Focusing

[EricW]

Where I ski, you have to take a 20 minute gondola ride to get to the hill. The ride is horribly un-scenic, so you have some time to think and observe. I was trying to look at the cable on downhill gondola on the opposite side as it went by. It doesn't go very fast, so you'd think you could see the twists in the cable at will - but you can't - it's just a black blur. That is, until a car passes you, then suddenly the twists in the cable come into crisp focus as you see gondola hanger attached to the cable.

There's a lesson about seeing here. I just wish I knew what it was.

[Matthew_Mink]

Hmmm, you are seeing the cable as it is moving without focusing on any one particular spot, hence it looks blurry. When you focus on the part of the gondola, the cable appears still, and you can see the strands. You just have to match your eye speed with the cable speed. $.02

[benos]

then suddenly the twists in the cable come into crisp focus as you see gondola hanger attached to the cable.

Which is the first time you not only looked at, but "with" the cable.

If vision is not tense but flexible, it can instantly move in any direction, keeping track of whatever is necessary.

be

[EricW]

Exactly, but I found it nearly impossible to focus on the cable w/o a solid reference point. I tried moving my eyes with the cable, but got nada. There's something important about having that reference point that enables your eyes to "lock on." Well, at least mine anyway.

Only about 3 or 4 more trips left to "practice" this season.

[Chills1994]

Since I was a Human Factors (Engineering) major in college, I'll throw in my two cents.

Have a buddy stand in front of you. Have him move his eyes in a circular motion. You'll notice that his eyes move in short herky jerky movements. Those are called sacadic eye movements.

Now stand in front of him, and make him follow your fingertip while it goes in a circular pattern. You'll see his eyes move quite smoothly now as they try to keep up with your fingertip.

Having the gondola go past is similar to your fingertip; it gives the eyes something to reference speed on. When the eyes are "synced up" with the gondola, then you are able to pick up the details of the cable.

Just got the Matt Burkett videos. There is so much in human factors and/or sports psychology that can be applied to IPSC/IDPA: signal detection theory, tracking task performance, stimulus-response compatibility, etc.

[cautery]

It was cool yesterday to see the reference to this in Brian's book (the fan blades).

I've been doing this for many years (without reason... I'm weird). First time I remember was as a kid driving in the back seat of a car (boring), looking out the side window at cotton fields.

If the rows are perpendicular with the road, you can snapshot "uproad" and bring the rows into clear focus and track until they snap out out of your peripheral vision (keeping head staionary).

It's much harder to do it in reverse as you have to track against the car's speed... but it can be done with practice.

If the rows are parallel with the road, it is much more difficult to "snapshot" becasuse the reference points (contrast) are many fewer or actually just smaller. Lock-on time is longer thus reducing total "in focus" time.

If however you practice, you get better at it. As you improve, it requires smaller and smaller "contrast" points and/or differences to lock on. On parallel rows, you eventually find yourself locking on to the cotton bowls as an initial reference (if they've come on or opened especially (white) or the leaves (prior to fruiting)). Once your eyes can use the smaller ref points, you can increase your lock-on time back up (or clos) to the same time period as the perpendicular rows.

You can do this with telephone poles/fence posts as a "beginner's" drill... Also, road stripes. The better you get at it, the more you begin to see... On road stripes, you begin to pick up things like small portions of the stripe tape missing, sand/debris in the road... Eventually you can see individual pebbles.

On the ski lift example, I suspect that with practice, you could learn to track the cable without a large reference point. It's a matter of training your eyes to vary track speed vs. "lock-on acuity". As the focus "acuity" (picture gets closer to focus), your eye can zoom in on the correct speed to track with and refine focus.

It's a matter of "banking" a reference picture to match to for a given situation... e.g. once you use the gondola for reference and "know" what the cable looks like static, you then have a snapshot to "look" for when trying to "speed hunt".

There are TONS of shooting skills you can practice while riding/driving... Never really made the connections until yesterday...

[EricW]

Thanks for bring this thread back up.

I was practicing today with the G19 (with the new Heinies) and a vastly more solid draw technique thanks to the good Dr. Kelley. I learned that I need to retract my focus much sooner than I have been, then track the gun on it's way from my chest out to the target. It's the key to being able to *confidently* trigger the shot at the very instant I reach proper extension.

Now I know why *seeing* the cable is important (as opposed to looking at it).

[cautery]

Yup...

I shot the other day for the first time in several years, and I noticed that my ability to pull focus from the target to the front blade has radically deteriorated. I'm HOPING that it's simpy the layoff, but I fear that it's the difference in having 39 year old eyes at 20/10 and 42 year old eyes at 20/20 (beyond 18 inches... inside 18 inches I'm Stevie Wonder these days).

[ima45dv8]

Hello, my name is Eric, and I am a scooper. I have been a scooper for 12 years now. I was first lured to scooping by Squiggy, the street corner tactics dealer. It was so easy to do. It felt so good. I have been scooping ever since. I now realize the embarassment I cause to myself, to my friends and family when I am seen scooping in public. I now realize how badly I have been treating my gun by scooping, with total disregard for its feelings when my first shot sails past the target. I see the light. I promise that I shall never scoop again.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I love it!