The Thrill Is Gone. Struggling to find the fun.

[Quag]

To have fun in idpa i shoot my bug/carry gun in a regular match, wear sports coat for cover, smoke ceegars, and shot that bug gun as fast as can. Boy do ihad some bad scores but that bill drill, that was something. Iwas dirty harry for a moment!

[MetropolisLake]

I heard a wise person say about NASCAR one time, that the first 200 mph is easy. The next 20 mph is really hard. I think it's true in all sports. Once you've about maxed out your natural ability, it takes real work to get better.

This is part of the reason I'm trying to only commit to the club meet only thing even if I get better. Part of it is affordability and time, but the other part is the "been there, done that" with mountain biking. I tried to get serious, but once you get to that point, the only thrill is actually winning. Even if you win, you will usually just be a big fish in a little pond, as there's still a crap ton of people better than you. What exactly is the point of that? There is none. You only spend a bunch of time and money feeding a pointless obsession that doesn't truly make you happy.

However, if you truly take a break, it's real hard to get back into a sport. Slacking off a bit and trying to refocus on what exactly you liked about the scene in the first place may be a better solution. That's what I did with mountain biking, took a break, and now I'm lucky to go once a year to a local trail. I used to go 3 times a week to two different national forests and my once a year trip was in Colorado. Take an extended break and you risk doing the same.

Edited December 12, 2013 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters

[DoubleL]

This is an excellent thread. I think most people, especially men with hobbies, could really learn a thing or two reading this thread.

My 2 cents...

To me, you sound like almost every guy I know. Well at least the ones that actually do stuff and have hobbies because many don't. Unbelievable right? I have found that taking breaks, if you want to call it that, can help you see your hobby from a new perspective. Let's face it, many have stated that if only I could do such and such I would be a GM.... If that's really an accurate description of they way you feel, in your heart, about shooting then I have bad news for you brotha.

You will be just as unhappy at GM as you are at low C.

Take the break. It ain't the boogeyman. If you walk away from shooting and truly don't miss it.... Why come back??? Be true to yourself man! If you hate it then drop it and pursue the hobby you truly desire and that will bring you happiness. If I started to see shooting as a stress ball of madness in my life or felt that it was keeping me from other things I like, my guns would hit the safe for a while. No way would I let any one of my hobbies ruin all my other hobbies!! I'm just being honest with myself, sounds like maybe you could benefit from doing the same. I came to realize that I like the stress relief that shooting offers me more than the gratification of placing well.

Whatever you choose, if you choose honestly it will work out just fine.

[jrswanson1]

I know this is kind of an older thread, but Peacemaker National Training Center in WV panhandle runs a 3-gun match every month, and they host one of the FN Nationals in September. And since you're in Maryland, why aren't you on Maryland Shooters?

[JesseM]

I am on Maryland shooters. I have zero idea what that has to do with this.

[Aglifter]

I'm really just paraphrasing BEnos, Psirig, and lots of other folks, but the first flag I saw was that you had "expectations."

That can, almost always, trigger a downward spiral into hatred and misery.

The one thing, which you can be assured, is totally irrelevant to your fate, and reality, is your expectations. Life is.

[Nimitz]

Here's the real question ... Has this happened before with other hobbies or interests or yours? If so, then it's likely that 'expectations' thing is rearing it's ugly head and this has nothing to do wth shooting and won't be fixed by 'shooting solutions' .... Use another gun, try a different gun sport, etc, etc. however, if this really is the first time you have lost interest in an activity you used to love then it probably is just that you've lost interest in shooting and it's time to move on .... No big deal ...

[JesseM]

Here's the real question ... Has this happened before with other hobbies or interests or yours? If so, then it's likely that 'expectations' thing is rearing it's ugly head and this has nothing to do wth shooting and won't be fixed by 'shooting solutions' .... Use another gun, try a different gun sport, etc, etc. however, if this really is the first time you have lost interest in an activity you used to love then it probably is just that you've lost interest in shooting and it's time to move on .... No big deal ...

It's sort of happened before? I gave up on a few hobbies (guitar and motorcycling) so I could focus on shooting. Guitar was taking up time I could have spent dry firing and I was a fair weather rider so the only days I'd take the bike out was also the days I'd go shooting so I found that I enjoyed shooting more and wanted to focus on that and I saw the motorcycle sitting there collecting dust and sold it.

Guitar I was never much good at but I enjoyed screwing around with it. Once I reached the age of 21 or so and realized I was never going to be a rock god there was never really any stress or pressure at playing guitar, it was just something I did sometimes when I was bored. I didn't give up on it so much as decide I would rather spend my time practicing shooting than playing guitar.

Motorcycles... is probabaly closer to shooting when I decided to give it up. Motorcycles was a thing I was into when I was young because my father was into them, he was poor growing up so all of his bikes were pieced together and didn't really quite work so I'd spend a lot of time fixing them with him, not so much riding them. I was never big into sports or competition in general growing up, I played little league because it was "a thing everyone did" and the practice field was across from my uncle's housewhich is where my father would work on his bike and I found myself skipping baseball so I could go work on bikes. So because of that motorcycles became this object of desire. At some point I was old enough and had a good enough job that I could afford one so I bought one and rode it around like crazy for a summer and then didn't really ride it that much.

