This time around, several veteran shooters offer up their advice to a student who will be attending his first National Championship.
The discussion ranges from pre-tournament practice to logistics in packing, to managing expectations and dealing with unsolicited advice. We think it will be fruitful and illuminating for anyone who performs in a high intensity setting.
Gil: Welcome to the coaching hour, October, 2014. In light of the upcoming National Championship, I’ve asked Gary and Shane and Jeff to put together some of the things that they have learned in going to the National Championship the first time, because everybody had a first time, and just kind of talk a little bit about what they went through in their own experiences. Jeff is not going to be there this year because he had some work-related things happen and he just hadn’t been able to train, and he’d be going just for a social experiment. So he decided to not go there. I think that’s great.
So probably what I’m going to do is in just a minute I’m going to start with Gary. Bob? Snowflake, are you there?
Bob: That’s me, yes.
Gil: Do you have anything more that you’d like to talk about in Golf Flow, any other research things that you’ve come up with? I know we had talked about maybe doing some of that. I don’t want to put you on the spot if you’re not prepared, but if you had a couple of things, we can certainly talk about it.
I have several things that I’m going to talk about if I have time tonight; but since I talked to you about doing something like this first, do you have anything that you would like to add, any reflections about the book Golf Flow?
Bob: Yeah. I’ve been trying this afternoon to find it, and I’ve hit a brick wall, but there was kind of a throwaway comment in there he made about the process of golf professionals and their warmups. And so I spent some time doing some research on that, and what it comes down to is the best perception of this, and it fits our sport as well as it does golf and a few others, is that when you go into a competition like this, there’s so many sensory motor inputs going on at one time that a warmup, not the kind that you usually are offered at a lot of these places, which is ten shots for 25 bucks, but something on the order of an hour to an hour and a half allows you to reconsolidate everything you’ve been practicing and recalibrate it to the certain situations that you’re in then.
I think I put this in the email to you. It’s kind of like you’ve got all of the instruments in an orchestra going and you’ve got everybody who’s practiced their parts and you’ve practiced your parts and that this is somewhat of the ability to have the pre-performance rehearsal, the final rehearsal and that the recalibration may be critically important within our sport.
So if you can find a course nearby where there’s a course available within the program that you’re at to just go out and shoot and not necessarily all pairs but warming up both individual shots and transitions for about an hour and a half, it may have a huge payoff.
Gil: In working with Craig Hill for so many years, he has discovered in his game that he gets a lot out of it if he can go out and he can shoot maybe 50, 75 targets, he never mentioned an amount of time, but nothing hurried, just go out there and feel the gun go off. A lot of times, if he goes to a tournament, like you said, Bob, and he knows they’re not going to have a warm-up course, he’ll go to another gun club and he’ll shoot a couple of five stands or pay for a hundred birds in sporting and go shoot 50 to 75 times just to get the gun to go off and get the cobwebs out from a night’s sleep.
I’ve said it on this coaching hour. Some of you weren’t on it at that point in time; but when we competed back in the ‘80s, the club was struggling just to have enough traps to put on a hundred-bird shoot, much less have any kind of a practice thing. So there was never any practice for us. I guess as I look back on it now, Bob, I learned that too much practice right before you left was a bad thing because I would always try to practice up until Thursday night. I’d go out and I’d shoot 150 birds and then put the gun in the gun case, and then Friday morning we’d leave and we’d get there and we’d shoot Friday afternoon. We’d shoot Saturday. And by the time the second day of the tournament came, I was just shot out. And maybe it’s because I got into this rhythm intentionally.
For me to go out and shoot really easy, soft targets on Wednesday afternoon, not a lot, something just so easy, that was helpful. As I think about it now, it was easy for me to preload those easy shots because that was over 30 years ago, you understand, and we were ex-skeet shooters for God’s sake. We didn’t know anything about sporting clays, and we just were trying and we were coming from behind. We were let- ting the bird go by and then mounting in front of it, and we were really good at what we were doing, the best in the country; but still we just didn’t know enough about performing with a shotgun and about vision. Hell, nobody knew about vision as much as we know about vision now; but I found that if I would go and just train some really easy easy birds on Wednesday, put the gun in the gun case, check my chokes, check my shooting bag. I put my shooting gloves in there, ear plugs, glasses, everything, and would go through my little routine and make sure my list was right. So when I got there on Friday I didn’t have to go shoot. I programmed myself to mount the gun a few times in the parking lot, and when we got to the first stand, shoot a couple of times in the air, and we just had to go.
