Being Competitive in Master Class

“The last year and a half have been relatively easy for me to goal set – punch into A, then punch into AA. Now my short-term goal is master class. But I’m trying to figure out a long-term goal. I want to end up competitive in master class. But how do I word it on the wall of my reloading room? I would like to hear what other people have done and have used to get there.”

 

You need to research where you are, and where you want to be.

Get the calendar out and begin to fill in the blank dates with shoots and travel times to and from tournaments. How many regionals and how many local tournaments? Just how competitive do you want to be in master class? Do you want to be competitive in a zone? In a state? In the western United States, eastern United States, or anywhere you go? How many events at each tournament will you shoot? And how much rest are you going to need after you get there and between events?

You need to talk about the maximum number of targets you can shoot on each multi-day tournament. When do you need to be in bed? What do you need to eat? All of those things can be accomplished by simply filling out a logbook. And there’s a log page in the shot simulator that you can download.

Think about how many different places you will go to practice. People in Houston have a great advantage over many other people because, within an hour’s drive, there are five different shooting facilities. All of them with more than one course, and two of them with four. One of them with three. So, if you’re in Houston, it’s easy for you to vary the backgrounds and vary the things that you’re doing. But if you’re in an area of the country where you’re isolated, you got to travel to get good targets.

How often will you go to the places to practice? Which place is going to give you the best bang for your buck as far as time spent there, diversified targets, etc? When the weather sucks, you need to be practicing. You could practice in the wind, in the rain, early in the morning, and late in the evening.

Anything you can do to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation to force yourself to perform will eventually be a bonus down the road. Repetition in competition is a necessity if you want to compete well. Competing well is just like learning shooting techniques.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. If you can go to a shoot and not care about your score for at least a year after you’re in master class, you will begin to be able to score well.

 

This is an excerpt from the January 2021 Coaching Hour podcast. You can listen to it and read a written transcript, along with more than 20 years of archived episodes with your Knowledge Vault membership.