How to avoid going dumb when the buzzer beeps.

[steviesterno]

I try to learn something from each match. I guess if I do its a win.

There is a lot there to marinate on. The video could have been made in response to my question.

Ive only been at gun point a couple of times. I guess the fact Im the only one shooting and bullets are only going in one direction should allow me to relax.

I should have done this. I need to focus on a plan and a back up going in. This week on one stage my phone started ringing as I was drawing my gun. I answer my phone all day at work so reflex caused me to pause. I pushed through but it caused me pause. Next month my phone wont be in my pocket. Another round was shooting falling steel and Ive never shot larger falling steel. When the target didnt fall I had to readjust and come back to it. I should have had a plan going in for that what if.

it helps to have your head in the game, phone off, watch shooters that are better than you as they do the walk through and shoot their plan. I would also tape targets and would follow my plan on the way to do so, which gave me a few extra walk throughs.

the other part about falling steel is that you need to learn to call your shots. Basically that means you know where it's ending up based on your sight picture at the time the shot breaks. Not listening to hear it ping, not waiting for it to move. I deleted it but I took first person video of me running a falling steel stage and was unloading to show clear before the 2nd to last and last steel fell, because I knew where the shots were going to land as I made them.

Stick with a platform for a while. If you carry a glock, shoot with it or it's slightly bigger version. You need reps on what you carry and muscle memory is absolutely a thing. Don't mess with other guns for like at least a year. Learn how to run it, what it can actually do, and how it feels. I feel slide lock on 1911s and polymer guns but it's different. Know it.

 

[RSB]

To take a quote from No Country for Old Men "It's not the one thing".
START HERE: This is where it all began. Brian and the G.O.A.T.

 

[CAMSDADDY]

it helps to have your head in the game, phone off, watch shooters that are better than you as they do the walk through and shoot their plan. I would also tape targets and would follow my plan on the way to do so, which gave me a few extra walk throughs.

the other part about falling steel is that you need to learn to call your shots. Basically that means you know where it's ending up based on your sight picture at the time the shot breaks. Not listening to hear it ping, not waiting for it to move. I deleted it but I took first person video of me running a falling steel stage and was unloading to show clear before the 2nd to last and last steel fell, because I knew where the shots were going to land as I made them.

Stick with a platform for a while. If you carry a glock, shoot with it or it's slightly bigger version. You need reps on what you carry and muscle memory is absolutely a thing. Don't mess with other guns for like at least a year. Learn how to run it, what it can actually do, and how it feels. I feel slide lock on 1911s and polymer guns but it's different. Know it.

I will definitely leave my phone in my bag. I normally sign in later but went 4th so I could get to another commitment/lunch earlier. I like the idea of taping to get extra walk throughs.
I have focused on Glocks ( and a snub in my pocket ) for quite awhile. I try to stick to my carry gun because in reality if I ever need it my performance with it will matter more than any buzzer or match placement. I also need more reps going to the holster at 3 o clock.

 

[pistolpat]

Maybe pistolpat & @Burdy could offer some insight? I know there’s others, my mind is a blank.

Yeah I use to have the same issues but over time and experience the more matches you shoot the better it will get. I still get “first stage jitters” at major matches but it’s nothing that really throws my match off it’s more just mental thoughts. Just keep shooting matches it will get easier and better

 

[CAMSDADDY]

Yeah I use to have the same issues but over time and experience the more matches you shoot the better it will get. I still get “first stage jitters” at major matches but it’s nothing that really throws my match off it’s more just mental thoughts. Just keep shooting matches it will get easier and better

These matches are certainly not major. Just a group of 18-24 guys coming together once a month to have a match. Nothing on the line but numbers on a score sheet. I need to work on the mental and physical of the match and not just shooting.

 

[CAMSDADDY]

Wow I guess this is sort of like baseball for my son. We played our last rec ball earlier this month. We are now at a crossroad. Either we accept the fact that we enjoyed baseball and move on to something new or he decides its something he wants to pursue. If he wants to play middle school ball he is going to have to put in work and not just during season or during practice it will require work on his on to get to the level it will require. This is similar to where I am. I can continue to do what I do. I can shoot a couple times a month. I can shoot a several hundred rounds a month and spend a couple hundred hours on gun forums (embarrassing to admit). I can shoot our monthly matches and continue to hover around the middle. I can do what Im doing or decide I want to be better and be willing to put in the work. Like I tell my daughter who just completed her freshman year at UGA "if it was easy I would have done it'

 

[Retired Army]

Wow I guess this is sort of like baseball for my son. We played our last rec ball earlier this month. We are now at a crossroad. Either we accept the fact that we enjoyed baseball and move on to something new or he decides its something he wants to pursue. If he wants to play middle school ball he is going to have to put in work and not just during season or during practice it will require work on his on to get to the level it will require. This is similar to where I am. I can continue to do what I do. I can shoot a couple times a month. I can shoot a several hundred rounds a month and spend a couple hundred hours on gun forums (embarrassing to admit). I can shoot our monthly matches and continue to hover around the middle. I can do what Im doing or decide I want to be better and be willing to put in the work. Like I tell my daughter who just completed her freshman year at UGA "if it was easy I would have done it'

i can offer some insight on this. While I was still active duty, I decided my next career path was to be a PGA certified head golf professional. I was a casual weekly golfer who regularly shot 90 ish. I knew there was a playing portion to becoming a professional so I got to work. I was in Germany at the time and my then wife was still active duty. I started April 2 and for the next 6 months, I played and practiced 8-10 hours a day 6 days a week. Only took off Sundays. In October, I won the club championship shooting 70 & 74. The other players couldn’t believe it but they saw me grinding every day.
I started work at Stryker Golf Course at Ft Bragg in November 1997 as a $5.15 an hour cart guy lol. Kept working on learning my game and the business. I passed the PGA playing ability test and was promoted to Asst. Pro in 1998. March 1999 I was hired as the Head Pro! ive since moved on. I don’t have that same drive anymore outside of God, my family and my friends.
You can do it if you’re driven. Chase your dreams if you decide this is for you!

 

[Braxton1]

To take a quote from No Country for Old Men "It's not the one thing".
START HERE: This is where it all began. Brian and the G.O.A.T.
View attachment 5721793

That's where I was going to go.

I tell new shooters all the time: "Get the book!". It is a relatively difficult read, being very similar to "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", but you'll "get it" about the fourth time through....

It's available via Amazon.

IF you can find the J. Michael Plaxco book "Shooting from Within", it's well worth it. Mike explains the same concepts in the style of an Arkansas country boy. It doesn't come off as "Zen"...

 

[Bypass]

Smooth is fast.

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

Violence of action.

I'll never forget when a special forces soldier said those words to me. I had no idea then what the **** he was talking about (at the time).

 

[Stubb]

What can I do to not lose focus when the buzzer sounds. How do you learn to perform under pressure?

Several have already mentioned the importance of shooting matches—you don't feel less nervous, but you learn what's coming and how to deal with it.

The other part is visualizing what you want to do in advance. That way, when the buzzer sounds, you've already shot the stage a dozen times or more and can execute most if not all of it on autopilot. The level of detail in my visualization is extremely high—I'm going over the exact spots on the targets that I want to shoot and points on the ground I'm running toward, how I want the gun to feel in my hands, what the sights are doing on the first and second shot on each target, etc.

Visualization is a big part of my match skill-builder class (next one is June 25).

I'm not a fan of Enos's book for shooters who aren't already shooting matches competently.