I love this short, but true, story. 

 

I had a very memorable new student from several years ago who still shoots, and well today….. This brand new shooter (now a friend) comes for a lesson.  She is very early.  I am still going around turning on my traps.  She walks along with me while I do so.  At the first machine she blurts out: “I don’t think I am good enough to do this.”  I say, “OK”.  Next machine: “I have no eye hand coordination”.  I say, “really?”  Next several machines:  “I don’t know why I am here.”  “Maybe this is a bad idea.”  “My friend really wants me to hunt with him”.  Finally I stop and say, “Are you done worrying?”  She says, “I think so”.  I respond, “Good!  Now that all that is out of your system, it is easy. You are so busy expecting the worst the rest will be easy!  It can only go up from here. And let me just add, that if you cannot hit a target with me here today, it is not your fault, it is mine.”  

 

Rest assured, she not only hit targets, she still shoots clay targets, goes wing shooting and loves this sport.  Not only ok to convey your fears and face them head on, but to work through them, one shot at a time.  Again, this therapy can transition into many aspects of your life, right???  Yeessss Mammm!

Simple.  You know, I was thinking about it one day . My shooting was far better when I was not worried about impressing anyone or “winning”.

As an instructor, I always felt held to a higher bar. The pressure to perform is no fun. I can shoot well, very well at times. But I found that being under the microscope as an instructor took away from the pleasure shooting has always given me. I have never felt like I had anything to prove.

Am I a chicken? Nope, not at all. I was the same way riding horses. I took lessons for years. My grandmother was a wonderful rider. I could ride forward, backwards, tandem double bareback running through the Buffalo Bayou in Houston Texas. We would jump over boards held up by 55 gallon drums, but when it came to the show ring, I hated it!! I would get on the wrong diagonal posting and my coach would be scratching her head, the signal that I was off and I would think, I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.

What came so naturally everyday, was so different when I “had to”. Same with shooting. Those who enjoy competition are awesome, I just could care less. Do I have a problem with those who love it or if GRITS gals want to try it? Absolutely not! I am their biggest cheerleader if that is what they want to do. It just is not conducive to the mission of the GRITS, thus why the No Score Keeping is the #1 rule of the GRITS.

The remedy?  Pizza and Beer!

So what do you do when you have a bad day shooting? Tell you how I handled it recently….I went home, order pizza and had a beer, then I had one of my kid’s nutter butter bars. Then I figured I had blown the roof off the mother so I went ahead and had two chocolate chip cookies. What the heck, then I had a bowl of Frosted Flakes as well.

Then, starting to feel a bit guilty, I went outside and fired up the leaf blower and cleaned up some leaves. Now, I realize that wasn’t physically raking but if I did too much strenuous work I might have thrown up my previous gluttony. And why ruin a good pig out session??

That night, I pondered my shooting and realized that shooting poorly was not the end of the world but eating like that might be the end of my skinny jeans. In the future I realize I have two better choices: I can focus on my shooting a bit more or plan on some marathon training to keep the pig out sessions in check. I would much rather work on getting my shooting back in line as I hate, and I mean hate, to run.

We have always believed that there should be value in everything.  I was raised to believe in the “Golden Rule” and life has certainly shown me that is important.  If you treat others the way you would want to be treated, then theoretically, it should come back to you some how.  We believe if people are paying to be part of an organization, they should reap, and sow, the benefits of membership.  We feel being a member of the GRITS will provide a value far greater than the price of its annual membership.  That value will be found not only financially from our wonderful industry partners, but in the friendships you will forge being a part of this GRITS organization.

The wonderful gun clubs and vendors that have signed on to promote the GRITS and encourage women to participate in the shotgun sports are offering so much value that the membership fee pays for itself in no time.  For example, purchasing one pair of favorite boots from one of our vendors saves you about 45 dollars, then I would say we are working toward money in the bank.

As women, we like nice things but we LOVE a good deal!  Are we correct?  Yes, there is financial value in joining the GRITS yes, but, more importantly, we will be the first to say there is not a price you can put on the fun and friendships you will make with this group of ladies!

There are two fundamental GRITS rules:

#1 ~You must be a girl       #2 ~ No scorekeeping allowed

Pretty basic rules wouldn’t you say?  We think so.

Rule #1 can be bent though.  On special occasions, the GRITS will host “Sausage and GRITS” shoots, where the GRITS ladies may bring a favorite guy or anyone else for that matter.  This is at the discretion of the GRITS Chapter and may happen at certain times but not every monthly shoot.

Rule #2 may not be bent.  You may not keep score to win prizes, however, we are all for random drawings, lucky clays placed randomly on a course in machines and more creative and clever ways to “win” other than out shooting your shooting buddies! I know friendly competition is fun, but not at GRITS events.  You win just because you get lucky in a drawing or such.

And maybe an unofficial Rule #3….and that is HAVE FUN!!

At the encouragement of a good friend, I decided that today would be the perfect day to start “blogging”. Blogging, what is that really? Is it to talk about all I know in the shooting sports? Is it to tell everyone how great I am as a coach and shooter? I think not! In fact, I am always learning on that front, and always will be for that matter. I’m kind of thinking it is a great place to share my inner thoughts, let people know I am as capable of screwing up my own shooting or making silly mistakes as the next shooter, beginner or veteran.

We certainly all have our good and bad days. But maybe it is admitting to having had a bad day shooting that sometimes folks need to hear. So today, I went shooting with a buddy and the first couple of stations went fine. Then I got to a station and missed a couple of targets I should not have missed. Tried again, too hard apparently, hit one, missed one. Now, I was missing targets I have shot 100‘s of times. Naturally my mind went everywhere….I am female after all!

Anyhow, I was shooting a new gun for me, and had been moving the stock adjustments all around for folks to try so my first thought was, it is the gun. Partially true, yes. But I believe if you are really focused, and can shoot like I usually can, this is probably poor excuse #1. Then came #2, #3 and #4 excuses. They would be, the sun was in my eyes, I lifted my head, I stopped the gun, I closed both eyes (ha) and so on.

And such was the day. About 6 stations into it, I was flinching like someone was tazering me. It was then I realized I was way over thinking everything! I had an acute case of Analysis Paralysis I like to tell my students when it comes to shooting, “A mind is a terrible thing”. Period. Don’t even try to add the “to waste” to the end of it.

Bottom line, I still had fun outside, shooting, in the fall and tomorrow is another day! Now if it will just hurry up and get here!