Do you want to master the mental game, get into the zone, and become unstoppable? Here are six proven ways to get into the zone and up your competition shooting game.

What does getting in the zone mean?

When a shooter has 100% of their concentration on the task at hand, they are almost impossible to beat. They can brush off hurricane-force winds like it was a hairdryer set on low.

Getting and staying in the zone is what we want to accomplish. Here are some tips and tricks I have painstakingly developed over the years.

Set up:

A generally overlooked issue is your equipment setup. You need to master proper setup completely; that alone will lower your stress level so that you’re not laying there thinking, “Did I do that right?”

Get comfortable:

Next, make sure that you are physically comfortable. I have personally seen exceptional shooters drop points because they were uncomfortable. Eliminate any physical strain that you can. I can’t even begin to count how many points I dropped due to this.

Relaxing techniques:

Now, use breathing techniques to calm yourself. The more relaxed you are, the fewer mistakes you will make.

I looked into taking meditation classes. I decided not to because it probably wouldn’t have gone well if the hippies had found out why I was there. I am also pretty sure a couple of the groups were straight-up cults.

If you get yourself all psyched up, your foundation will begin to crumble. Your body will start moving around, and you will unintentionally throw shots.

Prevent an adrenaline spike:

When I look down the line during the three-minute prep time, I see several people stressing themselves out in different ways. At the same time, I’m lying down and taking a nap. When guns start firing, that’s my alarm clock.

I know people are going to say, “we’re just making sure everything is set up correctly and ganging the wind.” It’s best if you can have that done before your three-minute period. If you waited that long to get a handle on the wind. You have most likely already lost. Keeping calm is the goal.

Control your emotions:

This next part takes a lot of mental practice. You need to train yourself to have no emotional responses, no matter if you hit an X or a seven.

Emotional reactions will have a direct impact on your ability to shoot. Whether you like it or not, everything will start moving around. If you have no emotional response, everything should stay consistent.

Use eye drops like “Natural Tears” before you shoot. Using this product will reduce eye strain and will help keep your eyes from drying out during a string of fire. Do not use Visine. That can make your eyes worse. Talk to your pharmacist before you go and try this.

Wear a shooting hat:

Wear side blinders on a shooting cap. You don’t realize it, but your subconscious is continuously tracking everything in your peripheral vision. When you use side blinders, your brain is concentrating on what’s important.

Wearing my hat is one area I fail at more often than not. I chalk it up to forgetfulness due to taking several blows to the head in mosh pits at concerts when I was young. I usually remember to put my hat on after the match is over.

These are the simple and not-so-simple steps to help you get into the zone. There is a lot more to it than these few steps, but it’s a start

 I hope this will help get you going in the right direction of mastering the mental game. It is not easy to accomplish, but if you can get into the zone.  you will be unstoppable.

If you want to learn more about the mental game in competition shooting. You can read 5 Way’s to Avoid Train Wrecks.  

Also, I highly recommend reading the book, With Winning In Mind by Lanny Bassham.