Alphas, Mikes, and Mental Attitude

Originally posted on the Team SIG SAUER website.

Shooters tend to spend a lot of time debriefing our performance after a match. We often look at “good matches” and “bad matches.” This performance often dwells on what we screwed up. Yeah, say it. We screwed it up. Shot too fast and missed a bunch. Missed a reload and the magazine went tumbling to the ground (then the rounds shot out of the magazine and salted the ground). Maybe we hit a no-shoot. It happens to say the least.

And then we dwell on it. We furrow our brow and grit our teeth as if some how we can bring those rounds back, not miss the reload, or not hit the no-shoot.

I have yet to meet a shooter who successfully willed those rounds back. But, it seems the more competitive we are the harder we make it on ourselves for poor performance. Been there, done that.

Learn from it and let it go. Even when you are mid-match.

We all see shooters throw a round into a no-shoot or miss a target. You’ll see the facial expressions and probably a few choice words not suitable for small children. My advice to the shooter? Let it go. That round is never coming back. The target is in the past. Keeping a positive mental attitude is the key to sustained performance.

This is easy to say. I blew a couple of stages over the weekend. I made some poor choices and the penalties hit me hard. In the next installment, we’ll discuss the difference between pride and ego. They aren’t mutually exclusive, but both serve a purpose in our performance.