The 2 Up Fluster

Lil' James had breezed through the field winning the South Dakota Championship and appeared to be on his way in the Territorial when he lost. He came off the line whimpering, almost a full fledged cry, he is only 8. I went over to console him and asked what was wrong. He said "I lost and I was up 2-0."  Ah, the 2 up fluster.

I told Lil' James I had just hand judged Buzzard Cooper, a many time champion, who was up 2-0 to a much slower shooter and he lost.  It happens to the best of gunfighters. 

Later in the territorial I was up 2-0 to a shooter who is twice as slow as me, got the 2 up flusters and lost. I then missed every shot against Lucky O'Reilly, one of my favorite draws, to finish 12th in the Territorial.  Lucky continued on until he got up 2-0 against a much slower shooter and lost to him, only to draw and lose to him again to finish 4th in the Territorial.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to overcome the 2 up flusters, I am all ears. Lucky told me a shooter from early days that would wear heavy ear plugs, never know what the score was and just kept shooting until someone told him to stop. I think that is probably the answer. Totally and completely ignore the score.  Easy to say but hard to do.