Competition Mindset: When It All Goes Bad

Aug 25, 2014
If you've been a competitor in any sport, you'll remember "that match". You know "that match (or game)". Not the great one; the one where everything went wrong. The one where you wished for an out-of-body experience or an injury. The match where I hit my new low was, unfortunately, one that offers great storylines, and happens to be the only major match of its kind in the world. The entry slots fill only minutes after it opens to would-be shooters. Having had one of those spots -twice- I'm seriously considering passing next year. It was that bad. Because my mistakes were basic violations of common-sense guidelines common to any sport that involves equipment. Unless something breaks, you never change equipment after a competition starts. You must trust your equipment. Second-guessing is fatal. At "that match" I forgot that rule and was so hard-headed I broke it again. Going through some pre-match training, I realized the Mossberg/Miculek competition semiautomatic shotguns were considerably faster than even my slicked-up pump gun. So...I borrowed a shotgun. It ran great..until my normally-reliable shotgun ammo jammed it - in the middle of a stage. Seems "everyone" (except me) knew my ammo wasn't strong enough for the high-speed semi-auto extractor. Two common-sense penalties here, First I ran an unfamiliar gun. But more importantly, I presumed it would run and never bothered to test it with my ammo. Because of that error, I started pressing. And that caught me as I tried to "game" the AR-portion of a major stage. This stage moves between two shooting berms. One side has a variety of rifle targets-all at shootable distances. The second mixes shotgun and pistol in another "target rich environment." Counting targets, I realized I'd have to make a mag change during the rifle stage. Mag changes for mean mean time lost. So I repeated the never change rule- and loaded up a brand-new, untested 40-round magazine. But it got worse. If I could run the stage with only one mag, I decided not to carry another mag. Lighter is faster, right? Loaded and ready at the buzzer, I scrambled to the first target, brought the gun to my shoulder, slipped off the safety and got: "click" when I needed "bang". It's the ultimate competition surprise -but still better than a "bang" when you expect a "click" . But I practice misfires. I worked my bolt, dropped the round, reseated the mag (firmly), ran the bolt and..got the same exact "click" - three more times before realizing two things: that mag was broken and I didn't have a spare. With a spare, I would have lost serious time, but had a chance at the rifle targets. Instead, it was a goose-egg on a "dead gun". I cleaned the second stage, but the damage was done. Triple figure penalty seconds -on a single match stage. Two brain coughs killed the entire match for me. Fortunately, I calmed down enough (thanks, Chuck) to finish the match in the learning mode. That's where I should have been from the beginning. There, I observe things good shooters are doing and integrate them into my own routines -without even thinking about it. Two of my better stages came after the meltdowns that killed any performance pressure I'd put on myself. Maybe that's a lesson from "that match" for all of us. We know mistakes will be made and we should plan accordingly. If we don't consider what to do if we get a broken shell or a bent mag, we're really planning our failure - or setting the stage for "that match". Hopefully, I've had my "match". Even if I haven't, I'm fairly certain I've eliminated at least two mental errors from future ones. Maybe it wasn't a total loss after all. --Jim Shepherd