A bit of a long winded whine, so bear with me. Little back ground to try and put things in context. Started competing this year and it's been a blast and clearly has contributed to biggest strides in my shooting ability. Since the beginning, I have steadily gotten better with each match. I think one of the turning points was over the last month or so, I have focused heavily on mindset, which has enabled me to start finishing in the the top 10 in all the matches I've been shooting in. In the past there was a good level of intimation but once I figured out that from a skill level, I as as good if not better then most, and to trust in that, my shooting result went leaps and bounds. My confidence level was sky high and I was going into matches expecting to finish in the top 5. I had reached a point that I could trust my skill and my focus was simple.
Prior to the buzzer going off, I would overthink all the things I needed to do and as soon as I heard the buzzer, my mind would go blank and I would just be praying and spraying. Once I started to really focus on mindset more than shooting ability, I geared my mind to understand that I had the skill to do well and to trust in that. I simplified my pre-shooting routine to very simply, grip the run strong, see my sights on target, and press the trigger. I began to be very aware of my sight picture and would tell myself to just get the sight on target quickly, and with a good trigger press, let it go. I began to be be much calmer and "in the moment" and my scores went down dramatically. When the buzzer when off, I no longer had the issue of my mind going blank and I had gone from "overthinking" everything to just trust in my skill, grip the gun hard, and see my shot.
Well this past week I shot another steel challenge and got "blasted", finished bottom half. Out of the 5 stages, I had 1 that I finished top half, but the rest were pretty bad. The worst part, I felt that my shooting speed and accuracy were pretty good in 4 out of the 5 stages. I did have one stage (1st) that was easy but I shit the bed and fell apart and had two misses which crushed my score. Still I keep my mind focused and to not dwell on the bad stage like I normally would, and recovered. I shot pretty well in rest of the stages and thought I had rebounded enough to put of a decent showing, well not the case, depressing when I finished 27 our of 34 shooters which was by far my worst match.
Needless to say my apparently fragile confidence took a pretty big hit. I have another match on Sunday and not feeling it at all at this point, which clearly is not a good recipe for success. I say all of this to ask, how do you guys (and gals) shake the thought that "maybe I really do suck" after all!! lol. I'm usually pretty good about getting back on the horse but feeling a little snowflackish and not very confident at this point, which I f-ing hate.
I've competed long enough (in other sports) to realize that set backs/slumps are part of it but for some reason just not feeling it (the confidence). Actually I think I know my problem as I am writing this (and reading it), it actually has provided me with the answer that I know is there. (As I read this, I just gave myself a swift kick in the ass) But since I spend the time venting (whining), would still like to hear any feedback. Any thoughts or suggestions?