you mad? You are doing nothing more than admonishing yourself for your vacillation in the execution of a shot. If you had worked a little harder on applying the control factors, the shot would have been better. On the other hand if you do everything within your power to make the shot good and for some reason or other it is not good, you should have no cause for undue irritation. Although you must exert all of your mental and physical ability toward shooting a good score, infrequently you will fail to do this. Needless to say that when this happens, if you chastise yourself severely, or fall into a fit of depression because of poor score, you will hurt your performance for the rest of the match. It is not intended that you laugh off or treat lightly a poor performance; however, you must possess the presence of mind to accept the bitter with the sweet. Preparing, planning, relaxing and care in delivering the shot with careful analysis and positive corrective measures, is the cycle of action you must force yourself to conform to. You can then be assured that the next shot will be delivered under the most precise control you are capable of exerting.
g. Match Experience. Without question, competitive experience is one of the ingredients necessary to an accomplished competitor. However, experience alone is of limited value. You must flavor experience with an accurate and honest evaluation of performance. You must strive for increasing mental control. It is often left out of training until the physical ability to shoot far exceeds the ability to exercise mental control.
h. Argue with your Subconscious. Not only argue with it but win the argument. Even as you are reading this you are hearing that little voice in the back of your mind that keeps saying ”Yes, this sort of thing may work for Joe, but I know damn well I am going to goof the next time I get close to a winning score.“. Whose voice is this? Where did all these ideas come from in the first place? Where did this little guy get all his knowledge? Let us be realistic. Your conscious mind puts these ideas into your subconscious, so don’t ever believe that you can not over power it. It is not easy. He has been saying what he pleased for years and now he isn’t to be routed easily. But don’t give in to him and eventually you will find that the subconscious mind is not in conflict with your conscious efforts ”don’ts.“
k. With all of this emphasis on the positive approach you are now going to get two big ”don’ts“.
(1) Don’t expect spectacular results the first time you try mental discipline. There is coordination of employment of the fundamentals to be mastered. If you find that you exercise satisfactory control only for a short period of time, work on extending this period by practicing and perfecting your system. Remember that your returns are in proportion to your investment.
(2) Don’t use alcohol and drugs. One or both of these may control some of the symptoms brought about by match pressure. However, in doing so they incapacitate you in other ways that will prevent good performance.
G. REDUCING TENSION AND ATTAINING RELAXATION
1. Types of Tension:
a. Normal tension is the prevailing condition of any organism when it is mustering its strength to cope with a difficult situation. All animals, including man, tense in situations which involve the security of themselves and their loved ones.
b. Pathological tension is an exaggeration of normal tension and fairly rare. This type of tension usually requires that the subject be put under the care of a physician.
c. The vast majority of people and shooters who are concerned with tension have nothing more than normal tension. All they need is a technique for relaxing. You should know what tension is and a few hints on how to minimize its effects.
2. In normal tension, your body undergoes certain definite changes. Adrenalin pours into your bloodstream and your liver releases sugar, giving a supply of energy to your muscles. Your entire nervous system shifts into high gear. It causes your sense of smell, hearing and sight to become sharpened and all your mental faculties to become razor keen. Your stepped-up nervous system also causes the large voluntary muscles of your legs, arms and torso to contract, ready for action. The muscles of your digestive tract cause your digestion to slow down for a while. Your chest and arterial muscles contract slightly so that your breathing becomes a bit shallower and your blood pressure increases. When all these things are happening, you are experiencing normal tension. Most of us experience this kind of tension one or more times a day. When the problem which caused you to be tense has been solved, your tension will subside and you will return to a normal state of relaxation. It may leave slowly but it will leave. Normal tension is self-limiting, it does not continue unabated after you need it.
3. Pathological tension is when your whole body over-reacts, as if the difficulty confronting it were a life or death matter. It is the kind of reaction a normal person would have only in an extremely dangerous situation. In pathological tension, blood pressure, heartbeat and pulse go way up and stay up. Excessive adrenalin may result in jitteriness, flushing and trembling. The digestive actions of the stomach usually stop entirely and will not resume, causing loss of appetite or indigestion. Muscles tense for action but may end by cramping. There is rapid, shallow breathing to the point of dizziness. The inevitable, and often swift result is a sense of deadening fatigue. Normal tension may make you feel exhausted too, but not to this degree.
4. Tension Reducing Techniques:
Take a breather. Breathe deeply, three times, very slowly; at the end of each exhalation, hold your breath as long as possible. When you have finished, you should feel noticeable relaxed and much-calmer. By forcing yourself to breathe deeply, you break the tension of your voluntary breathing muscles. This causes the involuntary muscles of the lungs, gastrointestinal tract and heart to relax too. This is the simplest method for relaxing. For some, it can be used to end tension completely. It can be used by others for temporary relief when they do not wish to ”let down“ completely.
b. Let go. Sit down and let your head droop forward. Try to actually concentrate on relaxing the muscles. Make one arm relax completely; then the other. Now let your legs go completely limp; now your torso muscles. Stay in this posture for several minutes. Momentarily divorce the competition completely from your mind. This technique is aimed at relaxing the voluntary muscles. It is especially effective when you have had to maintain normal tension for several hours on end.
c. Stop and Think. When the tension-making job allows a respite, sit down and calmly review the things in your life that you value highly. Think of the long range purpose of your life, of the people you love, the things you really want. In a few minutes you may notice that you have involuntarily taken a deep breath. This is a sign that tension is dropping away rapidly. When you tense to face a difficult situation, you tend to exaggerate its importance. Judgment and reason can quickly change this mental state when it is time to relax again.
d. Take a Break. This is a ”Remote Control“ technique for dealing with normal tension. Simply take a break for ten full minutes every hour. You may find that this allows you to ease out of your working tension more quickly and easily.
e. Shift Into Low. Taper off at the end of the day by becoming involved in a diverting activity. If you like handiwork, pick a kind which is interesting but not too creative. Soap sculpture, finger painting, woodworking, and gardening all are excellent low-gear activities that will help you to ”simmer down“. This kind of tension-remover is aimed at changing your mental ”set“. It is helpful for those who have to operate at top capacity. After stimulation, a part of your mental capacity will continue to be aroused. To slow you down when you are in this state of mind, you require something which is engrossing but which demands nothing of you intellectually. Television entertainment and simple handicrafts are ideal.
f. These techniques are based on the fact that tension can be ended in two distinct ways: through the relaxation of your voluntary and involuntary muscles; and by changing your mental ”set“. If you achieve either, you modify the other and hasten the process of normal relaxation.
H. YOU CAN WIN!
1. Confidence furnishes the alloy to stiffen the will to win and not give up or compromise. Confidence is based on a full grasp of the complete technique of controlling employment of the fundamentals. Confidence combined with knowledge, good physical condition and a determination to win, will allow you to perform at your