Now, had we had the luxury that we have today of maybe going and shooting a five stand or practice a five stand or something like that, definitely we’d do that. I agree with that based on what people and we’ll ask the guys that are going to talk tonight if they warm up; but definitely having the opportunity to go and warm up a little bit, I think, is really critical.
I wouldn’t, like you said, shoot any difficult targets. Everything needs to be very simple to preload because somewhere in that book it said: You can’t win a tournament on Thursday. But you can certainly lose a tournament on Thursday, and the tournament is four day’s long. It begins on Thursday, and, therefore, the first three or four holes on Thursday are not about winning the tournament; they’re about establishing a rhythm, establishing a flow, being grounded, being relaxed, getting your mind and your body in sync, and that’s so true.
So many people when they go to the National Championship because it’s four days are fairly keyed up on the first day, and you can’t win it on the first day; but you can sure lose it on the first day by being too excited and not realizing that the first three or four stations on the course you shoot on Thursday are not about winning or losing; they’re about establishing a rhythm, getting in flow, getting your head straight, getting your mind and your body in sync and getting the gun in sync with the target, doing your preload effectively and just laying the groundwork for having a good four-day shoot.
Does that make sense to you, Bob?
Bob: Yeah. Unfortunately in the researching that I was able to find so far, people have only looked out a full 24 hours before the event. They haven’t really looked beyond that; but I don’t envision when they do look that they will find some people who it’s two or three days before it’s fine. I think the vast majority of people it’s somewhere between six hours and 24 hours before that, you’ve got to be sure that if you want to do the warm-up that you do it; but I agree with you completely about it’s not about trying to hit the really hard, long birds or the really difficult presentations.
It’s about focusing yourself on the rhythm and getting that locked in while all of this other stuff is hitting you, just being able to do that and get the confidence in it, which you’ve mentioned before. This isn’t something new that you’ve mentioned; but I just was reinforcing it with some of the research that I found.
Gil: Well I’m still referring to this Golf Flow book. It’s an incredible book. It has given me a depth of enlightenment that I didn’t have before I read it. Hats off to Gary Davidson for getting me hooked up with it. I’ve tried it specifically on several shooters that we’ll talk about tonight once we get through the next segment, and I’ll start with Gary and then I’ll go to Jeff and then I’ll go to Shane.
But it’s just an amazing thing the more great performances that I’ve had in many different arenas. As I look back on them, everything was in slow motion, and although there was some adrenaline there, I was patient enough to establish a rhythm. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew that if I did it that way it would happen.
I was patient enough to establish a rhythm in the beginning that I could depend on throughout, either a photo shoot or a presentation or a speech or a clinic, whatever it was I was doing, shooting sporting clays for score.
There’s a lot to be said for how you start it, and, like you said, you can’t win it on the first station; but you can sure lose it on the first station. And being in flow is an amazing thing. I’ve used that on quite a few shooters since I read this book for the first time this year, and I got to tell you it’s an absolutely amazing thing.
Well, thank you for sharing that.
Gil: Gary, I’m going to go to you first and then I’m going to go to Jeff and then I’m going to go to Shane. I’m not sure that I’m ready for what you’re going to say but I trust you, knowing that we’re going to see each other next Saturday. Tell me a little bit about your experiences in going to the National Championship. I know you’ve been there quite a few times. And how has your get-ready, so to speak, change from the first time you went until now?
Gary: Well, y’all touched on it a little bit awhile ago. I think the first couple of years that I went I was still out on the range Wednesday evening before we got in the car and drove from Kerrville on Thursday morning to go shoot at Nationals. I’ve found, for me at any rate, that I’m better off if I’ll quit about a week before.
I’ll be there with Craig, and I know Craig’s going to drag me down to the practice course on Sunday evening; but when I go down there, I might shoot 50 rounds, and on Monday I might shoot 50 rounds. I’m going down there to relax and do a little bit of nothing, maybe shoot some doves before the tournament starts; but as far as really training or practicing with any purpose, I was done last Friday.
Gil: Yeah.
Gary: I went out Friday afternoon before the high school football game and shot some seriously, and I guess I shot Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon last week, and that’s it, just try to put it down.
I spent a little time just about every evening this week cleaning the gun or packing the shooting supplies or something related to getting ready because I guess over the years getting ready to go on trips is part of the deal for me, and I’m one of those who likes to know that everything is where it’s supposed to be.
