Buzzer dumb...

[wyliearms]

For lack of a better term it's when everything goes to heck after the beep. So, I've developed this problem and it may have been covered here before. Sorry if it is redundant.

I've been shooting SC and some IDPA for a year or so after taking a break from my previous competition days due to kids, etc. When I started back I was smooth and pretty quick. Especially with SC. Lately, somehow I've developed this issue where I am mentally beating myself up before a stage, rushing through and having to pickup shots more frequently. I was almost 1 to 2 seconds slower this weekend than I was nearly a year ago on a few of the stages. A few strings were great but overall I was slower. When I step in the box my expectations of how fast I should be shooting cause me to out shoot myself I think and it gets sloppy. When I practice I do really well but on match day this happens and now it's more frequent. I've even put in my mind to slow down and for some reason when I hear the beep I go full blown spray and pray mode.

Have any of you had this before and what do you recommend doing to "fix" it. It's extremely frustrating.

[Maximis228]

Do you dry fire?

I find issues like this are directly related to confidence.

More practice, More confidence.

[taco101]

They call the timer the "Nerolizer" for a reason...

Dry fire with a timer helped me. Many many reps of timer beep followed by proper dry fire makes the timer beep just the signal to start. Come match day its a lot easier to maintain your plan.

[sfinney]

"Expectations of how fast I should be"

You are only as fast as you are. Stop having expectations and let your sights set the pace, and observe.

[Hi-Power Jack]

let your sights set the pace, and observe.

+1. Great observation. :bow:

[johnbu]

I watched some top shooters last weekend including Alex Gutt. The difference between them and a "normal" person is the lack of wasted motion. They simply didn't wing it through the course of fire, they really looked to have every step, twist, turn, reload mentally prepped. It was sort of a light bulb moment watching them mentally prep a stage, then shoot it and see them land in their own footprints. Mental rehearsal and detailed visualization

It's probably a "well, duh!" comment for most, but it was illuminating for this newbee. I'm uncertain of what to do, then beep! ....and I'm turned to stone.

Edited May 3, 2016 by johnbu

[Glock26Toter]

Take the walk through seriously. If you haven't rehearsed every shot, every movement, and every engagement in your walk through with as much exactness and realism as possible, than you'll have to try to remember, or think about it in order to do it "differently" after the buzzer goes off.

I recently turned my video camera on early and got both my walk through and my run in the same vid. The only thing that was different between the two, when the sound was off was that people were wandering around the stage during the walk through. My grip was exact, my engagements took the same amount of time because I was realistic about splits/transitions. It was strikingly similar.

When I started doing that it helped a LOT with execution of what I had rehearsed... right or wrong.

[Ultimo-Hombre]

Buzzer dumb,

I like that!

Like others have said, a well rehearsed and memorized stage plan is important.

But I believe more so is to just shoot at your natural pace/skill level. That mental game stuff is the central theme to these forums.

Two kinds of hombres here:

1. The guys who regurgitate the "call your shots/ be the front sight" mantra

2. The guys who can actually do it.

Be guy number 1 until you become guy number 2.

It gets a lot easier and more fun after that.

Good luck amigo!

[Audioman]

Buzzer dumb sums it up.

[wishfulshooter]

Just remember. Its like riding a bike. If you have not rode one for a while you still know but just not as comfortable right away. Get your feet wet and keep your head clear and in the game. You got it. Shoot straight and be safe.

[DASR4]

That has happened to me a time or two, i will have a good plan in my head for the stage and when the buzzer goes off my mind seems like it just goes blank.

[abb1]

Practical shooting seems so simple! You have a focused mind, you focus on every shooting position available which is required to ace the stage. You have mentally pictured the walkthrough and it is programmed in your mind. You plan your mag changes precisely, so there is no room for errors.

Then the buzzer goes, your mind is blank, and everything goes right out the window. Lol, it happens to all of us!

