Psychology and the ever increasing perfectionist rambling
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:27 am
Up front and honest, this is just an extension of a discussion I had and am interested in everyone's input, I most likely will ramble and stray in and out of topic.
The discussion started as good youth coaches we drill into our athletes that score is irrelevant, compete with your self, and some days others have the better day and we support all athletes win or lose. I have watched my shooters sweep a competition, and walk off unhappy because they did not perform at their peak. Listening to some accomplished shooters in a candid moment, they said even though its your ability to focus on, at the end of the day score is your measuring stick. So score plays a very real propellent in the goal setting advancement of shooters.
So what happens when you reach the maximum potential, shooting the highest scores in the worls, does drive just come from self improvement, obtaining new heights or chasing the ever elussive "perfect" score? I'm talking world class athletes, Nicco Campriani level etc. That is how this started, what happens when...
It seems the sport dynamic switching from integer to decimal is pushing that perfectionist harder and higher. For example, after practice last night my son shot 50 meter prone finished his last string and packed up. I asked him how he felt, how he did and he said "okay". Looking at his last 10 is was a 100 integer with a 104.5 decimal. I asked him why he felt it was just okay and he mentioned "to be good I need to shoot 106 average and I cant do that shooting 10.1's". No one in the world shoots that average for 6 strings so we talked about what the realistic "world" average and it being better to have a consistent 6 string average that is 104.5 than volatile strings . But heres where the negative is, pushing that perfectionist good will never be good enough until they hit 109.0. On youth athletes I can not believe that is a positive pressure in their long term development.
How do you transcend the score or minimize its importance? In beginner and intermediate shooters I get it, when we start talking world class juniors, junior national team members, etc. I've heard the best juniors walk off the line and say you never make the finals if you shoot below a 9.7, or even better yet, you will never be competitive if you shoot anything below a 10.2. All x's or nothing. They know if you shoot a 9.2 you better have at least 2 10.6's to back it up and raise the average. So how do you make the shooter alter their perfectionist mentality and decide development, position, training, program more important that the score measuring stick?
Just some thoughts
The discussion started as good youth coaches we drill into our athletes that score is irrelevant, compete with your self, and some days others have the better day and we support all athletes win or lose. I have watched my shooters sweep a competition, and walk off unhappy because they did not perform at their peak. Listening to some accomplished shooters in a candid moment, they said even though its your ability to focus on, at the end of the day score is your measuring stick. So score plays a very real propellent in the goal setting advancement of shooters.
So what happens when you reach the maximum potential, shooting the highest scores in the worls, does drive just come from self improvement, obtaining new heights or chasing the ever elussive "perfect" score? I'm talking world class athletes, Nicco Campriani level etc. That is how this started, what happens when...
It seems the sport dynamic switching from integer to decimal is pushing that perfectionist harder and higher. For example, after practice last night my son shot 50 meter prone finished his last string and packed up. I asked him how he felt, how he did and he said "okay". Looking at his last 10 is was a 100 integer with a 104.5 decimal. I asked him why he felt it was just okay and he mentioned "to be good I need to shoot 106 average and I cant do that shooting 10.1's". No one in the world shoots that average for 6 strings so we talked about what the realistic "world" average and it being better to have a consistent 6 string average that is 104.5 than volatile strings . But heres where the negative is, pushing that perfectionist good will never be good enough until they hit 109.0. On youth athletes I can not believe that is a positive pressure in their long term development.
How do you transcend the score or minimize its importance? In beginner and intermediate shooters I get it, when we start talking world class juniors, junior national team members, etc. I've heard the best juniors walk off the line and say you never make the finals if you shoot below a 9.7, or even better yet, you will never be competitive if you shoot anything below a 10.2. All x's or nothing. They know if you shoot a 9.2 you better have at least 2 10.6's to back it up and raise the average. So how do you make the shooter alter their perfectionist mentality and decide development, position, training, program more important that the score measuring stick?
Just some thoughts