Sport is important, isn't it? I returned from England recently, and while waiting in a very long and slow-moving customs line, I was reminded how we get our perspective of sport in America. As the line wobbled forward, the top of the object I could barely discern through the rolling, swaying sea of bodies in front of me gradually grew larger. Full-moon sized faces glaring down appeared, along with Dow Jones Industrial quotes in foot high numbers, and ESPN in huge red letters. It was a television screen, maybe 12 feet high and 30 feet long-perhaps nothing to those of you with home theaters-but to someone who doesn't own a television, a bit startling. I'm used to seeing films on large screens, but there was something unsettling about seeing news and sports portrayed so dramatically.

In the realm of human performance it is well-documented theory that thoughts and perceptions have profound effects on learning and skill performance. Unfortunately most people seem to have developed an ineffective perception of sport, created by exposure to the sports media. We have 24-hour sport news, highlights, and games. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and the internet offer daily, hourly, minute-by-minute commentary. This is business on the largest scale. The media has to feed this entertainment monster; so daily, incessantly, we hear how important this game is: do-or-die time, everything is on the line, sudden death, most awesome, most horrible, all the terrible consequences of losing.

Announcers and commentators shout, chastise, replay, dissect, and debate every missed play, "if only he would have caught it, history would be changed." To maintain this entertainment machine, the sports media must sell you excitement and controversy daily. Every sport is portrayed in the context of how serious the results are, how terribly important the outcome. The media seem afraid that if we don't believe the outcome has dire consequences, we might lose interest.

Perhaps there is nothing inherently wrong with any of this, until we look at the effect of keeping the show endlessly exciting has on an individual who may compete in a sport or play a game as a hobby or recreation. Over the last 50 years many psychologists and sport scientists have researched concepts that are useful in understanding human performance. I would like to discuss several concepts from the work of psychologists and to show a model that will help explain how our acceptance of media misinformation affects our shooting ability and enjoyment.

The concept "Locus of Control" (developed by Dr. Julian Rotter) is concerned with how an individual attributes his successes and failures. Those who accept responsibility for results and feel the outcome is determined from forces within themselves, exhibit an internal locus of control. If they look to forces outside themselves-other people, circumstances, or the environment-to explain the outcome, they are exhibiting an external locus of control.

The next concept is the relationship between stress, anxiety, and arousal. Psychological stress is the uneasiness that comes from a perceived threat to our self esteem. Note the word perceived. One of the great re-discoveries in modern psychology is that your perception (the intangible thoughts you choose to have) creates your mental and physical response to an objective situation. It is not the activity itself that causes stress, but how you choose to think about it. Anxiety is worry over a future uncertainty created by mental occupation with the outcome of the event. It is impossible to perform your best in a state of cognitive anxiety. Arousal is the level of activation or excitement you feel. There is an optimum level of arousal you must be at to perform your best. Your thoughts can absolutely change and control your autonomic nervous system and your level of arousal.

The last pieces of this psychological puzzle are the mental questions of a perception appraisal process we engage in even if we are sometimes unaware we do it. The first question in the process is: "How important is this thing?" The second is, "What are the consequences?" And the third is, "What control do I have?"

In the model below, stable concepts are unchanging, while unstable concepts do vary. Internal refers to things within you, and external to things outside of you.

When we apply these ideas to our experiences, we find that something that is "stable and within us" is our basic ability, essentially a genetic component. If a person was born to grow a maximum of five feet, and their dream is to be a center in the NBA it is unlikely they will fulfill that dream. The ability box above is not in your control. (You can take your basic ability, and through training and learning increase your capability, but that is for another story.)

Something that is "stable and external," ("unchanging and outside of yourself") is the "Task," and for us this is the sporting course on the day we shoot. We have no control over what the course designer has prepared for that day; it is out of our control. The part of our experience that is "unstable or changing" and "outside of us" is a concept best described as luck. There are things outside of us we have no control over: the referee simply did not see the piece, we had to shoot in the heavy rain the morning while the afternoon was clear, the rabbit actually did bounce at the precise moment to escape the shot.

This brings us to the final, empty box. Something that is "within us, yet unstable and changing." Get a pen and write in the word, effort here. This is the only aspect of your experience and the only box you can control. Effort has two components: First, the effort you put toward preparation, practice, and learning. Second, the effort you apply to adhering to your shooting plan, routine, and the mental and physical discipline required for you to do your best while competing. Effort is unstable because we apply it better some days than others.

Now let's begin to put the performance puzzle together. Being too concerned with your performance and with what others think of you creates the discomfort of stress and anxiety. Intangible thoughts, creations of your mind, generate measurable physical changes: your heart pounds, your hands shake, your neck and shoulder muscles tighten, palms sweat, your mouth is dry, and you feel the need to use the bathroom even though you just did. Some arousal is needed to perform well, but the over-aroused state characterized by tense and strained movements will always lead to poor performance.