Edited November 13, 2016 by abb1

[Reshoot]

I have a feeling everyone has this issue in the beginning. I certainly did. It took me a long time to overcome it too. 

In addition to the dry fire with timer, practice live fire with the timer as well. While doing live fire drills, learn to clear your mind of all thought. After the make ready command, and you have loaded and holstered, clear your mind of any and all thought. 

At the sound of the buzzer, all those hours of practice and your subconscious mind will carry you through.

 

[fastluck13]

Picture only what you will do in your mind before you shoot. Let the buzzer tell you when to start and your sights tell you how fast.

[benos]

Beat buzzer dumb with The Set. (Found this from long ago.)

I distinctly remember when the phrase "visual patience" came into my mind on the drive home from a Tuesday night steel match, long ago. I remember thinking - wow, that really sums it up.

The "last trick" I learned, which raised me to a higher and more consistent level, was to maintain a calm, aware state right through the buzzer, the draw stroke, and until I had the proper sight picture for the first shot. This state of awareness not only includes what I see mentally or visually, but how my body, mentally and physically, "feels" during that entire time. Maintaining total awareness during that one second or so after the buzzer is paramount for consistent success. 

Maintaining conscious bodily awareness at the beginning prevents me from unconsciously rushing at the buzzer. Don't make any attempt to control anything during that time, simply remain aware. 

Every planned detail, every form of control, should occur as you are mentally rehearsing exactly what you are going to do before you shoot. Then, silently maintaining a state conscious awareness allows your training, combined with your plan, to manifest as action. I call this "maintaining the set."

The Set

A set gathers things together, in this case – your training, clear intent (the totality of your plan), capacity, confidence, trust, determination, decisiveness, and conscious attention.

The set is a state of mental alertness or mental awareness that allows all of the topics mentioned above to express themselves.

The more and more I shoot and rehearse for stages, the more and more attention I direct toward the actual state of mind that I’m going to have, the actual way I am going to feel, not only as I start the stage, but as I move throughout the stage. I direct more attention to that matter than I do the actual visualization of the mechanics of the stage itself. To me that set, that state of mind, is what actually allows those things to be carried out. How am I going to feel the seeing?

I visualize what I am going to do, but don’t dwell on it near as long as I used to. The bottom time is the set; it’s what allows everything to be expressed. It allows you to be able to fluidly shift your focus to every area that is needed to get the job done in the best fashion, but it is not a focus on that, per se. It’s a focus on clarity.

Different people may feel that clarity in different places, although I think you’ll normally feel it in one of two places, either the forehead or stomach areas. I feel it in the center of my forehead, about an inch above my eyes. I can produce that feeling in my forehead that instantly stops the entire thought process and turns my attention so highly onto attention itself that there is no room for thought. Some people feel it in their stomach in an area two or three inches below the navel.

It takes an extreme amount of attention to maintain that state. As soon as your attention slips from maintaining it, you will find thoughts are back and your internal dialogue is rolling, controlling, and limiting you.

The set is an aware monitoring of your mental and physical state. It is critical because, if you start from an aware, attentive state, in which your muscles are set just right to do the job at hand - perfectly, with no extra effort – then, by monitoring and maintaining your attention, you ensure you never go "up,” thereby losing your “center.” The set is a method to maintain your center throughout the stage and throughout the match. If you start out  tense or rushing, it is very difficult to return yourself to a centered position while you are shooting. It is extremely difficult to do that; I have done it now and then, but it’s much easier to start from the proper frame of mind and then, by monitoring that, ensure that your mind doesn’t go anywhere else, ensure that you don’t create tension by unconsciously trying too hard.

As with many things, the best way to describe what something is, is to describe what it’s not. The set contains no feeling of effort or trying whatsoever. It is a very calm, very deliberate, very matter of fact mode of operation.

