Sport Psychology for Olympic Skeet Shooters

Olympic Skeet (OSK) is a huge technical and psychological challenge, a discipline that takes years of dedicated focus and commitment.

Now if you’re here because you shoot OSK you don’t need me to tell you about the format of the competition.

I’ve been, and continue to be, fortunate to work with many OSK shooters and their coaches in developing their mental training programmes.

The opportunity to develop psychological skills to enhance mental performance is vast within this Olympic discipline. Within this post, I’ll focus on how paying attention to developing your mental game will improve your OSK performance.

Amber Rutter Olympic Skeet Shooter

So there’s a paradox to Olympic Skeet.

The benefit of OSK is that the shooter knows what’s coming.

However, the problem with OSK is also that the shooter knows what’s coming!!!

On the one hand, a mindset focused on the challenge ahead can use this knowledge to remain focused on the task. On the other hand, a mindset that’s focused on a fear of the targets ahead can lead to performance falling apart.

It’s one thing to be able to hit all of the targets in the absence of pressure. But under pressure, the context changes, shooters suddenly invent new ways to do things and the potential score begins to diminish.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

If you’ve read any of my other content you will hear me talk about how technical skill development is THE most important thing. If you don’t have a coach, place your resources there first.

No amount of mental training will help you without technical skill.

However, once you have technical proficiency, it’s your mental skills that help you to become a consistent shooter.

So let’s dive into some of the opportunities that exist in OSK to be psychologically ready for every shot.

1.     Pre-round routine

We all know the sequence in Olympic Skeet so that means you know broadly what to expect when you get ready for each round. Yes, the conditions can play a huge role, light, the weather the quality of the target setting etc but the sequence will be the same.

In your pre-round preparation, develop a consistent and repeatable routine.

A routine that helps you to regulate yourself and to bring your focus to the task ahead. A combination of breathing, visualisation, a physical warm-up etc will all help you to be ready to perform.

Whatever you do, make sure each aspect serves a clear purpose and is something you can consistently deliver.

2.     100% focus is a red herring

On a squad of 5 or 6 shooters, you can be waiting a fair few minutes between stations for your turn to shoot. How you use this time can be make or break!

It’s very difficult to maintain 100% attention, 100% of the time, and it’s not helpful to do so in such a mentally taxing discipline as OSK. So you can allow your attention to drift, breathe, and then begin to focus on the key aspects of the task ahead as your turn draws closer.

But trying to stay ‘switched on’ for approximately 25 minutes of an OSK round, over 5 rounds and 2 days, is not the best use of mental energy. Save it for the moments you spend on the station when you need to attack the targets.

3.     Emphasise what to do rather than what not to do

Nobody wants to overthink when they shoot. It just leads to the breakdown of skill delivery and overcomplication. But so many shooters try to solve problems and invent wonderful new ways of breaking targets in the middle of high-stakes competition!

So instead of wasting energy in competition on why you missed (there’s plenty of time to reflect after) focus on what it is you need to do – how you hit!

You see, why you missed could be 1000 things and you’ll invariably choose the wrong problem under pressure.

However, how you hit, especially when you know the sequence as in OSK, can be broken down into just 1 or 2 simple things.

Yes, there are many components required to break a target but the majority become engrained and don’t require reminders.

Simply reinforce those 1 or two things needed to break a target under pressure that is also likely to change when competition pressure kicks in.

These are just three of the psychological opportunities to improve your OSK performance and I’m pretty obsessed with helping shooters to build their mental system.

If you want to discover more, and quickly, you can access my Mindset Survival Kit here > which I’ve designed with rapid results in mind at an amazing price.

It’s a perfect resource if your next big competition is just around the corner.