So I am sure that most of us here are familiar with BEnos and his whole "zen" philosophy of shooting, something I am always trying to strive towards. Unfortunately, I seem to have a big hurdle in my way.
Relaxing.
Even during simple practice matches, I can't seem to chill the hell out before the buzzer. By the time I'm on deck, my heart rate is elevated, I'm a little jumpy, and nothing I seem to do relaxes me. Breathing exercises, air-gunning the targets mentally, etc. I end up just going through my admin load motions, visualizing my index, breathing deeply, and winging it once the buzzer goes off. Sometimes I do fantastic (95%-100% alphas, fastest time, stage wins), other times I appear to have forgotten how the whole "shootin boolits" thing works, especially when I make a mistake and the wheels really fall off.
Recently I have been trying to work with, not against my body's natural tendency. During practice sessions at the range, I'll pound out reps quickly, get a little flustered, get my heart rate up, just like what happens to me at matches, so that when I get there, I'm "used" to it. It seems to be working in some ways, as my speed and accuracy have been improving, but I also seem to burn out a fair bit faster. Also I end up angry at the end of every practice session.
I know this is not the road to success, especially if I want to reach my goal of USPSA Master in Production by the end of summer. It seems though that reaching that completely relaxed state is beyond me, at least at this moment. I'm not exactly inexperienced, as I shoot plenty of club matches and about 20,000 rounds of 9mm a year, so this isn't related to competition shooting being a "new" thing for me.
Any advice from those who have trodden the road before me?