Remember the three questions? How important is this? What are the consequences? What control do I have? If you choose to perceive the event as excessively important, and you perceive the consequences to be bad or terrible, and you insist on allowing your attention to be concerned with things out of your control, you can be assured of setting in motion a stress, anxiety, arousal process that will absolutely insure you perform below your physical capability. The mental state for great performance is under your control. Your thought is the only thing under your control, and you choose how to think about the event. Creating an ideal performance state, or the zone that everyone so desperately desires, is relatively simple if you keep your mind in the effort box. When you find your attention in the other boxes, realize these are outside your control and will create the exact responses you are trying to avoid.
The ideal performance state is a future topic, but for now I will tell you that of the six components of being in the zone, the first is to be focused here and now, in the present, this moment. If your mind is in any box other than effort, you will be concerned with things outside your control, slightly in the future or the immediate past and hence make it impossible to be here and now, impossible to be in the zone.

Here is something of a performance paradox that the average competitor doesn't understand. We want to win and do well. Shooting is important to us; we spend a lot of time and money on equipment and lessons. It is badge of honor to have someone say about you, he is really serious about his shooting, or she is a really good shot. (Very good for our self esteem!) We grow up listening to coaches and adults: "We've got to win the homecoming game." "Give 110%, really try hard." We are absorbed in professional sports and the absolute importance placed on the outcome. The media tells us what the top players are thinking, and we accept that is how we should think regarding our own sport experience.

I hope I am the bearer of good news when I tell you that you have been duped. The zone and peak performance experiences are extremely well-researched. Thousands of case studies and interviews with athletes all over the world in every sport have shown what is required for the creation of the peak performance zone. It is well known what thought processes lead to world records, Olympic medals, and personal best performances, but it is not what the television announcers tell you. It is not life and death, win at all costs, and give 110% attitude. That is the normal way of thinking, isn't it? But there is no such thing as 110%. The best athletes in the world are coached to, "Go at 85% during the race."

Winning isn't normal, is it? So if you want to begin to enjoy peak performance experiences in your sport, you will want to begin to think abnormally, like world class performers, not average normal people. The average person is concerned about other people and things they can't control. Average thought, average performance. They continually have their mind in the wrong box; they make excuses and lay blame.

If you find your thoughts on this track, you may want to ask yourself what game you are really playing. Is it the game of social evaluation and status, or the game of challenge, and joy of clay shooting as a way to master your mind and body and continually expand your limits as a shooter and person? One game makes clay target shooting a noble activity, the other a questionable use of human time.

Peak performances occur in a state of relaxed detachment. The simple summary of the mental state in thousands of world class performances is, "I just wanted to play my game, to relax and do it like in practice back home. I wasn't worried about winning, I just reminded myself to follow my routine and have fun." Olympic gold medalists and world record-holders thinking like this? Sounds too simple doesn't it? Hence more paradox. Everyone wants to win, but the best in the world have learned that the more you think about winning while performing, the less likely it is to happen, and that the harder you try, the more difficult it is to play well. The thoughts involved with winning and trying hard create the very mental and physical conditions that prevent you from expressing the skill you possess.

Barring forfeiture, there are only two ways to win. You can give your best performance, or you can always play someone you know you can beat. If you win and didn't give your best performance, then you were playing someone you can beat. Great athletes have learned this and know the best way to win is to have thought processes that allow them to give their best performance. They are concerned only with the effort box.

A young pro golfer was struggling greatly with his scoring consistency. Practice scores had been very good, but he consistently faltered when in a tournament. Working with a mental skills coach he began to realize he was making tournaments "special" in his mind. It was called a tournament, and there was money to win, so it must be very important and different than practice. He discovered he was trying to do extra things at a tournament and unknowingly interfering with his ability to relax and play his best. He created a reminder and cue to avoid this ineffective mental state. He wrote it down and keeps it in his golf bag: "Tournaments are 'Nothing special, nothing extra.'" His scoring has dramatically improved.

As I passed that 30-foot television and the customs line alternately crawled and stopped toward the bag inspectors, I became more aware of the French couple in front of me. They were clearly unhappy, sniping at each other, with the man mumbling and the woman scowling. Tired of invading their privacy, I dug into my briefcase, found the Walkman, and cued up U2. I was soon lost in, "It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away…" when a customs officer giving directions passed, then turned around and came back to me. I slipped off one earpiece and she said, "Well, it's nice to see one person in a thousand is smiling." I said, "You mean the line? Oh, it's nothing special."

Through Victory Shooting School, Mark Brownlee teaches physical and mental skills development for wing and clay shooting.

Private and group sessions for all skill levels are available in Columbia, Missouri and worldwide. In addition, cyber coaching programs through telephone and email consultation are available. Discover how to enhance your shooting skill, performance, and enjoyment by contacting Mark at, Tel. 573.424.1737, 573.442.9189, P.O. Box 7148 Columbia, MO 65205. MBsportpsych@netscape.net