A sudden unwanted dip in performance

[CharlesP]

Oh dear. Just when it was going so well.

I knew that changing guns wasn't going to suddenly propel me into the stratosphere, I'm much too old to believe you can Buy a Stairway to Heaven. I expected a bit of a blip as I became accustomed to my new toy, and I was massively surprised when on its first outing I managed a 74 at a registered ESP (I'm a 'B' classification). I went home quite pleased.

A couple of days later I went out to tackle some of the targets I had found troublesome, and came home satisfied that the transition would be less  of a problem than I had anticipated. The trend continued positively a couple of days later.

Then it all went horribly wrong. Now I couldn't get my act together at all, perhaps it was the eye dominance correction patch falling off my shooting glasses. So I replaced it and nothing improved. Same cartridges, same clay ground, same targets. On my own everything was just fine, in a bunch of mates it all fell apart again.

It has come to a bit of a head this weekend. Pilford is a favourite of mine, and after a couple of months' cancellation due to floods I was really looking forward to it. My score was, I think, the lowest I've ever recorded there, and yesterday's shoot wasn't the toughest. And I broke my shooting glasses - Beretta ones with what I thought was a curly spring to keep them firmly on my head. In fact it was flimsy plastic, which being a Yorkshireman I spent hours repairing with superglue and cotton binding. I enjoyed the shooting, but for the life of me couldn't work out what was going wrong.

Today was Somerley, and if anything I have got worse, recording a 23 x 50. I can do much better than that, I was half expecting a 4 in front of my score, and my gang were puzzled too. The normal fluffy rabbits has given way to concerned sympathy (and when that happens you just know you're doing dreadfully). It's not the new gun, it functions perfectly. It's not the gun fit, that was fine a fortnight ago and nothing's changed. Anyway it feels right. It's not the cartridges because they haven't changed. Eye dominance is a thing I have almost tamed, and I'm convinced it's not that. I have paid particular attention to mounting the gun, and I'm happy that I'm shooting at the right spot.

All I can conclude is that it's all in the head.

Unless anyone has any ideas?

 

[Nimbusgb]

Steady improvement over the past year took me in to B class as well, a couple of 80's at the beginning of the year but mostly in the high 70's.

then a couple of weeks at 3 registered or open shoots and I could barely manage 55. Super frustrating.

A few practice sessions and a bit of 'not trying too hard' and I managed 89/100 last weeks at horne and 73/100 at Dartford and 83/100 at Horne today. ( I'm definately not fit enough for two registered 100's in a single day! )

Back on track.

 

[Wonko the Sane]

I TOLD YOU TO FOCUS ON THE PROCESS !!!

 

[bugsey hogan]

I've been there to 84 86 in Nov Dec Feb March 68 66. I think it's down to confidence and concentration. Only thing I find to build confidence is to shoot skeet several rounds if it's going well,but above all try to aviod aviod overfaceing yourself shooting hard targets till your feeling good about yourself. Only a suggestion hope it helps.

 

[schmokinn]

had some attrocious scores recently and i can definitely put it down to lack of focus more often than not when shooting with mates,great fluffy rabbits and a laugh and then it is suddenly my go and oh where the F*** were the targets and what am i doing!

trying to get to the stage where i can switch on and off but its hard work,no distractions shoot like a demon...distractions and i shoot like a one legged blind man with an inner ear infection

funny i can mentally switch the wife off when i want to just need to transfer that skill

 

[CharlesP]

Hmmm, focus focus focus. Wise words.

And I think Wonko was advising me to avoid *****?

 

[Mike L]

It was pretty busy at pilford yesterday, good turn out, found out I had won my class at the December shoot which was nice.

mike

 

[CharlesP]

It was indeed busy, crackin' little shoot, always enjoy it.

Well done with the win!

 

[chippy]

It happens to us all. I got my arse well and truly kicked at highwayman's today but there's always next week. And remember it would be boring if we hit them all.

 

[Santa2512]

I went through a similar patch latter half of last year with some pretty shocking scores.

I started from scratch, and had a gun fit  in January to eliminate that from the list of what could be wrongs...

My first shoot of the year was a paltry 9ex26  then 14 ex 26   and still wondering where i went wrong .. 

I shot today at a different ground, and came away with 26ex50,  yes argueably a low score, but for me a huge mental boost.

It was a very mixed round, Incoming and going away crossers. Loopers, rabbits L & R  fast L&R crossers.

There wasnt one presentation i didn't get a kill on ,  Yes some were just chips of the side of the clay, but i could understand why.

I listened to the advice given at my gun fit, slowed myself down,   moved my pickup points,  made sure my head was well down on the stock

and identifed my kill zone before i called pull

I felt really happy with the kills, and the misses,  i know why,  i just need to work on the how..

:santa:

 

[schmokinn]

It was pretty busy at pilford yesterday, good turn out, found out I had won my class at the December shoot which was nice.

mike

Congrats,always a nice surprise...i found out i was second overall  :smile:

 

[Les53]

Dont worry Charles... Its just new gun syndrome....it will pass soon enough, happens to all of us in one way or another. Just get out and enjoy the gun,it will soon sort itself out!

 

[RobertBeard]

Have you ever used  coach?  Quite often a session with a coach will highlight some easy to fix issues like stopping the gun, lifting your head, not following through, rifling the shot, wrong pick up or kill points or some combination of issues and get you back on track.

 

[ips]

from my experience one of two things happen

you start to improve and think this is going well and start to try to keep it going. It doesn't because you are now trying to hard.

or

it ain't going as well as you would like so you try and make it happen. It doesn't because you are trying to hard.

either way Imo the more you try the less instinctive you shoot and the worse the outcome.

thickoes shoot better scores than over analytical minds. There I have said it and there ain't no going back but love it

 

[Ocean19]

My view on this is that, usually, for me anyway, my dips in form come when something away from shooting is bothering me. Not enough to be wanting to stop, but enough that they take over the instinctive and emotional side of my brain. I think that I then start to measure and overthink using the deliberate measuring side of my brain. 

I know everyone says focus, but shooting (lead at least) is instinctive. It just kind of happens like catching a ball. You don't focus on method and process and stuff. You instinctively stick your hand in the right place to intercept the ball.

If you have the basics dialled in and you can regularly hit a given percentage on the same targets, you don't suddenly become rubbish. Something else is going on. 

My job causes lots of peaks and troughs of stress and I've got to a point where on the run up to the year end I may as well give up. 

Just my opinion on how my brain works, but I have seen it in shooting buddies too. Usually a bad run of form coincides with something somewhere in your life bothering you.