Failure Shows You Your Patterns

Don’t be afraid of going to three shoots and having the same thing happen to you over and over again. Because if the same thing happens to you over and over again, guess what? You can look at it as “I’ve got a terminal problem and I’m going to die from it” or “all I got to do is figure out what the hell is wrong and, goddamn, they better watch out for me from now on.”

There is a pattern. You’ve got to learn to back up from your game and look for patterns and failures.

If you’re in master class you don’t have a lot wrong, but if you don’t get out there and put a number on your back and get out there and say “I’m going to do my best to win today,” and then once you get on the course, don’t think about winning. Do your job.

If you’re not all there and you’re not giving every competitive target everything you’ve got from Station 1 to Station 15, the patterns that emerge will not be the ones you’re looking for.

You’re looking for patterns of failure. But the only way the patterns of failure will be the ones that you need to work on will be if you are prepared. You have the right process goals. You stay process-oriented. You’re not worried about winning or losing. You give every tournament target as much as you can give it.

Every shot is an investment in your future. If you look at every shot you take as an investment in your shooting future and give it every bit of respect that it deserves every time you call “pull,” we promise you that certain patterns will evolve. They will emerge.

And if you’ve been doing your job on game day, the patterns that emerge will be the true problems. They will be easy to define. And once they’re easy to define, then they’re easily practiced into submission.

 

This is an excerpt from the April 2011 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.