Look at Nothing, See Everything

[ktm300]

I have raced off road motorcycles for about 25 years. Mostly enduro where you don't get to see the section before you ride it. The races are 3 to 5 hours and have multiple sections that are from 8 to 25 miles of trail.

I have seen several posts about vision and having runs where the person was on auto pilot etc.

When you are riding a bike off road at race speed, you can't look at anything, as you tend to hit what you look at, but you have to see everything, decide what and how to go over or around it, find the next arrow so you know where to go, etc, etc. At race speed, there is just too much information to be able to process it all if you try to think about it. On a good day, I end up in a state where everything slows down, I see a very big picture of what is going on around me and I don't feel like I am going very fast. On the bike it takes me a while to get to that state, if I ever get there. When I get there, time is very strange as you feel like you are going slow, but you know you are flying and the section just disapears in what seems like no time at all. You don't tend to feel as worn out at the end of a section but when the race is over I am spent.

I have always thought the guys that go really fast can turn this "state" on like a light switch. They seem to see stuff at speed that I can't see at walking pace.

I think this is the same state I hear people talk about when shooting where they are on auto pilot. So far my problem is getting there while shooting. I have gotten close once or twice and I shot stages at speed that seems like it is not possible for me. I have only been shooting about 6 months and when I am able to get close to that state of mind in a stage, is on the weeks where I went out and shot 1k+ rounds of practice with my 22 at the house. I also have to have the stage in my head well enough so I can play it back at speed.

The best way for me to practice expanding my vision and try and get to that state driving a car is to not look at anything but try and see everything that is around me at one time. It is much simpler in a car than on the dirt bike, but it's still not easy. I try and see what is in all my mirrors and what is going on around me at the same time. I try to pick up the state off the license plates around me without focusing on them. I try and get all the thoughts that tend to run around in my head to stop and just drive and see everything. Some days it works well, most days it is a struggle. When it works is when I get my mind to let go of all the stupid stuff I am thinking about and just go blank.

[G-ManBart]

Look at nothing, see everything...I like that! R,

[bayoupirate]

I like the anology. THanks for sharing.

I know from experience, where the eyes go, the gun follows.

[benos]

Look at nothing, see everything...I like that! R,

I'm a big fan of that as well.

When functioning in that state, you feel like you are seeing everything all at once, all the time. I don't feel that's quite what's actually happening though, because I could remember lots of detailed images - crisp target and sight focuses - but I did not see any specific detail for a noticeable length of time. So the feeling is that when that type of seeing persists for a bit, the perception of time slows way down and it feels like you are 'seeing everything.' It's the ultimate state to function in.

The mindset necessary for that state can be trained outside of shooting or bike riding. One technique I learned is practiced while walking. (I walk twice a day with my dog, Mr. Tucker.) While walking, look straight ahead but don't focus on anything. Open up your vision so that you are aware of everything within 180 degrees of your field of vision, left to right and up and down. Walk while maintaining that open open focus for a while, and note how can be aware of anything that moves within your field of vision. It's good for the mind.

be

[Matt Griffin]

This isn't everything, but one factor is definitely

I also have to have the stage in my head well enough so I can play it back at speed.

Or to put it another way, without this you won't get there, in my experience. Another big help for hitting the zone is getting to do a walkthrough with a clear, almost hallucinatory mental sight picture on every target. When I airgun I'm putting sights on each target, in effect shooting the stage before I shoot the stage.

Last trick is to relax and have your mind a few steps ahead of your body. If you fumble something you can almost feel your mind snap back into the present, then confusion starts to mount, and you're stuck in reactive mode.

H.

[benos]

I also have to have the stage in my head well enough so I can play it back at speed.

I never did that. I visualized precisely what I knew I needed to see and do, and let the speed work itself out as I shot.

