consistancy

Good morning.  Looking for tips on keeping consistency through 3 slow fire targets. For example, this morning I shot 92-3 92-2, then 85-2.
Yeah...tips on holding it together for three targets.  Slow fire is my weakness.  I'm usually in the mid to high 90's T and R.
Thanks, Kurt

For me - and I don’t do this anymore - if I had two good targets or two acceptable targets I had an expectation of the third. Then when the first bad shot came on the third target I got bent out of shape. I’d lose focus. And it didn’t have to be two good targets and a third bad one. Could’ve been one good one and a bad one making my third an up hill battle. 

It’s a mental game and for me I had to convince myself that the score of the target didn’t matter. My JOB is to shoot good shots. And depending on what level you’re at a good shot might mean black, or it might mean 9’s or better, or it may simply be a 10.  It is my JOB to execute to the best of my ability sight picture, sight alignment, grip, and trigger control. 

5 shots, 10 Shot, 30 shots it doesn’t matter. You do it like it’s the only one there is, and it counts big time. So focus needs to be there. Not in the future, not in the past. Just the one shot. Because you can’t do anything about anything else save the one shot that’s in the chamber. And in slow fire that’s how I get ahead. One shot at a time. First target, last target, doesn’t matter. You give it 110% until it’s done. And done isn’t the target. Done isn’t the match. Done is the end of the day. That’s why Bullseye is sometimes referred to as a marathon. 

This may not help much but if you’re capable of averaging 90’s at 50 and you let an 85 sneek in there then you didn’t stay focused. You started doing things that aren’t part of you’re normal routine. 

Consistent till the end. Do your job. Time and time again.

Yep, looks familiar, my NMC SF was almost always a few points less than SF1 and SF2. I keep telling myself, "just shoot, no matter what stage it is, no matter what your score is, no matter if you win or lose - just shoot, one after another, breathe, raise the gun, pull the trigger, follow through, repeat".
Kinda helps so far, I shoot more and more 95 and 96.

There are no targets, no totals, no need to count shots, no one after the other, no expectations. 

There is only the shot.

After its done, you can start on the next ONE. 

(Takes a lot to accomplish this.  I'm still working on it.   )

Lanny Bassham's 2 keys to greatness in the shooting sports:

1) Learn what it takes to shoot a 10
2) Repeat #1

- Dave
I've said this 1K times:  It's a simple sport that takes dedication to "Master"!

All above, well said.

One might point out that you didn't fail once--you succeeded twice.

And again, numbers are fine and dandy, but what happened with the individual shots is, I think, more important. What was the difference between the 92s and the 85? Did you just throw a shot or two, or did all your shots go a little off-call? Sometimes you just get tired.

I finds that this happens in practice to me and sometimes I think it is because I do not take enough time between each target. The scoring in a match provides a break between each target so you can refocus mentally on each one. I even heard an interesting tip last summer in advanced SAFS class. Take a mental break during a slow fire target as it can be hard to maintain the focus for the ten solid minutes. Take a break to go get a drink or step off the line and see if that helps.

I focus on process.

If I become flustered, or can't focus on process, I drop the mag and dryfire to the process until i feel like the process can proceed.

My process isn't about how to shoot a 98 slow fire. It's not even how to shoot a 10. It's the steps to shooting a "good" shot, which just happens to be a 10 or an X.