Score Plateau: 83

You are here because you have a perfect gun mount that happens consistently without thought. You have stopped looking at the gun in the setup and down the gun during the shot. You have stopped cutting your eyes looking for the target. 

It is here that the journey of learning how to score begins. You now practice pairs more than ever before, and you must be critical during practice. If you smoke the targets but the move was all wrong, don’t be satisfied. Because you have practiced everything from the muzzle to your toes and you know what it will look like before you close the gun, you can finally begin to concentrate on the target. 

It is here that you can really begin to see the target because you only have 100 percent of focus. And up until now, your focus has been shared with all of the other mechanical parts of your game that kept you from having enough focus to really see the target.  

Once you have mastered your mechanical game through practice, so you don’t have to focus on move, mount, gun speed, lead, and follow-through, you have freed up so much focus that can now be used for the target. It is here that your routines must be perfected and practiced and learned. Everything you do on tournament day must be structured into a habitual routine.

You’ve got to get on the road and travel. Put a number on your back and just go shoot. And while you are traveling, you must learn what you need to eat, as well as quantities and times. Learn how to sleep well on the road. Learn how far you can drive and shoot well in a one-day shoot. 

You must begin getting eight good hours of deep sleep every day at least two weeks before a big competition. And learn what it takes for you to get in bed and get good, restful sleep during the tournament. You will find that you need to eat and be in bed by 8 PM because the last two hours of the eight-hour sleep cycle are the most important. That’s when what you learned the day before is committed to permanent memory. You’ve got to enter a tournament with extra sleep in the bank when you get there.

It’s here that your commitment to go to the gym and learn to eat right will become new habits that will serve you well going forward.