Mistakes contain useful information, but they are not where I want to keep my attention.
If a reload is slow, a shot is rushed, an entry is awkward, or a stage plan falls apart, I need to understand what happened. Ignoring the problem does not help, but once I understand the cause, continuing to think about the mistake provides very little additional value.
The useful question is: What should I do instead?
That question shifts the focus from describing the problem to training the action that can solve it.
Identify the problem. Determine the solution. Then train the solution.
Diagnosis Has a Purpose
There is nothing wrong with analyzing a mistake. If a reload goes poorly, I want to know why. Did my support hand leave the gun late? Did I miss the magazine? Was the gun poorly positioned? Did I fail to prepare for the reload during movement?
Those details matter because different causes require different solutions. The same applies throughout shooting. A poor hit may come from pressing the trigger before obtaining an acceptable sight picture. A slow entry may result from poor deceleration. A forgotten target may point toward an incomplete stage-plan rehearsal.
Diagnosis is useful when it leads somewhere. The problem begins when diagnosis becomes the entire process.
Do Not Practice the Mistake Mentally
It is easy to leave a bad run thinking, I always fumble that reload, I keep arriving late, or I cannot shoot partials. Those statements may feel like analysis, but they do not tell you what to do differently.
Worse, they keep your attention on the exact performance you do not want to repeat. I would rather convert the problem into an actionable instruction.
Instead of I am slow getting to the magazine, the instruction might be Move the support hand as soon as the dot lifts.
Instead of I keep rushing difficult targets, the instruction might be Obtain an acceptable sight picture before pressing the trigger.
Instead of I hesitate entering the position, the instruction might be Get the eyes to the target and prepare the gun before arriving.
The solution gives you something you can actually perform.
Make the Instruction Positive
A useful training instruction should describe what you want to do, not only what you want to avoid.
“Do not miss” does not tell you what visual information you need. “Do not hesitate” does not tell you how to enter the position. “Do not fumble the reload” does not tell your support hand when to move.
A better instruction points toward the desired action:
- See the spot.
- Move the support hand at dot lift.
- Prepare the gun before entering.
- Finish the reload before the gun is needed.
Those instructions are much easier to train because they describe actions you can repeat.
The Solution Should Match the Cause
There is also a danger in selecting the wrong solution.
Suppose you shoot a poor hit on a difficult target. You might decide that you need more accuracy practice. Maybe you do, but if you were capable of making the shot and simply pressed the trigger before obtaining an acceptable sight picture, the problem was not accuracy. The solution may be Visual Patience.
Likewise, a slow reload does not automatically mean you need faster hands. The reload may simply have started too late. A poor position entry may not require faster movement if the stage plan created an awkward approach.
This is why diagnosis still matters.
Train the cause, not merely the visible symptom.
Change the Question
One of the easiest ways to redirect attention is to change the question you ask.
Instead of asking, What did I do wrong?, ask What should I do differently next time?
The first question can help identify the problem. The second begins creating the solution. You may still need to understand the mistake, but you do not need to spend the rest of the session describing it.
Once you know what needs to change, move forward.
Practice Should Reinforce the Desired Action
This principle becomes especially important during training.
Suppose you are practicing reloads and have several poor repetitions. You could continue running them while thinking about how badly the support hand is moving, or you could stop, identify the issue, define the correct action, and deliberately perform that action.
That may mean slowing the drill temporarily, isolating one part of the movement, or performing several dry-fire repetitions before returning to live fire.
The goal is not simply to complete more repetitions. The goal is to accumulate repetitions of the action you want to keep.
This fits naturally with Practice With Purpose. Practice becomes much more productive when you know exactly what you are trying to reinforce.
Use Mistakes to Improve the Next Repetition
A mistake does not have to ruin a practice session. In fact, it can make the next repetition more valuable if you respond correctly.
Recognize what happened, identify the solution, and immediately give yourself another opportunity to perform the correct action. That keeps the mistake in its proper role: information.
It also prevents one poor repetition from turning into several more because you continue thinking about the previous one.
The next repetition deserves your attention more than the last one.
This Is Not Ignoring Problems
Focusing on solutions does not mean pretending everything went well. If something needs work, acknowledge it. Accurate evaluation matters because you cannot improve a problem you refuse to recognize.
The distinction is what happens next.
You can spend ten minutes thinking about a missed reload, or you can spend thirty seconds identifying why it happened and then use the remaining time to train a better reload.
Both approaches recognize the problem. Only one moves the skill forward.
Matches Provide Problems, Practice Builds Solutions
Competition is particularly good at exposing things that need work. A stage may reveal that you struggle with retreating shots, entering on a partial, remembering a complex stage plan, or finishing a reload during movement.
