At the Wyoming Steamboat Challenge last weekend, I managed to squeak into a first-place finish with my production optics gun, also winning a high LE award and a high master award. I have just over 10,000 rounds on that gun, my first and favorite P30L from LTT. Unfortunately, I had my first malfunction during the match on Saturday. I do believe it was the ammo, rather than the gun but I can’t be sure, as I cleared the stoppage as fast as I could in the hopes of knocking down more plates before I ran out of time. After examining the gun, unburnt powder was all over the front lens of my SRO. Given that, I just don’t think it was the gun. If you have any thoughts, please comment below.
The malfunction cost me 2 plates, which means I was now down 20 points and could do no better than 1900 if I shot everything clean. Normally, a 20-point loss would be unrecoverable, and that is the first thought that went through my mind. My next thought was that I could either throw in the towel (not something I seriously entertained) or treat the rest of the match like a practice session.
I decided that neither was a good option and instead continued to shoot that match as well as I could and still try to win. The lost points didn’t end there and I did drop a few more points along the way. As I had been shooting very well leading up to the match, and had high hopes of continuing to do so, more pressure was added. I didn’t think I would win, but sometimes things work out.
My point with all this is that when a match goes well, we typically learn very little. Our ego may grow, but we don’t grow. When you have a (seemingly) catastrophic failure occur, whether it is you or your equipment, it really forces you to dig deep and drive on. I have seen very high-level shooters throw tantrums on the range and then leave before the match is through. That kind of behavior is unacceptable to me. It sets a bad example for everyone and certainly does nothing to improve your image or your capabilities. Better to take it like a Stoic and go about your business. Some day, you may really need the mental toughness that you develop by dealing with things when they don’t go your way.
So the next time you have a problem, you can either view it as a problem, or you can view it as an opportunity. Easier said than done, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. In the end, which way would you rather portray yourself? Tough and resilient, or fragile and whiny? When people talk about someone having a good mental game, this is in large part what they mean.
I did not enjoy the situation when it happened, but “failing fast” helped make it better. Now, I view myself as lucky it happened. Not because I want it to happen again, but because when it eventually does happen again, I will be better prepared to deal with it. And really, that’s the whole point of shooting and training for me.
we always learn more from our mistakes and failures than from our successes, history quickly comes to mind with Thomas Edison, he learned 100 ways that wouldn’t work with the light bulb, then some learning situations are much more costly than others, because of my profession, 911 comes to mind with the catastrophic collapse of the towers, we learned that the structural design, which was deployed as a cost savings measure in construction was doomed to have a cascade failure, there will never be another structure built with that design
That’s certainly true, but a lot of people can’t seem to deal with that reality.
Eventually, something will go wrong. We are only humans living in the real world. In this case the obstacle became the way. Easier said than done, but we may as well get used to it. “It” does happen.
My Jiu-Jitsu instructor used to say, “win or learn, they are the only two options”