There’s No Such Thing as an “Easy” or “Hard” Target

“If we can accept that having some level of expectation is a normal and natural byproduct of training and competition, how do we best manage and deal with it?”

You always go into a practice or tournament with some kind of expectation. But you can’t let that really enter into the process because then you’ve taken away your process orientation of your plan and sticking with your plan.

“If we feel more confident in a shot plan because we’ve practiced on many targets like the ones in front of us, that’s the plan on both experience and rational expectations. But if we are overconfident in our expectations, and then complacent in devising that plan and focusing on the targets, we just expect them to break. We often have the wake-up call of an unexpected miss.”

You want to feel confident, but not overconfident when you go into a practice or tournament. That comes from deliberate practice and feeling comfortable with it. Targets are not easy or hard. They just are. If you get a so-called “easy target,” you better be more determined and work your plan. Because you got to have those.

It’s really easy to say, “Well, that’s close, I’ve seen it 1000 times” and not work the plan. Well, just go to a charity shoot when all the targets are really close and see what happens when you don’t give every target the same amount of respect.

This is an excerpt from the February 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.