To shoot well, step out of your comfort zone

If you’ve already attained that ‘comfort’ level in your shooting abilities, our advice is: to shoot well, step out of your comfort zone. But why, you may ask? Apart from enhancing performance, there are many other benefits of leaving your comfort zone, according to medical psychologist Dr Oliver Page.

Other benefits

Self-actualisation is a powerful incentive to leave the comfort zone. This allows for personal growth and fulfillment. Next up is developing a growth mindset, as opposed to a fixed mindset, third is that you develop resilience which will equip you to handle change and ambiguity. And finally, you’ll have more self-efficacy in reaching your shooting goals. According to chief ranger Geoffrey Coetzee, stepping out of your comfort zone benefits your shooting skills immensely. He said, “With consistent training, you’ll reach the sweet spot of understanding the shooting process, followed by testing and trusting the process. Once you can instinctively discern right from wrong in making an accurate shot, you’ll be in the comfort zone. In most situations when the stress is pumping, you’ll automatically default to your personal comfort zone.”

Pushing the envelope

“Confidence is critical to move away from shooting at lower skill levels and moving towards higher and higher skill levels. Needless to say, to reach this stage you have to be 100% familiar with shooting processes. And the best place for familiarisation is right here on the range!” Take small steps and then ever larger steps to leave your comfort zone – without throwing caution to the wind. Yes, it certainly won’t happen overnight, but it’ll be so worth it in the end. “With motivation, discipline and commitment, you can do it!” Geoffrey said. “Move the boundary marker a bit further every time, and in so doing, you’ll step out of your comfort zone. Someone once said about shooting, ‘get comfortable being uncomfortable’.”