How to overcome

So I was shooting Saturday and experienced something for the very first time. Another competitor put all 10 of his slowfire shots on my target. Since his were in the white, I wound up making sight corrections on one of  them and you can guess how it went from there. Once I realized what was happening, I informed the line officials and I was able to get back in the black, but I was never able to recover mentally for the rest of the match. 

My question or quest is to find a solution to use in situations like this. No one can afford to have something like this affect them for a match. It would be bad enough if it just affected my slowfire, but my rapids were off too. 

My first thought is to be extremely careful in slowfire before making sight corrections on majorly off call shots with a zeroed gun. I need to learn to trust myself. But when a 5 shows up at 1 oclock on a shot called good, it has an effect on me. 

Thanks for any advice that might be offered my way. 

Mike

It happens, I would as soon as you see or realize someone has fired on your target stop and raise your non shooting arm and get the RO involved then  just take the refire and try and move on.

Hi Mike, It's not easy to let the emotion go; but you must do it.

Often a runaway emotion is the result of taking yourself too

seriously.  Attack that emotion with humor directed at your self.

We get many opportunities to flip the indulging reaction during

the day; especially at work or freeway driving to and from work.

Seriously, good luck.

Tony

Hi Mike, To recover just remember how lucky you are. You get 10 free practice shots. When you re-fire you don't have any brass landing on you from a shooter beside you and remember that whatever you shoot on the re-fire it is way way better then the goose egg the cross fire shooter gets.

Len

x>0, I can smile at that. Thanks!

I checked zeros the day before at 50, I should have trusted myself. I won't make a sight adjustment so quickly next time.

I have problems with losing my focus at matches also.  The key to recovery is shot process.  You need to have a good one.  Since I have been using Brian Zins' breathing technique, it's much easier for me to stay on process even if something weird happens.

Rob, 

Could you explain the breathing technique? I have a breathing technique. But thus far I've been unable to find out about a Zins clinic in time to get to it. 

Thanks.

I can't tell you Brian's, but I can tell you how he coached me to do my breathing:

"Is the line ready"
*deep breath* ...by the time the exhale is out all the way
"The line is ready"
*deep breath* ...by the time the exhale is out all the way
"Ready on the Right"
*deep breath* gun goes to "low ready", straight arm, grip pressure correct...by the time the exhale is out all the way
"Ready on the Left"
*deep breath* gun is raised at the shoulder to the white above the black, a little left of center ...by the time the exhale is out all the way, the sight settles on the aiming point
"Ready on the Firing Line"
*deep breath* gun comes up to the same point as before in the white above the black during the inhale.  From then on, the trigger starts moving...by the time the exhale is out all the way the target appears behind the sight and the shot breaks.

It was an X, by the way.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Thanks Rob. I do something like that, but sometimes don't start until "The Line is Ready." But, focusing more on the breathing would take my mind off of the problem.

If you dwell on the mishap you can not concentrate on your next shots. Here are my mantras for those situations:
" Every one has butterflies but I can get mine to fly in formation"
" If it is not important in five years, it is not important."

An interesting topic and so full of good ideas.  Please let me add another perspective.

Are you really calling your shots?  Confidence in calling the shot is directly related to how we can handle situations such as this.  If we are confident in the shot call, we will not immediately start twisting the the sight screws (and our minds) when something like this happens.  Confidence in the shot call will allow us the time to think through the difference in what we see on the target and and what we saw and called for the shot. Sort through the possibilities and then make the decision to adjust (if needed and then adjust boldly).

A lot of issues will be taken care of when we learn to really see and call the shot.  And the confidence in ourselves will reduce the anxiety, nervousness and just plan jitters when the shots are not exactly where we wanted them to be.  As long as we know how they were called, we have a good starting point.

Kermit, i really like those 2 sayings!  Its a great day when we can channel anxiety and turn it into excitement and awareness.

I had this happen and I ended up making sure my box was on my target, which meant I had to put the pistol down, which meant I had to dryfire a couple times before restarting to shoot. By the time all that is done, i'm calm again. dryfire does that for me. I always default to dryfire.
If your calls are off, dryfire..... that is what is nice about slowfire. take your time and get it right.

CR10X wrote:Are you really calling your shots?  Confidence in calling the shot is directly related to how we can handle situations such as this.  If we are confident in the shot call, we will not immediately start twisting the the sight screws (and our minds) when something like this happens.  Confidence in the shot call will allow us the time to think through the difference in what we see on the target and and what we saw and called for the shot. Sort through the possibilities and then make the decision to adjust (if needed and then adjust boldly).

This is my main takeaway. I knew that I had a zeroed pistol and I knew that I had called the shot as a 10. When I saw the 6 at 1, I immediately doubted my zero. I lacked the confidence to really trust myself.  I am learning that, and I will be ready for something like this if it happens again.

I am not a really great bullseye shooter but 

1) if you called a ten and it was not a ten what does the cross fire have to do with anything? If the shot was a ten I would say to my self there it is and what are those other shots? 

2) I always wait 3 to 5 shots before adjustments to get a better sample, could have called a shot wrong could have had a bad bullet or call 3 to 5 is a trend. 

3) If you call a miss and its a X -quickly remove one bullet from the magazine and hope he does not do it again........(just kidding)

Something similar to me happened in a 22Lr match in the NMC a couple of weeks back. Screwed up my head for the rest of the 22LR match and went from cruising to a personal best to my worst score of the year. 

Shot the CF match and the guy did it again, won that match and then I went home. I would rather not shoot then shoot distracted. 

I was not emotional about it and the guy was older so what can you do. However, you get no extra points for torturing yourself.  I did tell the match director and they gave me a better squad-ding in the next match. 

My Dad was a very good Bullseye shooter and he always said to me you are better off not shooting if you having a bad day because you don't want to start any bad habits. 

RT