Home Back to TIPS The Best Laid Plans May 17, 2011 We have been given some great tips about how to prepare for the course of fire and to harness the power of our Jedi Mind Tricks so that we can put it all together and shoot the course of fire.  After lots of practice, lots of dry firing, and countless rounds down range, standing at the line waiting for the buzzer is when it really counts. Before that buzzer beeps, you should have our plan, know how many rounds you will fire at each target,  and have mentally rehearsed the stage so that your subconscious mind takes over and guides you through.  With that in mind, you need to remember that even the best laid plans sometimes go bad.  Things will happen in a stage that you surely did not plan for – maybe a bad round or a fumbled reload, perhaps you had to shoot a make up shot on a piece of steel.  The most important thing to remember when these things happen is not to stress over them.  For example, in the middle of a stage you fumble a reload and it takes you twice as long as it should.  Your first thought is “man that was bad, now I have to make that up on the next target array."  Well, in that moment, you just did 2 things wrong (well, 3 if you count the reload fumble).  First, you let your conscious mind take control of your shooting, and second, you believed if you shoot fast enough you could bend the space time continuum.  Letting your conscious mind take control in a stressful situation like that is something we all fight.  The better shooters are the ones who don’t let the conscious mind take control, they move forward, continue to follow their plan and finish the stage.  Other shooters take the alternative approach and try to change the physics of the universe and rewind time.  They think shooting really fast through the rest of the stage will somehow make up for the earlier mistake or problem.  Unfortunately, since they are thinking about making up for the earlier mistake, they are not allowing their mind focus on the actual shooting of the stage.  Inevitably, the shooter starts spraying lead down range, either missing targets or making really bad hits.  As a result, a 2 second bobble quickly turns into an extra 5-10 seconds when you begin adding up extra points and FTN’s.  A 2 second screwup will not destroy a match, especially at the MM and SS level.  However, trying to “fix” that 2 second mistake by adding another 10 seconds worth of mistakes will definitely ruin a match (plus, you still have the original screw up that cost you time).  In reality, there are very few shooters who will go through a match without having some sort of mental or equipment bobble.  How the shooter reacts to the problem and lets it affect the rest of the stage and the rest of the match often can be the deciding factor in who wins the match. I have seen many excellent shooters shoot a perfect stage – fast and accurate, with every movement spot on the mark, but one thing I have never seen is a shooter who was able to travel back in time.  Thanks, Brian Stricker     THE 4 LAWS OF GUN SAFETY The 1st Law The Gun Is Always Loaded! The 2nd Law  Never Point A Gun At Something You Are Not Prepared To Destroy! The 3rd Law Always Be Sure Of Your Target And What Is Behind It! The 4th Law Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Your Sights Are On The Target!