Hitch's Training Blog

A gunfighter needs to have a little swagger. When you come to an event you need to believe that you are the toughest gunfighter there. You may not be the quickest or you may not be the most accurate, but you are the toughest.  But you need to be careful.  There are little things you can do to booster your confidence.  Have confidence in the system, it will carry you through day, even a bad day. At a titled event, Gentleman George asks me if I was Lil James' grandpa because he loads like me.  Lil James only loads three and if the hand judges asks him why, he says "That is all I need."  It is a statement of confidence.  It can be unsettling to your opponent, if fact Dirty Dan used it against me Saturday in the shoot-offs, sending me to boot hill in 3 shots.  Little statements of confidence can be helpful. They remind you that you are the toughest gunfighter there.  I only load three because it is generally three winning shots.  If I miss or l...

Winning Flyer:  A comment was made about walking the hits to the light and then having a flyer on the third or fourth shot. This is quite common.  It happens to me frequently.  I am not sure but I think it is just a variant of the 2 up fluster.  See August 7, 2017, post "2 up fluster" on ShadyMtnTips.blogspot.com.  At Rio this last Saturday I think the majority of my wins were on winning flyers. Dance with the girl you brought:  A comment was also made about falling back into an old draw.  This time of year many of us are working on new draws or new stances.  It is sometime easy to fall back into old habits, if you do, you end up shooting the old draw, not the new one you are practicing.  Generally, I say never ever change your draw during an event because if you do you are lost.  The exception to that rule is when fall back into old habits, then of course, the sooner you get back to the draw you have been practicing the better.  ...

Mental Toughness : More matches are won by mental toughness than by quickness or accuracy combined.  The remainder of this session (20 weeks) should be spent trying to achieve a system that promotes mental toughness.  If you have a finalized draw no matter what your quickness you will win your share of matches, but to be truly competitive you must develop mental toughness. I have given you my system.  You don't have to use my system you can develop your own but it should have the same basic elements.  You need a mental routine, a physical routine, and a waggle.  The point is to shoot from the subconscious. We are all better than we know but our minds keep getting in the way.  The elements give you something to do. A draw should be like a breath.  Your quickest shots will surprise you.  You will not know how you did it.  Mental Routine:  Evaluate the last shot. Let see, I was 6 inches to the right of  the target and low, I need t...