Pressure of Vegas the biggest barrier to perfect score says Jensen

Only three women have ever shot a 900-point round in the Vegas Shoot’s 52-year history: Mary Hamm, Sarah Lance and Tanja Jensen.

Jensen’s perfect score is the most recent of the three.

“In 2017, I had spent a lot of time working on myself and my equipment. When I got to the tournament, I had a ton of confidence that I would have a great result,” she said.

“That gives you a certain sense of calm. You know that all you have to do is just shoot like you do in practice and good things will come.”

In the men’s, now open, championship division, shooting 30 10s a day for three days buys you a ticket into the shootdown. 

A 900 in the women’s division will likely win you the event, like it did for Tanja two years ago.

Things might not stay that way for much longer, though, with the average score of the top finishers increasing annually. After all, Jensen added, posting a perfect day isn‘t that technically difficult.

It’s the prestige of the tournament that drives arrows into the nine.

“Most people have shot 300s in practice but doing it in front of that many people at one of the largest indoor tournaments in the world is very different,” she said.

“There are more distractions, more pressure and the desire to want to shoot well increases at least tenfold.”

And that pressure, said Tanja, is exactly the reason why this event should be in your calendar:

“It is a great tournament to shoot if you want to get better at shooting tournaments.”

“You will probably never totally get over being nervous, but you will get more used to it, and Vegas is the perfect high-pressure situation to figure it out.”

Jensen had it figured out in 2017; Sarah Lance in 2014, and Mary Hamm did when she shot her perfect round all the way back in 2004.

We’ll find out if anyone does in 2019 later this week.

Article originally published on The Vegas Shoot website.