2020 – 09 – September Coaching Hour – Reflection, Fear and Failure

Gil: Welcome to our Coaching Hour September 2020. I’m glad you’re here. This is becoming a more and more popular item. People are finally beginning to realize how much information is in these Coaching Hours. If you want to stay up to the minute with what we’re thinking, doing and teaching, this is the place to do it. We’d like to have it where you can ask questions and stop us anytime. We’ve worked our way through most of the problems over the last… well, the first one we did was in November, 2001. So, November of this year will be our 19th year. So, it’s been an encouraging but yet hard to sell product. But it’s beginning to sell really well now. 

So, tonight, I’m going to talk to you a little bit about three things. The first one is reflection. The next one is fear. And the third one is failure. When I get through with that, I’m going to open the floor up for shared experiences on the stroll and the challenge move. 

Vicki and Brian and I went out and shot last week. Vicki’s understanding the paradox, or the conundrum of moving slow but shooting fast. I want to let her talk about what she’s learning. And if Brian’s on, he’s picking it up really well. But he has a strong side and a weak side. I want him to describe the strong side and weak side so that we can troubleshoot it. And it may help you in equalizing the strengths on both sides. 

Then I was talking to Doug Erck, who sent in a group of words he’d read on the forum. He would like for us to better define them. I’ve taken a couple of them and expanded on them, and I’m gonna work through that, talk about how the brain sees skill as a sequence of events. Then Bob Shannon has expanded on a topic that he got from Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson’s book on reflective practice. He’s going to talk about that a little bit if we get time. So, that said, here we go. 

Reflection

Gil: Reflection is a process that enables you to take time out and check in with your progress as an athlete. As athletes, we’re bombarded with input. But you must be able to know and interpret such data to grow and develop, as well as to appreciate how far you’ve come and why. Periodic reflection has a way of creating harmony in your complete person, mind, body, and inner spirit. It’s like Dean Olson said, you got to have your family life, your business life and personal life in balance in order for you to be all there on tournament day, which is really the summation of what this is about. There will inevitably be things that come into your life that you don’t really notice. And these affect your priorities. 

In the end, your performance is a result of your priorities, not your abilities. Your performances will have ups and downs and periodic fluctuations. Said another way, you ain’t gonna always bring your A game, so you better have a pretty good B game. And much can be gained by simply reflecting on what’s going on in your life. You should work to have a deep relationship between your personal and athletic lives. I’ve got nine questions I’m getting ready to read.

Ask yourself these questions about reflection:  

–       Have you experienced changes in sleep patterns? 

–       Has there been a death or a loss of a close relationship? 

–       Have you experienced unusual stress at work or home? 

–       Has your family grown, bringing an increase in responsibility? 

–       Have you become involved with new interests or hobbies? 

–       Has your social life taken on a new dimension? 

–       Has your interest in sports changed in any way? 

–       Have you been excessively ill or injured? 

–       Have you had an increased financial responsibility? 

Answering yes to one or more of these questions could suggest that your personal life is affecting your physical capabilities in your attitude toward your sport. It will help for you to know and be comfortable with where you are, from where you came, and where you’re going. 

So often we get caught up in our sports. Practice becomes a habit, it becomes routine, the quality goes down. Other things enter our lives and all of a sudden, the cup runneth over. And we don’t realize that it’s affecting our attitude and our ability to do well in our sport. So, reflection is something that I think is important for everybody to do. Reflection after a great performance is a good thing. Reflection in a slump is a good thing. As Dean said, it helps you get your family life, your business life, and your personal life in balance. 

Fear

Fear is a natural emotion. It indicates that you need to be alert. It is a survival instinct. Fighting or forcing away fear creates a counterforce that makes you tense and anxious and interferes with your performance. Fear presents the athlete with the impetus to compete, but it can also create an obstacle to performance. What you resist will persist. 

Fear can indicate that you may have overstepped your skill level – that you might not be ready or you need more training. If you can relax in that moment of fear, your ability to perform will improve. 

Fear is a natural part of life. It doesn’t go away. It can paralyze you, or give you an opportunity to assess the risk you’re facing. It can also indicate that you might not have trained adequately to be in the position you find yourself in. The other side of every fear is freedom. And you will come to realize that anything is possible given the proper preparation. 

