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Is there a point when competition becomes irrelevant


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To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Conan

If I was the only competitor at a match, and shot my best performance ever ...it wouldn't mean much.

If compatition wasnt relevant I would have already sold my open gun and sent the money to Eckhart Tolle.

I shot with a bunch of artist once they called it IDPA. I can reload faster than you can say "cover". I didn't shoot great by USPSA standards but it was my first IDPA match and I won high overall (25 shooters ,local). I still think that was my favorite win ever. I can still hear the lamentation of their women. "cover" . I didn't bother going back since the compatition was limited.

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To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Conan

If I was the only competitor at a match, and shot my best performance ever ...it wouldn't mean much.

If compatition wasnt relevant I would have already sold my open gun and sent the money to Eckhart Tolle.

I shot with a bunch of artist once they called it IDPA. I can reload faster than you can say "cover". I didn't shoot great by USPSA standards but it was my first IDPA match and I won high overall (25 shooters ,local). I still think that was my favorite win ever. I can still hear the lamentation of their women. "cover" . I didn't bother going back since the compatition was limited.

Did you follow the rules?

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I recently wrote a facebook article on this very subject:

The Artist and the Champion

The Artist and the Champion were preparing for a match together one day, late summer or early fall. There's not much difference around here...

The Artist says to the Champion: I am training very hard these days, I want to shoot to the absolute best of my ability. I'm sure I'll place well if I do. I might even win.

The Champion replies: I cannot wait to get to the match and beat the living shit out of the competition! I am going to win this thing because I'm the best shooter ever born.

And so they both keep training, but for two very different reasons.

Which are you?

At what point do they merge? http://www.brianenos.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/smile.gif

Is one path better, or just different? (the answer to that might depend on one's personality?)

I found myself wondering that as well after reading it.

My Journey has been interesting. I started shooting and only concerning myself with how I did compared to me. What is the stage plan, how well did I execute the plan I wanted to. As I started to get better, I liked being toward the top of the list in Production Division. I never considered myself a very competitive person, and finish had never been that important to me, but more and more now, I'm more concerned with how well I do overall than how I personally performed on the stages. I shoot fast enough and good enough points to not worry about a half bobbled reload or keeping the gun high as I'm coming around corners... I have plenty to work on when I think about it, but I'm shooting well enough that locally I don't need to in order to keep winning.

I'm headed to the Nationals for the first time this year and I'm sure I'm in for a rude awakening as to where my skills line up with the National Champions. I'm no longer even concerned with my Class, but with OA... I think a re-focus inward will be needed to keep my sanity.

That said, I have shot against better shooters in shotgun, 3-gun and Rifle matches, even a few local pistol matches have had some top guys switch to Production and give me some serious challenges. I've noticed that whenever I go into a stage and I tell myself I want to do good, I shoot terrible. I try too hard. I rush myself. I'm learning the balance between shooting relaxed and smooth, and quickly and smooth. I do much better when I just forget everything and just shoot the stage how I want to.

I think the switch is natural...

When we started this game, I don't think any of us thought we could really perform well against others. So we focus on our selfs and on having fun... Problem is we got better (allot better)

Moved up in the rankings started doing well at area matches, moved to master, realized making GM is more than possible.

At this point our true desires surfaced sense the reality was that achieving them was easier than what we had anticipated (when we first suppressed them).

At that point being good wasn't enough...

Not winning the local match became unacceptable.

Shooting below a certain percentage at a major became a catastrophe.

Once the switch happens I don't believe you can turn it off, I don't think you should try to either.

It's better to embrace it, accept that you want to win and beat everyone by a mile because you know you can do it.

Let the feelings of stress, and pressure be a regular part of every match, stage, and practice you attend. Truth is pressure like that when focused will keeps you sharp.

From hearing guys like Jerry Robby and Max talk about shooting. I get this idea that if you're not racing fast enough to possibly crash then your not racing fast enough.

I think this guys are definitely driven by their desired to win, and they rather win by a land slide.

To this guys second place sucks. And they speak openly about it.

I think there is a danger associated with the suppression of the desire to destroy the competition, specially when masked by the more novel self improvement goal which just sounds way more mature. Which is that failure to achieve turns into a frustration and doubt focused on your inability to self improve.

The achievements by others become reflections of our inability to improve our selfs (sounds super shitty I know).

This can become a feed back loop of negativity that does nothing but chip away at our self image which further distances us from being able to mentally manage the excitement of being so close to what we desire.

In the other hand, if we accept that our goal is to destroy the competition, and that feelings of stress and pressure are natural part of the process, then that energy will seise from being a distraction and open us up to using it in more productive ways.

Sport and competition are primal tests of superiority... They reward our egos and that's what we become addicted too.

There's nothing wrong with it. As long as we all partake in a civilized way.

Just embarrassed you bad assery, surf the chaos and don't forget to aim :)

Cheers,

Los

Edited by carlosa
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Did you follow the rules?

Sure and they gave me plenty of penaltys but they were running it as if speed was a bad thing. My scores where 30 seconds faster on almost every stage. They where taking looks from behind cover ducking back and then engaging it was like the whole club had been infected with the mind set that speed was not a tactic or factor. They had all forgotten it was a competition.

Artistry in something doesn't necessarily make you competitive, but to be competitive I think you need to have some artistry. I would hate to think that our sport could be dominated by a paint by numbers mentality with no true artistry involved.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I recently wrote a facebook article on this very subject:

The Artist and the Champion

The Artist and the Champion were preparing for a match together one day, late summer or early fall. There's not much difference around here...

The Artist says to the Champion: I am training very hard these days, I want to shoot to the absolute best of my ability. I'm sure I'll place well if I do. I might even win.

The Champion replies: I cannot wait to get to the match and beat the living shit out of the competition! I am going to win this thing because I'm the best shooter ever born.

And so they both keep training, but for two very different reasons.

Which are you?

Does it matter? Both are training hard. That's the point, correct?

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I used to be focus on winning and placing in the top. It was just recently, after about two years of focusing on competition, that I realized that the personal development is more rewarding. Perfecting my shooting ability and mental game will be never ending.

Now, I focus on myself. This weekend match, I felt there was a lot of room for improvement and noted many things to work on. I was 2nd place in my division and 5th overall out of 35 shooters. This is where I think the artist exceeds the competitor.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd rather shoot to improve my ability and improve where I failed at the previous match. Competitor-ship doesn't enter into to the shooting experience for me, but shooting with mad men and watching how they assess a stage make me a better shooter.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Fascinating thread. I think if you shoot long enough you get to where you are both assessing your performance at every match, and shooting to beat the competition. At any given time, you may be focused more on one than the other but you are still heavily involved in both endeavors mentally. If the competition at a match is lackluster, I tend to discount my win and focus more on my stage performance as a measure of how I did. By that I mean my execution of my plan and the individual skills required in shooting the stage. If the competition was very tough, I will focus more on my scores relative to the other shooters, and on any differences in our stage plans.

Edited by lawboy
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Yes, it looses relevance in almost a split second. Its the period of time between the sound of the buzzer and the hit of the first plate. After that no one is thing about competing. Its war !

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I think Brian's point that "the artist was his weakness' is pretty profound. Everyone wants to shoot their very best in a match... to shoot the 'match of a lifetime'. But there also has to be confidence in one's in one's abilities... and the 'killer instinct' to know when to push, and when to back off the throttle due to risk/reward.

Some shooters win because they shot better than the competition at that match. Other shooters win because they set out to beat the best competitors at that match. That mindset is the mark of a champion.

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