CJ56

I used to shoot with my elbows locked and it worked very well for me. Then I bought a pistol that recoils straight back. I had never seen that before. It required me to adjust my stance so that I had some give in my elbows. It took a while to get adjusted to that after so many years of shooting with elbows locked. I know that's an old style of shooting but I'm an older guy. But I did adjust to having bent elbows and it has allowed me to shoot much quicker follow up shots. I still have never seen another pistol that has no barrel flip at all like the one I bought though. Locking your elbows gives you a solid stance that is repeatable every time without having to think about it. But I found out that not every gun works well with that stance.

1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. 2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion. I didn't get far into this thread when I noticed a very limited deinition of "religion". The definitions here are much better. The poster also left out a key part of the Webster defintion which says: : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices Religion is more than a belief in the supernatural. It's a belief in any particular view of the nature of the universe and as such zen most certainly qualifies. Zen is about reaching nirvana, which absolutely is a belief in something that is supposedly inherent in the nature of the universe. But even atheists can be considered religious. They believe there is no god so they have their belief in the nature of the universe also. They have an institutionalized belief system complete with an attending attitude. Zen is a religion. There is no doubt about it. If you have read any of the foundation documents of Zen you would know that instantly. But even the stripped down version of zen as it is perceived in the west is a religion.

The Soviet Union did extensive research into the science of sports including the shooting sports. What they determined was the biggest obstacle to shooting well was believing in your ability to do it. That doesn't mean you can ignore the fundamentals and that greatest of all tools, practice. You can't. Those are the things that give you confidence. If you know you have put in the time and you've seen that you have done well before then chances are you can do well again. That said maybe the best thing I ever did to improve my shooting was to dry fire a pistol with a laser on it a few thousand times. A laser will tell you instantly if your trigger pull made the gun move before the trigger broke if you pay close attention. So again your post is spot on for helping people learn to control their shooting. Trigger pull is very important no matter what type of gun you are shooting. People talk about lock time and that is important but practice can keep you on target long enough for lock time to become much less of an issue. I think your post was excellent. The zen of shooting is certainly a big part of it. I'm a Christian so I'm not buying the whole Zen ball of wax but I know that state of mnid affects shooting. I guess I have always believed in my ability to shoot because I grew up around guns and good shooters. I never expected not to be one of them. I often find that people in forums that don't shoot well try very hard to make you think you can't do it either. They're wrong. And they won't convince me I can't shoot because I've put in the time, I've learned the fundamentals and I believe in my God given ability. I'm not the greatest shot by any means but I shoot pretty well. I'm not bragging. That's just how it is. And if you get to the point where you think that way you've got most of this game beat. I have won a lot of competitions so I guess that proves something. But I believed in my ability before then. I'm really not trying to brag. I'm trying to help others understand that they need to believe too and I want them to understand how they get to that point.