Don’t take yourself, your sport, or your score so seriously. We create fears about having to live up to the very serious images we create of ourselves. So, lighten up. Nothing is as good or as bad as it seems when it’s actually happening. Be clear about what is the worst thing that could happen and then assess the situation. And if you can live with the worst scenario and if you can get beyond that, you get beyond fear. 

Fear can be helpful by alerting you to possibilities that might happen. I’ve said all that to say this: The unknown is fear’s fuel. Assess the situation. Like Vicki says all the time, make the plan and then shoot the plan. The fear of being wrong, the doubt as to whether or not you can hit the target, makes everything worse. Nothing is as good or bad as it seems when it’s actually happening. 

Failure

Failure cannot be avoided. The greatest of the great have failed at times, and so will you. The only way you perfect your game is through failure. Seeing failure as an opportunity for improvement makes it more tolerable and will help you relax and figure out how to go beyond your present level of performance. When you experience a disappointment or setback, let go of any desire to control the outcome of your next performance. That’s really important. 

Failure is a part of the process of living. Patience and persistence will bring you from failure to success in most ventures. Real failure is the unwillingness to take the chance to improve your life. “How would you do it differently next time” should be one of the outcomes that you draw whenever you fail. How would you do it differently next time? I had that talk with Doug Erck today. 

Expectations with regard to outcome are setups for failure. Establish strong preferences instead. And then do everything within your capability and power to bring those preferences to fruition. 

There are three myths of failure. First, if you work hard enough, you can avoid failure. Failure, like so much of what we resist in life, is simply nature’s way of expanding and teaching us. Failure is a necessary prerequisite to success. And it will teach us so much more than success. Very successful people all have a higher than average tolerance to failure and setback. Therefore, they can learn and push through what others see as overwhelming objects that seem insurmountable. 

Another myth is that failure is devastating. It’s disappointing, but not devastating. As I’ve said before, nothing is as good or as bad as it seems when it’s actually happening. An educated person is one who believes he has not succeeded when he has, but is not sure he has failed when he fails. 

Those are some thoughts on reflection, fear and failure. I think the reflection thing is really important for us mid-year when we take our break, reflect on what COVID has done to your life and how it’s changed your life. Reflection is really important because it helps you keep things in perspective. In the end, your performance is a result of your priorities, not your abilities. And as your priorities change, so will your results. It’s awfully easy for our priorities out of our sporting clays lives to change and not realize that that could be the root cause for some of our sub-performances. 

Lessons Learned on the Challenge Move

Gil: Vicki and Brian and I were able to practice last week together a couple of times. Vicki now understands the conundrum between moving slow and shooting fast. She understands the stroll and the challenge. She understands the challenges in learning the challenge move, and slow is better. Vicki, would you like to let them in on what you what you learned last week?

Vicki: Absolutely. It was quite an experience. Of course, it’s been a real experience to be able to see and shoot a target. I’m still trying to get used to seeing the target on the correct side of the barrel, and it being really clear and glowing like it should have been or whatever. 

But anyway, the hardest part for me on the challenge move was, like everybody, that I would move too fast. You think, “Oh, I have to hurry.” But you really don’t if you’re watching the machine and you just let the gun slowly drift away. And then it works. When it’s done correctly, it’s so easy. It’s almost like you’ve taken yourself out of the shot. Somebody else pulled the trigger, because it’s real quiet inside my head, because my brain is usually talking to me the whole time. 

It’s kind of like Doug said last month, that he had to take some of that out. But there is no garbage or talking in your brain when you do this. I really got this sensation that I wasn’t the one who was even shooting. It just all happened. 

The other thing that we went through was the first couple of times I was going too fast away from the bird. As soon as I see it out, I’d be going. Then on the next couple, once I got past that, then I finally did a couple really well. I felt it, and I felt great. Then I got into, “Well, I’m not even going to move before I see the bird” and then the bird would catch up. And so, it was just kind of a progression. 

But by the second day, I got where I would be with that bird as soon as it came off the trap moving slowly away, and not too fast. I also had to learn what the yardages were. If the target was catching up to me, I had to go, say, from the breakpoint back to the trap, go to the 50-yard line, that’s usually where I start. And then if it would catch up, I’d either move back or forward or whatever. But it was finding that spot. 

