What I understand it to mean

[Standby!]

Before I started USPSA shooting, I've been an avid mountain biker for several years. It's a demanding sport that requires all of your attention, or there will be consequences. When I first started, I focused all my attention and energy on a spot just in front of the front tire while riding. The consequence? Multiple sutures in several locations on my body, as well as broken bones and a mental trickery on every ride thereafter. It's funny how ones body goes into protection, or survival mode following painful accidents. The good part is if you enjoy it enough, you realize mistakes are going to happen, it's how you feel about it that matters.

Fast forward several years..I now look far enough ahead to recognize, evaluate, and avoid those accidents that used to send me to the emergency room. Where I'm going gets all my attention..how I get there is on autopilot. Most days including current day, feel like this..it's a game of flow, I do everything I can to maintain flow at all costs. Flow can also be called smooth..the days of jerking the bars to avoid an accident that Stevie Wonder could see coming, are over. (Not intended as a joke at disabled peoples expense) So let's outline a typical day of riding. There is a constant in all of this...situational awareness dictates my reactions, but they are no longer a conscious thought, but rather a reaction that does not detract my attention on what is ahead of me on the trail. I see the trail turn upward in a climb, autopilot automatically starts pedaling the bike faster in anticipation of slowing down. After ascending the hill, experience tells me that downhill is next. I cast my focus and attention even further down the trail in reaction to the large increase in speed, fingers perched on the brake levers..all without conscious effort.

All things come together in a a semi blur of living in the now, with the ability to react to the future. Without freezing, without panic, without effort. That is what it means to me..and I see a lot of similarities that are the same..but different.

[dwkfym]

Very nice post. This is similar to my experiences in the ring in fights that I've posted about in another thread. I am hoping one day I will attain that state in shooting as well. When I was young, and before I got good at martial arts, I never realized how important mental state and awareness in any sport.

[Standby!]

Very nice post. This is similar to my experiences in the ring in fights that I've posted about in another thread. I am hoping one day I will attain that state in shooting as well. When I was young, and before I got good at martial arts, I never realized how important mental state and awareness in any sport.

Thanks! It's a mental state that I slip into automatically when the tires hit the dirt..someday the same will happen when I hear "Stand by" Have a great day.

[benos]

Standby!,

How many hears of hardcore mountain bike riding / training did you have under your belt before:

It's a mental state that I slip into automatically when the tires hit the dirt.

[Standby!]

Standby!,

How many years of hardcore mountain bike riding / training did you have under your belt before:

It's a mental state that I slip into automatically when the tires hit the dirt.

From the time I started riding to the good mental state was about a year, riding 3-4 times a week.

The riding frequency slows down in the winter season, but it does not stop. Everyone has a different

comfort level and it's important to know your limits.

The past weekend

A current pic

Last year

Winter

I feel the shooting will progress in a similar fashion, and that "feeling" of

everything feeling like it's on cruise control, yet very aware will indeed come

with repetition just like the feeling I get when the tires hit the dirt. I have

several injury photos from my learning curve, but some are very graphic in nature

so I will spare those for a pm if people want to see them.

I also have been shooting traditional archery (longbow) for a very long time, and feel the

lessons I've learned there will help me along as well. Programming the subconscious

to take care of form, while the conscious is focused on the target. I don't feel

it is a coincidence that all of these activities are so closely related in terms of

a Zen feeling. Some of the rules don't apply to each other directly, but I feel they are

related.

[Standby!]

I failed to mention that I started riding that frequency 4 years ago.. I will never forget that first feeling of what I call "Zen" on the trail, or shooting Archery tournaments. I eagerly await that feeling in USPSA. Drawing from my other activities, I understand that the only way to get there is by doing.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Standby!

[benos]

Drawing from my other activities, I understand that the only way to get there is by doing.

Nice!

[Standby!]

Drawing from my other activities, I understand that the only way to get there is by doing.

Nice!

Thanks b!

[dwkfym]

I just have to say off topic but

I would soooooo eat shi* if I tried that!!

[Standby!]

I just have to say off topic but

I would soooooo eat shi* if I tried that!!

You would be surprised what you can do after the learning curve. Never giving up, even when failing...badly.