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 losing some hard-earned punches at the end of the year if they were unable to “punch up” in class at this final tournament. In Dave’s case, he needed two more punches to move from “A-class” to “AA-class” while Randy needed a single punch to move from “C” to “B”. This required Dave to win both the am and pm events, and for Randy to win at least one event.
Well, guess what? They rose to the occasion and made it happen! Wow! Dave won both the am and pm events to secure the 2 punches he needed, and Randy shot a blistering 75 on the blue course to take home C class honors and his needed punch!
How did they do it?! That is exactly what I wanted to know, so I asked them both if they would mind sharing their stories. What follows is some first-hand insight into how a champion is made! I found it interesting that there were many common theme’s within both shooter’s comments. Most of the words below are directly from Dave and Randy with minor edits. Let’s start with Dave’s story first
Dave was quick to admit that frankly, he wasn’t at his best on Saturday. He hadn’t slept well, and the stress made him feel sluggish. Two approaches helped:
– Initially, to relieve the pressure he tried to view the tournament as an end-of-season celebration event, just for fun. He assumed he wasn’t going to win both events, so went out with the thought to relax and have a good time. He thought that maybe this worked a little bit for the morning event.
– But for the afternoon event he knew he actually had a chance, and attempting to fool himself as above was no longer an option. The stress level hit the redline! He tried another approach which ties loosely into the “Sterile Cockpit” concept discussed in a previous post HERE. Dave’s wife Susan had asked him for tournament advice previously, and the first item on his list was “Tunnel Vision”. Basically, ignore everything not related to hitting the next target. She distilled this further by dividing everything around her into two camps: 1) Process (i.e. her shooting process, how to hit that next target); and 2) Irrelevant (i.e. everything else, including all distractions such as score, stress, noise, conversations, weather, smoke, me, you, etc). This worked just well enough to keep Dave focused on hitting targets rather than running into the woods screaming!
Of the two, the second approach definitely worked better, and is probably more useful in general. Dave acknowledged that with the first approach, you can only fool yourself for so long. Pretty soon you catch on. Using a mindfulness approach and staying focused on the process and the next target worked!
From a mental skills standpoint, Dave mentioned that he and Susan joke about the only self-talk they use is the word “irrelevant” – as in any distraction or topic unrelated to hitting the next target. He also mentioned that he uses visualization extensively. It has become more natural and trusted over time, and it does work.
Dave also acknowledged that success in Sporting Clays tournaments involves much more than just showing up and hoping for the best. Here are a few things that he has found helpful:
– Train hard. He tries to practice, on different courses, at least twice per week. He will shoot at least 5 boxes per training day, sometimes more, focusing mostly on targets that he knows how to hit, and hit them 4-5 times in a row. Extend your range as your skills grow.
– Train at home. He uses a laser target from Robert Louis, set up in his office. Use your tournament gun (unloaded!), shooting glasses, and attire similar to what you’ll be wearing. He only uses the laser target thrower, He doesn’t like the in-barrel laser as it can train you to shoot to the lead rather than focusing on the target. He trains at home every day he’s not shooting on-course. Ten minutes at most, once or twice per day. The repetition builds muscle memory for a more consistent gun mount and hard focus.
– Train with a partner. The timer controllers are ok for shooting alone when you have no alternative. But there is nothing like the consistent release of a good trapper, which helps improve your timing and movements. Train with someone you feel completely comfortable with.
– Use a gun that fits. This should be obvious, but for Dave it was not. He’s very tall, and there are no guns “on the rack” that fit. He didn’t realize it, but he was adjusting to the gun, not the other way around. Once he acquired a properly fitted shotgun, he understood the difference. There is no substitute for a gun that fits.
– Get some help. A good coach can spot problems and offer solutions to difficulties you never knew you had. Work with someone you feel comfortable with, and with whom you can communicate effectively. Accept advice from friends and other shooters with great caution.
– Get some exercise. While not directly shooting-related, he finds that moderate exercise (weights, biking, running, swimming, etc), relieves stress and provides greater stamina on tournament days.
Dave summarized his comments with the following: “Effective tournament shooting involves constant learning, practice, self-discipline, and fortitude. It is a great sport, and only you can determine how far you go!”
Let’s turn to Randy’s comments:
As was the case with Dave, Randy acknowledged that he was up several times Friday night and didn’t get a great night’s sleep. He was definitely nervous in the morning knowing if he didn’t win, he would lose two carryover punches.
However, he had gone into the day with a goal to use some new methods his shooting coach had been teaching him to get the final punch he needed. This required making some changes to his normal pre-shot routine including taking time to set his neutral position to the 1st break point and then adjust his foot position accordingly – which was more difficult than it might seem because the foot position was different from that which he normally used. The change in foot position was noticeable enough that a squad mate commented on it part way through the round. Randy didn’t think other shooters would normally make such changes when they are running out of time to get the punch needed to move up a class. However, Randy finally realized that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. He elected to make the changes!
He also spent more time mapping the target line of each target and land-marking the hold & break points more than he normally would. On every station he had to remind himself to focus on the process, execute his plan and not worry about the score.
When the scores came in from the morning event, it became obvious that Randy had to win the afternoon to achieve his goal. Randy uses a very elaborate performance logging system that he developed. The stats he tracks show that he usually shoots worse in the pm than the am and usually performs much worse in the blue course at Kidd’s than on the orange. As a result, he went into the afternoon shoot thinking he had lost any chance of earning a punch and moving up this year. Accordingly, he decided that in the afternoon he should really focus on making the changes his coach had been working with him on. Focusing on the process and not the score definitely helped. As he progressed through the course, he realized he was having a pretty good round and had to force himself to stay focused on the process & targets. That seemed to work pretty well until the last station, where he dropped 7 targets. When he finished and counted up the score, he still didn’t think it would be high enough to win. After the round, several people said it was a strong score but after all the shoots he had lost by 1 or 2 targets he didn’t believe he had won until he got home and checked the scores. He checked it again in the morning on ScoreChaser to make sure it wasn’t a dream!
Randy credited a few other elements that added to his success:
- He had resumed watching the Phil Kiner eye training video daily (you can learn more about the video from this link HERE)
- During the shoot, he avoided any sweets and snacked on fruit (grapes & mandarins) throughout the day. This was based on a recent article he read about glucose & decision fatigue from a post by Gil Ash at his OSP site.
- Randy also avoided the heavy lunch served at the range (edit… the Lasagna was good, but may have not been the best choice for some of us on Randy’s squad)… Randy comments that he wasn’t sure if it was the weather or what he ate, but it was the first shoot in a long time where he felt better in the afternoon than the morning. In addition, he wasn’t wiped out by the time he finished like he often is.
- He has practiced weekly with another shooter that is taking lessons with the same coach so they can work together on problem areas in between lessons.
So there you have it! I think there are several interesting points we can all learn from. Many thanks to Dave and Randy for sharing their experience with us! Congratulations guys!