I’m so anal about all of this, and I’ve always had to be so specific with my focal points and my breakpoints. But that’s all gone now. I mean, I know where I’m going to break it. It’s important, but it’s not like you have to have that specific fence post, which is what I’ve always worked with before. Then to try to find out where between the trap and that breakpoint area – start at the 50-yard line. If you get beat, go to the 60. If you’re waiting on it, go to the 40. You have to kind of work through that. I haven’t gotten all the way through that. That’s a learning experience. 

But I’ll tell you what, I could see where it’d be very useful on a lot of targets. You’re not going to use it on everything. I’m still going to catch those big loopers and stuff like that. But I was shocked at how slow I was going and staying with that bird. And then when it got right and stable, I’m telling you, somebody else was pulling that trigger. It wasn’t me. Because I would have been figuring it out if it was me. So, that’s what Gil and Doss are talking about the quiet mind. It’s just very quiet. 

Brian, do you have anything to offer?

Brian: Well, I’ve figured out that it’s easier. It’s easier on across the barrel for me.

Vicki: That’s right. 

Brian: I think it just has to do with the fact that anything coming from the left for me is across the barrel, and it’s easier for me to start moving the gun. Or I’m less aware of how slow it is. But behind the barrel coming from the right, it seems like I really have to work on letting my front hand push slow in order for everything to happen. And I haven’t done it enough. I need to train some more on it, but I’ll get it figured out. 

For some reason, across the barrel on the pull, it’s just easier for me to move slow than it is coming from the right or behind the barrel sight picture. I don’t know, it just feels different.

Vicki: Well, you and Dad did the same thing. He was having trouble coming from the left, because he’s a right-handed shooter, and you’re left-handed. It was just the difference that we figured out. You were kind of rocking to the back and all the weight wasn’t staying on the front foot. That was creating that issue.

Brian: I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that when you use these techniques, you have to be aggressive, and you’re breaking the target very quickly. So, the urge is to move fast at the end. At least, that’s how I found myself doing. I wasn’t smooth, and I’d be throwing the gun out and poking at the end. It’s like I tell people all the time; you’re a lot faster than you think you are. You don’t have to think fast, because you can swing that barrel awful fast. I think that had a lot to do with it. You know, once it all sinks in and gets synced up and fired all the right circuits, it’s all going to look pretty much the same anyways. 

Vicki: Right.

Gil: I have a little factoid here about my across the barrel picture and your across the barrel picture. When you mount the gun, your nose is already pointed about 12 inches to the right of the barrel. On the two-eyed side of the gun, my left one, your right one, we have to get our nose completely around on that deep quartering bird way over there. And then our gun has to be out front. We’re not nearly as connected with the gun when we do that. It’s just something that we’ve had to work on, that I’ve had to work on. I’m getting much better at it. But it’s just a little awkward. 

It’s very easy for me to shift my weight from my left foot to my right foot. And I’ve been working on turning my hips and my torso. As the gun starts moving, just make my shoulders move around to the right, just above my waist so that I have that body movement. And I end up with my weight on my front foot. That was one of the hardest things for me to do. So, anyway, it’s coming along. 

Anybody else have any experiences they’d like to share with us? Yes, sir, Charles. Hey, how you doing? 

Charles: I got sinuses. It’s killing me. 

You know, I have been practicing your challenging move on some of the birds that were giving me issues. The not very tall birds left to right, right to left, coming out really fast, you know, on things like that. I finally got to where I finally figured something out.

I was a dancer for 25 years. Now, dancers have a movement called contra body movement. And what that means is that as your body is moving in a straight line, your hips and other part is moving left to right at the same time. I found that on these moves and watching other people trying to explain what a challenging move was to them, watching them shoot it, they were very hands on it. Very fast on it. I realized that my hands were very still, but my body is what actually moved it. And that body was a constant movement. It didn’t speed up or didn’t slow down. Either left to right or right to left. It moved at either the bend of my legs or the turn of my waist or something like that. So, I got very little gun speed movement from my hands. It stood pretty still. 

I had somebody watching because I thought it was me. I asked, “Are my hands moving faster than I think they are? And he says, “No, you’re shifting your body. You’re moving your body with it.” That slows everything down for me. I don’t know if anyone else has had that experience.

Bob: Yeah, Gil, this is what I talked to you about a few weeks ago. My breakthrough on working with the challenge move when I needed it was using my body as the mover instead of my shoulders and arms. And on both sides, it really ended up controlling my move much better. It made me feel like I was connecting to the target much easier than when I tried to use my shoulders and arms. 