But as far as actually shooting, I’m better off on any big event to stop really about a week before. I think that comes partially from having more confidence now than I did earlier, and I think it comes partially from realizing if I hadn’t got it a week before the tournament I’m not going to get it in the last week.
So I don’t remember ever doing anything in the practice the last week before tournament that I thought was particularly beneficial when the tournament rolled around. So I’ve kind of gone from putting it down and taking a little bit of a break. It’s kind of what I like to do now.
Gil: How has your thought process on the first day of the tournament changed from when you first went to now?
Gary: Well, I think I would say more than just the first day of the tournament. I think the whole thing. The first couple of years we might have said that it wasn’t true. We were lying. We were way way too concerned with that damn scorecard.
Gil: Yeah.
Gary: They shouldn’t even allow you to have a scorecard the first year you go. I think learning that this thing, they’re not shooting back. So, you know, you don’t have to worry about that. There’s, what, going to be 2,000 people there this year. 1900 and 75 of us don’t have any chance of winning the National Championship. Get over it, have a good time, shoot well; but the scorecard is just the last thing you really need to worry about in my opinion. The more I’ve come to ignore that damn thing the more fun I have at a shoot, and I believe the more I’m able to shoot well.
Gil: Yeah.
Gary: When I started thinking about it while I was having dinner tonight a little bit about what I’d tell John going to his first Nationals. And one thing I’d tell you, buddy, is that whatever might not go like you want it to, whatever issue you might have, slowing down is almost always part of the answer.
John: All right.
Gary: Because, at least I found, I think I was in overdrive the first couple of times I went and when you come to a stand that is not going well for you, by the time you get through, you know, you’ve shot the last pair so fast because you kind of get in the mode, at least I used to, of let’s get this over with and let’s hurry up and hit the next pair so everybody in your squad will forget you dropped half of the first three pairs. Slowing down is almost always a good thing; but the most important thing I’d tell you is you’re going to have fun.
John: Yes, sir.
Gary: To get the measure at the end of the year, I think you’re kind of measuring where you are. I always like to make some notes when I’m through at Nationals that I pull out when I start training at the beginning of the next year.
John: All right.
Gary: So I’d tell yourself, first of all, before you get there, come to appreciate the fact that you’re going to get to go, that you have the means to do it; but your parents are supporting you so you can go do it, and go have a good time and learn something about yourself and learn where you are in the game and just have a good time with your squadmates, walk out of every station with a smile no matter what happened.
They’ll think much more highly of you if you’re able after four days to walk out of every cage smiling no matter what happened while you’re in that cage. They’ll think much more highly of you than if you shoot 90 percent every day.
John: All right. Yes, sir, I’ll try to do that.
Gil: It’s a big deal. What Gary is talking is the basis for being able to perform anywhere because you can’t control the outcome. All you can do is control what you’re doing, and slowing down is the biggest thing. We talked about that last Saturday, how everything on the course is made to make you speed up and everything off the course is made to make you speed up, because fear makes you speed up, and it’s just a matter of realizing that you’re going to do the best you can regardless of what comes at you, and let’s move forward, just keep giving the next cage as much as you got, and when you get through, it’s over and you look back at it and see what you learned from it and moved on.
Gil: Jeff, what do you have to say?
Jeff: Oh, I think I’d sort of echo some of Gary’s comments about prepa- ration. For me, weeks before Nationals is when I’m finished repetitive training on anything. I might shoot a little bit just to help myself get out of the training mind-set and into the competition mind-set; but it would be 25 targets or 50 targets, and it won’t be very aggressive on presentations.
I think we’ve talked about this before. One of the things for me is when I think about training I’m thinking about mechanics, and I’m try- ing to reinforce a move or a transition, and you don’t want that when you’re competing. At least for me, I can’t just walk from one to the other. I can’t spend Friday training and then Saturday go out and shoot a tournament.
If I do, it’ll take me four or five stations to lose that mind-set, and in that time I’ll miss enough targets that I’ll be mad at myself and wonder why I even bothered to get in the tournament in the first place. So, you know, it’s a little bit of management.
Preparation-wise, you know, I think the biggest thing for me, since I travel from Pennsylvania, was packing and bringing enough of the usual pieces with me. It was a little more of a harried experience the first time through. I kind of threw everything in the suitcase because I didn’t know what to bring. If you have a trunk or the back of an SUV, it’s a different story; but make sure that when you go through your gear before you leave that you have all of your comfortable pieces, right?
John: Yes, sir.
Jeff: As everybody has alluded to, it’s a zoo, right? It’s like going to the county fair for the first time if you’ve never been there before. There’s going to be so much sensory input of every kind for you that it’ll put you on edge. It’ll put you into an adrenaline rush. It’ll just be edgy compared to what you would normally see at a shoot, and if you’re all of a sudden missing your favorite shooting glasses or your favorite pouch or whatever, that’s one more thing to sort of grind through when you get out on the course.
Do you know what I mean? I mean, it sounds stupid and it sounds simple; but for me at least there’s a lot to be said for consistency and continuity. You know, I rely on being able to do things the same way I do on the practice field as a way to deal with all the other uncertainty and disruption that comes from a big shoot.
You know, that’s how I find my calm place and compete. I would also say you’re actually, as everyone else has said, when you’re competing, say, your expectations if you shoot a 97 on, say, a 20-gauge event and still be 75th out of 575 people.
So, you know, don’t be sad about that, right? A 97 at Nationals is a great score.
John: Yes, sir.
Jeff: Don’t let that fool you. Don’t be searching for those extra two targets or three targets that you think you would need to win, and just like in any other event from year to year they crank the targets up. They back the targets off. Some years a good score is high. Some years a good score is low. Just like any other competition forget about your scorecard and just have fun shooting.
You know, those are some of the things for me, and be in control of what you want to do, right? Think of it at some level it’s a vacation. You’re there to have fun. You’re there to enjoy yourself. I think the first time I went, there was an incentive to jam too many events and too much activity into a small amount of time, and underneath all of it you’re going to shoot the Main event.
You’re going to shoot some big events, and you’re going to want to do well. And so don’t throw away all the other things that we talk about, getting a good night’s sleep, eating well. If your friends are around and you’re going to go out to dinner, go out to dinner with them; but make sure you eat light and make sure you eat something that’s not going to come back and haunt you the next day.
All of that stuff is still happening; but with all the other glitz and activity of Nationals, people tend to forget that, or say: this one time I can get away with having a big giant burrito. Just go to shoot. And what happens at Nationals stays at Nationals. You know, what happens at Vegas stays in Vegas. There’s a little bit of extra incentive to go off the rails and do things you wouldn’t normally do. I don’t mean that, you know, no one is going to be standing and drinking beers, partying on top of a table; but you have a routine. You have a routine that you use when you shoot and it’s effective and it works for you. Don’t let a bunch of other people that are there take you out of that.
Gil: That’s really good counsel and to stay in that routine, especially the sleep routine and the nutrition routine.
John: Yes, sir.
Gil: It’s really important because those are the two routines that typically slip, and I know that we will make sure that we get the right amount of sleep. We’re going to eat like we normally do. We stick with a diet and we’re on that diet, and we’ve been on it for two years, and I don’t plan on getting off of it.
We have protein shakes that we know work for us. We’ll drink the right drinks. We’ll stay hydrated. But to me, one of the most important things that I’ve learned is always give yourself plenty of time to pack the golf cart, pack your shooting cart, arrive early, take it easy, put the stuff in your shooting cart in slow motion, start getting in touch with your rhythm by doing your physical things in slow motion, take the time, put it there, know it’s there. You don’t have to worry about it.
When I pack the golf cart for me and Vicki, and each day the Main event is going to be 75 rounds. I put three boxes of eights and two boxes of seven and halves for each of us on the golf cart. I take enough eights to shoot the whole course; but I have enough seven and a halves to where if there’s some big trap birds and long rabbits and stuff like that that need a heavier shot, I’ve got it. I know that I’ve got it. I double-check it. It’s there. The guns are on the golf cart. The vests are on the golf cart.
Something that Vicki does this religiously for both of us. When we get our shooter number, we take the sheet that tell us where we start. For instance, if you shoot the Main and you start at Yellow 2 on Thursday, you’re going to be at Green 2 on Friday, and you’re going to start on Station 2 on every one of the courses.
It’ll just be a different colored course, and what we do is on the actual shoot number that you put on your vest or on your pouch, we write out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and we write down the time of the event we shoot, the station we start on and the color of the course we start on on everything so that we don’t have to keep referring to the sheet that they give you that’s very confusing.
And what I would tell you to do is get a Sharpie and write on your shoot number what you’re going to do on Thursday, what you’re going to do on Friday, what you’re going to do on Saturday and what you’re going to do on Sunday. Check the times, get your mom or your dad to check the times with you so that you know the times are all correct, and all you got to do then is begin to plan what you’re going to do. If you’ve got a late event on Thursday and an early event on Friday, as soon as you finish your event on Thursday, go get something eat, go back to the motel, take a shower, get in bed early, get your rest, get up early and check your stuff; but the last thing you want to do is feel like you have to hurry when you’re getting ready to go shoot because then you’re already out of control. We’ve got to get your mind and your body in sync so that you can get in sync with those targets.
