In her bestselling book “Mindset – the New Psychology of Success”, Carol Dweck explores two different world views – one that supposes a person’s capabilities are “set in stone” at birth – a “fixed mindset”, and one in which a person’s capabilities are really not fully known and subject to change based on efforts made to improve – a “growth mindset”. The growth mindset doesn’t guarantee that every individual can become the next Einstein, DaVinci, or Tiger Woods, but with the growth mindset, significant success can be achieved in a selected field through improvement efforts.
Having spent an afternoon on the sporting clays course during a competition, and an hour or so on the phone a couple of months later, I can tell you that Mitch Hines is the epitome of a person that believes and lives the growth mindset!
Mitch’s experience with shooting actually started with long range rifle shooting. His first experience with clays started out as some hand tossed “farm clays” with his childhood best friend. That all changed in 2018 when he picked up a Mossberg 500 pump shotgun. Mitch and his dad Rick Hines, took it Deep River Sporting Clays and Shooting School and the addiction began, first with Rick, and then with Mitch. Mitch credits his Dad for the support and encouragement, as well as the joy of shooting together that has led to his success.
Those who know Mitch knows he has always been very athletically inclined having played soccer, basketball, football, lacrosse, and baseball. In his high school years, he focused on baseball where he was a member of the Holly Springs High School NC team that took the 4A state championship in his senior year. Mitch played center field, a position that helped to hone his eye-hand coordination and target tracking capabilities – skills that translate directly to sporting clays. In 2017, he started dental school at the University of Maryland Baltimore and is on track to graduate in May of 2021. Dentistry is another discipline that requires high levels of eye-hand coordination, albeit at a very micro level!
Mitch achieved NSCA Master class status in about 18 months after shooting his first registered targets in May of 2019. During the remainder of that year, he only shot a total of 950 registered targets. In 2020, the pandemic shutdown impacted his schooling / clinic work allowing him to devote more time to shooting. As a result, he was able to shoot 6950 registered targets in 2020 achieving Master status in Dec. Wow! That is an incredible achievement.
Mitch’s overall shooting goal for the future is simple– he wants to see how good he can get at shooting with the ultimate aim of being one of the best shooters in the world! He hopes after graduating from school he can take the time to compete in the larger events (regionals, nationals and opens) so he can see how his skills stack up against some of the toughest targets in the game. That is definitely not the goal of a person with a fixed mindset! To demonstrate how this goal translates to the real world, Mitch related a story concerning a recent FITSAC event he participated in. After the match, it became obvious that an error had been made in which he was not properly credited for some birds he had broken. His goal for this particular match was not necessarily to see his name at the top of the leader list – his primary focus was on learning and improving his shooting. He didn’t lose sight of the primary goal and didn’t really worry about the error. In fact, he didn’t bother to pursue having the error corrected as he had achieved what he really set out to do by shooting the match.
He truly wants to get a little bit better with each time he goes out to the range – that and enjoy time with his dad!
So, why did I want to write a post about Mitch? Well, during the shoot in which we were squadded together, we learned that we both had a huge interest in the mental aspects of sports performance. Since then, we have shared book recommendations and other comments related to the topic. In a recent email, Mitch mentioned that he had a practice and performance logging system that has become very useful in his personal improvement efforts. My interest was immediately piqued! When asked if he would share it, be mentioned he would be happy to help others improve their game! So, here it goes!
Mitch created his practice and competition logs as he got more serious about his shooting. He wanted to capture his errors – and as he did so, he started to notice patterns – especially that mistakes were being repeated. The “how” and “why” of the logs can be summarized in three steps:
- Diagnose the problem. Realize what is going wrong and what the root cause is. For example, if the log shows that the shooter is missing a high percentage of quartering targets, try to identify the cause. Is the shooter whipping out in front of the target? If so, maybe the reason is the gun hold point is too close to the trap and the shooter is developing too much gun speed when it comes time to pull the trigger
- Develop a solution. For our example above, a possible solution is to move the hold point farther out from the trap allowing to shooter to control their hands while still visually connecting with the target
- Practice the solution until it becomes sub-conscious. Mitch emphasized that you don’t want to be trying to consciously change or fix your mechanics during competition! That is what practice is for! If you are struggling during a shoot, remind yourself the most important thing is to keep your eye on the bird!
By following this three-step approach, the shooter can effectively become his own coach. Not to say that coaching isn’t beneficial because there will always be things that someone else will see in your shooting that you won’t be able to– in fact, Mitch attributes much of his success to working with his coach Cameron Hicks on a regular basis, but he mentioned that self-awareness is really the key – after all, you are the only person who will be present during every shot!
So how is the data collected?
Like many shooters, Mitch takes a picture of his scorecard after each shoot. At home, he logs each miss into an excel spreadsheet according to the type of target (Teal, quartering, crosser, etc). He then can see immediately which type of target presentations are being missed the most and make that the focus for his subsequent practice sessions until issue is resolved. Then he moves on to the next area in need of improvement. Pattern recognition is the key.
In addition to this, the log also includes aspects of journaling. Mitch breaks it down into sections covering nutrition, exercise, lens selection, how his performance felt, what he learned, what he did well and a short summary of bullet points at the end including key take-aways. Mitch mentioned that a key point of logging is to keep it positive– so “don’t use “don’t””. instead of saying “Don’t hold too close to the trap”, phrase it in a positive about what to do – “be sure to allow enough space and time to see the target clearly” by holding out from the trap. He also has a section related specifically to his mental game. He will write down what he did well and what he needs to work on with his mental game (e.g. – Did a great job of staying present today or felt like I was pressing too much at the beginning of the shoot, etc.).
Then, he links that to notes kept on his iPhone where he maintains a list of categories of the mental game (attitude, trusting – letting things happen, confidence, rhythm, preparation, etc.) and in each category he has his top 3 sports psychology books listed with page numbers corresponding to a chapter that talks about that category. He can then go back and re-read that chapter to help learn how to improve that aspect of his game.
It may sound like a lot of work, and it is! Mitch mentioned that right now Dentistry is his top priority, but shot-gunning is more than just a hobby. It is a passion that drives his constant pursuit for improvement. In fact, one day he might enjoy teaching others how to improve!
Carol Dweck would be impressed with Mitch’s “growth” mindset! How about you? What is your mindset? Perhaps Mitch’s methods will be beneficial to others who are trying to figure out their improvement path!
Many thanks to Mitch for sharing his insight and methods! I was reminded just how effective these methods can be just this last weekend when Mitch set a new personal best of breaking 96 birds at a match at Kidd’s Place! Mitch and I both hope that each reader can pick up at least one take-away from his experiences that he has shared here.
For those interested in Carol Dweck’s book, here is the amazon link: