How We Practiced Before Nationals

In our three practice sessions before the National Championship, we shot no more than three or four boxes, and shot only singles. But we each announced what approach we were going to shoot and where we were going to break the target. This forced our brains to recall parts of different circuits synchronously in seconds as we were choosing our breakpoints.

We did not keep score and we only shot singles, but due to the intensity and deliberate mindset, our brains were tired. So we just stopped.

With each practice, through reflection, we had more and more confidence and an ability to commit to an approach instantly. While we didn’t shoot a lot, the intensity of our practice was consistently higher and higher. This led to increased confidence and patience to let the shot develop based on chosen breakpoints and technique.

Something we all felt extremely helpful was using a specific word association with a technique when choosing a breakpoint, as it began to categorize a specific technique for our brains. We wanted to use in a specific breakpoint almost instantly.

In our OSP stable of approaches, we currently have four. We refer to them as “catch,” “converge,” “challenge,” and “stroll.” We were all amazed at how quickly the brain could visualize in detail without thought exactly how we wanted the shot to come together in our chosen breakpoint.

The hold points and focal points took care of themselves. And when we said, “I am going to ‘challenge’ that one right there” the reflexive detailed visualization got more and more vivid without thought. This created confidence in what we were doing which made performance easy.