March/April 2009 - New Zealand Clay Target Association

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MENTAL TRAINING PractiSe by Michael J. Keyes, M.D. I was listening to a musician talk about practise on the radio the other day and he brought up a good point: “When you practise, you have to face yourself and deal with the pain.” What he meant, of course, is if you want your practise to mean anything, you have to be honest and realistic. Practise is not meant to be fun. There are plenty of reasons to practise. Most shooters have a natural ability to hit targets. We call this the “talent level,” but shooting in competition is not a natural endeavour. Shotgun shooting is a distillation of the normal ability to hit a moving target that places demands on the shooter hunting or plinking do not. One of these is the need to be perfect. On the hunting field, we don’t usually count the number of shots we take to down birds (unless there is money involved, of course, and then it becomes a competition). We are there to have a good time, be outdoors and commune with nature, which is the essence of hunting. It is different when we pay money to shoot clay targets in order to win a prize. We practise so we can win, and to win we have to have a plan and a direction to travel. Practise is serious business. To practise well, you have to determine what is the most efficient way to go about the task and then have to do the practise. Every elite-level shooter practises that way, while the rest of us tend to not really practise. Instead, we want to have fun. There is nothing wrong with having fun. If you ask those elite shooters if they are enjoying their practise rounds, they will tell you they are having fun. The reason they are having fun is they are convinced they are going to win, and one of the reasons they think that is they practise harder and better than 99% of all the other shooters. “Easy” Ed Macauley used to say, “When you are not practising, remember, someone somewhere is practising and, when you meet him, he will win.” Elite-level shooters know talent is trumped by hard work. And that hard work involves a large dose of reality. The problem with having fun at practise is, while you are having fun, you are not looking at your weak spots. Instead, you are ignoring anything that might cause you to feel bad about yourself or your game. In this case, having fun is a recipe for disaster if you intend to improve. You don’t really want to look at what your problems are and then fix them. You would rather shoot a round of (insert shotgun game) with your friends and enjoy the day. If you have been reading this column on a regular basis, you will know I advocate an organised approach to shooting, and especially to practise. Each practise session should have an immediate goal based on a recent analysis of your game and should fit in with your overall goals, resulting in improvement. Every time you shoot in practise, you should attempt to solve a problem in your game. You have to have a ruthlessly accurate idea of where you stand and where you are going to do this. That means looking at your failures and admitting to yourself you are not perfect. A lot of us have a very hard time with this. Elite-level shooters analyze their faults on a regular basis. They are aware perfection is a moving target, and they have to keep at a peak when they shoot in important matches if they want to win. Part of this focus is to acknowledge there are weak areas in their game that have to be improved and strong areas that can be exploited. Any problems have to be solved by eliminating them. At this level, it usually only takes a short time to resolve the issue because they have done it so many times in the past. Beginning and intermediate shooters have a different set of problems. They are not perfect, not even close, and have multiple technical, physical and mental issues, most they are not even aware of. Technical skills are usually the focus of their practise. One advantage a beginning or intermediate shooter has is they know they need improvement and can follow standard and obvious practise patterns, such as shooting so many shots at each station of a ‘skeet field’ while learning the proper setup, lead and follow-through. Coaches, books and friends can guide them (meaning, they can point out the mistakes and prescribe cures) and usually put the shooter on the right path. All the shooter has to do is accept they need this kind of help and practise to minimize the bad stuff while enhancing the good stuff. Of course, that is a lot harder than it sounds. It is hard to accept you are not perfect. It hurts to realise you are a failure in any respect if you are the typical perfectionist workaholic that tends to become a competitor. But it is necessary if you want to advance to the top. Accepting this is Step One in practising. Step Two is to practise well. Learning to practise is an art in itself. You would think just going out and shooting 200 rounds focusing on some aspect of your shooting would be enough. But practise is about information processing. You have to take a number of related concepts and form them into a functioning whole that will prove itself in a match. There are some things about a match you cannot duplicate in practise (match stress, for one), yet you have to devise a way to overcome the obstacles anyway. Fortunately, your brain is capable of making the connections in a way that allows you to improve even with incomplete information. Ideally, you should be able to go to a tournament, deal with match pressure and automatically shoot your shots to the best of your current ability. You should shoot with confidence and not be surprised by anything that occurs at the match. Your performance should be a reflection of your performance in practise. If it isn’t, you are not practising as well as you can. We all know shooters who shoot much better in practise than matches. Something is clearly wrong with this picture, but the shooter usually can’t tell you what is wrong. I will venture to say anyone who is finding himself with this problem is not practising to overcome it. Instead, they are expecting to do well because they have the technical skill or talent and believe they will succeed without having to put in the work required to perform well in a match. They refuse to look at their deficiencies, especially those aspects of mental toughness lacking in their game. It is not that they cannot develop these qualities, they are just not willing to do the mental and emotional work needed to make sure they have the confidence to succeed under match pressure. The brain is capable of overcoming any of these obstacles. All it takes is making the right choices and hard work. The work part is essential because you have to push yourself in order to change. Most of us can’t do something once and be an expert at it forever after; we have to dissect it mentally, put in the time doing the physical part and then sleep on it. Practise demands hard work, but it also requires rest time for the brain to process and integrate the information to make it a complete concept that can be brought into use in a match. Gunshot 44
