What Women Learn After Their First Full Competitive Season
Posted by Passionate Outlaws on Aug 17th 2026
What's one thing you'd do differently if you could go back to the start of this target year?
That question means something different depending on how your season went.
For some women it's a gear question.
For others it's a mindset question.
For most, it turns out to be both, along with a few things they didn't have words for until someone put language to them.
The ATA target year runs September 1 through August 31. If this was your first full year in competitive trap shooting, you're a week or two away from closing the book on it.
And before September rolls around and the new year opens, it's worth taking a real look at what you learned, not just what your scores show.
Tracy Kienitz has watched women finish their first competitive target year at Passionate Outlaws for years. The patterns are consistent.
Here's what she sees, what it means, and what the women who come back stronger in year two do differently.
What the First Year Teaches You
The first competitive target year is not really about scores. It's about finding out what you don't know yet.
Most first-year competitive women come in with a gun they've been shooting for a while.
They know the basics. They've practiced. They're not beginners.
But competitive shooting at the registered level is a different environment than league shooting, and the first year has a way of surfacing things that league shooting hides.
Equipment gaps show up first.
The gun that felt fine on a relaxed range day starts showing its edges under competition pressure. The length of pull that was close enough becomes the reason your mount isn't consistent. The comb that was passable becomes the reason your eye line is slightly off when it matters most.
Then the mental game shows up.
Competition scoring focuses your attention in a way practice doesn't. You notice your tendencies: the targets you chase, the stations where you drift, the mental pattern you Fall into when you miss one and try to make up for it on the next.
None of this is failure. All of it is information.
The women who use it to build year two are the ones who come back to the line with something the first-year shooter didn't have: a clear picture of exactly what to fix.
The Three Things That Hold Women Back in Year One
Tracy has seen enough first-year competitive women to know where the year tends to go sideways. It almost always comes back to one of three things, and usually a combination of all three.
The gun was never really fitted.
This is the most common one, and it's the one women are most likely to overlook because they've gotten used to their gun. Used to is not the same as fitted.
A gun you've adapted to is still asking you to compensate for it on every single shot. Under competition conditions, that compensation breaks down.
Scores stall. Mounts get inconsistent.
And the shooter blames her technique when the real answer is that her gun has been working against her body the whole time.
Every 1/8 of an inch in gun fit changes a shot pattern by 4 inches at 25 yards. That number matters more in a registered shoot than in a regular practice round.
Getting fitted before year two isn't starting over.
It's giving your technique the foundation it needs to work.
Technique and mindset got skipped.
A properly fitted gun creates the conditions for improvement.
It doesn't replace technique or mental game.
Tracy's watched women get their gun fitted and expect the scores to follow automatically. Sometimes they do, briefly.
Then they plateau, because fit and gear are two of four pillars.
Vision, fit, equipment, mindset: all four have to work together.
Mindset isn't a soft topic. It's a skill set.
The ability to stay focused after a miss, to trust your mount on the next target, to manage competition pressure without letting it change your mechanics: these are trainable.
Women who work on them see real results. Women who skip them leave points on the table no matter how well their gun fits.
The expectations were wrong from the start.
First-year competitive shooting is hard. Not because the women aren't capable, but because competitive trap at the registered level asks for a level of consistency that takes time to build.
Most first-year women set expectations based on their practice scores, which were shot in lower-pressure environments, and then feel like they failed when competition scores don't match.
They didn't fail. They calibrated.
Year one teaches you what competition asks of you.
Year two is when you build to meet it.
Ready to start year two differently?
A fitting with Tracy at Passionate Outlaws addresses all four pillars: vision, fit, equipment, and mindset. The new ATA target year starts September 1. Book your fitting before it opens.
What Year Two Looks Like When Year One Did Its Job
The women who come back to competitive shooting in year two having truly processed year one are a different kind of shooter than the one who stepped onto a registered line for the first time.
They know their equipment. They've had it fitted, or they're finally ready to.
They understand what their mount feels like when it's right and what it feels like when something is off.
They have language for their technique issues and they're not conflating a gun problem with a skill problem anymore.
They also have a healthier relationship with their scores. Not comfortable with mediocrity, but not devastated by a bad station either.
Competition experience builds the mental resilience that no amount of practice shooting can replicate. Year two, they know how to come back from a miss.
At Passionate Outlaws, Tracy works with women through all four pillars of performance: vision, fit, equipment, and mindset.
The Lady Outlaw shotgun series, the Syren line, and every gun Tracy fits women to at Passionate Outlaws and Xcel Shooting Sports are part of the equipment pillar.
But they only work the way they're supposed to when the other three pillars are in place alongside them.
The new ATA target year starts September 1. That's only a couple of weeks after this post goes live.
If this target year surfaced things you want to do differently, you have a window right now to act on them before the new year opens.
The Question Worth Asking Before September 1
What did this target year teach you?
Not what your scores say. What you know now about your gun, your technique, your mental game, and your preparation that you didn't know when September started.
That answer is your roadmap for year two.
And if part of that answer is that your gun has never been properly fitted, or that you've been running on technique and grit without ever addressing the fit underneath it, that's exactly the kind of thing Tracy addresses at Passionate Outlaws.
In one session.
Before the new year starts.
You put in a full target year. You showed up and you competed. That matters.
Now take what you learned and build something with it.
FAQ
What do most women get wrong in their first competitive trap season?
The most common issue is equipment that was never properly fitted. Women adapt to their guns over time and mistake familiarity for fit. Under competition conditions, that gap shows up in inconsistent mounts and stalled scores. The second most common issue is skipping the mindset work: showing up with a fitted gun and good technique but no framework for managing competition pressure.
How do I know if my gun fit is hurting my scores?
If your scores are inconsistent between practice and competition, your mount feels slightly different from shot to shot, or you're bruised after shooting, those are fit signals. A proper fitting with Tracy at Passionate Outlaws evaluates your mount in real time and compares what your current gun does to what a properly fitted gun feels like. The difference is usually obvious in the first session.
What should I do differently in my second competitive season?
Get fitted before the new target year starts. Make sure your vision is checked and accounted for. Work on your mental game as deliberately as you work on your mechanics. And set expectations based on what competitive shooting really asks, not what your practice scores suggest. Year two is when the work of year one starts paying off.
When should I get a gun fitting for the new target year?
Before the year opens. The ATA target year starts September 1. A fitting at Passionate Outlaws in late August gives you time to dial in your new setup before the first registered shoot of the season. Tracy has a specific process for dialing in a new gun that gets women shooting consistently much faster than the industry standard of 500 to 2,500 rounds.
The new ATA target year starts September 1.
Start it ready.
Stay Relentless.