Awareness, Time, and The Zone

[benos]

There's alot of stuff in this thread and that one that I don't understand, but that doesn't mean its not true. I just need to work on my understanding

Thanks

Kevin

Or work on uncovering the cause of your confusion.

Which is why it bugs the heck out of me in matches when I rush. Everything I know tells me to slow down and focus. My finger, however, is not paying attention - it just keeps screaming SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT. <sigh>

Your finger does not have a mind of its own. It won't rush only when you are actively telling it to pull the trigger only when you are seeing what you need to see - while you are shooting!

be

[Graham Smith]

Your finger does not have a mind of its own.

Mine does. At least it sometimes seems like it does.

Time, or rather the clock, really is my enemy - it always has been. By nature, I am somewhat methodical. But when the clock is ticking, it seems to crowd it's way to the forefront of my attention. I am getting better about this (in my shooting), and am focusing much better this year than I was last year. When I look at my scores, there are more A's, fewer D's and a lot fewer M's and NS's. BUT, this is done at the cost of additional minutes and seconds.

I had one stage this past weekend where I decided it would be a good place to put my brain on autopilot and ease off a bit on the "controls". Everything started to flow better and I ended up with a much better score. I was in "The Zone", as it were.

One of the things that can get lost in a discussion like this is the physiological response to stress. Shooting accurately at speed is stressful which results in the release of epinephrine (a.k.a. adrenaline), which can have both adverse and beneficial effects. Practice and experience can help mitigate the adverse effects but it can require training to learn to use the beneficial effects.

The effects are also quite contrary. The so-called fight-or-flight response results in an increased heart rate and a feeling that we need to rush, while at the same time it can make things appear to slow down. Peripheral vision decreases, but forward vision sharpens. Fine muscle control decreases, but trained motor actions improve. Everything, taken together with practice and training, is what people often think of as being "in The Zone."

[Sidewinder6]

Seems like this is really a conversation about concentration and focus in order to reach that place inside. I understand it, but I have not mastered entering and exiting on my wish. If anything happens, I exit never to return for that evolution or stage.

[benos]

I have an innate tendency to always be in a hurry or even rushing no matter what it is I'm doing. Which of course is the IPSC's shooters number one enemy.

Without exception, for every good or great stage I ever shot, my victory over the enemy included establishing a fierce determinattion beforehand, to not be rushing while I was shooting. Once I learnd how to carry that mindset with me throughout the buzzer and into the first shot, I felf like I had discovered the secret.

be

[kevinj308]

"One of the things that can get lost in a discussion like this is the physiological response to stress. Shooting accurately at speed is stressful which results in the release of epinephrine (a.k.a. adrenaline), which can have both adverse and beneficial effects. Practice and experience can help mitigate the adverse effects but it can require training to learn to use the beneficial effects."

I agree that the physiological portion doesn't come up all the time.

In the past I've enjoyed freediving. Diving in the ocean just holding your breath, a pair of fins, a mask and a snorkel. One of the major challenges is your urge to breath. It doesn't come from the lack of oxygen but rather from the build up of carbon dioxide in you lungs. Its the CO2 that stimulates the brain to breath while you still have plenty of O2. You have to suppress the urge to breath with force of will because intellectually you know that you have plenty of O2. Even while your brain wants to SCREAM at you to breath you must control it and remain calm. You gotta remain calm to conserve the O2 you do have. The top pros in that game hold their breath upwards of 4 minutes while diving to depths in excess of 100ft. That's some serious mind over physiology.

I think the most successful shooters in this game are probably doing the same thing. Regardless of what their physiology is telling them to do, like hurry and get to the end because it's a race, their force of will allows them to perform as they intellectually know they should.

While I'm here typing, and drinking beer , I'd like to throw something else out there. I agree that time, or like Mr. Smith said the clock, is the enemy. But I don't think speed is, that's kinda one of the good things. I tend to associate hurrying with speed. I'm thinking that's not a good way to look at it. Hurrying is bad, but speed with precision is good. When I'm shooting well, maybe not in the zone, but doing well for me. It feels good, the speed feels good. Like driving fast, or letting a wave carry you. But its speed with no concern for how long it takes. The enjoyment of the velocity without a concern for the outcome. Thats really the closest I've come to the zone. I'm absorbed in the moment without a concern for the duration of it. But it still seems to me I'm self aware and there's consciousness there.

I think it was Ben Stoeger who posted somewhere on here that being mentally calm and physically aggressive was a good way to go. I think that relates to our force of will overcoming or taking advantage of our physiology. But also being calm enough to allow the precision that's required to happen while being physically aggressive enough to have speed.

Somewhere in all that multitasking of be this and do that while not being this or doing that, I think we learn alot. Alot about awareness.

Kevin

[Sam]

Time is the grandest of all illusions. I think of it as cosmic theater.

Yeah, I get caught up in the drama too.

