes back. As play got underway, Cameron began to stumble. Again, and again. His stress over this was palpable to we viewers. One swing mistake followed another. We could see it crushing him. At the halfway mark, he was neck-deep in misfortune. Here’s the good news. He fought back. With a vengeance. Even as he painfully added another stroke, and then another, he just refused to give in. Ever so slowly, better swings now outnumbering his mistakes, a birdie here, a birdie there, he inched his way back up the leaderboard. Exhausted at the end, stumbling to walk straight, he finished tied for third among some of the top golfers in the world.

Cameron’s performance on Sunday was a prime example of “the force,” using 1) patience; 2) tenacity; and 3) self-forgiveness – three fundamental components of the mental game. As he walked off the 18th green, had I been there, I would have offered him a hearty congratulations and a beer.

Fear of missing leads to lost targets…

which leads to more missing.

Scores going down, how do we stop this cycle?

The Masters presented its viewers with lessons aplenty. Like golf, there’s a lot more to good shooting than gun skill alone. Those three characteristics – patience, tenacity, and self-forgiveness – they can’t be just words. Those characteristics – those strengths – those forces will be profoundly needed to regain a shooter’s composure in the shooting box when the bottom falls out and expectations are not being met. Right, there is the path to the improvement I speak of.

Instructors, offered to you respectfully, walk this path wisely. Teach and reinforce these guidelines as early as possible, preferably before the shooting starts. This advance preparation not only slows down having to fix predictable problems later but expedites desired outcomes when the missing (aka frustration) starts. Accounting for our shooter’s skill level, the good or bad news coming after OXOXXOOO will largely depend on where our shooter is mentally. And that will depend on how well our shooter was prepared early. A proactive approach.

For all here, consider thinking of your personal, in-the-shooting-box performance as your car. The mental component is your steering wheel. Where it goes, your score goes. Welcome to the mental game, may the force be with you.

It's finally warming up in the Carolinas. Be good and we hope to see you out on the course.

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XXXX

About Dan Schindler

Dan Schindler is one of only 60 worldwide members of the Guild of Shooting Instructors (UK) and is one of the most highly respected Sporting Clays, Skeet, Trap and Wingshooting Instructors in the US. Dan is an NSCA Level III Instructor (since 1995) and founded the Paragon School of Sporting with one goal in mind. Whether it be for the advanced competitor or providing the basics to the entry-level shooter, Paragon provides the simplest, most practical and most effective Instruction, Coaching and Mental Training for the Sporting Clays & Wingshooting enthusiast. Dan Schindler helps shooters alleviate a lot of their frustration by taking the mystery out of breaking targets, calling their own misses, and make their own corrections. Lessons are fun, enlightening and our clients learn to shoot better in minutes!  

Dan Schindler's Books

"Recommended for shooters of all skill levels, Coaches, Instructors

and parents of youth shooters."

Take Your Best Shot (Book I), 3rd Edition is THE Gold Standard Primer It's all about the fundamentals, a requirement for good shooting. This book is used by high school and college shooting teams, recreational and competitive shooters from around the world. Solid, valuable, concise information that has helped thousands of shooters shoot more consistently with higher scores.

To The Target (Book II) Builds on the steps outlined in Book I. Emphasises Gun Management skills when the trap fires, creating a consistent, reliable, trustworthy swing.

Beyond the Target (Book III) is for shooters of all levels, filled with valuable information, clay target truths. Entertaining and a culmination of 3 decades of Dan's life's work as a teacher, competitor, published writer, and much more.

Here's what Shooters, Coaches and Clay Shooting USA saying...

Take Your Best Shot (Book I), 3rd Edition

To The Target (Book II)

Beyond The Target (Book III)