Welcome to our third year of the Coaching Hour, January 04. This project has been a remarkable journey, and through the research we’ve done to keep it continually fresh, it has really grounded our faith in what we’re teaching. The year ahead promises more new discoveries and the introduction of some new personalities to the show. Thanks for participating, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Gil: I don’t know if any of you heard, but just before Thanksgiving I hurt my back and I have to tell you it was a real journey for me. I went to a specialist, and of course, he said I didn’t need surgery. Of course I’m talking to Tom Kirchmer and I’m talking to Willy Cherry and I’m talking to Gonzo Vargas and Nadim Nassir. I’m talking to all these people, some who take lessons from us, and some who don’t. And they all got me in to see this specialist finally, but I must tell you, for three weeks I was hanging around the house and almost drove Vicki crazy because I was not in control of the situation and I couldn’t gain control of the situation because I couldn’t get in to see these doctors.
The doubt voice was really eating me up, and Willy called me almost every other day and said: “Do this exercise. How’s it feel? Yadda, yadda, yadda.” He was doing physical therapy and emotional therapy by the phone, and had I not been doing this show, I would have thought much less of that, but he finally got through to me.
This was after Tom Kirchmer and his wife Nancy kind of became my sounding board because they’re both retired doctors. Tom was a heart surgeon and Nancy was a radiologist and they said: “Look, what you have is not life threatening. Don’t be concerned about it. Wait till you see a specialist and whatever comes, you’ll be able to deal with it.”But I’ve got to tell you, not knowing the outcome was an emotional rollercoaster for me. And it showed me—after Willy called me and beat me up on the phone and said: “You really didn’t sound good yesterday and I want to talk to you about this because all the turmoil and all the doubt that’s in your body is making those muscles in your back get tighter and tighter.” And come to find out it’s not really the injury that creates the trauma, it’s the muscles around the injury that are contract- ing to protect the injury that really creates the greatest amount of pain. About the time I was able to get in to see the first specialist, Willy gave me this stern talking to and said: “Look, you’ve gotta relax because you’re the one who’s making your body do what it’s doing.” Well, I went to see this first specialist and he told me I didn’t need surgery. Of course I was very relieved by that, then Willy called me the next day and said: “You’re feeling better. Was it the fact that the guy told you that you don’t need surgery, or was it because you changed your attitude?”
And I said: “Well. I have to be real honest with you, Willy. Even though we’re up here preaching attitude change, it was really hard for me to not be concerned with whether or not I was going to have surgery. But I’m sure it was a combination of the two.” Once the doctor told me I didn’t need surgery, I immediately felt so much relief, and I could actually feel the muscles in my back, in my shoulders, in my neck, in my hips, begin to relax. And of course Willy said, “See, I told you so.” But what can I say?
And I guess I’m telling you this—I’m okay, I’ve seen all the specialists and I’m not going to have to have surgery and I was actually out testing that today. I had to come down here and really test my legs and my back and make sure they would actually function by hunting quail all day behind some great bird dogs. And I want you to know, I wasn’t doing that because I wanted to, I was doing it to test my back, so if that makes any of you feel better, that’s just great and if not, tough luck.
But it was a real journey for me, and I didn’t realize how in control I felt like I needed to be of situations. Sometimes it takes a situation like this that’s out of your hands to really get you back centered and get focused. We’re all mortal. Anyway, I’m feeling a lot better, and I want to run through some things tonight that I talked to Dean Olson about. He’s not able to be here tonight.
And then I want to talk to Brian Brewton about some practice sessions he had the other day and what happened to him. Then I want to talk to Virgil Menshu who’s been on his journey of learning his routine and creating a rhythm in his routine and his journey of attitude change. I talked to him for 30 minutes or so last night and asked him if he wouldn’t mind getting on and just kind of sharing that with everybody and he agreed graciously.
Then after I talk to Virgil I want to talk to Don Yost. Don, didn’t you call me right after we got off the phone last month?
Don: Yeah.
Gil: Don said, “You know, what you were talking about, I already do.” And I said, “Why didn’t you say something?”