I had the same experience, which is, if I tried that, everything felt like it was moving too fast. But I moved my body as a rotation, and it controlled that really well. It worked remarkably well. I mean, I was really able to get on targets much earlier and much more effectively than everybody else trying to shoot them.

Charles: For me, actually, if I’m moving my body, it slows everything down. I’m used to that. When I was dancing competitively, I’m moving my hands on a dancer. When you’re doing ballroom, your hands are pretty still – your upper body. Everything else just comes from the lower body and movement. So actually, as I’ve moved my body through that position, it just glides around right through it. Slows everything down. That’s just my perspective. 

Gil: I’m trying some of your dance moves in the morning. 

[Laughter]

Charles: Let me know. 

But think about it. You know, I’ve been analyzing a couple things on how my brain reprograms things, and actually I’ve run into a couple things. I had a kill shot that I always used to shoot at the apex of it, okay. And I changed that to go come up and go through the teal and hit it as I pass through it, which was a better way to shoot it. 

Today, I shot that same shot and was shooting with a guy. He asked me why I come up with it, through that, and I explained to him why. And he said, “Well, you always used to shoot that shot on the top.” And I said, “Let me show you. Watch my movement.” So, I put two shells in, shot the first one came up through it, pulled the trigger, hit it. The next one, I started to shoot at the apex. I brought the gun up and I missed it. I did it again, came up through it, I hit it come up, do it again. Then I put it to the apex on a second shot and missed it. My brain had reprogrammed my system that I could not hit it at that apex again.

Gil: The brain is an amazing thing, isn’t it?

Charles: Yeah. And that’s a very short time. I missed a teal shot at the Kentucky State Championships where there was two teal down in the gully. And they were going straight teal shots as a true pair up over a hill. If I had actually hit one at the apex, I couldn’t get to the second one. So, I had to come up and hit one, come through it and then hit the other one at the apex before it was going over the hill. And I missed four out of eight of those. 

But I started changing it. And thinking about it, in two weeks, my brain actually reprogrammed me. I could not hit it at that other point. 

Gil: Well, good. I’m gonna try more body movement tomorrow. I’ve been working on that left to right challenge move for two or three practice sessions and I’m feeling a lot better with my body moving, just my shoulders and the upper torso moving above my hips. I’ve been feeling a lot better about that and I will report back on that either on the forum or on the Coaching Hour next month. So, good, thanks for bringing that up, Charles. 

Anybody else have any reports that want to give us on the challenge move or anything else they’ve been doing with the different moves? Dean, go ahead, sir.

Dean: So, I’ve been thinking about what you guys are talking about – one person is talking about their arms, one person is talking about their body. It’s my arms and shoulders to get everything moving on the challenge move. That’s what starts everything, then my body falls into sequence with the rest of it. Because I’m starting low and starting to mount and move as I’m calling “pull.” My arms and shoulders are getting everything up to speed, and then the rest of it falls in behind.

Charles: Different training, but I was trained to move as a dancer where my feet and body move first – never my hands.

Gil: Yeah, but they both involve body movement. 

Just so you all know, if you go to Clay Target Kill Shots in the Knowledge Vault, and then go to split screens, at the bottom, there is a new split screen. Brian and I are gonna go out and shoot some tomorrow or the next day. Similar to this, it’s got the ShotKam as an inset on the lower right corner and a three-quarter front side view of me shooting in the upper left corner. It’s got an over-the-shoulder shot that Brian did with his new iPhone that you can actually see the 40-yard target coming across the sky and breaking in the shot. And they’re all synced up. 

So, it’s a neat one, but it’s a tease for what we’re getting ready to put together. It’s been a been a nightmare because the ShotKam shoots at 1/3rd speed and the software that we’re using to do all this with will give you a 10 percent, a 25 percent or a 50 percent, but not 1/3rd speed. So, we’ve had to do some jostling around of the screens, but I think we’ve got it pretty close. We will be putting a lot more split screen shots in the that category under Clay Target Kill Shots, for what it’s worth. 

The Importance of Sequence

Gil: I had a good conversation with Doug Erck today. And I wanted to explain in detail for him and all of us why sequencing is so important. 

Everything we do is a sequence of converging lines that, when done often enough, become automatized and are turned over to the subconscious. What the brain understands is the sequencing of impulses from our senses, based on our history of experiences. 

