A little over a week ago, my good friend and fellow shooter Doug Parsons punched up from A to AA class while shooting at Kidd’s Place! His feat was followed by a flurry of congratulatory emails. One email in particular caught my eye. Randy Donovan had commented that Doug’s having switched to a 32” Caesar […]
Mental Skills Help Breed Consistency and Improve Performance – A Case Study! Read More »
By now, you probably have heard rumblings about ChatGPT – an “AI Chatbot” that was recently released for general (free) use. Coming off the heels of just having read a few books on artificial intelligence, I was curious to see if AI could take over my blog posting duties and give me a vacation! Getting
This Post Brought to you by Artificial Intelligence! Read More »
My stack of books in the “unread” pile was getting precariously low… I did what I often do… fired up the Amazon App on my phone and started searching for new materials. My search using the key work “confidence” lead me to the book title above. I was intrigued as it was written by a
“The Confident Athlete – 4 Easy Steps to Build and Maintain Confidence” Read More »
You may recall my recent post on Chris Parsons’s book “Skill Sets”. If not, you can visit it HERE Doug Parsons – no relation to Chris, had first introduced me to this book. As it turns out, I returned the favor by reminding Doug P of Chris’s work by writing about it in my post.
It Does a Heart Good! – More on “Skill Sets” Read More »
I was really on today! I was seeing the targets really well! I was feeling lazy today, just could not get it together until the end. No one was able to hit those targets on stations 2 and 13 today! The sun was in my eyes on the back side of the course. I did
What is your “Locus of Control”? Read More »
A couple of months ago, I wrote about the virtues of having a back-up gun. If you missed that post, you can find it HERE You may recall that in addition to having a ready back-up in case of a mechanical failure during a shoot, I discussed the recommendation from Lanny Basham that switching to
Back to the Primary Gun! Read More »
Recently, I was perusing book titles on Amazon looking for more summer reading material. I came upon one entitled “Unstoppable Self Confidence”. A quick look at the summary and a few reviews, and it was in my cart. I don’t often purchase self-published works, but the topic really caught my interest. Being self-published means you
Win Big, Win Small – You Win Either Way! Read More »
I finished my last post with a teaser picture hinting at something else I had changed recently in an effort to “right-the-ship” after dealing with some recent sub-par performances on the sporting clays field. In case you missed it, HERE is the link to the post. If you read the previous post, here is the
Do you Have a Back-up gun? Read More »
The 2022 shooting year started out great! I managed to pick up 6 punches by the end of March on a variety of courses and target types (Super sporting at the East Coast Warm-Up and East coast Championship at Hunter’s Pointe, blue targets at Kidd’s place and all-true pairs at Deep River). I even managed
(Eye) Train Like a Pirate – Argh!! Read More »
In my second post on the blog, I wrote about a user manual on goal setting I had created as part of my coursework when working towards by Sport Psychology degree. If you missed that one, you can find it here. In that post, I mentioned some tenants of good goals as suggested by experts
How Audacious Should Your Goals be? Read More »
Today’s post is number 62! Taking a look back we have covered a lot of territory. Looking through the posts, they can be grouped into roughly 10 categories as follows: Goal Setting Self-talk Visualization Stress Management / Emotional Regulation Mindfulness / Meditation / Focus Confidence Fitness / Eye Training Performance Logging Self-image Pre-shot Planning So…
What Does Your Mental Game Look Like? Read More »
The final tournament in our local area was held at Kidd’s Place this past Saturday. There was a lot on the line for a couple of our shooters! Both Dave Coffman and Randy Donovan faced “sudden death” in this shoot. Due to the way the NSCA handles carry-over punches, they both faced the prospect of
A Real Nail Biter! – The Final Sporting Clays Tournament of the Year Read More »
If you are like me, I consult the weather channel app in order to select my practice days – most often looking for “Goldilock” conditions – not too hot, not too cold, not too wet – just right! While this might be great for creature comfort, is it the best way you can prepare yourself
What Conditions do you Practice in? Read More »
I really enjoy talking mental skills training with anyone that will converse on the subject! Luckily, I am surrounded by lots of fellow amateur athletes that enjoy the topic as much as I do! One of those athletes is Grant O’Neal. If you don’t know Grant personally, but think the name sounds familiar, it just
Pre-Shot Routines – 101: by Grant L. O’Neal Read More »
Recently, I had the honor of having lunch with Brian DeMott, master class competitor and former PSCA shooter. I had reached out to Brian after observing him shoot on a couple of different occasions noting how confident he appeared as he prepared for each shot and how smoothly he executed each pair. I introduced him
Two Hours with Brian DeMott – Self-Image Building and Mental Management Read More »
You find yourself walking towards the first stand of the competition early one morning, but you are just not feeling it! You are a little doubtful of your abilities even though you have seen and broken these same targets a hundred times before. Your lack of confidence shows up in your physical presence. Your posture
The Wonder Woman Pose Read More »
It happens to all athletes at one time or another. You are performing consistently well, then suddenly, inexplicably, the wheels just come off. The basketball player can’t find the hoop, the golfer gets a case of the yips, the baseball batter is swatting at air, the shooter just can’t connect with the target – even
Seeing Your Way Out of a Slump! Read More »
Don’t you wish you could draw on confidence in the same manner as you can draw water from a well? In a sense, you can – but maybe not in the way you might be thinking! Let’s explore confidence today. One of the most impactful books I have run across on confidence is Tomas Chamoro-Premuzic’s
Going to the Confidence Well! Read More »
