Hey James
Don’t misunderstand... i’m definitely not saying it’s easy, but even so 180cm is still fairly generous, if you practice I reckon you should feel fairly confident of landing within 180cm. I’d be pretty disappointed when fishing if I missed my spot by nearly a metre.
But you’re not gonna place well in any comp with loads landing in the 120-180 range
I practice to 18” rings, so 45cm, I need to make up some 120cm rings (i’ve googled and can’t find any) as it would be really interesting how many fall outside the 120cm. I reckon I could currently get 12 out of 16 in the middle ring or closer, but def can’t hit the inner ring consistently with a first up cast.
The other crucial aspect is the psychological pressure change the moment you set it up as a competition style of 16 consecutive casts at 4 targets. If I just practiced at my usual 18” rings, I’d be confident of getting 12 out of 16 casts at least within the 120 cm range, but put three rings out as in competition I’m not so sure
and throw in a bunch of people watching and I can already feel the muscles tightening...
It makes me think of fishing on the Frome 5 or 6 years ago, my casting was nowhere near where it is now, but I’d been casting fine, really enjoying a great day on a chalkstream mid-Mayfly with loads of fish rising. Got to a bridge pool and suddenly found myself casting in front of about 6 spectators... it all got a bit much for me, I struggled to land it on the river let alone 2’ upstream from a rise