Levels of Analysis

[Ben Stoeger]

After a long conversation with Lugnut, I decided to post this nonsense.

It seems to me that shooters operate on different “levels of analysis “. What I mean by this is some people focus very much on big picture sorts of things like how they “feel” during a run and some people focus on small technical details. I can identify a few levels. I don’t mean to pigeon hole anybody here, I think this is more a continuum than 3 distinct levels, but just for the sake of conversation I am going to have 3 levels.

Big Picture

Big picture is how you feel during a stage. It could be something like “I was really relaxed on that run” or like “I was totally panicking and it screwed me up”. Those are big picture sorts of concerns.

Technique

Some people talk more about technique. “I missed my grip on the draw so I shot crappy points” is a good example of this type of analysis.

Minutia

Focusing on minutia is things like looking at millimeter shifts in your grip position or working on very slightly altering your shooting stance. These are small changes that are unlikely to have an impact on the big picture.

I don’t think any level is more useful than any other, I just think it is good to get an idea of where you naturally tend towards. Some people that are obsessed with minutia might want to take a look at the big picture, and the other way around. There are absolutely top tier shooters that tend to operate on each of these levels. In my opinion, guys like Blake and Taran are big picture thinkers. Sevigny is a minutia guy. He is like a mad IPSC scientist always figuring out little details to his game. Mink falls somewhere I the middle. The point is, sometimes it helps to change your thinking.

For people that teach other people how to shoot, it is good to get an idea of where the student is in terms of their thinking. You can challenge them to consider some new ideas and relate to them on the level they are on. If a student is a “big picture” sort of person, you may want to point out some small things to them and then explain the possible impact on the “big picture”.

Just a thought.

[lugnut]

Good topic. Very good stuff.

IMO- I see big picture and minutia in similar ways. Big picture stuff for me is when I review and almost study my results at matches. Example Florida Open. Big picture is did great on a a few stages and not so good in other stages. I see where my placement is, where my points are or not, penalties and where my challenges were. From this I can see where I "could be" if I fixed some stuff- big picture.

However- saying just to get better hits or fewer misses means little in the big picture if you can't dig into the fundamentals- wouldn't call that minutia however. At my level- the "minutia" is bigger stuff like:

Getting a solid grip consistently allows me to get faster/better hits.

Efficient reloads, followed by a solid grip helps me set up on the next targets.

Quick reloads allow me to "explode" out of positions better.

Seeing where my stage breakdowns helped/hurt, or where I a mistimed swinger cost me.

It is a continuum in my mind.... with focus on fundamentals and how to improve them- which in turn leads to better long term, big picture results.

[old506]

The thought that comes to my mind is what you call Technique, I do in Dry Fire. What you would call Minutia (I would call it details? To me minutia doesn't matter?), that would be Live Fire practice, striving to find new ways to do something better in practice. The Big Picture, to me that's what takes place during the match, the other two should be put to bed on match day.

Interesting though, it seems that when guys have a good run I hear something like "that felt good" but when something goes haywire they blame it on

technique or the details?

[daves_not_here]

Ben,

Do you change the way you communicate to people with different analysis styles?

It almost sounds like you're talking about learning styles. Some people hear, see or feel in terms of perceiving.

I don't teach shooting but I've found it useful to just talk it out to auditory learners, take out my pen and draw for visual learners. For the feel people I just ask them to do what they feel is right and go from there.

For the few people I've given shooting advice I've said, "send the bullet", "feel the trigger' and "think about the hand grabbing the magazine", types of things.

What is recently on my mind is the number of new gun owners in need of training. Every time I've been to the range there's been more and more new shooters. It explains the ammo shortage but is a good sign that shooting is becoming more popular. I'll avoid mentioning current events.

If it's worth teaching, it's worth repeating.

DNH

[Ben Stoeger]

Do you change the way you communicate to people with different analysis styles?

Absolutely

[fireman489]

too many big words..... I'll stick with "keep working.... your not even close"

[BSeevers]

Good stuff.

I think a majority of teachers fall into a trap of communicating how they did it, see it or what is important to them.

I do think in general that minutia is better in practice and big picture is kinda of a match type attitude

Now I remember quite a few years ago thinking Robbie was full of it when he said he felt the bullets going up the ramp and could feel jams as they happened. I know for sure now, that he is not full of it, so I think you can grow into and because of both areas

[benos]

The longer I trained and competed, the more I moved into your Big Picture category. I wonder if that is a natural progression, for many temperament types?

be