If you are serious about playing this silly game of shooting a 30-cent cartridge at a 40-cent target to try to break it before it breaks when it hits the ground, then you have been stuck in the unenviable Sideways Trails that frustrate shooters.
This includes, but is not limited to: missing the last target or pair on too many stations, getting careful or careless, worrying about what other shooters are thinking, first station jitters, last station jitters, and many others that, if not addressed, will put your game in a slump.
Many look at these types of problems as “mental problems.” They could be. And they could be mechanical problems, too. More often than not, by the time they are recognized by the shooter, the root cause of the symptom is disguised as a physical problem like we listed above. Because the symptom is hiding the real cause, the solution becomes really personal. The individual must first admit they have a problem and seek some advice and help from someone who can see deeply into their game to find out just where these types of problems are beginning.
It’s hard to solve these types of problems on your own, and it’s hard to find solutions from books, articles, and even some coaches because you’re the one who must see how these emotions and circumstances manifest themselves in you. Just recognizing the problem seldom tells you what you need to know to avoid it. It’s the beginning of the real breakdown that you must find to figure out how it gets in your thought process. It will be different for everyone, so you must experience it for yourself several times to recognize the beginning of it!
The problem is not that there are problems; the problem is thinking that having a problem is a problem. This is where a good experienced coach can help you become aware of where the beginning of the problem is for you.
For example, Brian had a 25-minute phone consult the other day with a shooter who had been to two coaches who said he was moving his hands too fast. On the previous weekend at a tournament, a master class shooter made the same comment. But neither the shooter nor the coaches could offer a solution to his problem other than slowing his hands down, which had not worked.
After a few minutes of conversation, Brian asked, “As the target and gun come together in the breakpoint, did things slow down or speed up and get jumbled?” The shooter said, “They definitely did not slow down.” Brian found out the shooter was right-handed, so he then asked if this problem was on longer left-to-right shots – say, beyond 45 yards? The shooter was amazed and wanted to know how Brian knew which targets made his hands speed up.
When a right-handed shooter mounts the gun, 70 percent of his visual field is to the right of the gun, and only 30 percent of their visual field is to the left of the gun. So, a right-handed shooter is more comfortable seeing the target farther behind the barrel to the right side than to the left. This causes the shooter to allow for the target coming from the left to get inside the lead to the gun. When this happens, the brain knows it’s behind, so it gives the command to push out at the last instant just before the trigger is pulled.
This pushing out is a neurological response that, in almost all cases, is uncontrollable. The brain knows while the gun in is front, it is not in front far enough to hit the target. And it will do just about anything to hit that target, resulting in “fast hands.”
If you can find a coach who has helped hundreds of shooters figure out the beginning of the Sideways Trails shooters go down that end up in debilitating physiological and psychological actions that undermine their performances, then at all costs, spend time with them!
There are only two options: Make progress or make excuses!
