geoswz

Darn, I was going to say that. Spiritual development is aided by "the spirit of truth" which, to me, is like "awareness" but an active, seeking kind of awareness. It fits the Zen advice about how to learn from those enlightened guys (and maybe even from the good shooters)--"Don't do what they did, seek what they sought".

That's a very helpful structure, thanks, I'm going to copy and paste it. I have the Mike Seeklander book and DVD's and I really like them, but I'm not like the guy who did a book report on "War and Peace". The whole book report was "It's about Russia". Mike has a really comprehensive approach and I need to do a better job of narrowing it down to what works for me at my current new shooter level.

You reminded me of an interesting idea from another post. A guy improved his draw time by stopping thinking about moving his strong hand fast and focused on moving his support hand fast. I'm wondering if there was nothing magic about the speed of his support hand, the benefit came from not thinking about his strong hand. Which relaxed the hand and made it faster. So maybe instead of "front sight, press, breathe" you could say anything else, just to take your mind off trying hard, and it would improve your shooting. Maybe saying something totally irrelevant to shooting like "Nike says just do it," would improve your shooting, because the benefit comes from the distraction, not the advice. I'm not a good enough shooter to run a controlled experiment, but if you feel like playing with the idea I'd love to hear about your results. I tried it a little with reloading. Instead of thinking about the speed of my support hand I focused on feeling the grip of my strong hand while I reloaded. I think it helped but I need to play with it some more.

I like your version of the more common quote I've seen: "Slow > Smooth > Fast". You're right, the end point isn't fast, it's "effortless". And maybe "mindless" is a part of that.

You triggered another thought about the different ways to learn. There are 4 ways to learn to shoot: Acting (trial and error, just do it and see what happens); Thinking (visualize a stage, talk to myself, plan my practice); Feeling (learn from emotions, intuition, and the physical feeling of shooting well); Accessing Others (books, lessons, DVD's, Youtube, etc.) Most of us overuse some of those ways and under use others. I overuse Thinking and Accessing Others and under use Acting and Feeling, so I try to remember to balance them out.

You're right of course. I phrased it that way only because I'm too quick to read and think and watch Youtube and DVD's and too slow to invest the sweat equity of shooting and dry firing. A related reminder is "Find the expert advice that works for me". Because I'm too quick to look for expert advice and I don't filter it through my own experience.

That's a good reminder Steve. I'm a long way from "unconscious competence" but that's my goal. Did you notice what I stole from your podcast-- "Emotionless"? You triggered my reminder to "Keep ego out of it--I am not my shooting".

A recent e-mail exchange with Corey prompted some additional thoughts on my original post: One thing I like about shooting is that it gives me a chance to work on my own shit. Or, more elegantly, engage in character development. So these "Commandments" (now just called "Reminders") were intended to be reminders of the things I do that get in my way as a learner. I didn't explain that very well in my original post. Some examples: I get impatient with slow progress so the reminder is "There is no finish line". I get mad at myself when I shoot badly so the reminder is "Keep ego out of it--I am not my shooting". I'm not very planful or structured so the reminder is "The devil is in the detail." When bikerburgess, above, said "Have fun" that was very helpful because I get too serious. So I turned that into "If I'm not having fun I'm not doing it right". I'm interested in any similar reminders you have about how you approach the sport.

I don't do well with structured practice. Maybe someday, when I'm all grown up, I'll have the self discipline to have a written training plan and practice X on Monday and Y on Tuesday and Z on Wednesday. But I don't do that now. At the same time, I know it's a good idea to have guidelines. Here are some thoughts on what my Ten Commandments might look like. The Ten Commandments of Learning to Shoot 1. Do something every day. 2. Learn something every day. 3. Learn by doing and observing, not by reading and thinking. 4. Write down what I learn. 5. Keep my most recent targets. 6. Mix the Big Three—dry fire, live fire and matches. 7. Slow > Smooth > Fast 8. ? 9. ? 10. ? Your thoughts? Thanks, George

I'm a new shooter, working on accuracy, and see conflicting advice on how many rounds a week to shoot at the range. (I see 50 rounds a week, 500 rounds a week, etc.) If I went to a range once a week, how many rounds should I shoot and at what distances? E.g., 2 rounds at one yard, 5 at five yards, double taps, etc. This is a range with one target and no drawing allowed. I can also go to a shooting ranch with multiple targets and drawing, but I can get advice there on what to do. I'm also going to do dry fire and competition. I'm sure this question has been answered elsewhere so if you can point me to that thread I'd really appreciate it. Is there a way to search the forums, I couldn't find a search box. Thanks.