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The Slower I Go, the Faster I Shoot


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ktm300,

Once you get Lanny Basham's book listen to the part about "running a mental program". Keeping the conscious mind on something is important so it doesn't mess with your subconsious. Lanny says it can be anything even not even related to the task you're about to perform. Looking at the shoelaces is a good one and he has a couple others.

It's great that you've noticed a pattern. I'm still trying to figure out what works consistently for me.

DNH

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I was just looking at this thread and thought about the youtube of miculek talking about vision skills.

The first 1:15 of the video, he describes how if you just watch it happen(your shooting), it will feel slow but it will be your personal best.

I have pretty limited experience, just over two years now, but if I reflect on it, my best performances have always felt slow while they were happening.

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What the OP described happened to me the first time at a steel match one day. I finished what I thought was an okay run. Went shot for shot on the steel and saw more than I had before. I was convinced if I saw that much it must have been a slow run, but I had no idea of time. When the RO called out the time I was convinced his timer was broken. Personal best by far and the second fastest run for the whole match.

I have spent the last couple of years trying to get back to that place. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. When I do, great things happen. It's what draws me back to shoot more.

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What the OP described happened to me the first time at a steel match one day. I finished what I thought was an okay run. Went shot for shot on the steel and saw more than I had before. I was convinced if I saw that much it must have been a slow run, but I had no idea of time. When the RO called out the time I was convinced his timer was broken. Personal best by far and the second fastest run for the whole match.

I have spent the last couple of years trying to get back to that place. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. When I do, great things happen. It's what draws me back to shoot more.

Cool - that's the good stuff. It's fun when you finally realize that there is more to shooting than just pulling the trigger. Or is there?

:D

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"if you just watch it happen(your shooting), it will feel slow but it will be your personal best."

This "feeling slow" is what keeps shooters out of "the zone."

You must forget about the perception of time, you just can't measure it accurately yourself.

To be fair, I misquoted. What he actually said was "When you are shooting very good or at your level, it looks extremely slow" In this case, it looks extremely slow to the shooter as the observer.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

Telling yourself to go slow will never work, because it's not what you really want.

You've earned a run at your current level of skill, there's no way to do any better than that on any match day.

Many shooters will shoot below their current level of skill, mostly because of rushing or trying. It will feel very exhilarating, but not score very well.

What if you could shoot your current level of skill every time, and then increase that in training?

:)

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What if you could shoot your current level of skill every time, and then increase that in training?

:)

I've started to become this guy! In my last 2 SC matches I took HOA and set a new personal best each time .... it's now time to get to work increasing my skill level while maintaining the same level of performance between training and matches ...

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is something I just starting noticing myself. I just have to remind myself that just because my splits aren't under .2, that doesn't mean I'm doing poorly.

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Lately, I've been reminding myself before every match that I need to just call my shots and trust my current speed and ability (and haul ass when I'm not shooting). That's the best I can do on match day. It may not be enough to win the match, but at least I will be shooting at the peak of my abilities. Which is a pretty good win in and of itself.

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Lately, I've been reminding myself before every match that I need to just call my shots and trust my current speed and ability (and haul ass when I'm not shooting). That's the best I can do on match day. It may not be enough to win the match, but at least I will be shooting at the peak of my abilities. Which is a pretty good win in and of itself.

Yes to all that!

The only tricky part is to keep all that in mind, for every stage, forever.

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  • 5 months later...

I've been told countless times "you can't outshoot a miss" when I was shooting cowboy action. After trying my first ICORE match last weekend I realized there is A LOT to be gained by shooting smoothly and calling each shot. It seems the slower I go the faster my times are. Lots of great advice on here!

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Lately, I've been reminding myself before every match that I need to just call my shots and trust my current speed and ability (and haul ass when I'm not shooting). That's the best I can do on match day. It may not be enough to win the match, but at least I will be shooting at the peak of my abilities. Which is a pretty good win in and of itself.

This is where i have finally got to after my first year of shooting. When i apply it i will shoot A class and when i don't its C class.

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  • 3 weeks later...

On this same topic of being smooth and seeing what you need to see, I came to a very abrupt realization the other day. There is a podcast called the three gun show, and they interviewed jerry miculek, and he said a few things during that interview that we're ah ha moments for me.

Such as mental expectations and pressure

Different types of focus

And watching things happen versus trying to make them happen.

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  • 3 months later...

Lately, I've been reminding myself before every match that I need to just call my shots and trust my current speed and ability (and haul ass when I'm not shooting). That's the best I can do on match day. It may not be enough to win the match, but at least I will be shooting at the peak of my abilities. Which is a pretty good win in and of itself.

Yes to all that!

The only tricky part is to keep all that in mind, for every stage, forever.

Sounds like some kind of sorcery to me. It reminds me of my last local steel match. I climbed into my head and tried to burn the house down. The results were less than satisfying.

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  • 2 weeks later...

First...I am slow....and somewhat of a newby...barely USPSA C in limited. I am a big guy so I dont move very fast anywhere.... I am focused on improving speed right now but my best HF are not when I try to go full speed...they are when I am pushing speed while trying to keep on target. I can be very accurate - slowly. I can be very inaccurate quickly - I am trying to hit the balance then work on moving both up the scale.

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