And he said, “Well, I always felt like I sounded so weird on that show when I listened to myself on the recorder.”
Gil: I mean, if you think you sound weird when you listen to yourself, you ought to listen to me sometime. But anyway, he’s actually been doing what we’ve been talking about the last couple of months. And he’s got himself a little cheat sheet, and he’s pretty much got it down to a real science for him. Not to say that what he does is going to work for you, but it’s another example of how someone else has carried what we’re talking about to a personal level.
We’ve always said that the things we’re talking about there’s no syllabus for, as far as what works for you, it’s something you’ve got to work out on your own. That’s kind of what Virgil’s going through right now. It’s always personal. That’s probably the toughest part and also the most rewarding when you find it.
Gil: I was talking to Dean the other night. He shot his first tournament of the year this last weekend and I said: “Tell me how it went.”
And he said, “Well, I felt a little rusty. I got there and shot well but I just felt rusty.”
I said, “Tell me what you mean when you say you felt rusty.”
He said, “Well, I didn’t have as good a feel as I normally have and I just had a little loss of timing.”
I said, “What did you shoot?” And he said, “An 87.”
I said, “What did that do?”
He said, “Well, I was master first and third overall, which is a great accomplishment.”
And I asked him, “Have you been listening to the tapes?”
He said: “Yeah, but this year I’ve made a commitment to be much more attentive to my log because I feel like that’s the one thing, although I had a great year last year, I think I could have had a better one had I really paid attention to it and given it the respect it needed.”
“Interesting,” I said: “What kinds of targets did you miss?” And he said, “They were all quartering shots.”
I said, “Hmm, moving the gun too fast?” And he said, “Exactly.”
So needless to say, you know what he’s going to be working on next week.
Gil: I’d like to talk to Brian Brewton. Brian called me last week and said, “You know, I had two great practice sessions and then I had one that I just didn’t feel good about.” He said nothing went well. I got an email from him today and he said he’d discovered what the problem was.
Brian, why don’t you outline what’s been going on with you? And I’ll just kind of butt in whenever Vicki lets me.
Brian: Okay, in one of the last sessions we talked about thought management and I thought it was a very powerful session so I have been working diligently at each practice trying to put a handle on the voice and trying to see how I was dealing with different emotions, and just kind of keep a record of where I was.
One of the things that I started thinking about was, I’ve gone to several tournaments where I’ve shot extremely well and was second place—I haven’t had an HOA yet—but I’ve been runner-up several times. So I started thinking about how I felt then and how I dealt with my emotions at those particular tournaments. I reflected on that, and then I prepared my practice sessions on that, trying to experience those same feelings again and the emotions in dealing with them during my practice.
Well, during my practice sessions last week on Monday and Tuesday, out of two days, I probably dropped two targets. And I was so used to going into a long session about how my fields laid out and how bad this is and how bad that is, I’ve learned that a target’s a target. On
Wednesday I apparently did not go back and get myself realigned like I had the previous days, and I stepped out on the practice field, and I couldn’t have put my gun on my foot and shot it. (laughter) It was just atrocious. Like I told Gil, I finally had to stop what I was doing. I said: “I already know how to miss, so I need to stop.” I put the gun down for a few minutes and took a deep breath and walked around. Then I picked it back up and started on some pairs, kind of easy pairs, and sure enough, I started hitting some targets. Then I decided to call it a day.
But I was really disgusted when I left there because having experienced shooting targets real well for two days and going out there and shooting so poorly on the third day, I was really upset with myself. I couldn’t understand what happened. Finally, like I said in an email with Gil, it just finally dawned on me; I hadn’t prepared myself before I stepped on the field. I wrote in my log and what have you, but as soon as I started missing I went mechanical. And when you go mechanical, trust is thrown out the window. So there’s not much you can do there.
Gil: When you say you hadn’t properly prepared yourself for your practice session, what does that mean?
