Realize

[38supPat]

Realize what is important while shooting a stage

[benos]

Sounds like you had a eureka moment. Care to elaborate?

One for me: Allow what you are seeing and feeling to create everything that happens.

[38supPat]

Kind of.

I wanted to post that to see the responses.

But from my own perspective...

I've been coaching some shooters lately and one lady was explaining something that happened on a CoF. I'll try to explain it as best I can from what she told me. Hopefully she won't mind me sharing.

This Cof had you move into a position where there were some 8" plates (3 or 4) from an upper port and then another set of plates (3 or 4) from a lower port. From what she saw before she shot most shooters were going to the upper port and shooting the plates (usually with a couple of extra rounds) and then engaging the low port (usually with a couple of extra rounds) at which point most ran dry and had to do an awkward reload to finish. She got the idea to take an extra mag out to place on the ground at the lower port so that should she need it she could reload with that mag instead of awkwardly reaching behind her while bent over in the low port. What actually happened was that she was so focused on the action of placing the mag for the reload that when she ran over to the port she immediately made a dive for the ground to place the mag on the ground and forgot about shooting the upper port first. BTW, she is a VERY accurate shooter and should have been able to go one for one on the plates with no need to reload at all.

So a few thing sprang to mind when she told me about this:

#1 Never forget that the most important thing on a stage is to hit the targets.

#2 Don't get so wrapped up in a specialty technique or trick of the day that you for get about #1

#3 If you are an accurate shooter, don't worry about not hitting your targets, just do it

#4 If you are not an accurate shooter and/or know there is a good chance you'll need to reload, just go ahead and reload, don't wait until you ARE empty. In the case stated above if I didn't think I could make the shots with out having to reload anyways, I would have just gone ahead and reloaded while transitioning ports, it might cost an extra half second but adds a large safety margin.

It also reminded me of something from last year. At the Western Penn. State Match there was a stage where you had to carry a bucket throughout the stage and hang it on the door at the end which triggered the latch and opened the door. Almost every shooter on my squad, and I was on a squad heavily loaded with M+ shooters, hung the bucket on their belt and ran to the end, and nearly every single one of us when reaching for the bucket proceded to eject the mag in the gun (the act of reaching for the bucket was very much like reaching for a mag and triggered all of us to reload. In hindsight now, after watching my whole squad do this I don't know why it didn't occur to me to just plan my reload for there. Yeah it wasn't the ideal place but it should have been obvious that because of the pattern emerging it would be very likely I would do the same thing and I'd rather do a planned reload then stand in front of the door wondering why I too ejected that mag. It occurs to me now that I would have been further ahead to realize I was going to do that anyways and instead of fighting the reflex to reload there, just do it and get on with the business of shooting the stage. The bucket essentially became more of a factor on the stage than it should have been.

Too many times we get wrapped up in props and other distractions and forget that we are there to shoot the targets. The props and distractions should be treated as just that, a distraction that we need to deal with and get out of the way with only the minimum attention needed to accomplish them and get on with the shooting.

Allow what you are seeing and feeling to create everything that happens

I like that!

[Tangram]

Shoot what is important.

[Seeker]

Too many times we get wrapped up in props and other distractions and forget that we are there to shoot the targets. The props and distractions should be treated as just that, a distraction that we need to deal with and get out of the way with only the minimum attention needed to accomplish them and get on with the shooting.

I'm going to frame this. You were able to convey in two sentences the essence of shooting a stage without distraction.

Bravo

[benos]

Yes, good stuff from PH.

I remember the first time I noticed The Distraction Factor, big time, was at a World Shot. They are the king of the wierdo start positions. I remember talking to TGO about a particularly weird start position, when he said something along the lines of, "Forget about it and just get to the shooting."

be

[Bshooter]

The more props and action a stage has creates a whirlwind of excitement for me. Not as a shooter but watching other shooters trying to decide whether to take the disappearing drop turner or the swinger(which usually comes out first). I try to tell them to stick to their plan, doesn't help. Movement makes the mind do funny things after the buzzer and ends up taking its toll.

[spideysteve]

Interesting thoughts Pat ... Distraction ...

I set up a stage for our L2 match here last weekend which had a NS swinger. Open the door, swinger activates. Swinger did not cover any of the targets behind it at all. Swinger was low and the targets were high. I put it there for a distraction, purposely.

Quite a few people commented on how it was pointless and why did I bother ... Seems like those were the ones who either hit the NS swinger or had Mikes on the targets. There were 4 mini targets at about 12m. Not terribly difficult shots. But the swinging white target seemed to attract a lot of attention ....

[38supPat]

Movement always draws the eyes. Where you look, the gun follows...