Mentality

Mentality in shooting is so important.

Because we are shooting at different times of day, in sometimes very different conditions, one sees benign (no or little wind) conditions in some relays and real blows in others. Yesterday was one of those days when I had real blows in all of my relays and some people at the end of the day had totally benign ones.

All individual scores are posted in a huge matrix on the board. So I did very well indeed at 600, less well at 900 and 500. And I judge myself harshly, feeling that at least at the shorts (300, 500, 600yds) I should be losing no more than 1-2 pts at any distance. And I lost more.

But thinking about it over night, I remember the words of my coach, Bob "the Machine" Pitcairn. Over the course of a big tournament, you're going to get some easy relays and some tough ones. It's the mentality of how you approach this that will make all the difference.

So I'm thinking positively, and saying that I've had tough relays when it didn't count (these are important for trophies but not in the Grand Aggregate). One of today's matches is in the Grand, and so the real game starts today. With a new attitude.