The set that you are feeling, is not only so much a feeling of awareness as it is a feeling of the whole attention level; the feeling of your mind and the feeling in your body. It is like a somatic, total body sensation of how you feel when you’re shooting. That feeling, that body feel, is learned in practice; the set is the feeling you have that encompasses all the feelings you have in your grip, arms, stomach, legs, mind, eyes and state of attention. It encompasses all those things into one body feeling. That total feeling is a lot easier to remember without using words than it is to try to think of a list of technical descriptions. When under pressure, no matter how big the strain is, the feeling of the set will not desert you like technical thoughts will. Thoughts are always a little behind the action. If you’re thinking your way through an act, you’ll notice your actions are "sticky."

I’ve had this experience many times and have talked to other shooters who also have had it, that upon completion of an extremely successful course of fire, you cannot remember what thoughts you had. It’s a natural tendency to want to think back and know what you did or what you were thinking to control such a good performance, but it’s that lack of thoughts that produces that lack of memory.

The lack of memory is the result of being in the set. By putting yourself in the most favorable condition to allow the ultimate expression of your capacity, that condition has very little to do with thought, so there is very little memory associated with it. So the bottom line really isn’t a bottom line; it’s that your attention always has to be attentive. It can never park itself in one place or get comfortable in one place, because that will only last for so long before the trick wears off.

The desire to remember what we were thinking as we were performing impeccably, when in fact there is nothing to remember, imposes a sense of uncertainty or fear in the mind. Enter trust. Through experience, we must learn to trust that if we maintain a state of conscious awareness and simply witness what is actually happening, the aforementioned topics will manifest themselves to your capacity.

A way that might help get into the whole feel of the set I’m describing would be if you were holding your pistol out in front of you and everything about your position felt the most perfect, relaxed and neutral as possible, then direct your mind to absorb your body’s feeling. Feel that set of how you’re holding right there. That total body feel also includes your mental feel, the feel of "relaxed and hard" or of "moving quickly but not in a hurry," "matter of fact," whatever means the most to you. No words! The attention necessary to hold that feeling does not allow words to surface.

The set allows your intent to be expressed at it’s highest, most complete level. The memory of the feeling is so total that it cannot be broken down. As soon as you try to categorize any particular part of it, you make it so complex that you destroy any hope of spontaneously creating it in the present.

You can see how your will functions while performing actions in your everyday life; it’s subtle and it’s hidden, but it’s always there. (By “will” I mean your desire backed by conviction, determination, and decisiveness.) If you’re alert to it, your will is directing your action simply by your intent or your desire to do that action in the most efficient manner necessary. In its natural state, your will asserts itself very spontaneously. When you drop your wallet, you reach and pick it up. If at that moment you are "present," the chances of not picking it up are slim. (Nor would have dropped it in the first place.) If you’re thinking random thoughts when you reach to pick it up, you may pick it up and drop it again. If you’re reaching for a doorknob, for example, and your hand slips off before the door opens, if you’re attentive to your thoughts you may notice you were somewhere else, your internal dialogue was running.

[benos]

And the condensed version.

With an empty gun, without drawing, assume your index position. Take a moment and move your attention slowly up from your waist, through your chest, then up into your head, out through your arms and into your grip. Notice and remember the calm feeling you have in your mind and face, and your perfect grip and arm tension. Remember your mind, face, arm, and grip tension as one calm feeling. Call the totality of the feeling "The Set."

Assigning a name to a group of remembered feelings makes it easier to summon The Set on demand.

Now without a start beep, summon the feeling of The Set, and draw to your index position, keeping all of your attention on the feeling on the feeling of The Set throughout the draw.

Repeat drawing to The Set over and over, until are completely certain of its total feeling, and complete confident in your ability to draw to The Set. Make that a part of your daily practice.

Especially important is being aware of a feeling of total neutrality in your grip, which is remembered as one feeling.

Then take The Set to the practice range. Allow yourself not to work on any other skills until you know you are always shooting within The Set. 

