Coaching Hour – Working Through the Jitters – July 2018
Coaching Hour – July 2018 – EXCERPT
Like history, topics on the Coaching Hour often repeat themselves. “The jitters” is a concept that we’ve discussed over the years, and we frequently return to certain topics with more refined insights. This excerpt from the July 2018 Coaching Hour shows how much value our members get from listening to and reading past Coaching Hours!
Gil: So, Dean, you went back and listened to the October 2015 Coaching Hour about jitters. What was amazing to you about that?
Dean: We actually talked about it for two months- September and October 2015. I brought it up after I had experienced some debilitating jitters at the Oregon shoot that August. And there was some really good back-and-forth about the jitters. Anybody who has the jitters and needs some work with it, those are two Coaching Hours to go back and listen to.
But what was amazing is now I can work through the jitters. I still get them periodically at the Open. I shot my 5-stand with Bill McGuire, which was the first time I ever shot with one of the big dogs. And I had some jitters issues. I’ll go back to “playing the game”- I was able to work through them, because it was all about process. My ability to get through the jitters was to fall back on my process.
Gil: Well, that’s something everybody works through, and you never overcome them completely. You just learn how to deal with them and channel them into positive things. It’s just like when I get ready to go on in front of a thousand people. I’m nervous. But I know if I give in to that and I view that as a weakness, I’m not going to have access to everything in my subconscious brain. So I’d do an NLP- shoulders back, congruent posture, deep breath, walking with grace and power. And I walk right up there and say “hello” and be determined, number one, that I’m gonna have a great time.
And number two, I’m going gonna laugh harder at my jokes than anybody else in the audience. And number three, somebody’s going to ask me a question that’s going to key me into what the whole audience needs to learn about. And Vicki’s seen me do this over and over again.
We’ll learn more about that here in a minute when I begin to talk to Jeff about his post on the forum. It doesn’t matter how much you know. It doesn’t matter how much you understand what you’re about to do. What really matters is how many times you’ve done it. And then how many times you’ve done it in front of a thousand people.
Dean: I’m able to get through that now because I’ve put a number on my back for three years since 2015. And you know, couple that with having a process to fall back on. Every time you go to the range, every time you pick up that gun, it just makes it that much easier.
Gil: Yeah. And I might suggest to you that rather than looking at it as a process that you fall back on, you look at it as a process that you’ve trained; a process that you’ve learned to trust that will help you rise to the occasion. That sounds like I’m saying the same thing, but I’m not. It’s one thing to say “I’ve got something I can fall back on if I have a problem.” It’s another one to say “All I’ve got to do is show up and run my process and I can trust that process because I’ve used it so many times it’s going to get me through this.” And that too is a change in your mindset. It’s something that you can’t consciously do; it’s a result of how you’ve competed and trained. Just like confidence and consistency are not two things that you can practice.
You can practice correcting from a miss. You can practice your gun mount. You can practice shooting in the breakpoint. But confidence and competence create consistency. And you can’t train competence, confidence and consistency. They are the result of how you train. So rather than say “I’ve got something I can fall back on,” I’m going to say “I’ve got something that I’ve used so many times successfully, I don’t have to fall back on anything. I’m ready for it. Let’s roll.” So that’s just an aside for you. So you’re beginning to be able to control the jitters, right?
Dean: Yes, sir. Absolutely.
Gil: Good. When’s your next tournament?
Dean: I don’t know. I’m actually taking this month off.
Gil: That’s good. Hopefully I’ll see you fairly soon and we can get your stock situation taken care of and you’ll be ready to roll. All right, well, great. So anybody who’s having any kind of a jitter thing, listen to the Coaching Hours from September and October 2015.
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