Losing Runs, Bad Luck and Lack Of Confidence - How do you cope?

[The Saint]

It's been an indifferent start to the year... Whilst I have been happy with my bets on the whole, I have been 'hitting the bar' alot and am suffering a string of placed efforts 4 deep. Losing runs mess with my head and that is my main barrier to more successful punting!! Based on this year alone I'd have been as well off punting Each-Way rather than win only and EW betting would never have been something I would have advised in the past. It may be a blip but with my fragile state of mind I am thinking it may be the way forward and cancel out the feeling of a losing run! (cue next horse winning being backed EW!) Just wondered how you all cope during a losing run - I know 5 isn't really a losing run but placed horses are starting to annoy... My betting bank is definatly big enough for my staking. About 2% per bet. I guess my idea is that 20 losers with 15 placed efforts would massivly effect confidence at win only yet with EW betting and the same results you would still be condident as one winner would turn things around... I wouldn't nessecerily advocate a break as my selections are ok - just not getting their heads in front! And more to the point - I would hate to miss one at double figures that warrented a bet! How do you all cope with the inevitable losing runs? :cry

[Cowan]

Re: Losing Runs, Bad Luck and Lack Of Confidence - How do you cope??!! Over the last two weeks I had a losing streak of 13. I didn't even know I had had that many losers in a row until your thread prompted me to look at it. It was never in my mind because I wasn't worried about it. I had 16/1 and 33/1 placing aswell but I wasn't complaining about their failure to win. Perhaps its my methodology but I try to predict how a race will be run, and after the race I analyse it to see how it differed from my prediction. In every post-race analysis I saw that something unpredictable had changed a race, or my selection was was unlucky not to win. In a few cases I took something from the defeats, eg an error I will remember not to make again - but on the whole I knew I was playing the races right and that I would be winning again soon. I plugged on as always. Today I won 3/4 races. If your confident you have a winning strategy, and you can see that after a race something happened that was unpredicatble/unpreventable, then you have no reason to worry. Infact worrying about those things you couldn't have forseen/prevented makes no sense because theres nothing you or anyone else could do. Its when you look back on bets and think "I knew horse B was too good for my selection", or, "I should have gone with the winner rather than taking the long odds", or "I was taking a chance he'd overcome that mark" - the preventable things, if your making these mistakes its time to re-evaluate.