But, eternity (time absent) is real.

All of our problems, pain, suffering, and desires need the illusion of "time" to exist. Time is pain. Time is suffering.

Understand that your life is for eternity and time cannot be your master.

[benos]

All of our problems, pain, suffering, and desires need the illusion of "time" to exist. Time is pain. Time is suffering.

Understand that your life is for eternity and time cannot be your master.

Nice - Samamurti!

[Wicked Wrister]

Without exception, for every good or great stage I ever shot, my victory over the enemy included establishing a fierce determinattion beforehand, to not be rushing while I was shooting. Once I learnd how to carry that mindset with me throughout the buzzer and into the first shot, I felf like I had discovered the secret.

be

This has been my experience also. With regard to shooting a stage, the more intense my pre-stage mental preparation was, the more I let go at the buzzer. Almost like balancing the scales, the more I concentrated before the action, the more I focused during the action. Whether it's pre-running the stage in your mind, pantomiming every move or simply ignoring those around you, when I have been calm and concentrated, relaxed but serious before the stage, those are the only times I've felt like I'm sitting on the shoulder of a dominant, commanding shooter. On the contrary, every horrible stage I've had was missing the pre-flight check that allowed something inside me to switch on the auto-pilot.

[stinsonbeach]

"...beware the stink of Zen..."

To that I'll add, "...beware the fog of Zen..." it obscures real-ity & oh so heavy to carry around.

Why trade one leash for another?

-j

[DyNo!]

I like the OP.

I imagine that I'm like a wind-up slot car and all of my practice is the tension on the wheels.

Whatever stored energy I put in before hand will come out in my performance if I just let it go.

Bad practice equals poor performance and winding a wind up car sloppily won't get it far.

At the same time, if I push the car forward, it won't go as far because I'm slowing it down with my effort.

There is no spoon...

Just thought I'd throw that out there before someone else does, I have nothing else...

Here's my philosophy:

"In Brian Enos' book, he says you should be like a "cat waiting to hit the ball" or something to that effect.

I am not the cat.

I am the yappy chihuahua with ADD chasing the lasers on the ground... "

Edited June 20, 2010 by DyNo!

[AlamoShooter]

I do not think Time is our enemy , I think it is our Definition of Time that is our enemy.

I am drawn to sport shooting because it help me find a new definition of time.

Time to me this year is not the same as time was three years ago , and completely deferent than time the first four or five years I shot competitively.

I truly love the time I spend between seconds, -The rare occurrences of that during the year - That is why I shoot.

Jamie

_{I spoke incomplet with "Definition" its the Limited way most people define time = that is my thought}

_{To make a second last longer than ever before}

Edited June 22, 2010 by AlamoShooter

[stinsonbeach]

"Time" is merely another hologram behind your eyes.

Life - Real-ity - you - me - are verb . . . notice: not a verb, just verb.

I promise you, if you get that - really get it - everything else falls into place.

j-

[benos]

Without exception, for every good or great stage I ever shot, my victory over the enemy included establishing a fierce determinattion beforehand, to not be rushing while I was shooting. Once I learnd how to carry that mindset with me throughout the buzzer and into the first shot, I felf like I had discovered the secret.

be

This has been my experience also. With regard to shooting a stage, the more intense my pre-stage mental preparation was, the more I let go at the buzzer. Almost like balancing the scales, the more I concentrated before the action, the more I focused during the action. Whether it's pre-running the stage in your mind, pantomiming every move or simply ignoring those around you, when I have been calm and concentrated, relaxed but serious before the stage, those are the only times I've felt like I'm sitting on the shoulder of a dominant, commanding shooter. On the contrary, every horrible stage I've had was missing the pre-flight check that allowed something inside me to switch on the auto-pilot.

Yes, it all comes down to removing all doubt - before the action begins.

be

[DavidA]

I think I followed where you were going in the OP, but you lost me with "the companion of self awareness is time". Why must it be so? Could you expand on that a little bit?

Thanks

Kevin

Have you ever had the rare experience that you "came out" of?

Whether shooting a stage or doing any activity, you suddenly realized that for a short or a long period, there was no sense of self. The actor and action had merged into one activity. In that state there is no sense of passing time. And you only realized the sense of self when "you" "came back."

The "there's no time in the Zone" state has to be experienced for the truth of it to be realized.

Or to put it more directly, as Krishnamurti has said many times, "Time is thought."

Time is like the illusion created by the magician's sleight of hand. The "magic" conceals the true, timeless reality.

In each moment, everything is perfect as it is. Only when we think about the past or the future do things become good or bad.

be

I posted my out of body experience elsewhere, and got this reply from benos:

Over the years, I had quite a few of those out of body experiences while shooting stages,

in practice and in matches.

No other type of experience compares to it, in the way it affects your mind.

To benos:

I feel your words and wisdom, sensei.