In the Zone

[Catfish]

Since the idpa rule book fiasco this year, I've pretty much decided a year ahead of schedule to focus on uspsa. There's still one local club here in DFW that I shoot idpa with - I like the people!! - but otherwise for the past 5 - 6 weeks, it's been all uspsa.

At last night's idpa match, I noticed for the first time in a long time that I was totally zoning out into the time warp. Especially near the end of the stages. I was watching the slide move back and forth, the brass eject and the rounds impacting the target, all without really watching anything at all. It happened on the first stage of the night, and I was able to let it happen the rest of the stages as well. I made a conscious (or was it subconscious?) effort to just relax and flow with the stage and every time it worked. What I found most encouraging was that there was a variety of close (3 yds) and farther out (10-12 yds) targets, and I found myself for the first time changing (or flowing) my concentration on the sights between the close and far targets without ruining the zone. In previous shoots, farther targets and the concentration on the sights required would change my focus to the point that the "zone" would end.

I firmly think that making the transition to uspsa, and a greater emphasis on speed has impacted me already and I think this bodes very well for me as I move through my first season in a loong time of uspsa. I am very much looking foward to it.

[AikiDale]

Awesome! It really is great when a plan comes together. Remember to kill the Buddha if you see him on the range....

[benos]

Great post Catfish!

Don't forget to continuously create favorable conditions for the "allowing" to occur.

be

[Catfish]

Thanks, BE!

Very much looking forward to living more in the warp.

[Wap wap]

One of the techniques Paul Miller used to use (one of the first instructors at Gunsite, and current director/owner of the Worlds speed shooting in Colorado) when he was teaching was making the student stand on the right side next to the injection port while he would rip of several mags, in what later became known as Bill drills.-The point --exactly what you discovered in your match epiphany.

[tightloop]

wap wap

I fail to see the similarity

[Wap wap]

Shooters as responders to stimuli will tend to flinch, the thread by catfish indicated that they had moved past this to point where the visual apparatice was providing input to the subconsious without a direct point of partiality. ie all inputs were equal. Miller simply knew this and moved the student to (hopefully) this level in order to reduce instruction time. By making them become observers very close to the blast of the gun and the brass coming coming out perhaps they would become observers apart such as catfish's experience. I am sure most instructors have something similiar. I was merely relating an experience from someone which may have perhaps a common thread. Nothing new here, martial arts, does it all the time in focus techniques, and distancing techniques. The decision is consious but the subconsious really takes over and one acts almost as a machine. A long time ago I tried doing an experiment using this as a guide and a Master level shooter, and measuring blood glucose levels to see the effect insulin load had on the outcome. It was very hard to standardize the test, (pre-meter era) but it would be interesting to do it now with the fast and accurate glucose meters used today. Another area of great interest would be carbon dioxide tension.