We talked about this on the coaching hour four or five years ago about how you need to develop a routine; but when you get to the shoot, this is what you do, and if you’ve got one, great. If not, don’t worry about it. Don’t sweat it. Just give yourself plenty of time. I usually start 45 minutes before we’re supposed to be there, and I’ll go out and in slow motion I’m going to do everything that I do when I pack in slow motion. I’m not going to hurry.
I’m not going to raise my hand real fast. I’m not going to go anywhere real fast. I’m going to take my time. I’m going to load the shells two boxes at a time into the golf cart. Everything is going to be in absolute control, slow motion, and we’re going to leave where we don’t have to hurry. We get down there. We’re going to go in slow motion as opposed to sticking my foot through the firewall on that golf cart, trying to make it go faster than it really will.
I’m just going to coast on down there. I am not going to be in a hurry. And I’m telling you this sounds crazy; but it’s lethal.
John: Yes, sir.
Gil: When you can arrive on that station in sync, your mind doesn’t go crazy. If you’re hurrying to get there, your mind is ahead of your body, and then your body gets ahead of your mind and nothing good happens. So just take your time.
The first time you get there, when you drive in, like Jeff said, it’s going to be sensory overload. You’ll be carrying your own bullets with you. So you don’t have to worry about that. Get your stuff. Go register. Look at the map. Drive around the complex there, figure out where the Main event courses are, figure out where the FITASC is, figure out where the five stand is so you know where you are. Once you get your little shooter number filled out, if you’ve got some time on the first day, if you only shoot one event on the first day, spend some time going to different courses to figure out where you need to start, what you need to do. I never worry about looking at the targets because they’re going to change.
The conditions are going to make the targets shoot different one day to the next. But I just want to make sure that I know where the courses are and I know where I have to go or where I have to park, how far I’m going to have to walk, what I’m going to have to do to get there on time. So that’s just contingency planning. You know how to do that.
Anything else, Jeff?
Jeff: No. I think that’s about it. I just would look over the program, look over what you’re going to shoot and be comfortable with the timing that you have to make those events and then figure out what all else you can fit into your schedule; but don’t overdo it. There’s a lot there, and it’s really easy to get yourself caught up in all the activity and you’ll have friends.
You’ll have your social friends there, other people, maybe family, whoever, and there will be a real motivation to go socialize and hang out, and don’t let that put you in a position where you can’t take your time and make sure of what you’re doing and follow Gil’s advice about a nice, slow process to get where you need to go.
John: All right.
Jeff: That’s big. And along those lines, I don’t know who you’re squadded with, if you know the people you’re squadded with; but the other thing that I would say is that if you’re not squadded with people you know, don’t be afraid to be polite and say: Hey, do you know what? I appreciate you trying to tell me how to shoot these targets; but I have my own way to shoot them and I’m going to do it because people will naturally try to be helpful. They mean well; but sometimes that can be a distraction.
Gil: Yeah.
Jeff: And don’t be afraid. I mean, they want to be sociable. A lot of people have been there enough times that they’re there strictly for the social and fun of it.
And, as a younger
shooter, if you get squadded with people who have shot for longer periods of
time, they’re going to feel like they want to give you advice and tell you what to do. If you start encountering trouble, just be
polite but firm and say I’ve been coached. I know what I need to do. I can fix
this problem myself. I appreciate the advice. Thank you.
John: Yes, sir.
Jeff: You have to shoot with them so you’re going to have to be polite; but don’t be afraid to do that and don’t be afraid to tune them out because I know that happened to me a couple of times, and it’s a distraction.
Gil: That’s very good counsel. That’s very good counsel. And it’s all well intended; but that’s another way that people lose it, is they’re trying to help everybody there, and what they’re doing when they start trying to help other people is they can’t shoot so they’re going to try to help somebody else not shoot.
So that’s very good counsel. Don’t be afraid to be firm and blunt with those people. Shane, tell me what you think.
Shane: Well, I can certainly echo all of the sentiment about being early and having a routine. Make sure you give yourself a lot of time. I will also echo very strongly the sentiment about not letting somebody else ruin it for you. It will not be an “if.” It will just be a “when.” Somebody is going to think that they have found the way or they’re going to start telling you you’re over, you’re behind or you’re in front of, and all you can do is just stop and regroup and thank them and tell them you’re good and go on about your business and don’t be afraid to do that.