At "Shooter Ready," exhale slightly, at "Stand By," summon the feeling of The Set ... and this is the key ... along with the command to preserve the feeling of The Set right through the buzzer and the draw - until the first shot fires.

The further hone your ability to summon The Set by repeating the above at the beginning of each stage in every match.

If a stage has movement, train to summon The Set as you move into each new position.

Once my skill set was complete, summoning The Set was all I cared about.

[Hunter91]

"Buzzer Dumb" should be the title of your next book! 

[Hunter91]

On 11/15/2016 at 3:39 PM, benos said:

Beat buzzer dumb with The Set. (Found this from long ago.)

I distinctly remember when the phrase "visual patience" came into my mind on the drive home from a Tuesday night steel match, long ago. I remember thinking - wow, that really sums it up.

The "last trick" I learned, which raised me to a higher and more consistent level, was to maintain a calm, aware state right through the buzzer, the draw stroke, and until I had the proper sight picture for the first shot. This state of awareness not only includes what I see mentally or visually, but how my body, mentally and physically, "feels" during that entire time. Maintaining total awareness during that one second or so after the buzzer is paramount for consistent success. 

Maintaining conscious bodily awareness at the beginning prevents me from unconsciously rushing at the buzzer. Don't make any attempt to control anything during that time, simply remain aware. 

Every planned detail, every form of control, should occur as you are mentally rehearsing exactly what you are going to do before you shoot. Then, silently maintaining a state conscious awareness allows your training, combined with your plan, to manifest as action. I call this "maintaining the set."

The Set

A set gathers things together, in this case – your training, clear intent (the totality of your plan), capacity, confidence, trust, determination, decisiveness, and conscious attention.

The set is a state of mental alertness or mental awareness that allows all of the topics mentioned above to express themselves.

The more and more I shoot and rehearse for stages, the more and more attention I direct toward the actual state of mind that I’m going to have, the actual way I am going to feel, not only as I start the stage, but as I move throughout the stage. I direct more attention to that matter than I do the actual visualization of the mechanics of the stage itself. To me that set, that state of mind, is what actually allows those things to be carried out. How am I going to feel the seeing?

I visualize what I am going to do, but don’t dwell on it near as long as I used to. The bottom time is the set; it’s what allows everything to be expressed. It allows you to be able to fluidly shift your focus to every area that is needed to get the job done in the best fashion, but it is not a focus on that, per se. It’s a focus on clarity.

Different people may feel that clarity in different places, although I think you’ll normally feel it in one of two places, either the forehead or stomach areas. I feel it in the center of my forehead, about an inch above my eyes. I can produce that feeling in my forehead that instantly stops the entire thought process and turns my attention so highly onto attention itself that there is no room for thought. Some people feel it in their stomach in an area two or three inches below the navel.

It takes an extreme amount of attention to maintain that state. As soon as your attention slips from maintaining it, you will find thoughts are back and your internal dialogue is rolling, controlling, and limiting you.

The set is an aware monitoring of your mental and physical state. It is critical because, if you start from an aware, attentive state, in which your muscles are set just right to do the job at hand - perfectly, with no extra effort – then, by monitoring and maintaining your attention, you ensure you never go "up,” thereby losing your “center.” The set is a method to maintain your center throughout the stage and throughout the match. If you start out  tense or rushing, it is very difficult to return yourself to a centered position while you are shooting. It is extremely difficult to do that; I have done it now and then, but it’s much easier to start from the proper frame of mind and then, by monitoring that, ensure that your mind doesn’t go anywhere else, ensure that you don’t create tension by unconsciously trying too hard.

As with many things, the best way to describe what something is, is to describe what it’s not. The set contains no feeling of effort or trying whatsoever. It is a very calm, very deliberate, very matter of fact mode of operation.

