Keeping track of what?

[prohjac]

Been shooting bullseye (.22) for a few years and just took an army marksmanship clinic. Wondering what you guys keep track of in terms of practice, matches, scores, etc. If so do you use excel, notebook ?

[marvelshooter]

I see a lot of guys keeping a logbook at the big matches. If you shoot in a league it is done for you. Some guys even keep a diary of their practices. The only thing I do is keep my copies of match results although I rarely look at them.

[Misny]

For many years, I kept track of my practice and match scores. I would mull them over and record the trends and weaknesses. I used them for my training. It seemed to help. I also kept a diary with short notes of things I learned at practice and matches. I found that if I didn't write down my thoughts that I'd forget something that was very important. If you don't look at your scores, they aren't doing you any good.

[jackh]

Notes help. I'm not so anal to write down every last detail. But simple notes help keep it simple to recall what I did that day that I can use this day and hopefully become a trend that is good. I do usually file my score bulletins, but I can not recall the last time I looked. If I were to shoot a great target worthy of saving, I should write on it what made it good. Again a simple note, possible in mantra form. I have to depend mostly on my brain. But it does need prompts.

What were we saying?

[BenEnglishTX]

Wondering what you guys keep track of in terms of practice, matches, scores, etc.

I'm not a good shot and not competitive at any of the sports discussed on this board. Therefore, my input will be worth about what you pay for it.

That said, I keep a diary in a simple text editor. I record less about performance and more about everything else that impacts my life and performance.

Example?

I know from my diary and my measurements on target that if I have an active but not stressful day, get 11 hours sleep, eat a normal breakfast, and moderate my caffeine intake for 24 hours before my midmorning practice at the range, I'll be able to put 60 rounds on a practice target in a group of size "Y".

If I have a heavy workout, get 7 hours sleep, eat a too-large breakfast or skip it altogether, swill the enormous quantities of caffeine that I prefer, then head off to the range to put 60 rounds through a practice target, my group will be sized at 1.5 to 1.6Y.

That's solidly predictable for me. Thus, my diary has taught me how I need to conduct myself for the 36 hours or so preceding a competition.

I think that's pretty valuable. YMMV.

[NDbullseye]

I use excel to keep tract of my practice, league, and match scores. Gives me something to look at and mull over. I can visualize what I did on that given day to give me that score. It is very usefull because if you don't keep track you really don't know your progress or what actually works and what doesn't. I also keep a notebook with the individual shot values in them.

[Levergun59]

When I was shooting irons, every range had new zero info and the position I shot from. Shooting outdoors, wind, sun, time, position # and zeros were all logged in. I would log in the dot settings and my scores. There were some really wierd setups in Illinois ranges. Bells guns had the shooter stick his arm through a hole in the wall. Aurora had doors that closed on the targets. Lots of stuff to record, but it was just meaningful to me.
Chris

[orionshooter]

I wonder how often observations and the accompanying mental states like this end up becoming self fulfilling prophecies?. In other words if you just know you aren't going to do well, you wont.

Wondering what you guys keep track of in terms of practice, matches, scores, etc.

I'm not a good shot and not competitive at any of the sports discussed on this board. Therefore, my input will be worth about what you pay for it.

That said, I keep a diary in a simple text editor. I record less about performance and more about everything else that impacts my life and performance.

Example?

I know from my diary and my measurements on target that if I have an active but not stressful day, get 11 hours sleep, eat a normal breakfast, and moderate my caffeine intake for 24 hours before my midmorning practice at the range, I'll be able to put 60 rounds on a practice target in a group of size "Y".

If I have a heavy workout, get 7 hours sleep, eat a too-large breakfast or skip it altogether, swill the enormous quantities of caffeine that I prefer, then head off to the range to put 60 rounds through a practice target, my group will be sized at 1.5 to 1.6Y.

That's solidly predictable for me. Thus, my diary has taught me how I need to conduct myself for the 36 hours or so preceding a competition.

I think that's pretty valuable. YMMV.

[BenEnglishTX]

I wonder how often observations and the accompanying mental states like this end up becoming self fulfilling prophecies?. In other words if you just know you aren't going to do well, you wont.

Interesting. I suppose that's a danger. To me, the point of broader recordkeeping is to be able to classify my observations into physical and mental components.

Physical challenges I can control. I know that downing a 6-pack of Jolt before shooting is a bad idea for solid, real-world, physical reasons. Thus, I don't do that.

Mental challenges are harder. If I eat right, get plenty of sleep and don't over-exert but still shoot lousy, I try to figure out what I missed. Maybe I had a massive argument with my girlfriend that morning and I was distracted without even realizing it. If so, I'll know in the future to avoid that pre-competition mental stress or, if it was unavoidable, to work harder at relaxing, visualizing, meditating before competing.

While I may always be susceptible to confusing correlation with causality, I figure there's no way I'll ever be able to figure out any of this stuff unless I have data to study.

Thus, I think I'm in greater danger of overthinking than falling victim to self-fulfilling prophecy. My judgement (which, clearly, is only valid for me and which I freely admit may turn out to be completely wrong) is that the recordkeeping does more good than harm.

How about an example from another part of life? At one point in my life, I did standup comedy as a hobby. I took classes, talked to many teachers and other standups, and learned how people approach the task. In that world, there are thinkers and there are feelers. Most standups like to think they compromise between the two but they don't, really.

Thinkers write out every joke, every pause, every stumble and apparent mistake, every stray "Uhmm...." that they'll say on stage. They recite their lines and take extensive notes on the extent to which the audience reaction correlated to their predictions. Every trip to the stage is a test that will dictate the next re-write. Heck, it's not unusual, in clubs that recognize and nurture this process, to see standups actually reading their material from a crib sheet.

Feelers just get up and start talking. They run on pure instinct.

Neither approach is right or wrong. Success has come to people via both paths.

But can you guess to which camp I belonged?

[tuj]

I score every target and record the target score and number of x's. Then after each practice sessions I write up a range report with what went well and what went badly. Been doing this now for about a year, shooting around an 800 match score.

[prohjac]

Thanks for the info, I think I'll start a notebook, keep track of scores and some details about what I did wrong and right. Is keeping group sizes too much?

[jackh]

I came back to BE after a 20 some year layoff for family raising. I used to shoot before that in the 870's with HS. I started comeback with a 810. I kept track of scores at first and soon noticed a climb in range of score. 810's became 820's, became 830's.....840's etc. The jumps became slower then. 850's, 860's, occasional 870 something. Occasional 840 something. (Those were "uncomfortable" days) After a time I stopped worrying about score. Group size and consistency became more important. If there was a datum I looked at it would have been an in group vs not in group ratio. But I do not look at it that way. It is more like "good call", or not. Verify in scope (at practice), analyse, and shoot again. Bottom line is "am I comfortable with my performance?".

[dam8]

As said by so many here, the important thing to do is record the things you did well and not the negative!
positive reinforcement is one of the best training techniques.
I record scores etc, but have recorded much more valuable info from shot plans. glean things from posts here and use the endless knowledge that works for you
as 2650 plus says"good shooting"

[Orion]

Thanks for the info, I think I'll start a notebook, keep track of scores and some details about what I did wrong and right. Is keeping group sizes too much?

Here is a good template used to reference your daily shooting.

http://www.targetshooting.ca/docs/shooting_diary.pdf

http://www.targetshooting.ca/reframeriz ... ?classid=1

I started using this, but after a while I just started jotting down notes and advise from various books and internet pages that make the most sense to me.

Whatever works for you might not work for me and so forth..

You can get more documents like this from http://www.targetshooting.ca.

Hope this helps. Thanks.