I kept coming up with excuses not to ride it. Like I couldn't ride it to work because I didn't want to wear my riding gear over my dress work clothes and I couldn't ride it on the weekend because I was going to the store and needed the storage space of a car. Then I sort of had this moment where I realized I didn't enjoy riding anymore... I'd wanted one growing up because I spent so much time working on them with my dad but we never really rode we just twaked them so I started thinking maybe I don't so much like riding them as I like working on them or fixing them and I gave it some more thought and realized what I really wanted wasn't a motorcycle but to relive those memories of fixing busted up basket cases in my uncle's basement with my dad. I had that little ephipany right when I started getting into USPSA and IDPA so I sold the motorcycle. I've been getting the urge to get on a bike again recently though.

Edited January 4, 2014 by JesseM

[frankie]

I started shooting competitions about 3 years or so ago. I went to a local IDPA match and then tried a local USPSA match and I thought it was fun so I kept going to them casually. Casually in the sense that I didn't go to every match; I let other social functions take priority ususally.

Then it reached a point where I started going to most of them and then I started going to all of them and sometime around the start or middle of last summer something clicked and I went from just showing up and having fun to actively working to improve, I got competetive, I wanted to win. I went from 15% up to 53% at my peak.

I think part of it was people were noticing my improvement.... there isn't a lot of competiton at my local IDPA club and I started consistently placing near the top of the scores and I would overhear people asking how I shot a stage and people would come up and ask me what my time was on a stage and I started thinking "Maybe I don't suck." And some shooters much better then me told me "You could be winning matches if you'd do blah" and so it went from "fun" to "This shit is serious business."

And whle I kept making progress and advancing in scores it kept being fun. But something happened the last few months. I went to my first major USPSA match in May, got a bit psyched out by all of the much better shooters surrounding me and I had some personal drama going on the home front that distracted me so I shot the worst match I've shot since I started shooting.

And since then I've had the yips. It's like I forgot how to shoot accurately, any target past a certain distance all I'm doing is making noise when I pull the trigger. I have a few A & Master shooters giving me advice, some of it conflicting. One told me "Give me an afternoon and 200 rounds and I can fix you." One of them telling me I need to dry fire and shoot more. I can't afford the ammo to shoot more.

It's a hobby, it used to relax me but now it stresses me out, I worry about what's the quickest way to shoot a stage, I worry if my sight alignment is right, if I'm shooting too quick, if I'm not shooting quick enough, etc. This thing I started to do for fun is getting very very close to becoming a chore... and if it starts to be too much work I'm going to eventually reach a point where I say "screw this" and stop doing it. I'm not there yet but I'm close, very close.

I've told a few friends that I think I need to take a few months off so I can find the fun again and they all make the threats of "If you do that you'll never get better." but I think they're missing the point.

So what do you all do? Should I take a break?

take a break from shooting. by that I mean work a few matches but leave your gear at home. This will yell you if you really want to shoot or not

[Quag]

Jesse first of all I want to thank you for starting this thread. I have read it a couple of different times and I read it again today. Maybe I'm older than you maybe not. But for me hobbies/sports have always been a vital distraction to my job and family (my 2 primary responsibilities). I was reflecting on my sports and hobbies from high school thru today. What has happened is there has always been a cycle and that is: discovery, infatuation, emersion, accomplishment, frustration, and gradual loss of interest, burnout and the end of that hobby. I look at my collective hobbies/sports now with fondness and I took something from every one of them and it most cases they all involved competition. Perhaps if you step back and look at your journey as a part of who are instead of it consuming most of your being you will enjoy action pistol shooting again.

BTW I am new (1 year) to reloading and IDPA. I have just decided to take it seriously and have drawn up a Seeklander training program. I'm not very good yet (not close to your level) but I'm having fun. But I am already aware of burn out. Between reloading, dry fire practice, live fire practice and learning about pistol maintenance/modification (armorer stuff) this hobby is taking a lot of time. I am already taking short forced breaks. The sports/hobbies I have done as an adult that I have enjoyed, burnt out and moved on from include; tennis at the college varsity level, downhill skiing, wind surfing (including racing), golf (that was a mess), mountain biking (senior races), 15 years of adult hockey, American civil war reenacting, skeet/trap shooting, glider pilot (I just sold my glider so I can spend more time shooting). Maybe in a couple of years I'll quit action pistol shooting but I doubt it. One thing I am aware of is that I have not been able do many of these sports/hobbies simultaneously, I'm not sure that’s a good thing. But all of these sports/hobbies partly define who I am and what I have become. I would not trade away any of them except for maybe golf!

Edited January 5, 2014 by Quag

[JesseM]

Man I never understand the appeal of golf. It never did anything for me.

I have wanted to take up fencing for literally the last 10 years but there is no where near me that I can practice that. I'm trying to move though so if I can find a job and GTFO of Maryland I can maybe that that up as something else to do too.