Are you new to IDPA? Getting smoked is somewhat normal, as is not running the course as well as we think we could.
Regardless, remind yourself the initial mistake is rarely enough to be all
that costly. The mental luggage carried to other stages can be, though, as it causes additional unnecessary mistakes. The sum total of
these mistakes are what's costly.
A mental trick I used after a disastrous stage in a big match was to say to myself "how cool is it gonna be when I
still win the match, despite tanking a stage". It kept me focused on shooting the rest of the match well, and it worked. So, imagine others saying: "wow, he had that bad stage, but kept his head and still pulled off a good match. Very impressive."
Finally, remember that the
only stage in the entire match is the one you're about to shoot.
BTW, here are some additional tips from another forum:
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=139877