Competition "yips"

[zzr1100]

Been averaging low 90s with a BSA century .. Borrow a match 54 .. Averages go up to mid 90's ... Put 2 competition cards up and I shot 79 and 86 respectively .. ARSE !!

[20series]

Been averaging low 90s with a BSA century .. Borrow a match 54 .. Averages go up to mid 90's ... Put 2 competition cards up and I shot 79 and 86 respectively .. ARSE !!

Its very much a mind game, I had at one point a 99.2 average at 25yards and then had allsorts going on and was chucking in 91's and such wtfwtf

I sat down and gave myself a stiff talking too and reminded myself its not one match of 10 shots but 10 matches of 1 shot..!! Every shot should have as much put into it as possible :goodjob:

Keep at it you'll be ok :goodjob:

Alan

[zzr1100]

Cheers Alan .. On an up note I scored 99x100 on my 20yrd lever action card ..!! :-)

[20series]

Cheers Alan .. On an up note I scored 99x100 on my 20yrd lever action card ..!! :-)

well done

[dave_303]

I found this too with .22 sport rifle, practice average was 93-95, dropped to 89-92 during competition season

[jazzyj]

Ah the legendary 'white sticker syndrome'.

I too suffered this common phenomenon regardless of discipline. Match air pistol, LWSR, prone, just about every type of shooting was affected.

One idea the guy coaching me tried was covering up the corner where the white competition sticker sat, and we had someone put a target up for me, so I didn't know if I was shooting a practice or a match card. Trouble was, that caused me to wobble on every card and my average went crap all round! Not a good idea.

At one open shoot my dad was updating me of my score round by round as I shot my way through the comp. A more experienced shooter offered some advice;

"Don't tell him his score until the end. If he's doing well he'll get complacent, if he's doing poor he'll try too hard, both of which will cause him to muck up."

Sounds odd but I used to be able to feel when I'd shot a good card or not. I'd change targets without looking at the score, and try to relax and do my best.

Like said before, it's all in the head.

[Gaz]

Put stickers on all your cards - be they the match stickers or an internal club league or something else that counts for something. I used to drop 2-3pts on match cards until I tried that. Now every card's just a set of ten 10s to shoot!

Didn't stop me going wibble on Monday night and scraping in with a 95 tho...