This is probably the last thing you would expect a shooter to write about but a big factor in improving my shooting came from reading David Tubb's first book, "Highpower Rifle". The chapters on positions and shooting the shots were interesting but they didn't help as much as the parts on overall outlook towards getting better and shooting the scores that you want to shoot.
As I read the sections in his book I thought about how I, and all the other shooters, look at improvement. If I wanted to get better than the other shooters I needed a way to improve that was different, or at least more efficient, than everyone else. Most Highpower shooters that I've seen have the same attitude towards improving their performance. They go to a match and shoot a score that they're not satisfied with. Maybe they felt their rapid fire groups were too big for example. They will complain to their friends that they need to work on position or something like that. Then they come back at the next match without doing anything constructive to improve. Needless to say, their scores remain at the same level.
I feel that too many shooters leave improvement up to chance. They make minimal effort to actually control the outcome of their shooting. For them shooting is like gambling. They go to a match and let fate determine their score. To me, there is a better way. I want to control my shooting. I want to know that my score will be dictated by my conscious actions rather than the flip of some coin of providence.
This is why I have become more planned in my shooting. This is related to a theory I have about Highpower that I call the "Mistakes Theory". It goes something like this:
Whenever you shoot a shot that does not land in the 10-ring, you made a mistake. Each of these mistakes are measured in dropped points. Some mistakes, like shooting on the wrong target, cost you 10 points. Other mistakes, like closing your eyes when you fire, may cost you three or four points. Still others, like not squeezing the trigger smoothly, may cost you one point. In any event, at the end of the day you score will be based on the mistakes you made and the points you dropped. If you do nothing to improve your shooting you will continue to make the same mistakes and drop the same number of points based on those mistakes.
To improve your shooting and counter the Mistakes Theory, you need to do three things:
If you do those three things in order, you will never again give up points for that particular reason. You might drop points for a myriad of other reasons but now you have one less thing to cost you points. Each time you make a mistake determine why you made that mistake, formulate a plan of shooting to never make that mistake again, and follow that plan.
In theory this is straightforward but putting it into practice is very difficult. Finding the reason for a mistake requires a lot of analysis. Then, you have to come up with a method of never repeating that mistake again. Finally, you have to put your "mistake-free" plan into action each time you shoot. Those are some pretty high mountains that have to be climbed. But it's better to keep moving forward, even if it's slow, than standing still.