What You Feed Grows

By: Paul Giambrone, III

“How did you shoot today?”  Usually after someone asks another shooter this question, the shooter will more than likely hold up some fingers and say “I dropped X amount of targets today.”  Then will proceed to tell all of their other buddies how poorly they shot on those few targets.  By the time it is over, they will have told 10-15 if not more people about the “problems” they had that morning.  What is really going on here?  Well, it is very simple.  Whatever you feed grows and what you starve dies.  This really applies to just about everything that we come across.  In biblical times, one of the scriptures tells us that whatever we feed grows and what you starve dies.  Of course, it was talking about the spirit versus the flesh, but that’s another lesson on another subject.  However, it can be applied to skeet shooting.  The problem with most shooters is they put more focus on their misses and mistakes rather than on the good shots they make.  Do you now see what the problem is when you tell your shooting buddies about your mistakes?  You are feeding your sub-conscious mind all of these negatives and just like anything else you hear over and over again, you will start believing that you have a problem when you probably don’t have any issues.

Think about when you hear something for the first time and it really seems outrageous.  More than likely, you’ll chuckle and say “there’s no way that’s correct,” but when you hear it over and over again from multiple people, you start to wonder and eventually you will start to believe it.  Starting to see the correlation here?  When you tell multiple people over and over again about your mistakes and how you can’t perform like you once did, you will start to believe it!  You are lowering your expectations and submitting to failure!  You will start believing that you can’t break low 5 like you used to and then you will start changing things to try and “fix” the problem.  This is treating the symptoms and not the actual cause.  The real cause (most of the time) is the 6 inches between our ears.  You will manufacture a problem by telling everyone about how poorly you shot rather than telling them about how great you shot.  And don’t sit there and tell me that you shot every single target poorly that day…  You probably made great shots on 80 to 90 percent of your targets (if not higher) but you tend to focus on the negatives rather than the positives…  Hey, I have made this mistake for years and, until recently, was putting myself in situations like this over and over again.  Even if you did in fact feel terrible while you were out there that afternoon, don’t talk about it!  Dust your shoulders off, tell people you had an off day, and leave it at that.  Tell them that you still made good shots that day (because you probably did) even though you didn’t have your best “scoring” day.

So what is the solution?  It is simple; start talking about the great shots you made that day instead of the ones you missed!  If someone asks, “How’d you shoot today” answer with “I shot great and broke a 97” instead of the typical response of “I dropped 3.”  Something as simple as that will start to turn your attitude from being negative to being positive.  Don’t talk about the ones you missed; talk about the great shot you made on the pair on 2 when the high house went way up while the low house was diving to the ground and you nailed them both!  Let’s be honest with each other, look at all of the targets you have shot in your lifetime and pick out 1 target in particular, let’s say a High 3, and think about your lifetime percentage of hitting that target.  Even if you had a couple of rough patches with that target during your time, I guarantee you that you have still hit more than you have missed.  I’ll even go out on a limb and say that you have probably hit 80-90% of that target in your lifetime (if not more).  So my question to you is even if you are in a rut with this target or any target, why do you want to put your focus on the negative side?  Why not look at the positive side and say that you have hit this target hundreds, if not thousands of times in your life?  If I miss a target during an event, I don’t develop a fear, I focus on the positives!  I’ll tell myself “sure you missed it last round, but you hit the last 8 before that.  Now get a good look at this next one and execute the shot you know how to make.”  See how all of the commands are positive?  The point is to not dwell on the miss and manufacture a problem, but to focus on the positives and realize that we are human and will miss occasionally.  I know it will be hard to reverse the negative mentality, but it is one of the most important things to learn in this game if you want to be successful.  You don’t build confidence in this game or in anything by constantly focusing on negatives; you build confidence by focusing on positives…

If you have any questions or comments, please email me directly at info@gsclinics.com and visit breakmoretargets.com for more information!  Please check the website for upcoming tournaments and clinics in your area… Next scheduled clinic will be in Utica, MI at the Detroit Sportsman’s Congress Club July 11-14.  Then there will be a clinic will be at Stockton Skeet and Trap July 18-20 followed by the Greater Houston Gun Club hosting a clinic July 26-28.  Please email or call me or the local organizer directly for more information about these clinics.

Tip of the month:      For every negative thought that comes to your mind, simply replace it with a positive thought and move on.   Stop talking about all of your misses and focus on the great shots you made that day.