Practice with Purpose
A practice session should be broke down into 3 or 4 sections. The warm-up period which is as stated time to get loose, for me about 10 minutes. Then comes the tune in phase which is where I might try to adjust something I have thought are issues like the my turn or alignment etc. (but very important only work on one at a time) After I am done experimenting I will pitch groups of 40 shoes at a time keeping track in my head. My goal is to push myself to pitch games which are equal to or exceed my typical performance when I was at my best that would be 28 ringers plus . In a normal practice session I would pitch 2 or 3 games in this manner then shut down. Another good way to practice is depending on your average place one spare horseshoe around one stake and one spare horseshoes around the stake at the other. Now take your horseshoes and try to beat that imaginary person who always has one ringer on (50%) If you beat him you just pitched over 50% and if you don't but the final score is 42-36 you know by quick calculation you are playing at about 45 to 48%. Since it is harder to keep ringers on top of other horseshoes you will also get some good feedback how your horseshoe is performing around the stake and whether bounce-offs are an issue.