The jitters are just something you have to work your way through as you learn to compete. Unfortunately, there is not a way around it. We know some people will tell you that you can think your way to the right actions, but our experience shows us that you must act your way to the correct way of thinking.
Let’s say you are facing a 50-yard chandelle from right to left. You have never seen one, much less hit one. We got to believe you are going to say to yourself, “Holy cow what am I going to do to hit that bird?”
What you are experiencing is fear or performance anxiety. The reason for this is when facing anything that you are not experienced in dealing with, the first thing people do is default to trying not to fail – especially in a performance situation. At this point, you can tell yourself that it “is like you” to hit that target, but you will soon find out that you can’t lie to yourself. And the more you try, the more fear you will experience.
Let’s look at how the experienced shooter would handle the
situation:
“I’ve shot hundreds of those
type targets and I know exactly how to do this and what it will look like to
break that target!”
We are all a product of our experience and our experiences. The more experienced you are at doing something, the easier it becomes. The easier it becomes, the less you have to think about what you are doing when performing. That is how the brain builds skill; one experience at a time.
The unfortunate thing is that shooters of all levels must go through the “jitters” at different times in their careers.
They begin as first station jitters, then jitters in the middle stations, then in the last three stations, and then after the first day of a two-day shoot. All of these must be experienced and dealt with on your way to becoming the best you can be. The first station jitters are caused by being filled with expectations and hope that you will shoot well. And after a few stations with more “Os” than you can count, you stop trying and begin to shoot well.
Then one day you begin to learn that trying not to miss is just as devastating as trying too hard, and there is a balance between the two where peak performances reside. The funny thing is to us that all this performance anxiety is caused because you are trying to control what others might think about you and how you are shooting!
News flash: they don’t care! You should never judge yourself or your friends by the score they shoot in a sporting clays tournament!