Brian: Well, first off, I try to get my thoughts together on how I’m going to approach a particular target and how I feel. I’ll give you a for instance. One place I shoot real well is the Sporting Clays Ranch. I’ve had very good experiences there; most of the time, I’ll step on the first stand and no matter what the targets are, I’ll handle them and have a few runs and maybe miss only one or two here and there. But at the end of the day I wind up with a very good score. I want to have that same kind of feeling when I’m on the field. I know it may sound ridiculous, but the first two days there it seemed to work and the third day it just kind of fell apart on me.
I guess I stepped on the field with the expectation that I could do that. Now, today, I’ve been planning on it cause, like I said, I had been thinking about it for quite some time, so today it was like it was Monday and Tuesday; I could break anything that was thrown. So there is something to it.
Gil: Going back to the Wednesday. You had trouble. Do you think you were expecting to do what you had done Monday and Tuesday?
Brian: Sure.
Gil: And rather than doing the things that created the performance Monday and Tuesday, you tried to duplicate the performance.
Brian: That’s right.
Gil: That’s a big lesson here.
Brian: Yeah, it is.
Gil: Huge lesson. You take it for granted; however, I’ll tell you this. It occurs to me that you were able to put two days back-to-back in a practice session, and that improves the probability that you’re going to be able to do that in a tournament. And that you were able to think about the third day and realize what the problem was and at your next practice session walk right back into that zone, improves the probability that you will see that less and that your corrections will be less mechanical.
Brian: I feel like I have to travel that path a while before it becomes automatic.
Gil: There is no doubt. There is no doubt. But I’ve been telling Virgil Menshu this for two or three weeks–you’re closer than you think. Your commitment to make your training sessions have that feel and that focus, to be more of a “zone experience” rather than just going out and breaking targets, is a good thing. I think your commitment to take your practicing to a higher level will actually surprise you by how quickly a change comes about.
Coming down here, I’ve got to tell you all that I listened to the last three months’ CDs, three in a row, and there’s a lot of information in there. The things that I said in there, and the things that you guys said in there, and the things that were discussed, they will mean something different at each level you get to in your game. It’s something that’s unique about what we’re doing here, I think. You listen to them six months from now, and as your game gets better, they will mean something entirely different to you. Going back and looking at some of the books we’ve been studying, the things that I underlined and wrote, those things are entirely different to me. So it’s a new journey and it’s always new around the corner.
So when you went back this week and did your practice session, you felt like you were more mentally prepared. And when you say that, does that mean you were more focused on exactly what it was you were going to be doing, the kinds of targets or is it just more the trinity: focus, feel and trust?
Brian: The trinity. I’ve been working on a lot of singles and a few pairs. I just want to get my hands into the game. I haven’t shot that much, so I’m just trying to get my hands into it. But I’m learning how to focus. I’m learning how to really have that feeling, not just to feel my hands but also how it feels period. And then just to let the gun loose, let it happen.
Gil: Get out of your own way.
Brian: Yep.
Gil: I will tell you before we go and talk to Virgil, that today I was shooting a real light side-by-side. I was shooting quail. And I knew from prior experience that I was really going to need to slow down and focus, and I didn’t shoot that well this morning. This afternoon, in preparing this and going over some of the things that you guys have shared with me that we’re going to talk about, I just made my mind up that I was going to go out and just wait till I see the bird. Just go to the bird. I kept missing all the birds in front.
So the first covey rise, I missed three shots. Second covey rise, I missed two, killed one. And from there on out, it was a pretty easy experience because I quit thinking mechanically about it. I was telling myself this morning: Look, just shoot at them. Quit thinking about lead and everything that came out of my voice was mechanical. And it really made me laugh at myself. You guys aren’t alone. Everybody out there does that, even Vicki and me. I mean, we’re so used to correcting mechanics it’s so easy for us to fall into that trap and listen to that darn voice. Okay, well thanks for listening to that.
Gil: Virgil?
Virgil: Yes?
Gil: Did you practice today?
Virgil: No, I didn’t get to.
Gil: Virgil and I talked last night about the two tournaments that he shot last weekend. I’ve got a few things I’m going to prompt you with, but if you wouldn’t mind going over the Saturday tournament and the Sunday tournament.
Virgil: Okay.
Gil: Saturday you shot a…?
Virgil: 90.
Gil: And the winner was?
Virgil: 94.