For certain types of targets, especially swingers or disappearing targets, I felt trying to visualize in "real time," was counter productive. Due to speed and distance of a swinger, for example, I might not be able to visually decide if I get just one or maybe two shots on the target per pass. So I had better luck just shooting what I saw.

be

[ktm300]

When functioning in that state, you feel like you are seeing everything all at once, all the time. I don't feel that's quite what's actually happening though

I think you are correct, I think my focus is moving from place to place, I am just not conscious of it hapening. In that state I have let go of conscious thought and I am letting my unconscious mind run the show. At the highest level of that state I have felt an almost out of body experiance where my conscious mind was wondering how in the hell I was doing what I was doing at the same time my unconscious mind was running the show at an unreal pace. To this day I can picture exactly where I was, and who I was following on the bike the first time it happend. It is a very strange and very cool place to be.

I just need to find the switch to turn it on more consistantly.

[benos]

When functioning in that state, you feel like you are seeing everything all at once, all the time. I don't feel that's quite what's actually happening though

I think you are correct, I think my focus is moving from place to place, I am just not conscious of it hapening. In that state I have let go of conscious thought and I am letting my unconscious mind run the show. At the highest level of that state I have felt an almost out of body experiance where my conscious mind was wondering how in the hell I was doing what I was doing at the same time my unconscious mind was running the show at an unreal pace. To this day I can picture exactly where I was, and who I was following on the bike the first time it happend. It is a very strange and very cool place to be.

I just need to find the switch to turn it on more consistantly.

From my experience, the only "switch" is to let go of all forums of trying, both gross and subtle, and completely surrender to the present moment. Fearless and doubt-free, pay attention!

be

[MarkCO]

From my experience, the only "switch" is to let go of all forums of trying, both gross and subtle, and completely surrender to the present moment. Fearless and doubt-free, pay attention!

be

This is certainly difficult for my "control freak" personality. I like to fully "pay attention" in great detail and see the precise shots. This "letting go" tends to feel out of control which is where the fear pushes me back to slowing down. I've been able to acheive it on 3 or 4 stages ever.

When I raced, I could do it no problem, but I guess I felt more secure or comfortable in a race-car.

[benos]

From my experience, the only "switch" is to let go of all forums of trying, both gross and subtle, and completely surrender to the present moment. Fearless and doubt-free, pay attention!

be

This is certainly difficult for my "control freak" personality. I like to fully "pay attention" in great detail and see the precise shots. This "letting go" tends to feel out of control which is where the fear pushes me back to slowing down. I've been able to acheive it on 3 or 4 stages ever.

When I raced, I could do it no problem, but I guess I felt more secure or comfortable in a race-car.

Check the Control / Abandon topic at the bottom of that page for more on that.

be

[DonovanM]

I have raced off road motorcycles for about 25 years.

I have only been shooting about 6 months

Look, I'm no expert, and I've been shooting competitively for even less than 6 months, but you've gotta relax and stop trying so hard.

Conscious effort is not going to get you there faster - you'll find the switch as soon as you stop looking for it.

How good were you at riding a motorcycle after doing so for 6 months? Give it a little more time.

I dig "look at nothing, see everything" too. Awesome.

Edited December 4, 2010 by DonovanM

[Sam]

Another aspect of this may "expect nothing, see everything". When I expect to see something, time becomes a factor in my mind. So, I've come to understand that a sense of timelessness cannot manifest when I'm expecting.

[Kyle O]

I do this everytime I land an airplane. It starts when I start the flare, and I snap back when the nose gear touches.

I just open my mind to everything all at once. It seems to be the only time that I can MAKE it happen. I do it sometimes while shooting, but it's not as repeatable.

[benos]

Another aspect of this may "expect nothing, see everything". When I expect to see something, time becomes a factor in my mind. So, I've come to understand that a sense of timelessness cannot manifest when I'm expecting.

Good stuff Sam.

be

[MarkCO]

I tried this a few times this week with decent results. Like everything, it must take practice.

I managed it in one entire stage out of 5 at the match. No misses or no shoots. The other stages I felt myslef looking precisely again, especially at steel.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion. It was timely for me.

