Practice

-Anna Rawe – Making sure that you practice at least two times a week is very important to get good consistency with your shots. It doesn’t matter where a group is on a target, as long as you have a group it can be fixed.

I have and will always use two key phrases when it comes to practice: “Practice like you compete.” This is very important, not only will it help improve your shooting but it will help you with your mental game. You should practice your mental state while shooting in practice just like you would in a competition. Another phrase that I commonly use is: “Practice like you’ve never won, perform like you’ve never lost.” I started noticing a lot of improvement in score that we would keep during practices when I started applying these phrases.

Having practice and having consistency with your practice is essential to perform well.

Practicing also helps build up stamina so you can comfortably shoot in competitions. I have noticed with a couple of my teammates who maybe aren’t able to come to every practice, start to lose their stamina while shooting. You may start out shooting strong, but while continuing throughout a competition you can start to get sloppy. When you get sloppy there isn’t the same amount of time and focus for your shot.

During practices there is also more time to bond with your teammates. If your team is going to compete as a team, it is important to be able to bond and gain trust between each other. That way you know how to help them if they are in need. You can also have some pretty good times with them as well. One of the favorite things we like to do is pile as many as we can into the huge box that our 3D targets come in. There are many benefits to practicing, even if it isn’t just related to your shooting.

I will always encourage consistent practice.

Anna Rawe was a 2022 student contributor, to find the rest of her articles click here.