Mental Game

 

That’s a term you’ll read about in most sports psychology articles, it’s where we try to learn how to have our minds help us do what we want to do.

 

In shooting, this is as—or more—important than the physical aspects of what we do. We have to focus only on what we’re doing at that time and to ‘stay in the moment’.

Stay in the moment. That’s where you are paying attention to the one thing you’re doing at that time and not thinking about how you should be mowing the back 40 or how your mother-in-law is coming to stay with you for an extended period of time.

We’ve all heard the saying that shooting is 10% physical and 90% mental, and while those percentages are ‘guesstimates,’ they do tell us that the majority of our efforts are mental. We have to be thinking about what we’re doing and not about some extraneous thoughts like the guy behind the line that can’t keep his voice down.

The physical aspects of the shooting sports are relatively easy to learn and to master, but the acreage between our ears is much more difficult to control. Yet it’s the difference between okay shooting and outstanding shooting.

The difference between most of us and the great shooters is controlling the mental game.

Read the articles, glean what you can from them and apply it to your sport. You will, over time, be able to manage your thoughts and improve your shooting.

Barry Hartmann is an NSSA Master Level and NRA Certified shotgun instructor who can help you improve your skills at American Skeet and wingshooting. To contact Barry, email him at threeat8@aol.com or give him a call at (918)803-2393.