“I’
m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.”
-Michael Scott
It is thought to be bad luck to break a mirror, but are you luckier if you lace your Salomons three times?
That is only one example of range/match day superstitions I have witnessed. Where is the line between superstition and routine drawn in our sport? I’m going to take a few to discuss that here and now. To be clear, when I say superstition, I do not necessarily mean eating cold soup when you’re on deck or loading and unloading your mags three times for optimal spring tension. I’m talking about any part of one’s perceived “mental game” or technical plans that are simply not based in reality.
Some of the top competitors in practical shooting will do the same action a half dozen times in a row when making ready. Inserting a mag, press checks, check retention on the holster, etc.
For some shooters there seems to be a haze between good mental management strategies and superstition. I was guilty of this at one time. I was under the impression the altered state of consciousness could only be achieved under the influence of the correct amount of caffeine, focus, and preparation. That there was a particular number of times that you should run through a stage in your head, before you overthink it and it all goes wonky. I hear some shooters do this same kind of thing all the time at matches. “Oh well, I don’t want to shoot right to left on my first array, so I’m going to take two extra steps forward and snipe the rearmost target in the stage for my first target, cuz if i get a good first shot, my whole match will go better.”
My first Jedi master and now teammate Gerry Tetreau told me when I started this sport, “a lame plan well executed is much better than a nifty plan botched.”
My point is there are a lot of pitfalls when it comes to letting the universe decide what is going to happen to your match rather that taking control. Most of the goofy things I hear shooters doing revolve around analyzing feedback incorrectly from a small pool of experience. If they shot a plate rack one time in a match and they missed the 2nd and 6th plates, that means they have to shoot those plates last to make sure they get the good hits. Thats an extreme circumstance, but it paints the picture. Stay process focused rather than allowing yourself to go on a mythical bender of nonsensicalness. Words.
My 2016 Success Socks
So now that I’ve poked holes all thru the theories we hold dear, you might be thinking “say, what ticks and superstitions do you have Mas’?” Well nothing extravagant really. I have lucky socks. Actually, I prefer to think of them as my success socks. But I don’t put them on just because I need the extra bit of luck. I only don them when I know I’ve properly prepared to do a bang up job at whatever I’m doing that day. I wear my success socks to matches, school presentations, special tasks at work, and so on. This year my signature print is meriflage; American flag printed.
In “With Winning in Mind“, Lanny Bassham discusses the multiple stages of mentally preparing for an event. The first of which is called the anticipatory phase; where you initiate your pre-shot routine with a physical action. He cites loading your gun or adjusting your glasses as an example (I’m paraphrasing here).
In a way, I’m starting the first part of the anticipatory phase when I put on my success socks. When I wake up and put on those snazzy socks, I tell myself that it’s going to be a good day. That it’s time to break necks and cash checks, that it’s time to snatch kisses and steal hearts; (which ever one of those theoreticals resonates best with you probably says a lot about you).
The bottom line is we are past tossing salt and burning witches as a society. As world champion and Team SIG captain Max Michel puts it, “consistency and repeatability are the keys to success.”
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