Try to imagine this now. Imagine waking up one morning and going outside on the porch in the middle of a 30-acre plot of huge, sprawling, live oak trees – some with their branches and canopies touching the ground. And you had never seen a tree. Chances are, for the first two weeks you would look with a lot more intent at the trees and their detail as you walk the property. Now, fast forward 10 years and you visit a friend who has large live oak trees similar to yours. The first time you see them, you would not look as intently as you did 10 years ago, when you saw them for the first time. What you’re actually seeing when you’re looking at these live oak trees at your friend’s house is maybe three to five percent of what is really there, and your brain is filling in the rest based on living among 30 acres of huge live oak trees for 10 years. 

The same is true when you shoot a moving target, when your practice is intentional and sequential and deliberate, and you have put the repetitions in over time. When you see the target for the first time, there’s a lot of detail that must be figured out consciously. But after the 3000th left-to-right crossing chandelle you have shot, due to the deep detailed prediction and execution and previous successes, when you see the target for the first time, what the shot will look like will come as a flashback from your long-term memory. 

The brain already knows what and where you want to do to hit the target. And as you begin your routine, it is anticipating ahead of where you are, and is on autopilot. The shot happens without hesitation and without thinking and the target breaks, and you’re barely aware of anything except the stable picture you saw at the end of the shot. The brain sees skill as a sequence of events, that, when fired enough times deliberately, become more and more familiar. And the more times it’s repeated, the more the brain knows more and more about it while getting less and less information. It then automatizes it. When this occurs, it seems to happen faster and more precisely without thought. 

So, the goal is to have what you do in your routines leading up to each stand and in each stand to be the same sequencing every time. This is accomplished through a lot of repetition and deliberate practice. If you actually knew how small the amount of actual in-focus data that your brain is aware of when you’re driving 70 miles an hour, you would not get on a freeway. Because you have done it so much, you have to see so little for the brain to perform at higher and higher levels. This is where the zone comes from. The more you repeat the sequence, the less the brain has to know in order to repeat it again successfully. After you’ve repeated all the sequences so many times, focus becomes easier. What you have to think about becomes less. And everything just happens. 

Now, the anticipation circuit knows exactly when you’re going to call pull as soon as you start to close the gun, because you’ve done it the same way 50,000 times. The pre-shot routine is automatic, because you’ve done the same sequence over and over and over again. The preload, your movie of how and where the shot’s going to come together is a flashback, because of all the shots you’ve had to consciously plan and predict. Your execution has been a result of your prediction and been successful. 

Most importantly, and the part that we think most people forget, or don’t use as effectively as they could, is the postshot routine. After the brain does it, it’s okay to look up in amazement and say, “Wow, I saw that come together so clearly.” Vicki is able to do this now even more than ever. Vicki, I would say you’re able to do it now more, or better or more vividly than before. Obviously before your cataract operation, but even before you had cataracts. Would you agree with that?

Vicki: Yeah, I would agree with that. It’s just a wonderful thing to be able to see and do this now. My routines used to have to be so perfect and all that, and I don’t have to do that as much anymore. I don’t have to put as much thought process into the whole situation. I’m just trying to match the speed and do the move, basically, and keep the voices quiet. Does that answer your question?

Gil: Yeah, I mean, I feel like you’re seeing now better than you saw when you were in high school.

Vicki: I don’t know, that was a long time ago [Laughs] I could see pretty well back then. But it’s certainly a lot better than a year ago. Because I’ve done this for so many years, I do see things a lot clearer. Especially now, but even when we were shooting competitions, I thought that I could see everything. But I was still having to work at it. And I’m not having to work as hard. Maybe just because everything’s so clear now.

Gil: Just because you’re left eye dominant, you didn’t have any problems with dominance shift coming back.

Vicki: No, not at all. The eyes are working together for the first time in a long time. 

You know, the biggest thing has just been that everything is the same on one side or the other. Doesn’t matter where the target is or where it’s coming from. It’s the same picture to me, coming from the right or coming from the left. Being left eye dominant, doesn’t matter. If you’re going the same speed, it’s just the same speed. And the picture is the same.

Gil: I just wanted to get that out there. Several people have asked me about that, because I think you were the first one internationally that came out of the closet and said, “I am left eye dominant and I’m shooting right-handed with both eyes open.” You and Scotty Robertson.