And it may not happen here; but you will get stuck with some guy or lady on your squad that is a turd, and you just have to make sure that you distance yourself from them. And you don’t have to be ugly or rude; but sometimes it’s warranted and do not let someone else ruin it for you.
The biggest thing I can tell you is that, everybody is telling you to make sure that you balance the social side and the competitive side and everything else; but I’m going to tell you that when you are going for the first time go have fun.
Gil: Yeah.
Shane: Go to the shoot-off. Go for the whole full meal deal. You’re not going to win. I’m not going to win. Just like the gentleman said a while ago, 98.5 percent of the people there don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of even being in the top ten. You know, we’re not going to try to set the world on fire. I’m going to have a good time, and unless I lose an eye or something like that, I’m going to have a good time, period. And so don’t overlook some of those other things.
And the biggest thing I can tell you is that know that it will not be a failure as long as you learn something. You will probably at some point, and it may not be at Nationals, walk out of a station with a zero. I have done it. I still do it. I don’t know why it happens. It does. It used to eat me up. Now it is in the past. Learn from it and move on. You’re going to step in a station and the guy in front of you is going to smash ten targets in a row or eight targets in a row, and you’re going to get up there and you’re going to whip a lost pair. You’re just going to kind of look around.
Know that pressure is from inside you. No one there is judging you. No one there is basing anything on your score or your performance but you, and you control that, and that is in your realm and it is yours to do. So keep that in mind and be very cognizant about your self-talk, about your attitude, how high you hold your head and how you walk because all of that will impact your experience while you’re there, and that’s one of the things that you will have to learn. That is one of the biggest building blocks to learning how to compete, is learning how to manage yourself, and until you can get control of yourself, you will not be able to control everything else.
Gil: Shane, when you say watch how you walk and how you carry yourself, what does that mean to you?
Shane: You cannot lie to yourself, and if you step in there and you see a target and all of a sudden you feel like a dog trying to push out a peach pit, you can’t hide that from yourself. There is no going back from there. You cannot lie to yourself and that will show, and everyone around you will see it; but it shows.
If you walk with your head hung down and you’re shaking your head and you have a negative response when you miss a target and you’re beating yourself up, it’s going to be very evident, and all you’re doing is reinforcing that behavior. And it’s been said on this coaching hour many times that you have to learn to develop the habits of a champion.
People that go to the Olympics, they go to the Olympics and they give it everything they got. If they have a poor performance, it is what it is. It was what it was. We move on. We learn from it and you move on. Every time I shoot a zero I’m one more closer to not doing that again. Every time I miss something that’s right here in my face, that’s one less I’m going to miss until I quit doing that, and that’s the only way you can look at it.
And it’s the same thing about your attitude. When something happens, and it’s going to happen, you’re going to shoot a zero. You’re going to back over somebody’s golf cart. Somebody is going to knock your — trust me, brother. I have seen me do it. Somebody is going to knock your gun out of the rack or you’re going to be standing there with a Coke and a smile and half a clay is going to appear from the heavens and do some engraving on the nice side of your stock. I’m telling you it’s coming. Okay?
All you can do is just go, man, that’s unfortunate and move on because it’s done. There is no going back, and you can’t lie to yourself about it, and until you get enough control of yourself to be able to handle those emotions and understand that people have problems because they make problems, you’re going to have some issues. You’re going to be 30 minutes early and you got everything great and you’re all good and you get in the golf cart and it’s just dead or you’re going to get halfway to the back of the course and you’re going to realize that your glasses are in the car or they weren’t in the car. They were on the seat next to you when you drove off 15 minutes ago or now you got no chokes and you’re on Station 1. That’s just an issue. It is not a problem until you make it a problem, and anything that you run into has the potential to impact you just as well negatively as positively.
And so make sure that you really are cognizant about your reaction to everything, everything from some dude cutting you off or you’re hunched up like a show dog and you need to hit a Porta-John right now and now I’m going to be three minutes late for Station 1 or I just shot a zero. It doesn’t matter. Any of that stuff can push you over the edge. And so be very cognizant of that. I have seen myself fall off of that cliff. I have watched other people fall off of that cliff. I don’t have that issue anymore; but two or three years ago it was a completely different story, and just if you can get a handle on that right now and go down there for the experience and start draining those behaviors and not having any bad behaviors to correct, in two or three years you are opening the door to becoming a very strong competitor, and I think that you need to be cognizant of that when you go down there.
