Competition is about winning! Vince Lambardi said "If you can accept losing, you can't win". Your competition training program should reflect this attitude. If you train without purpose and expect to win or perform your best at a match, then you WILL fail! A competition training program should focus on mental, physical and spiritual skills, AND should follow these general guidlines:
Each training program and the individual sessions in the program must have a specific design and purpose. I truly believe this is on of my personal failures in my past training programs, don't do as I did!
Make sure that your program allows for a thorough test of your equipment, and also of new equipment if it is the "off" season (those who really want to win don't really have an "off" season).
The training sessions should be focused on the skills you will need to win, no what you like to practice to make yourself feel good about the session. We all make this mistake.
Focused attention in the critical point when training for competition. If you can't stay focused during the session, then end it.
Physical Keys-
When training for a competitive event, design your training program so it matches the physical skills you will need. This seems elementary, but its common to watch people train on simple movements like the draw process while they are static, and then expect themselves to perform the same draw while exploding out of a position. Some considerations:
Training repetitions should be done with specific attention paid to learning the correct movement, then increasing speed so you are practicing the skill at full speed. You will NEVER know how fast you can do something until you push yourself at top speed.
The goal should be to perform repetitions increasing in speed until the accuracy element degrades below your acceptable level (which should be very high, since accuracy is THE key in most games). Then train at that maximum controlled speed until you are able to increase the speed again maintaining a certain level of accuracy.
Remember that practicing wrong at full speed, will degrade your skill faster than anything you can do. You learning repetitions must be correct, NEVER EVER perform repetitions faster than you can do them correctly.
Mental Keys-
The mental game is often quoted at being 90% of more of the game in competitive events. I disagree, I believe that the mental game is 100% of the game....as is the physical. Think about this, there is no such thing as separating the two. When designing training programs to compete, the mental aspect is one that most shooters overlook. They spend a large amount of time training their physical techniques, but fail to perform at the match because the situation changes and they feel pressure, or their body dumps adrenaline into their system. Some key considerations in you mental design portion of your training program:
Don't separate the mental from the physical. I don't believe most metal training should be done alone in a quite room (such as visualization), but rather on the range during practice. Attach a value to each "thing" you try to accomplish in your sessions. Make your performance count for something (pay your wife a dollar for every bad shot, that will teach you to watch the sights and press the trigger!).
Ensure that the physical training repetitions are broken down and embedded with mental triggers. I believe that with proper mental triggers designed throughout a training program, a competitor will have a much better chance at surviving the pressure of a match, especially if they are a new shooter. I attach a mental trigger to the critical areas of my physical techniques, these triggers cause a certain response or feeling, or visual cue. (Click mental trigger to go to "tips" for more on mental triggers)
Believing is achieving. Although I don't have the ability to lie to myself and believe I can win unless I feel that I have put in the hours of work where I deserve to win, I do work constantly on building my confidence on performing key techniques....on demand. You should pay a particular amount of attention to "performing on demand" in your training sessions, meaning that you should set up a drill or a shot and repeat it over an over (sucessfully), ingraining your belief in yourself that you can do that particular thing, on demand...perfectly....ten times in a row. This will increase your confidence on hard shots when the pressure is on, because you already KNOW you can succeed.
Mike Seeklander
Its all in the mind! This photo shows me getting ready to load and make ready on the stage. I am running my mental programs during this time, and am focusing on only what is important. The critical component is that I am keeping any negative thoughts out right before the stage. If I don't, I WILL fail!
Click image to go to Shooting-Performance home page!
