Getting Out of the Evaluation Quagmire

There have been hundreds of times in the last 35 years when I’ve had a really good shooter who’s trying to learn a new move. He’ll be struggling and hit it three or four times.

And here’s the problem: he thinks he has it. He’s gone to evaluating. He jumps into the evaluation quagmire, and all of a sudden, he couldn’t hit the ground if he fell down.

I’ll say, “Give me your gun. Walk over there to that tree. You see that? There are two knots in that tree. Touch the bottom knot three times, and count out loud, 1-2-3, and then come back over here.”

They look at you like, “What?”

All I’m doing is getting him to consciously make a decision to stop the wheel of negativity and complaining, and go over there and make him consciously touch that knot three times and count out loud, 1-2-3. When they get back in the cage, all of a sudden the negativity is gone, and they hit the target. So, I get them out of the cage and I say don’t go down that cortisol path.