“Ultimately, a person’s attitude has more to do with success
and failure than any other one thing!”
-Vicki Ash
This game we love, shooting a 30-cent cartridge at a 45-cent target to try to break it before it hits the ground, can be simultaneously rewarding and trying.
In a clinic just last weekend, our groups experienced the highs and lows of success and failure. Getting them to learn from their failures was our primary goal because when you can learn from your misses and correct them on the next shot, your rate of improvement almost doubles.
We were shooting long crossers, learning how to see the target behind where the barrel is pointing, and improving the shooters’ control of their gun speed. One of the shooters, after a miss, made a comment that all in the group could identify with: “You can be in front and behind at the same time when shooting a moving target!”
Wow, what an insight! And how true that statement is, especially on longer crossers. In many cases, this conundrum can cause frustration or confusion and make an otherwise normal person do things that are totally out of character.
Our game has lots of failure in it. In fact, it is the failure that separates the winners from the losers. Our research has shown us that it is how you react to those failures that determine whether you learn from them. That, in turn, controls your enjoyment and improvement in your game. We try to instill what is called a growth mindset in all our shooters, which allows them to learn from their failures and their successes.
Most shooters eventually migrate to a fixed mindset, meaning that they feel that they are as good as they ever will be. This leads them to do everything they can to look good in front of others. These shooters rarely set goals that have to do with improved performance. Almost every action is grounded in trying to control what others might think about them and their scores.
What shooters with a fixed mindset don’t understand is that they can’t control what others think about them. This mindset eventually snowballs into excuse after excuse after excuse, and eventually a dead-end to their enjoyment in their game. They typically shy away from shooting registered targets. Instead, they migrate to shooting corporate events and charity shoots. And there is nothing wrong with that! As the All-American shooter Craig Hill said, “You get out of it what you put into it.”
Our main goal in every one of our coaching sessions is not to get the shooter to just hit the target, but to instill in their game certain consistencies that allow for them to self-coach so they can get better on their own. We have found that our shooters who can self-coach are always growing and getting better. And when they return, they have specific things they want to address that are standing in their way to becoming better and more consistent.
Shooters with a growth mindset don’t care about failing. They actually look forward to learning from all their failures and always look forward to training and getting better. The person with a growth mindset will never worry about being seen as good or smart, nor will they ever worry about failing in front of others because their mantra is “learn, learn, learn.” They will always be eager to take the task that pushes them beyond their abilities, and thereby expand their abilities without the slightest worry about failure!
Shooters with a flexible mindset look at competition, not as a test or a pass/fail situation, but rather a true reflection of their strengths and weaknesses and an opportunity to create new training goals to continue their improvement!
Their training is more deliberate and effective and specific. As a result, they experience fewer jitters on the first station and don’t evaluate their performances while performing. This enables them to close on better and more consistent scores.