Vicki: Right. Well, and we didn’t know Scotty was that way until he called one day and said, “I’m that same way” and told his story. 

You know, people come to the clinics and say, “I’m left-eye dominant.” 

“So? You walked over here. You drove your car. You didn’t run into the guardrail, right? You just stayed in the middle of the lane.” When you put it like that, they go, “Oh, well, I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m looking where I’m going.” There we go. So, let’s look at the target and let the gun go. I’m sorry, I’m gushing that I can see, but y’all don’t know. I hadn’t been able to see for two years.

Gil: Yeah, it got so bad last year, she quit demoing shots. Because she couldn’t see. You couldn’t see the birds. She could see to coach, but she couldn’t see the bird. But anyway, good, thank you for that. 

Doug, we’ll continue this conversation on how the brain sees. If you’ll look up David Eagleman, he’s got quite a few 20-minute videos on YouTube. He explains all of this stuff better than anybody that I’ve ever witnessed before. I mean, I’m a slave to his videos. 

If you want to see firsthand what an automatized circuit feels like, put your wristwatch on the other hand, for a week. Just put your wristwatch on the other hand. And you will see how automatized the time circuit is looking at your left wrist. And when you put it on the other side. First of all, you’re going to see how many times you glance at it every day unconsciously because it’s automatized. When something in the anticipation circuit says, “we’re going to need to know what time it is to complete this act,” you just glance at the watch and it feeds back to the anticipation circuit without you saying “it’s 1:36.” It understands the picture. But all these events are sequenced to a point so that the brain can understand what’s happening and therefore can anticipate what is going to happen. That’s what it’s all about. It’s all about sequences. 

Bob Shannon, I’ve got some things to share with you before you talk to us a little bit about reflective practice. Let’s talk about what to do when you cannot correct, from a little different perspective. Obviously, we want to make sure our gun fits and doesn’t shoot high. But it’s very frustrating when your corrections do not work, and it looks right but consistently does not break. 

Two times in the past five to six years, I’ve had an experience with advanced shooters, Jeff Wolfe and Doss Bourgeois, where they were letting the target collapse to the gun and both of them thought it was stable. It was only when we got the ShotKam out that we could see the problem and a solution came to light. They thought they were stable, but they weren’t. I’m fairly experienced at observation over someone’s shoulder. And the collapse of the bird to the gun was so subtle that I couldn’t pick it up. And it happened again at Greater Houston Gun Club shooting the main courses with Doss this past Tuesday. The targets were very technical and very subtle. You had to really read the target. There were probably six to eight of the traps that were set to throw the bird no further than 40 yards. So, the bird had very little speed to it. But the upward and downward angles were deceiving. There was just a lot of deception. 

But what I finally figured out that Doss makes this move at the end, just kind of a little quick Zorro “Z” with the gun. He doesn’t do it every shot. But he was having trouble getting in sync with those targets. He said, “Man, it looks right.” And he thought he was too far in front, but the shot cloud was going behind, and I kept racking my brain trying to figure out what in the hell’s going on. It finally dawned on me that he was not stable. It was that old sight picture that had come back. It was collapsing on him. 

Jeff Wolfe was the same way at the ranch on the 75-yard right-to-left crosser. He couldn’t buy that thing. If it’s 65 yards or 90 yards, he could smash it, but he couldn’t buy it. We put the ShotKam on his gun, went out there, marked off 75 yards from the front tower right to left, a little high, a crosser that was running up and then rolling down – not a lot. And we backed up and he shot it – hit it one time and missed it four times. We immediately went in and downloaded it. And he realized that at that distance, for whatever reason – we don’t know – but at that distance, he would come out on that bird and it would be stable. But before the trigger got pulled, he was easing away from that target. And it was so subtle, I couldn’t see it. 

So, just be aware that there’s a difference in reality and perception. In fact, I was talking to Dan Daniels at Westside Gun Club two days ago, and he wants to get a lesson when I go out there. He said, “Bring your shot camera. I want to see what I’m really doing.” And I said, “Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to really know. ‘Cause it ain’t gonna lie.” So, I’m going to go out and show him that.