The set that you are feeling, is not only so much a feeling of awareness as it is a feeling of the whole attention level; the feeling of your mind and the feeling in your body. It is like a somatic, total body sensation of how you feel when you’re shooting. That feeling, that body feel, is learned in practice; the set is the feeling you have that encompasses all the feelings you have in your grip, arms, stomach, legs, mind, eyes and state of attention. It encompasses all those things into one body feeling. That total feeling is a lot easier to remember without using words than it is to try to think of a list of technical descriptions. When under pressure, no matter how big the strain is, the feeling of the set will not desert you like technical thoughts will. Thoughts are always a little behind the action. If you’re thinking your way through an act, you’ll notice your actions are "sticky."

I’ve had this experience many times and have talked to other shooters who also have had it, that upon completion of an extremely successful course of fire, you cannot remember what thoughts you had. It’s a natural tendency to want to think back and know what you did or what you were thinking to control such a good performance, but it’s that lack of thoughts that produces that lack of memory.

The lack of memory is the result of being in the set. By putting yourself in the most favorable condition to allow the ultimate expression of your capacity, that condition has very little to do with thought, so there is very little memory associated with it. So the bottom line really isn’t a bottom line; it’s that your attention always has to be attentive. It can never park itself in one place or get comfortable in one place, because that will only last for so long before the trick wears off.

The desire to remember what we were thinking as we were performing impeccably, when in fact there is nothing to remember, imposes a sense of uncertainty or fear in the mind. Enter trust. Through experience, we must learn to trust that if we maintain a state of conscious awareness and simply witness what is actually happening, the aforementioned topics will manifest themselves to your capacity.

A way that might help get into the whole feel of the set I’m describing would be if you were holding your pistol out in front of you and everything about your position felt the most perfect, relaxed and neutral as possible, then direct your mind to absorb your body’s feeling. Feel that set of how you’re holding right there. That total body feel also includes your mental feel, the feel of "relaxed and hard" or of "moving quickly but not in a hurry," "matter of fact," whatever means the most to you. No words! The attention necessary to hold that feeling does not allow words to surface.

The set allows your intent to be expressed at it’s highest, most complete level. The memory of the feeling is so total that it cannot be broken down. As soon as you try to categorize any particular part of it, you make it so complex that you destroy any hope of spontaneously creating it in the present.

You can see how your will functions while performing actions in your everyday life; it’s subtle and it’s hidden, but it’s always there. (By “will” I mean your desire backed by conviction, determination, and decisiveness.) If you’re alert to it, your will is directing your action simply by your intent or your desire to do that action in the most efficient manner necessary. In its natural state, your will asserts itself very spontaneously. When you drop your wallet, you reach and pick it up. If at that moment you are "present," the chances of not picking it up are slim. (Nor would have dropped it in the first place.) If you’re thinking random thoughts when you reach to pick it up, you may pick it up and drop it again. If you’re reaching for a doorknob, for example, and your hand slips off before the door opens, if you’re attentive to your thoughts you may notice you were somewhere else, your internal dialogue was running.

Love Brian's posts! 

[Maximis228]

1 minute ago, Hunter91 said:

"Buzzer Dumb" should be the title of your next book! 

 

Racing to 50 posts?

[jester121]

Come on now, those posts have some insightful s#!t, strewn down the Unread Content page as they are.

At least it's a 4 year old account.... 

[blindmarksman]

On 5/3/2016 at 7:37 AM, johnbu said:

I watched some top shooters last weekend including Alex Gutt. The difference between them and a "normal" person is the lack of wasted motion. They simply didn't wing it through the course of fire, they really looked to have every step, twist, turn, reload mentally prepped. It was sort of a light bulb moment watching them mentally prep a stage, then shoot it and see them land in their own footprints. Mental rehearsal and detailed visualization

It's probably a "well, duh!" comment for most, but it was illuminating for this newbee. I'm uncertain of what to do, then beep! ....and I'm turned to stone.

absolutely true. took a class with JJ and he explained it all