That information is useful, but the match is usually not where the solution gets built.
Afterward, take the important problem back to practice. Recreate the relevant part when possible, determine what better execution looks like, and train that response deliberately.
This is the same cycle discussed in Matches Are Evaluations: competition reveals what happened, and practice gives you the repetitions needed to build the solution.
Do Not Let the Most Emotional Mistake Become the Priority
The mistake you remember most clearly is not always the thing that deserves the most training.
A dramatic miss, dropped magazine, or forgotten target may stand out emotionally, but it may have been an isolated event. Meanwhile, a smaller problem may have occurred on several stages and cost much more time overall.
Before reorganizing your practice around one frustrating moment, ask whether the issue is recurring and whether improving it is likely to provide a meaningful return.
That is where the 80/20 Principle becomes useful. Use the match to identify possible areas for improvement, then decide which solution deserves the most attention.
Positive Imprints and Solutions Work Together
Focusing on the solution is closely connected to Positive Imprints.
When something goes well, reinforce it. When something needs work, determine what the correct performance should look like and direct your attention toward that instead.
Both processes point toward the same objective: preserve and strengthen the performance you want to repeat.
The goal is not to create a false memory that nothing went wrong. It is to make sure the mistake does not become the final mental picture you carry forward.
The Mental Reload Uses the Same Principle
The same idea applies after a poor stage.
If the stage went badly, I do not want to replay the mistake repeatedly while waiting for the next stage. I want to identify what should have happened and mentally rehearse that corrected performance.
That is the purpose of the mental reload described by Lanny Bassham in With Winning in Mind. The mistake gives me information, while the corrected mental rehearsal gives me the picture I want to keep.
Then I move on.
This is also why the mental reload is part of my Pre-Shot Routine. Finishing one stage correctly helps prevent it from interfering with the next one.
Technical Corrections Should Be Specific
“Get better” is not a solution. Neither is “shoot faster,” “be more accurate,” or “move better.” Those goals are too broad to guide a repetition.
A useful solution should be specific enough that you can tell whether you performed it:
- Reload: move the support hand as soon as the dot lifts.
- Entry: get the eyes to the target before reaching the final position.
- Difficult shot: obtain an acceptable sight picture before pressing the trigger.
- Stage planning: finalize the plan early and rehearse it at least 20 times.
- Makeup shot: let the shot call determine whether another round is required.
Specific instructions create specific practice.
Do Not Keep Changing the Solution
Once you identify a sound correction, give it enough repetitions to work.
Constantly changing the instruction can create the same problem as constantly changing equipment: you never stay with one solution long enough to determine whether it actually helps.
That does not mean you should stubbornly keep a correction that clearly is not working. It means you should give a reasonable solution enough deliberate practice to produce evidence.
Then evaluate it. If the performance improves, keep building it. If it does not, revisit the diagnosis.
Let the Solution Become the Habit
Early in the process, the solution may require conscious thought. You may deliberately remind yourself to move the support hand earlier or prepare the gun sooner on an entry.
With enough correct repetitions, that instruction should require less conscious attention. Eventually, the desired action becomes the normal action.
That is one reason I prefer the phrase practice makes habit.
Practice does not automatically make something perfect. It reinforces what you repeatedly do, which makes the quality and direction of the repetition important.
If you continually rehearse the mistake, you strengthen familiarity with the mistake. If you repeatedly perform the solution, the solution becomes increasingly familiar.
Evaluate the Solution
Once you have trained the correction, test it.
Return to a relevant drill, classifier, match, or other Known Standard and see whether the change holds up. Did the reload improve when it was integrated back into shooting? Did you enter the position more efficiently? Did you obtain better hits on difficult targets without adding unnecessary time? Did the stage-plan rehearsal reduce hesitation?
The solution should eventually produce evidence.
If it does, reinforce it. If it does not, diagnose again.
That is how the process continues.
Build a Habit of Moving Forward
The broader skill is learning how to respond when performance is not what you wanted.
You can become frustrated, replay the mistake, and repeatedly tell yourself what went wrong. Or you can use a simple process:
Identify the problem → Determine the cause → Define the solution → Train the solution → Evaluate the result.
That process applies to almost every part of shooting and keeps the focus where it belongs: on what you can do next.
Train What You Want to Repeat
Problems deserve enough attention to understand them, but no more than necessary.
Once you know why something happened, continuing to describe the failure rarely improves the next repetition. Move your attention to the action that should replace it.
Make that action specific, practice it deliberately, reinforce it when it works, and then test whether it transfers.
Identify the problem. Determine the solution. Then train the solution.
The mistake tells you where to look. The solution tells you what to do next.