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Does time slow down the more experienced you get?


lugnut

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I've been shooting IDPA and USPSA for about 5 years now. In the last 6 months, I really feel like things are almost going in slow motion when I'm in a COF. Sometimes my focus is such that I can pick up on more details than ever- and maybe that is why I feel like things are going slow? I've had several stages where I feel like I was slow yet the times were faster than I expected. It's an interesting feeling that is hard to explain. Sometimes this works in strange ways though... for example: I can be shooting an array when all of a sudden I will notice the brass clear as day almost... while other times I never see the brass. It certainly depends on the type of shot. Related to this "slow" feeling is even though my IDPA classifiers are as fast as they have ever been- I feel like there are so many things that I still need to improve on... little hiccups seem to last an eternity. At one recent classifier I ran my best adjusted time yet felt like it was horribly slow with no fluidity. Strange lately.

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Dave, I don't think it's the experience that makes you feel that way, but, simply that everything went "right". Your conscious mind is along for the ride, not doing the driving. I've got lot's of experience, but, most of the time if I feel I'm in slow motion, I really was! :roflol:

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The concept of observed time is whatever your mind allows it to be. Once you accept that there is no such thing as fast or slow you can focus your attention on what really matters, which is what is happening in the present tense. If you can keep your attention focused on what is happening in the present tense then how fast or slow you do something really does not matter because it will usually happen to the peak of your current skill level. The price of this present tense focus is an exaggerated long time line is interpreted when observing failures in your shooting. When in reality its happening a lot faster than what your mind believes its happening. That is why its best to not worry about a time schedule while shooting, but instead focus on the present tense and performing/recovering as SOON as you can in every aspect of the stage navigation.

Edited by CHA-LEE
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Paraphrasing Bruce Lee... When a runner is running as fast as he can, he should not feel that he could be running faster.

Or in other words, the runner will not feel he could be running faster because he's lost the awareness of time (when he's running "perfectly," or as "fast as he can").

It's the same with any performance activity. The more unsure you are the more time is an issue.

be

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When in reality its happening a lot faster than what your mind believes its happening. That is why its best to not worry about a time schedule while shooting, but instead focus on the present tense and performing/recovering as SOON as you can in every aspect of the stage navigation.

I am 100% convinced of this too. I just need to let me do it more! dry.gif

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your perception of time during the course of fire, is an illusion. Some of my best runs on a stage, was were everything felt slow and i was deliberate. Now if I could only harness that feeling for every stage, I would be in business. For me it happens every once in a while, not all the time

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Paraphrasing Bruce Lee... When a runner is running as fast as he can, he should not feel that he could be running faster.

Or in other words, the runner will not feel he could be running faster because he's lost the awareness of time (when he's running "perfectly," or as "fast as he can").

It's the same with any performance activity. The more unsure you are the more time is an issue.

be

so peak performance occurs when you feel neither slow nor fast, but you just do? i like this idea...

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If I try to shoot fast splits, they are slow. If I've planned ahead for two fast shots on XYZ target, then my splits on that target are great. I just watch the sights and the gun goes bang twice. Even my finger is slow with conscience thought! When I shoot a stage, it never seems as fast as when I watch the video. When I go back and watch the video I chuckle because it looks and sounds way faster than it did when shooting it.

At Ohio state there were a few point blank targets. On stage 3 I was going to hammer this one target before engaging a double drop turner array. I remember seeing the sights, but I don't remember anything else. I saw what I needed to see, and nothing else. The split on that target was great (for me), no thought was put into it. It didn't feel or sound fast at all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

While I'm not nearly anything resembling fast (yet, anyway) with a gun, I can say that feeling of time is relative to experience in other contexts. When I was a newb motorcycle trackday guy, the first time I ran 1:25 at the local track felt BLAZING, frantic. My mind was everywhere thinking "brake here, gas there, apex there, etc, etc, etc." 2 Seasons later, I was running 1:15's consistently without trying. It actually felt like somewhat leisurely at that pace. I wasn't particularly thinking of anything during those laps, unlike that first season. My guess is that because I didn't have to consciously think about braking, accelerating, turning, and shifting anymore, my brain had time to stop and smell the roses. It wasn't busy with all that anymore, so it almost felt slower. I say "almost" because I didn't feel like "crap, I'm going so slow, I need to speed up!" It just didn't feel fast, like I was rushed at all.

It's like when you're at work with nothing to do, the 8 hours or whatever seems to drag on forever. But if it's super-busy, the 8 hours comes and goes quickly.

Edited by Racer377
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  • 2 weeks later...

The "slow motion" feeling you are experiencing happens when your body goes into "auto pilot" mode. Some call it "fight or flight" but its all the same. When your body goes into this mode it is taking blood from muscle groups that it deems un-neccesary for fight or flight function. Most people get the sensation that their hands won't work right and all they can do is make a fist. This is because the blood is being taken from their hands and routed to other "necessary" muscle groups. You're body also takes blood from your eyes (which causes tunnel vision), and also from your brain (which causes slow motion). I know that sounds weird that your body take blood from your brain but apparently it is true. I am sure there is some cross-over between sports when it comes to this phenomenon but in combat sports especially in MMA your body goes into fight or flight when in stand up or within range 2-3 striking distance and you need to consciously bring your heart rate down when outside of range 2 or when the fight goes to the ground. Otherwise you will gas out. I imagine that in competition pistol shooting you would want to consciously bring your heart rate down during shooter ready then go into auto pilot at the buzzer.

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My "bullet time" doesn't make it seem like I'm going faster or time is going slower but - it seems to be a feeling like I have more time to work with.

A more interesting phenomenon I noticed is with long stages in multigun.