And understand that, like I said before, all of that pressure is on you and it’s coming from you. Everybody is saying you should be extremely thankful that you’re getting to go, and that is not a lie. But you can’t tell me that you want to go and just shoot last in your class because nobody wants that; but you can’t control where you’re at. All you can do is go, have a good time and take home the most from the experience that you can take home, and the score is the least of the things that you can take home from going to Nationals, especially for the first time.
So I’d say just go down there and have a good time and if I was to tell you to pay attention to one thing the whole time you were there, I would say it’s yourself. Pay attention to how you’re walking, how you’re talking, how you’re conducting yourself. If you suddenly realize that you drink Red Bull for breakfast and you can see colors, you’re probably a little nervous. Maybe you shouldn’t be talking that fast. Do I normally look like I’m having a seizure with my hands when I’m talking? Why am I doing this? Take a step back and reevaluate that, slow down, relax. Once you begin to identify those behaviors, that will allow you to control them.
And the routine that everyone talks about is what we all anchor back to in order to stay grounded. We all had a first time, and if somebody had a video camera of the first time I went to Nationals and I had to watch the tape, I would probably crawl under the bed. It is what it is; but it’s going to be a great time. You’re going to have a good time. Just remember that you can’t lie to yourself, and all you can do is face what you’re looking at, face whatever the situation is, handle it, learn what you can learn and move on.
That’s the same thing we do when we step in somewhere. I’ve gotten in a cage and it’s a four- or five-bird pair and be down six zeros on the scorecard before I was prepared to go and look at Ben and he just died laughing, and he was, like: What the hell? You were smashing a 75-yard falling chandelle three feet off the ground right there and this target is 15 yards away. Yes, it is, and I don’t know what ZIP code I’m shooting in; but apparently I’m not shooting the same ZIP code as that target.
We laugh, and then I’ll smash the next pair. You know, it’s going to happen. Your brain is going to check out. It’s going to go on hiatus or whatever, and there’s going to be people standing there shaking their head, and you’re going to hear people behind you whispering and all of this other stuff; but understand that doesn’t matter. None of that matters.
It only matters how you come out of there and what experience you take out of there. So that would be my biggest thing. I can’t reiterate that enough. Be in control of yourself, understand that all the pressure that you feel is generated inside you, and when you can control that, you’ve got it all.
You can control every bit of it, and you can; but it is not overnight. It is not instantaneous. It is a long road. But go have fun. We’re going to be down there. Gil knows how to get a hold of me. We’re staying in the campground. Look us up. We’ll go to dinner one night, go harass somebody in vendor row. I don’t know. We’ll tear something up, whatever. I’d say we’d go drink a beer; but I don’t think your dad would be very impressed with that. Maybe me and your dad can go drink a beer and you can tag long. I don’t know. But go have fun.
Gil: I want to anchor back to something that Gary had written in his reflections to the Golf Flow book. After every round dump any bad experiences, emotions or memories, learn one or two simple lessons from the round and have a sense of gratitude that you get to play the game at all.
I think if you approach the experience of going to the National Championship like that: it’s not what you shoot; it’s what you learn. I try to go into every shooting cage, I try to go into every lesson, I try to go into every clinic, I try to go into every presentation that I make and I find myself into. I try to go into it with the attitude that because I’m here and I’ve gone through this experience, I’m going to be better on the other side of every one of those things, and that’s the goal, being better on the other side of every station you walk out of.
John: Yes, sir.
Gil: Rather than evaluating, just look at it as, what did I learn? I know that was a hard thing for me to learn when I was competing back in the ‘80s. I was pretty good at it, and I can get in that little zone that I can get in; but I will tell you this. I can get in that zone a lot quicker today than I could then because I know a lot more about it; but the things that we’ve talked about last Saturday and the things that have been expressed tonight are all very valid things.
When you begin to evaluate, you can’t be in the present. You’re either in the future or the past. And so it’s like Shane said; it is what it is, and I think Jeff said it and Gary said it that it is what it is. These guys have a lot of tournaments under their belt. They’ve been to Nationals several times and some more than others, and they’re fierce competitors.
Don’t think for a second that their philosophical words are coming from someone who’s not a fierce competitor. They are all fierce com- petitors; but they’ve learned that the more they try to control the out- come, score, the worse they do. Gary said it best. They ought to keep you from having a scorecard; but unfortunately it’s part of the game. I know that I never went to the scoreboard.
