Dealing With Match Pressure

Introduction

You have confidence in your equipment. Your practice sessions yield satisfactory scores. Now the challenge is to simply execute what you know that you are fully capable of doing when it really counts. It sounds easy enough, but unfortunately, our minds don’t always cooperate. Feeling nervous about having a great performance is certainly natural. However, when that feeling turns to panic because you think that you are the only shooter on the line feeling this pressure, your mind has defeated you. You will not be able to focus on the task at hand. Rest assured, every competitor feels this pressure to execute to the best of his ability. The challenge for you is to channel this same pressure constructively and to not let it overwhelm you.

In my last article we talked about maintaining the correct technical fundamentals under pressure because if you exerted all your mental energy towards aspects such as stance and grips, rather than the arithmetic evaluation of your score then you would ultimately reap the benefits. Almost every shooter at one stage gets told in their training that they should not think about their score during a match as this could possibly increase match pressure and distract them from giving their best performance. Unfortunately, this is often easier said then done as most shooters even when not purposely trying to keep score could nominate their score within a few points!

Match Pressure

Match pressure can often turn into anxiety especially when must perform well (ie selection trials, finals etc) or when simply friends come to watch you shoot tens! Match pressure is entirely natural. It is the way we deal with it that becomes critical to performance. Great shooters are generally very good at managing match pressure. There are many factors that can assist you in reducing match pressure such as confidence, self image and or developing good technique.

As stated most shooters feel negative pressure at times and every person has a certain disposition (psychological trait) in handling pressure. The art of performing under pressure is something that most shooters can learn and develop. The goal is to cope with pressure in a way that allows your true shooting potential to be unfolded. You can learn effective techniques for this purpose. Nevertheless, there are no short cuts in the art of pistol shooting. You need to work on handling pressure continuously. Lack of experience is often one of the key contributors to match pressure. Can you remember you first finals? So placing yourself under pressure on purpose and placing your shot execution onto the “centre stage” is a great way of practising for coping with pressure.

Champion US shooter Allen Fulford once stated that “For me, there is no substitute for match experience. There is nothing like going to matches, seeing good scores starting to build, dealing with the mental aspects of a good score, and also dealing with the mental aspects of that buddy you want to beat. Taking all of this into account is no substitute for the experience of shooting real matches. After you get over that initial “stage fright,” you will concentrate more on trigger control, etc. when it is in “real” competition. For me, concentrating on my “routine” keeps me from thinking about anything else. Thinking about the fundamentals of grip, stance, trigger control etc. pushes any negative thoughts out of my mind. If I can maintain this kind of positive thinking, then I am able to overcome match nerves”.

There are basically three ways of reacting to match pressure:

1.) Everything goes better, the shooter feels elated and his/her concentration and execution is enhanced.

2.) Performance suffers from various symptoms, such as fears, panic, body parts shaking, loss of concentration, etc.

3.) The shooter becomes apathetic and may still shoot competently but not at his/her best.

The Subconscious Mind

Technically the concept is to not think about ones score while shooting. During the training phase of shooting one most think about the various techniques and processes in developing and executing the perfect shot. However, in the performance phase and for a good performance score this needs to be achieved subconsciously and without the interference of the conscious mind. Almost all skills that are executed at the expert level are performed using the sub conscious mind. For example, a person learns skills consciously (for example when someone learns to type: consciously finding each key and depressing it) and the expert performs the skill subconsciously (an expert typist and they can talk, read, chew gum and type at the same time!). US Sport Psychologist Dr. Debbie Crews, has done a lot of work on mental training and testing in sports. In particular on athletes who choke under pressure. She feels that her results are applicable to shooters, as well as golfers, with whom she specialises. Her research shows that when an athlete needs to perform a highly-skilled action, it must be the subconscious that does it, not the conscious, and our minds must be relaxed and in the subconscious mode to do it. The left and right sides of the brain must be in harmony (balanced activity) and there must be no conscious self-talk or activity 1-3 seconds before the action takes place.

Your Shot Plan

Whether you feel pressure or are downright bored, you give energy to things other than shot execution so getting into the shot plan is one of the best remedies of match pressure. This means you must concentrate and focus on the task at hand. Keeping tuned to the plan will help put doubts and distractions out of your mind. Sometimes the pressure will show itself only in a breakdown of concentration, a slight un-focusing of the mind. You won’t realise that you are becoming unglued until your group starts spreading and even then often we tend to blame our ammunition, light or even the wind conditions!

Establishing a routine is possibly the greatest combat against a lack of initial mental focus. Preparation can also assist in the reduction of match pressure. Being ready is important in slow fire, more important in timed fire and absolutely critical in rapid fire. Going through the motions of a pre-established and familiar plan can get your “mental wheels” moving in the proper direction. If necessary, a written checklist can serve as a tool to assist in “getting your head screwed on right.” Now that all of your equipment is in place and you are at ease, the stage is set for a great performance. The first string of slow fire begins. You raise the pistol and flawlessly execute the fundamentals, confidently firing a ten. Now the challenge is to stay focused. You can and will succeed, each and every time.