[CHA-LEE]

I think that forced concious commanded actions, such as pausing excessively long to aim hard for a tight shot, is a direct result of not having confidence in your abilities to complete the task at hand. Doubt in ones abilities is a secure way to drop out of "Auto Pilot" mode in order to try and control the situation. If you want to enter and maintain the "Auto Pilot" mode while shooting you first must prove to yourself many times in practice that you can in fact do whatever you are trying to do. The act of successfully performing whatever skill builds your confidence in that skill and thus allows you to conciously step back so the "Auto Pilot" can take over.

Keep in mind though that these "Auto Pilot" moments only last as long as your confidence enforced skill set depth is. The more confidence enforced skills you have, the longer and more leveraged the "Auto Pilot" is. A simple example of this is when a shooter finishes a stage that he may or may not have performed well on but 100% nailed his reload(s) but can't even remeber doing them. This shooter didn't TRY to reload or even WORRY about reloading, they simply allowed their practiced reloading skill to happen when it needed to.

As Yoda said.... "Do or Do Not, There is no Try". Once you commit and believe that you can do something it will get done.

Edited December 8, 2010 by CHA-LEE

[benos]

Nice post CHA-LEE

be

[Powder Finger]

The times when I would consitently see everything were when I visualized what I wanted to do, feel, or see before the stage.

It may not even be (usually was not) the whole stage, just the traps or where I needed to be aware of something.

Then when it happens you have no clue what you will see or feel. One time it was every single piece of brass coming out of the gun,

mixed in with seeing that was little smoke rings coming from around the firing pin. All the while noticing how slow "I thought" the slide was cycling. Also would be things like wow my feet went right where they needed to and the shot went off right where I had visualized it compared to where I wanted to be to shoot that shot. It gives you so much more (time?) because you just wait until you see what you visualized you needed to see. Once when this happened it was sooooo slow to me, but people said later (they couldn't see as it was a house stage) that they couldn't even tell where I was in the stage from the shots, and said they thought I had jammed as the shooting stoped. The shooting stoped because you're already done. Then later(minutes,hours,days,weeks) you may start to replay the parts of what happened in your head.

I guess that's visualizing after the fact. But as said it's pieces of a movie not the whole thing, kinda like movie trailers.

BTW I still see the firing pin smoke rings years after it happened, which is a really cool movie trailer!

Edited December 9, 2010 by Powder Finger

[benos]

The times when I would consitently see everything were when I visualized what I wanted to do, feel, or see before the stage.

It may not even be (usually was not) the whole stage, just the traps or where I needed to be aware of something.

Then when it happens you have no clue what you will see or feel. One time it was every single piece of brass coming out of the gun,

mixed in with seeing that was little smoke rings coming from around the firing pin. All the while noticing how slow "I thought" the slide was cycling. Also would be things like wow my feet went right where they needed to and the shot went off right where I had visualized it compared to where I wanted to be to shoot that shot. It gives you so much more (time?) because you just wait until you see what you visualized you needed to see. Once when this happened it was sooooo slow to me, but people said later (they couldn't see as it was a house stage) that they couldn't even tell where I was in the stage from the shots, and said they thought I had jammed as the shooting stoped. The shooting stoped because you're already done. Then later(minutes,hours,days,weeks) you may start to replay the parts of what happened in your head.

I guess that's visualizing after the fact. But as said it's pieces of a movie not the whole thing, kinda like movie trailers.

BTW I still see the firing pin smoke rings years after it happened, which is a really cool movie trailer!

I still have a few those too. A razor sharp front sight lifting 6 times from the dead center of 3 small plates, in Tucson...

[twikster]

Wow. I always see my "guy" clutching his chest and falling. :-) Sorry, couldn't resist that. chalk it up to being a "martial artist", I guess.

[MQW]

"Look at Nothing, see everything", is good mindset to have but getting there is not easy; this is hardest part of training and there are not many organizations actually teaching you the "how"; I have been working with the group listed at this link, they are dong a study with the US military and I have spoke with and I am corresponding the individual running it; this is exactly what we need as shooters, it falls in line with what the Olympic Trainers and competitive shooters have been talking about for years; check out this link:

http://www.mind-fitness-training.org/index.html