Take a break...

If you always do what you always did, you'll only get what you always got.

You know the routine, it's league night and the team needs your score to win.

Here we go...no pressure right?  You're plateaued and skirting occasional disasters.

Sometimes habits aren't good, but are hard to break. For me training and practice were easy but recent competition pressure wasn't productive. Not so much with 22 but bad with 45& cf.

I didn't take the time for new things and I couldn't move ahead, or even get back what used to be so easy for me to do. I did make Master, l did hold a 290 22 average for several years. Even AP tanked leaving only top level national FP scores. 

Enter Covid. No local matches, leagues, no Perry etc etc no pressure. l was able to go to the range and focus on 50 yd SF. 
I shot a lot less but when I did, at a higher intensity. 30-60 minutes of training/practice does not pair well with good results from a full day 2700

Struggle. Worst things are techniques that yield inconsistent results. Add some pressure and they fall apart. 

I did get a new appreciation of grip ( thanks Jon) but had yet to eliminate the flips.  I took the time to play with things and develop better routines. Latest focus is on elbow and degree of tension there. 3 bears; not too tight, not too loose, just right. Helps me settle better, no flips from wound up muscles & tendons snapping.

By taking a break from competition l was able to do this.  but it didn't come together for the whole summer and half of the fall. AP is coming back now and it's feeling good. 45 coming along better too.

Sometimes you have to stop and back up in order to go forward.

bruce martindale wrote:.........Enter Covid. No local matches, leagues, no Perry etc etc no pressure..........

I used to go to the range four or five days a week, and reload two or three.  I stopped around April or May, but re-started when the virus seemed to be slowing down.  With everything I hear and see nowadays, going to the range feels like an unnecessary risk.  I used to read this forum three or four times a day.  Now it's once every two days.  

On the positive side, I still dry-fire quite often.  It's different though - before, it was dry-fire to see if it made a difference for the following day.  Now it's dry-firing to make sure the gun still behaves like it did when I felt comfortable.  I'm not trying to improve - I'm just trying to prevent the opposite.

....and this leaves me with hours and hours of free time, which is now being spent trying to take quality photos with my Leica (manual) camera, and learn new imaging software such as Photo Mechanic Plus and PhotoLab 4, including watching endless training videos when I get lost.

I'm also losing track of time - I used to get all ready the night before going to the range, but nowadays I don't even know what day it is.  I'm debating going to the range all the time, but then I figure I can wait it out a little longer.  Funny, of all the guns that I could be dry-firing, it's my Nelson conversion that has been sitting on the coffee table all this time, next to my Leica.


You are so right, Bruce.  No pressure.  But along with the no pressure, there's the no of everything else.

Imma shoot revolver for a while. I have a 14 and a 17.  Might even shoot 50ft targets!
Kurt