Chemical Assistance

Unfortunately, some shooters look for the easy way such as “chemical assistance”. It is human nature to seek a simple item that will substitute for hard work. Taking a drug such as a beta-blocker to avoid all of that destroys so many of the game’s virtues. Utilising drugs such as beta-blockers or alcohol is not only illegal but also strongly discouraged. What are beta-blockers? When you get nervous or frightened, the brain responds by sending “fight or flight” messages down through the spinal cord and sympathetic nervous system to the rest of the body. These chemical messages are mediated by the secretion of adrenaline. Also known as epinephrine, adrenaline is the main hormone that causes such physiological alarms as the heart to beat faster, the palms to sweat and the hands to tremble. Adrenaline triggers these changes in the individual cells via entry points known as beta receptors. Because their chemical structure is very similar to that of adrenaline, beta-blocking drugs are able to attach to the receptors instead, thereby preventing the adrenaline from delivering its anxiety-provoking message. Beta –blockers can produce a range of side effects including asthma like reaction, fatigue, dizziness and weakness, as well as depression, short-term memory loss, insomnia, and/or vivid dreams.

Beta-blockers are able to:

1.) Lower the heart rate.

2.) Lower blood pressure

3.) Lower the “squeezing strength” of the heart.

Early Relaxation

Our mind has a tendency to relax before the shot breaks. We stand there working hard on a shot and the old subconscious is screeching “shoot it, so you can relax.” The best way to overcome this is to mentally follow through which maintains our focus on the task at hand until the bullet is safely in the ten ring. Bad shots are very often caused by a slight relaxing of the attention lost just as the shot breaks. This is usually accompanied by a spasmodic jerk of the trigger finger when the subconscious gives us its mental elbow in the ribs to “shoot it and get it over with.” To overcome this concentrate on keeping the sights aligned before, during and after the shot breaks. Then during the trigger squeeze work up a mental picture of the shot breaking and the sights remaining in perfect alignment. This is what is meant by mental follow through. The idea is to continue working at keeping the sights aligned even while the shot is travelling toward the target. It is the best insurance against relaxing ones attention too soon.

Personal Attitudes

Finally, our own personal attitudes will largely influence our performances. Therefore it is effective to work with negative attitudes to performance. You can utilise relaxation procedures including the use of a ‘relaxation trigger’, that is a mental image that displaces negative thought. This ‘trigger’ can be used before shooting and also on the firing line. You can with practice teach yourself thought control processes whenever needed before performance and on the line. Thinking constructively will not exactly erase all negative feelings, but rather limit their effects. It is more a question of living creatively with an appetite for success, because if there is no hunger at all performance is likely to suffer.

US World Skeet Champion Gabby Hulgan once stated “The truly great shooters pay little or no attention at all to their competition, or anything else for that matter. For them, the contest takes place inside their head. The real struggle is to get in the zone. When they find it, the rest just seems to happen. It’s as if the world around them melts, the distractions disappear and the universe is reduced to the few simple elements of eyes, hands, gun and target”

Your mind is the control tower for all your physiological reactions. If your hands start shaking, your palms get sweaty, you can’t think straight because you “feel nervous,” it is probably because you’re thinking of the situation negatively instead of as an opportunity for success.

Six Steps to Overcome Pressure

Dr. Bob Rotella, a specialist in sports psychology, offers six steps to help deal with pressure, anxiety and nervousness:

1.) Think good, pleasant, soothing thoughts rather than worrisome or negative thoughts.

2.) Keep your mind on the present, on the shot you’re going to execute right now. Think about what you want to happen. Remember, anxieties are always about what just happened or what might happen, so stay in the present.

3.) Assume the best is going to happen, rather than anticipating the worst. You wouldn’t go to work every day thinking you were about to be fired, so why try to shoot with that type of mental approach?

4.) Use the power of perception to dwell on your strengths.

5.) Feel as if you were destined to have good things happen to you rather than as if you were born to have bad things happen.

6.) When you start to feel tension, stop and take deep, slow breaths.

Conclusion

If you work hard on ideas such as these, concentrating on the ones that seem to help you the most, you will find that you will gradually begin to control the pressure better. Lots of regular practice under match conditions will not only improve your ability, but as your practice scores improve, you will have more confidence in yourself. The ability to withstand the pressure of competition will then enable you to shoot your good scores in matches. When you get into a tight situation, you will lose only a few points and not a handful. One day, the other shooters will start pointing to you and saying, “Wow, look at that, not a nerve in his body!”

I wish you well and good shooting

Dieter Wilhelmi