Otherwise, you have to think about too many things in the match and will not be able to perform well. I just read a paper addressing this subject that came to the conclusion “relational memory” requires time and sleep to organise. This means people are able to take seemingly unrelated concepts and put them together. The subjects were given the task of memorizing what appeared to be random relationships (but they did have a subtle set of rules of relationship) and then were asked to do a similar task later. They did much better when they waited 12 hours (including 8 hours of sleep) than if they did it right after the first set of tasks. It appears sleep is major component of the process. Hence, the folk wisdom to “sleep on it” has scientific validity. Practise is a matter of thinking, doing and integrating, and it has to have a period of time with sleep in order to achieve the desired results. It is an accumulative process that pays off in the long run. Good practise skills require the ability to bring in all aspects of the game and integrate them over a period of time. If you are lacking some parts, once you realise what is missing, you can develop it. Don’t let a sense of false pride get in your way. I can guarantee that guy breathing down your neck is not concerned. Denying problems exist only hurts you in the end; we all have problems that need to be fixed. Practise can be fun, but it should be serious about addressing problems and developing solutions. 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 Arm Reserves and a veteran of Viet Nam and Desert Storm. A Tennessee state pistol champion and coach of several national championship teams, he currently practises in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Article by courtesy of Shotgun Sports Hall of Fame New Zealand Hi all, As promised in the last Gunshot here is an update on progress of “NZ Hall of Fame”. By the time you read this our DTL Nationals will probably be underway in Hamilton along with our first induction dinner and presentation evening programmed for March 5th at The Station Restaurant, Waikato University. We hope this will be the success envisaged and suitably recognise the tremendous achievements of our three inductees. Since the last issue I can tell you we have managed to locate the relatives of Duncan Fraser, the very first winner of the NZ Single Rise 1908. I know a number of them are going to be in attendance at the presentation to receive the award on behalf of the family. The information from family contacts came about by chance through Neil Pratt who came into contact with someone who knew the family connections. As I stated last time so much of this information will have to come from you the shooters and the people you run into. This contact certainly proved that point, thanks Neil we had nearly given up hope of finding the information we needed. Details of our three inductees’ achievements which have earned them the recognition and place in “The NZ Hall of Fame” are as follows; Mr Duncan Fraser. (14 May 1864 – 1939) 1906 NZ Live Pigeon Champion 1908 NZ Single Rise Champion 1909 NZ Single Rise Champion 1911 NZ Single Rise Champion 1920 NZ Single Rise Champion Plus numerous other major North Island and Open competition successes. Mr John Thomson. 1963 NZ High Gun Champion 1964 NZ Skeet Champion 1966 NZ Single Rise Champion 1968 NZ Single Barrel Champion 1970 NZ Skeet Champion 1971 NZ Single Barrel Champion 1972 NZ Single Barrel Champion 1978 NZ Mini Champion 1980 NZ High Gun Champion 1990 NZ Single Barrel Champion Plus seven times runner up to various National Titles, Also 15 Island Titles, Twice NZ Mackintosh Team High Gun. Mr Charlie Hartley 1962 NZ Single Rise Champion 1963 NZ Double Rise Champion 1967 NZ Double Rise Champion 1969 NZ Single Barrel Champion 1969 NZ High Gun Champion 1975 NZ Double Rise Champion Plus NZ Mackintosh Team High Gun 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1962. 1966 Australian High Gun Champion Also 1958 and 1963 North Island Double rise winner. As you can see from this list of achievements all three richly deserve to be recognised and rightly have their achievements preserved in our Trapshooting history. Thanks to both John and Charlie and their families for supplying huge amounts of information and photos for us to copy and preserve, it was much appreciated. Also to the relatives of Duncan Fraser who have been extremely helpful supplying history and photos which we would have had no record of until now. I am looking forward to listing more successes and the collection of more of our shooting history over the coming months and years. Gavin Searle. 2009 Southland Secondary School Programme • Southland CTC 10 May Skeet 9am DTL 10am • Balfour GC 7 June DTL 9am • Dunedin CTC 21 June Skeet 9am DTL 10am • Dunedin CTC 4 July Trophy match 9am • Dunedin CTC 5 July NZCTA South Island SS Championships • Nightcaps GC 19 July Scott Shield 9.30 am • Alexandra CTC 23 August Taieri Shield Skeet 8.45 am DTL10am • Waikato CTC 26,27,28 September NZCTA North Island and National SS championships Gunshot 45
Page 1 and 2: Permit No. 1510 Permit Post NEW ZEA
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Page 5 and 6: Official Journal of the New Zealand
Page 7 and 8: President’s Report In early Febru
Page 9 and 10: 2009 National 5 Stand and Sporting
Page 11 and 12: NORTH Island DTL Championships Waik
Page 13 and 14: ProvincialsWESTLAND By Evan Johnsto
Page 15 and 16: Single Barrel HOA Daniel Warnock Sk
Page 17 and 18: ProvincialsSOUTHLAND High Gun Colin
Page 19 and 20: Ata shooting Christmas shoot Decemb
Page 21 and 22: ProvincialsBay of plenty 31 January
Page 23 and 24: Triples A Grade (L-R) Guy Brooks, G
Page 25 and 26: use of the forend hand to move the
Page 27 and 28: Stewart Island Club Closes Stewart
Page 29 and 30: Mirror and revo effect are fashiona
Page 31 and 32: THAMES VALLEY DISTRICT BALL TRAP CH
Page 33 and 34: Points Score: HOA. Logan Rankin 75.
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Page 37 and 38: gun-smith take a look before you ma
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Page 41 and 42: Club information AHAURA: State High
Page 43: If you’ve had one you’ll unders
Page 47 and 48: Around the Clubs AMBERLEY January S
Page 49 and 50: Around the Clubs A.Harkerss, C grad
Page 51 and 52: Around the Clubs 25/25; B: J Bradfo
Page 54: TEST FIRES AT THE NATIONALS Go to w

March/April 2009 - New Zealand Clay Target Association

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