After about one minute, my bullet time wears off completely and at Blue Ridge - I went from bullet time to real time on some of the longer stages.

Edited by DyNo!
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For me it seems time is a perception that is influenced by performance. When I run a stage and everything goes smoothly and as planed and practiced, my times are usually faster than expected. The reverse happens with a stage that challenges your skills and pushes you past the limits of your present ability. It would seem to me the later would happen less and less with experiance.

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your perception of time during the course of fire, is an illusion. Some of my best runs on a stage, was were everything felt slow and i was deliberate. Now if I could only harness that feeling for every stage, I would be in business. For me it happens every once in a while, not all the time

Bingo... I've only experienced it twice...but both times, I did Master and A time results!

...tanked the rest as usual :roflol:

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  • 1 month later...

Like others have said, I wish I could harness that feeling at will.

It has happened a few times for me. The most notable "zen moment" was during a stage at the IDPA Nationals some years ago. I was shooting a new STI 40 cal I built and it was SCHWEET! During a stage that required a slide lock reload I remember the feeling that I was going so fast that time had slowed down...that was the feeling, not just slow time but kinda like I was the Flash and I was moving so fast that time didn't matter any more. I fired the round that locked the slide, out with the old mag, in with the new, thumb the slide lock as I extended back to target and the sights were already there, the target was there and my mind was impatiently waiting for the slide to close so I could break the shot. I actually had time to think "wow...this slide is taking a loooong time to go back into battery"! After the stage I was hyped about the feeling.

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When in reality its happening a lot faster than what your mind believes its happening. That is why its best to not worry about a time schedule while shooting, but instead focus on the present tense and performing/recovering as SOON as you can in every aspect of the stage navigation.

I am 100% convinced of this too. I just need to let me do it more! dry.gif

Same here... :excl:

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The "slow motion" feeling you are experiencing happens when your body goes into "auto pilot" mode. Some call it "fight or flight" but its all the same.

Kind of agree, kind of don't. "Auto-Pilot" mode is NOT a flight or fight (more commonly "freeze") reaction which is triggered by stress, surprise, fear, etc. When you hit "Auto-Pilot" you are effectively functioning from the right side of the brain. The fight-flight-freeze response is primarily from the medula. Logical planning occurs on the left side of the brain. I think there are elements of what all of you are talking about entrained herein, but personally I find the observations of CHA-LEE the most interesting...here is why...

Carlie went from nothing to GM in about 2 years. He invested great amounts of time and energy and is very analytical in his approach. Just watching him and reading his posts has taught me a lot about the learning cycle as it were. Plus I get to see him shoot in person as often as I want to hit a local match. There are at times things that he "learns" and I say "duh" but I must realize it just became real to him through experience, not just being told or reading it.

I've started to use a phrase called "match maturity" meaning that at some time frame and at some number of total matches, you become suitably conditioned to the sensory inputs (accustomed) delivered during a course of fire and even a whole match in general. You (logically or otherwise) learn what does and what does not work for you. It is not just deep practice, muscle memeory etc., although those certainly are a part of it.

Some people are left brain dominant and some are right brain dominant. For the right brainers, this process actually comes quicker than left brainers. When you operate from the right side, the training and inputs gathered on the left side do have an effect, but the logical is not in control. You are truly flowing based on prior inputs on "auto-pilot." When you drive home from work and all of a sudden pull into your driveway without remembering the last 10 blocks, you were driving using the right side of your brain. Analysis has shown that most people who drive this way only lose a small fraction of reaction time and are no less safe than when they drive totally on the left side. When an atypical input is received, you snap back to left side dominance and use your normal logical patterns. Therein lies the nugget...if your left side created plan (combined with your match maturity) can be implemented from the right side and "see" nothing atypical, you should end up with a very good (for you) stage.

We (shooters) are mostly A type personalities that want to be in control, and when a slip occurs, we dwell on it and move from right side to left side control. This slows us down and drives us to whatever discipline or punishment we impose on oursleves during the stage...degrading perfromance. Studies on left vs. right side control illustrate that right side control offers more fluid and faster motion in sports. This whole discussion also factors in when we consider the chronological age of the first good inputs. Kids who are taught at very young ages "just do it" without much rational thought. The left side takes many years to get us bogged down while the right side control is with us from the womb. For men, the initial production of testosterone in the womb, and then later in life during puberty degrades the right to left brain transfer.

So, yes, your perception of time does vaporize when you develop enough match maturity to function primarily on the right side of the brain, which does not keep track of time. IF you know you are going fast or slow, you are functioning on the left side of the brain and not at your optimum performance level.

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I totally agree with all that stuff Markco wrote, but I prefer to simplify it.

Your conscious mind can only do one thing at a time.

Your subconscious mind can do anything it's "learned" to do all by itself, to the the extent that your self-image allows.

At "load and make ready" you can order your conscious mind to do one thing. (order can mean command and/or organize, btw :) )

Ordering speed is like ordering extra fries at Five Guys. It's dumb, because the fries are already overflowing into the bottom the bag.

You don't "need" a speed focus because that's built in already. (If you don't believe me, try to shoot a 10 second stage in 5 minutes)

So you order alphas, and everything else happens according to your current level of skill and your self image.

If you don't like what the timer says, resolve to kick it's ass... in and through self-analysis and training.

I feel like a dead horse playing a broken record, but I love this stuff.

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When I drive my Mustang in flip flops, I have rough shifts.

Because I have rough shifts when I drive my mustang, I think about shifting gears.

When I drive my Mustang in flip flops, I have rough shifts.

(please notice how self-image disrupts subconscious control)

Edited by Steve Anderson
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