Wow Steve. Very interesting thoughts. I mentioned in the thread where you said you were going to make new thread about emotionless shooting, that I had been thinking about the same thing.
I found that if I get all pumped up before a stage, the performance becomes erratic. Sometimes good, sometimes very bad.
It definately has everything to do with "wanting". When I go to a match, I try to think I'm the only competitor there, to get in the mindstate of "not wanting". I've found that my weakness is, that I think it's very important what other people think of my performance.
I just have one question for you. When I thought of shooting without emotion, I thought that also meant taking all the fun out of the moment you're shooting. How do you feel about this? Is it possible to separate the emotions you get from bad/good performance from the emotions of enjoying the shooting experience?