Practicing Before Nationals

So, let’s talk a little bit about how we practiced the three times we had time to practice leading up to going to the actual tournament.

In our research, we have determined that when we shoot different shots (especially in sporting) many shooters think that they are using the same circuit – just with different timing and speed. But once again, research has proven that they are not.

Upon viewing each shot in a pair on each station, your brain in a matter of seconds must choose a beginning, middle and an ending from its inventory of circuits you have trained in practice and put them together synchronously in seconds. This is called recall.

Our experience is that most shooters go out and shoot the course. If they had difficulty on a station, they’ll go back and work on specific shots without recalling in detail how and where they want to hit each target in each pair. This is called blocked practice.

They are usually shooting on their home course and are familiar with the surrounding. Their brains just put circuits together, and even if they have a great score in their practice rounds on game day, this approach falls apart on targets and courses they have never seen.

They are not forcing their brains to recall different parts of different circuits from their past, so the brain just uses whatever was used on the last station or another station. This results in chasing the birds down and trying to fix the shot at the end.

There are so many variables in each shot when the misses occur that they cannot be corrected. Frustration is the result. But they shot so well in practice!