Gil: Okay. And you told me that you really were not aware of score.
Virgil: Yes.
Gil: And do you feel like that’s a big thing for you?
Virgil: Oh, definitely. I’ve always kept that in the plan, thinking that I needed to be able to deal with it, so I kept it conscious. But since we’ve talked and had the lessons, I’ve realized that that’s taking me out of the moment, more into the future.
Gil: When you were shooting, did you carry your own scorecard or did somebody else carry it?
Virgil: My wife, Carol. She kept it.
Gil: And you never asked once to look at it?
Virgil: No.
Gil: Do you feel like not worrying about score has helped you control the voice?
Virgil: Oh, definitely. Because even when I finished, I remember remark- ing to you that I didn’t know if I had missed—I knew that I had missed more than five—but I didn’t know if I had missed fifteen or exactly how much. And that was a good thing. I was even pretty comfortable with the score. I had one little moment in the stand when I hit the first two pair and then missed three of the last four targets and wasn’t real happy. I really got mechanical on those last few targets.
Gil: But you were able to get away from those mechanical thoughts and get into your mantra and routine and shoot less mechanically?
Virgil: Yes. Cause I finished well.
Gil: Was it the fact that you missed the targets that made you go mechanical? Was it the fact that they were hard? Was it the fact that you felt like they were easy and you should have hit them? What was it?
Virgil: They were some of the hardest targets I had that day. I’m pretty sure that I felt, when I missed the first target, that I went mechanical trying to save the second one. And on the last pair, I was definitely mechanical there and managed to get one out of the last pair.
Gil: If you had it to do over again, what would you have done?
Virgil: I’d take a little more time to just relax and let it go and get back into what got me to hit the first pair.
Gil: I was watching one of the playoff games last week and it was tied and they were in overtime and the quarterback was rushing to get it done. He took the snap from center and threw an interception and they ran it all the way back. And I’m firmly convinced, because he’s a great quarterback, but the reason he screwed up was because he was hurrying. We’ve talked about that hurry up emotion many times. It’s almost like when you do something that you feel like you could have done better. It’s almost like you want to hurry up and do something else to get that failure over with, and I think, probably as you’ve learned, the best thing is to take a deep breath, slow down and approach it with a new mind.
Virgil: Definitely.
Gil: What about Sunday?
Virgil: Sunday was a way different experience. You know, I didn’t sleep well on Friday, and Saturday I could tell that I was tired but even Saturday night I didn’t sleep very well. By Sunday, I got there and didn’t get started very well, and after about four stations I actually did get my card, and I looked at it and counted the score, which for a moment, it did pump me back up and made me feel like I need to get back on the stick and do it, but I could tell that was just a part of that mindset because I was counting numbers from then on.
Gil: And that’s just something you’re going to have to overcome, because a previous experience taught you to look at score and judge holes as a birdie hole or a par hole or a bogey hole, and you were very conscious of score.
Virgil: Yeah
definitely.
Gil: So you had trouble sleeping?
Virgil: Right.
Gil: Wonder why? Maybe anticipation of trying the new things?
Virgil: Yeah. I was really excited about both of the shoots. I was really looking forward to going to them, but I’m really looking forward to the next one.
Gil: How’s your commitment to the breakpoint and your plan?
Virgil: It’s going okay. I’ve got to think so much, I’m almost real conscious about the routine. I do commit to the breakpoint, but when I’m getting set up, I can tell that I’m real conscious of getting set up. Maybe that’s the part that I haven’t got a real good feel for yet. Just let it go and trust it.
Gil: That’s normal because we’ve changed some things. We’ve changed quite a few things, actually, about what you’ve been doing. You’ve been doing them a long time, and it’s going to take a while for you to really turn it loose once you make your conscious plan. To just let it happen.
How’s your routine coming?
Virgil: It’s coming good. I can tell, because I was having Carol really pay attention this weekend and watch my time, how long I was taking to prepare myself, making sure I didn’t get quicker on the easy shots or slower on the harder shots, and she was saying that I was keeping my routine really well. I remember, I was really conscious about it, so that’s part of what I’ve been really working on.
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