But on some stations, Doss was hooked up on them, and man, he was hammering him. It wasn’t until I finally saw it on a flying rabbit that was screaming left to right, rolling, and then quartering- it was kind of a quartering away crosser. It was rolling left to right, and as it rolled into the arc, it began to move away. It was a Brian Ash curling, quartering bird going away from you. And he could not buy that bird to save his life. I picked up his gun, shot it five times, and I used the challenge move. And it just wasn’t a problem. And it wasn’t until I watched him shoot that bird, as he was pulling the trigger, his gun was stopping. And that bird was collapsing on him. He thought he was too far in front, but he was missing it behind. Because his gun was slowing down, he saw it, right? But he was gonna slow it down. The bird was closing and he didn’t realize it. That’s the one that I saw it on. 

So, that’s just another way, Bob, for you to watch people shoot, or in your own shooting. I told him from that point on to hold on to the shot another half a second just to make sure that it is stable. And that seemed to help him after that. That’s just something else that you could put in your toolbox when you’re having trouble correcting. Because to me, it’s either stable or it’s not. But there aren’t as many people who have seen the stable picture both over someone’s shoulder 7 million times and through their own eyes, in their own brain, for Lord knows how many times I’ve pulled the trigger on it. That’s just something else to put in your toolbox. 

So, tell us a little bit about reflective practice and what you learned from Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson.

The Benefits of Reflective Practice

Bob: Okay. So, the issue of reflective practice has been bouncing around in a variety of educational formats and performance formats for some time. Including coaching, I might add – particularly in sports. It’s difficult to get people to do a log and stay with it. Even though if you go to Olympic training, if you don’t show up with your log filled out, they say go home. They don’t even do anything with you. It’s still difficult to get people to do the log. 

Part of the reason for talking about reflective practice is to try to capture elements that are going on emotionally as well as specific performance issues much quicker and sort them out faster than you would in a log situation. And so, it’s been used in nursing education, medical education, financial services, and coaching. The discussion in coaching is much more evident in the British literature than it is the American literature, but it’s in both. 

Some of the issues that they run into are getting people started, first of all, which is getting them to commit. And then the motivation to reflect, which is to realize that, as you pointed out in the beginning, if you really want to improve, you’re going to have to look at yourself in a very honest way. And if we can help you do that, then it’s going to make a big difference for you. But you got to believe or you won’t participate. 

The benefits are faster than they are with a log, but they’re not immediate. Most of the discussions are that they’ll get you through issues of emotionality or giving too much value to something or an issue in performance that needs more technical work probably twice as fast as a log. That’s a general comment that you see frequently. 

In attempting to do that, there’s been a move in the literature to try to do what’s called a pro forma. In other words, we can ask you some relatively straightforward things, if you can be willing to be open and vulnerable. That’s one of the issues in any kind of log or reflective practice piece – you’re going to expose yourself, and you’re going to have to deal with them. Other people are going to see some of those uncertainties and personal failures that you can’t work your way through. But that’s where you get your help, too. Reflecting on emotions is not easy for an awful lot of people, particularly in our society. 

So, in the piece you sent out last month for a draft agenda, I emailed you four different versions. I believe it’s four different versions of things that I came across that were reflective practice, and one of those – if anybody still has that email, they can pull it forward and print those out at the end. 

In my process of looking at this off and on over two years, I pulled together some things from very diffused places. I’ll come back to that in just a second. One of these said, “Well, this pro forma stuff is great, but it’s even too complex for a lot of people.” 

So, in those pieces that were in the draft agenda, you’ll see one that says “simplified reflective practice.” How do you get started? 

Here’s three questions: 

1.    Can you write down three highlights? 

2.    Can you write down three lowlights? 

3.    Can you put down one lesson that you’re going to take forward with you to your next practice or performance session? 

It was fascinating to me when I look back on some of the materials that I had, from a book published quite a while ago. I had actually pulled out something that was really about reflective practice. It came from a book called “Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time,” which was written by two sports psychologists who both coached, I think, little league teams. And in their book, they had put down understanding the ups and downs of your shooting. 

So, here are some of their questions, modified for shooting, obviously: 

 –       Who were you shooting with or against? 

–       What were your thoughts before the shoot? 

–       What were you thinking or saying to yourself at the time of your performance? 

–       How would you describe your emotional state at the time? 

–       What was your focus during your performance? 

–       What, if anything, was different about the way you experienced your performance? 

