TargetTalk

Hey guys,

picture this... u have an important competition the next day... you are well prepared, do all the right things, everything is going according to plan and when its time to sleep u just cant...

It could've been because of nervousness or drunkards screaming through the night it ur adjecent room, but u've had a bad night... now what do u do on the competition day???

Oh ya... ur match is at 9.00am and ur hotel room is around 30KMs away from the range...

Join the club, i don't know of any shooter who doesn't have some form of pre match nerves. We all deal or hope to in our own way but some times advice from your coach or a book on the subject can give you some pre match advice and preparation.

It has recently been described as the "dentists waiting room syndrome",
Its fear of the unknown and some times fear of failure. This leads to a higher level of adrenaline in your system which needs to be controlled.

Eat a couple of oat cookies (not too sugary) about an hour before the match as this will help relax muscles that are in a state of tension.

This is a pretty big subject for this forum so get advice from the experts.

Peepsight

My suggestion: Learn to play an instrument with prominent solo passages (or performances). I play bassoon, too, and attribute the exposure to stressful situations in performances to helping with similar situations in shooting. In Field Target (I shoot that, service rifle, and AP), we resolve ties with a shootoff. I have won the two I have shot and noticed that there was no "performance anxiety."

The other solution is to simply shoot in lots of matches -- being in familiar situations (even if in different locations) will (usually, eventually?) lessen the performance anxiety.

I find shooting to be one of the most relaxing things I do since it requires getting rid of other distractions to do it well (same with music).

Good shooting,

Joe

Melatonin the night before ?

I've had good results and no side effects with Melatonin and/or Valerian. I've had bad results and drowsiness the next day with all of the OTC sleep medications I've tried. Try them before hand, rather than the night before.

I have heard (and agree based on my experience) that one sleepless night does not affect performance very much, but two or three in a row can have a big effect. Get good sleep in the days leading up to a competition so if the last night is restless or disturbed it will not matter.

Self talk can help. If the issue is match nerves, then telling yourself you are ready, you are comfortable and you are looking forward to showing what you can do may help. Meditation is another good way to clear the mind.

If the issue is noise next door, all I can suggest is ear plugs or background noise (a fan, white noise generator, recording of seashore etc) to help cover it.

Finally, when you go to the range, it does not matter. You have practiced, you have the skill and you are ready. Just because one or two parts of your preparation did not go as planned you can still give a good performance. Give the best performance you can for that day and under those conditions. No competitor on the line is 100% ready. No one has perfect preparation (Ok maybe Michael Phelps in the swimming world champs WOW!). We all make the best preparation that time and ability allows then show up and shoot the best match we can. We don't live in a vacumn, we all bring issues that detract from our performance (family, work, practice, equipment, time, illness, nervousness etc). Overcoming all of that is one of the beautiful challenges of competition.

30 Km to the range? Wow, you are lucky. The closest competition I have is over 100 Km.

Regards,
Steve Turner

Actual this tread is quite a good one in terms of Mental Training; Running through all the possible scenarios and having a prepared answerer for each one of them. Unfortunately I've found most problems come from experience rather than for thought. Problems I have faced as the match include;

Club Brought wrong gun!
Some one altering club gun sights before a match with only 10 sighting shots!
People Returning to the range to shoot some more !
Language problems between me and the range officer.
2 shots in the same hole.
Being told off for dry firing in preparation time.
No drinks permitted on the range

In all cases they played havoc with my mind but the bottom line for me has been to have confidence knowing that I "walked the talk", I did the training, and to fall back on my shot sequence for concentration.

Julian

hmmm thanks u guys.... i've got a few good suggestion.... may be i should try them out... like simulate them... i've always put myself in pressure situation before practise matches and i get to know how i behave for them... but i've never had ne sleep problems... this is the first time... and yah... i've wasn't sleeping well for atleast 5-6 days because of travelling and preperations for the competition...

for how long do i sleep to the minimum??? on a worst case scenario... and how much will meditation and yoga actually help in these situations???

dhiru wrote: how much will meditation and yoga actually help in these situations???

I have no idea how much they would actually help, thats probably different person to person, but they sound like _very good_ ideas

JY