First Principles
“Mental Training” by Michael J. Keyes, M.D.
Stress can cause a lot of things to happen. It can cause a mother to lift a Volkswagen off her child’s leg (or so the urban legend states) or make you run faster and harder. Mostly it just makes things harder to do, especially if you are trying to perform consistently. We all know match stress is the foremost hurdle we have to overcome when we are in a shooting match. We all expect to shoot our average score or better and usually know where we will end up in a match, but there are times when match stress knocks us out of reaching these goals.
I was reminded of this as I watched the 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. This year, everyone’s brackets were blown because a bunch of underdog teams advanced when they were not supposed to. The key to this unexpected development was the experience and solidarity of the lower–ranked teams and the inexperience of the top teams, whose players often go professional after a year or so. It appeared the winning teams played as a team under stress, and the younger, higher–ranked teams fell apart. Team play trumped superior individual play.
Now, I know shotgun sports are not usually team sports, but there is a lesson to be learned here. In basketball, good teams usually beat good individuals because a good team has more options and a game plan. Good teams rely on teamwork to achieve their goals. Teamwork is the basic technique of a team and can compensate for lack of individual skills. In the NCAA tournament, the team with the best athletes doesn’t necessarily win, unless those athletes are willing to play as a team. Teams take time to develop, and if a team is not well–developed, it tends to fall apart under pressure. The coach’s job is to remind the team to play team ball if they want to win.
The same is true of individual shooters under stress in a match. In big matches, shooters often forget the basics (the shooter’s “team”) that carried them through the season in familiar venues. Without the anchor of these basics, a shooter is unable to figure out what to do until it is too late. This is the time for “first principles.”
First principles are those factors that form the base for any performance skill. They are often so basic people forget they exist. Under stress, they are often lost or discarded because the mind and body are too occupied with the source of the stress to remember to use them. When stress occurs, it is always a good idea to step aside for a second and review your first principles.
Breathe
Most of us take breathing for granted, but in times of stress, we often suspend breathing for a period in order to concentrate. In addition, we hunch our shoulders, flex our body and squint, all of which tends to slow us down and cause us to stop looking at details. This is fine if you are about to sprint for your life, but it makes shooting a target a lot harder.
Not to sound obvious, but breathing is a good thing, especially if you are trying to perform a specific precise act. Not only does it oxygenate your body and brain, it normally triggers a relaxation response. Relaxation makes you quicker and causes the subjective experience of time to slow. In addition, it lets your training take over so your body does the work you have practiced.
Most shooters incorporate breathing into their normal shooting routine, often without even realizing they do. They take a few cleansing breaths before setting up, set up, take another breath and call for the target. These breaths calm the body and focus the mind. Calling for the target relaxes the body further and peaks your focus. The shot should come automatically once you are ready.
Of course, in a big match, a lot of that goes out the window because the level of stress is higher. You may know you are not relaxed, but telling yourself to relax is usually not enough. This is where you have to remind yourself to breathe. You will be surprised how often you have to remind yourself to breathe in these circumstances. “Just Breathe” should become a standard part of your system as you shoot. It will save a lot of time and grief.
Use The Force
In this case, this means use the system that brought you to where you are right now. Match time, while under a lot of stress, is not the time to try out something new, no matter how much it appears to be the answer to all your prayers. The secret to perfection is consistency, not efficiency. Efficiency is something you develop in training.
Efficiency makes it easier to be consistent because an efficient shooter has fewer things to worry about in a match. But while you are developing an efficient shot, you have to “undo” first and then “remake.” In the process, you become less consistent and less efficient until the new technique is rock–solid. One of the hallmarks of efficiency is, once you have an efficient technique, you do it without thinking about it. Changing technique in a match doesn’t give you time to be efficient.
The other aspect of using your time–proven system is it allows you to solve problems quickly. The shotgun sports do not offer an infinite number of challenges to the shooter. Skeet and trap are very limited by rule, and sporting clays, while less predictable, is limited in the array of shots offered. You can not only prepare for every contingency in the shotgun sports, solutions to the problems are well–known. As long as you train in a layered fashion (each layer of training complements the last and a strong base is set), you should have the tools to solve the problems on each course and the technique to accomplish those solutions.
What a lot of shooters fail to recognize is “head on the stock, eye on the rock” is not just a bunch of random information that helps you shoot better. Rather, it is part of a system that has its own logic and is the prism through which the shooter solves problems. In skeet and trap, there is a fair amount of consensus as to how the game should be played (no one ever agrees 100%, of course), and in sporting clays these systems are being worked out more and more. Even flawed systems offer a lot to a shooter because they give the shooter a perspective that eliminates most of the need to search for a solution each time a shot is taken.
This is why you should develop a shooting style and why it is helpful to have a coach who can steer you in the right direction. Once you have a system, you can make it more efficient in practice, keeping those aspects that promote consistency. In times of stress, you may have to remind yourself you have a system, but it will already be there for you to use when you need it.
Look At What You’re Doing
If you don’t see the target, you can’t hit it in a consistent manner. Every shotgun system I know of has a step in which you have to “acquire the target visually.” In most, seeing the target is the primary step prior to shooting it. Once you see the target, your brain calculates the distance/lead/timing and you either hit the target or miss. If you don’t see the target, you miss; it is as simple as that.
Under stress, shooters commonly fail to look at the target. Oh, they may see a blur going across the field and take a shot at it, but they don’t have an accurate and precise picture of the target. This happens because stress makes you worry about a lot of things at the same time. In a survival situation, it is better to not focus on a specific target; instead, you de–focus a little in order to spot movement in all quarters. That way you can get out of the way of a sudden attack.
We don’t really need that in sports shooting. We already know where the target will be. It is much more important to see the target in order for your brain to complete its task and your body to shoot.
“First things first, but not necessarily in that order.”
Dr. Who
Focusing on the target has another benefit — it helps you relax. When you look at the target and see it clearly, you are able to get into that “one–thought” mode most shooters train for. The more detail you see, the slower time seems and the quicker you will get into position for a shot. Training will develop the brain pathways that help you calculate and compensate, while seeing the target will trigger those pathways.
Part of the trained response is automatically relaxing all the muscles not needed for shooting the target and freeing your mind to find the firing solution. It all comes down to seeing the target. You should be looking at the target as often as you can in a match. Use the same amount of concentration while looking at the free target or what others are shooting at on your stand. These preliminary looks let your brain do the calculations even before you shoot and allow you to see any possible unexpected problems, such as wind or a changing background. You can also practice relaxing while you look at the target, which will help you when it is your turn to shoot.
First principles are important because they are the basis of your shooting — your “team.” Match stress has a way of making shooters forget what those first principles are, but a simple checklist is all you need to be reminded of their importance and then let them combat match stress. And don’t forget to breathe!
Dr. Keyes has written over 200 articles on mental training for Shotgun Sports and is author of the book Mental Training For The Shotgun Sports. He is a former physician for the U.S. Shooting Team, retired Colonel from the Army Reserve and a veteran of Viet Nam and Desert Storm. A Tennessee state pistol champion and coach of several national championship teams, he currently practices in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. You can e-mail him at mikeyes@charter.net.