You know, and I broke down “was the target bigger, did the action seem faster or slower than usual. This is paraphrasing what they had written down. They had a column called “your best performance/your worst performance,” and I wrote in a third column, which is “rate your last training or practice session, one to ten,” ten being the best, one being the worst. And you know, obviously, it’d be somewhere in between. 

Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott had a nice piece in their book, looking at professional golfers, and what they recommended to their students, or people they work with. And they went through a series of eight, nine questions, all of which were pretty simple:

 –      What did you learn today? 

–       How was it for you today? 

–       What’d you feel like with it? 

–       What experience did you remember from today? 

–       Was there any time you became absorbed in the process instead of concerning yourself with the result? How is this different for you? 

–       Describe your best experience on the course today. 

–       What was one of the critical decisions that you made today? 

–       Where and what did you focus on when you were on the course today? 

–       If you could have done one thing different on the course today, what would it be?

–       How would you prepare for your next practice lesson and shoot based on what you learned today?

Each one of these is progressing along for people who get more and more, critically willing to look at themselves and break out where the issues are. 

Then I read an interesting piece by somebody who actually pulled out some work he did on what he called “under pressure.” He had a young, very elite golfer, who was not performing up to snuff as far as he was concerned in the European circuit, and came to him knowing who he was and that he had worked with other golfers. He came to him at the beginning of a tournament and said, “I’ve got to be doing much better or I’m not going to get my ticket to play on the circuit next year. I have to perform today.” So, he very adeptly worked out a series of about eight or nine questions and started working with this golfer. 

You have those, and it’s listed as questions for reflective performance diary. And this was a sports psychologist. He’s still in contact with this golfer but doesn’t work with him regularly. But the guy won the tournament and kept his ticket for the circuit for the next year, but also had a huge breakthrough in understanding why he was underperforming. 

His questions are all directed at inward evaluation of what was going on inside of you today. So, he asks:  

–       How can you describe what you experienced today? 

–       What were you thinking and feeling? (Not about golf, just about where he was that day.)

–       What emotions did you experience? 

–       How did your thinking, feelings and emotions affect your performance? 

–       What did you learn from the experience? 

–       What was good and bad in today’s performance? 

–       What do you need to perform better next time? 

–       What are you going to do to prepare for the next tournament? 

I think if you look at these carefully, you’ll see there’s a sequence of more intense work on the emotions, and the ability to find yourself and believe in yourself and deal with any negatives along the way. But this was the whole sequence they uncovered. There are some others out there, but these are the ones that struck me as the most valuable.

Gil: Interesting. In the end, your performance is a result of your priorities, not your ability. Reflecting on what’s going on in your life, and actually sitting down and have a debriefing with yourself after a tournament or after a practice session. 

Maybe you and I can talk first part of next week and we’ll look at those different questions and figure out a way to get them up on the website as a video. Then people can copy it down and look at it If you wouldn’t mind looking at that, I’d appreciate that. And then we’ll figure out how we can get it up. 

Just like the challenge move, the stroll, the catch, and the converge, everyone is going to hybridize what you just talked about, and what I talked about, to their own level of feeling and reflection and ability. Just like the post shot routine is the most wasted routine in this game. The post-performance reflection talk with yourself, I think, is just as important. Because you’re going to remember the last shot you missed. Instead of putting it all back in context and reflecting on “How did I feel today? What did I feel like today? I had enough sleep.” Those things are all important. But I think each person is going to reflect in a slightly different way about their performances. 

But when I read “your performances are a result of your priorities, not your ability,” it really seemed to me that we really needed to keep the priorities in our life in check and make sure there’s balance. Make sure there’s balance or there’s going to be something about your performance that you’re not going to be able to put your finger on and improve it. Because you’re looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing. Thank you, Bob, for doing that. And we’ll get together and we’ll get those up on the website. 

It’s a good time for us to break. I didn’t get everything I wanted done today, but we got a lot of it. And we will, again, do this next month. Thank you all for calling in and participating. Don’t forget to look at the split screen section of Clay Target Kill Shot for a little teaser, and then it’ll probably be end of next week before Mitch can get all this edited and up on the website, but we are doing some new video. I’d be curious to know in the forum. I’ll start a post tomorrow morning. I’d like to know in the forum of what you think about the new split screen. If you’d like to see something different, let us know.  

So, with that said, Good night, everybody. Thanks for calling in. Talk to you later.