Well, that’s not true. That’s a lie. I felt like when I was competing — and this is after competing all over the country for quite a few years. I felt like that if I could be within four or five targets of the top shooter on the first day that I was going to win the event because my second day was always without exception six to seven birds better than my first day.
I never could fix it; but I recognized the pattern. So all I had to do was just struggle the first day to be within four or five of the top shooter on the first day, and it didn’t take but about a year and a half of me winning a bunch of tournaments like that to where everybody out there knew if you were going to beat Ash on the second day you better be at least eight or nine birds ahead of him on the first day or he’s going to catch you.
I didn’t know about all of this stuff about slowing down and speeding up and routine, all of that stuff. I just didn’t know it. I was just out there doing the best I could, but I have to tell you, that the more I’m around top performers the more I realize they’re never in a hurry. They’re just never in a hurry. They never feel rushed. They get there. They’re in control of their mind and they’re in control of their body. And, like Shane says, they don’t walk with slump shoulders. Their shoulders are back. Their head is up. They’re walking with a bounce in their step; but they’re going slow. They’ve got plenty of time to get things done.
And I’ll tell you a little story that happened to Vicki and me at George Hopkins Game Farm on the East Coast at the U.S. Open quite a few years ago. We were shooting FITASC and Brandon Powell was on our squad, and his mother and dad were over there, and I don’t know whether you’ve heard stories about Brandon Powell’s temper; but he had a temper, and I think he was accused of throwing everything but a Krieghoff and maybe a Krieghoff or two. I’m not sure. But his parents were over there, watching us shoot, and Vicki and I, we were just lucky to be able to go shoot the U.S. Open. We were coaching every day and not training, and what we knew is we were not there to win the tournament; we were there to participate and have a good time and at the end of the two days of FITASC, Brandon Powell’s mother came over to us and said: I just want to tell you something.
And I said: Yes, ma’am.
And she said: I have great admiration for you and Vicki because in watching you shoot, if one was just watching your demeanor, they could not tell whether you hit the bird or missed the bird. You were the same every time you pulled the trigger, and I only wish my son could do that. I gave her a business card; but he never called me. But that was a great compliment to us.
And I have to tell you when you’re Gil or Vicki Ash and you’re at a tournament and you know you’re going to be struggling, to be able to keep your head up, like Shane was talking about, and to be able to keep your wits about you is a big accomplishment. And I’m not so sure that in itself helped us along the way of being able to keep it together and keep it within ourselves and depend on each other and always be up, and it’s just evolved into something that we do as a habit now, and you’re still forming your habit, and that’s okay.
But I think everybody on the air tonight would say to anyone who was going to a big shoot for the first time is go there to have fun, number one. You want to shoot well; but you know that if you try to shoot well you can’t control how well you shoot; but if you’re there to have fun and you work the system, it’s all about the process, pick your breakpoints, stick to them. If it works, duplicate it. If it doesn’t work, correct it and change something and just go to have a good time.
That’s just about all I’ve got to talk about tonight. I’ve got a few other things that I was going to say. I have to tell you that I have tried to use the mind and body thing in sync several times with several shooters and have been absolutely totally amazed at how well these people are doing when they finally realize what they’re doing to themselves when they’re not in sync with themselves.
It’s also amazing when they begin to lose it, how the first thing they look at is the muzzle of the gun. And I ask people that and they look at me like I’m from Jupiter. Why are you looking at the end of the muzzle? And do you know what? They don’t know they’re doing it. That’s the thing that kills me. They don’t have a clue they’re doing it, and the more pressure that’s on them the more they look at that muzzle, and the more they look at the muzzle and the setup, the more they look at it in the shot.
But I have to tell you that in South Carolina and in Oregon and this last weekend, even with John with some of the guys there, I was working with them on slowing what they were doing down, and the instant they missed they speed up, and you get them to slow down, take a deep breath, stay in control. Man, I’m going to tell you, it’s amazing what keeping your mind and your body in sync will do for you. It doesn’t really matter the caliber of shooter. They can be a rank beginner or they can be a seasoned shooter. It still has the same effect on them. So I’m sure we’ll see some of you at Nationals. We’ll be looking forward to seeing you there, and we’re going to be doing what we can to control our synchronistic moves between our body and our mind, and I’m sure you will be, too. So that said, we’re out of time. Thanks, everybody, for participating tonight, and we will hopefully see you over in San Antonio; and, if not, we’ll talk to you next month on the second Tuesday when we have the coaching hour one more time.
Goodnight, everybody.
