Blacking Out

[infinity]

Hi guys,

this may sound weird but i hope that u guys could help.

i just noticed today at the range as i was going from target to target that once the beep sounds, i go completely in black out mode...i hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing other than seeing the target and the only thing in my mind is enganging the targets in the way i had studied the COF.

And if ever i go into a malfunction it's just natural instinct to fix that, but what bothers me is i loose consciousness of everything else besides those mentioned.

is there something i missed putting into mind? is there anything i'm doing wrong?

And sometimes i even loose the consciousness to grip the gun in the right way or draw the mag in the right way, although i don't fumble my reloads that much, but i seem to becoming more careless and lousy ...but i do make decent shots though. after the last shot and the last command from the RO i seem to go back to reality and noticed the mistakes i did..honestly i don't notice the mistakes in the middle of the engangement of targets. whay do u think is wrong?

any help would be appreciated!!!

Regards,

Infinity

[TriggerT]

I think this happens to most people to some extent or another. I can't tell you how many times at the end of a COF I don't remember what exactly I did during the COF. I think this is why GOOD practice is so damn important. There is a saying that in combat "A mans brain turns to water and flows out his ears" now we are not even close to the stress that comes with combat, but for most of us it is the most stress we will have while handling a firearm.

My advise is to let things happen during the COF, and try to stay focused on the moment. Worry about the target you are engaging NOW. Focus on the the shot that is breaking NOW. This is why you visualize the COF before you do it, so you have a plan, and can concentrate on the moment as much as possible.

My $0.02

[ErikW]

I wouldn't change a thing. I'd much rather shoot from the unconscious.

I tend to go from a subconscious to self-aware running between arrays.

[Flexmoney]

Sounds like you are more into "classic concentration" mode than you are into "awareness"?

[Sam]

That's some serious stress my friend! If you were truly "in the zone" you would perceive much more than this. I usually notice brass floating out of the ejection port. Birds flying on the horizon. The feel of the surface under my feet. Smells.

Where does the stress originate? We all create our own, for our own reasons. Forget all about how well you do on the stage. Just enjoy the shooting.

Nice post, TT!

[infinity]

So what u guys are saying is that the blacking out thing is somewhat a normal thing when shooting a COF?

[TriggerT]

Is it a true "Black Out" or is it more like extreme blinders? If you are preforming on a sub-concious level, then it isn't "Black Out."

I used to know a guy who had a shirt that said "Let Go, Let God" Now forget about the religous part of that, and let go and let yourself do what you have trained your body to do. Your body can do things MUCH faster and better if you let it, vs forcing it to do things.

Do you really think a word class fighter thinks about every puch he throws?

Had a .84 from surrender draw today, A zone hit at 12 yards. Maybe nothing great to some, but my personal best. I kind of remember the "Beep," but I don't remember anything after that except seeing the sight lift. Don't recall drawing the gun, or establishing my grip, or anything else. Like the perfect golf swing, it happened, and when it was over it felt REALLY good.

[infinity]

ok maybe it's not litterally blacking out but somewhat going into a ZONE that you only focus on what you have planned on doing. But nothing for the unforseen factors that might occur during a COF

[TriggerT]

So if something unplanned happens you just completely lock up?

When the Fit hits the Shan it is always going to through you off, and cost a few secounds.

[eric nielsen]

There's so much going on in a field course that it's normal to not notice everything, and even MORE normal to remember even less when it's all over.

There's only so much planning and strategizing and 'tricks' to get through the course effeciently - only so much you can remember & execute - that I get the best results by remembering 1 or 2 things.

Usually:

1. Get your full strong grip on the gun. Get it right before the first shot fires.

and

2. Snap your eyes to the center of the next target you want to hit.

Everything else I can do pales in comparison to those two.

[infinity]

i don't freeze up though, but i seem to get very rattled and panics when i go into an unexpected thing...like forgetting to count rounds fired, yesterday a friend setup a COF with a stop plate at least 25 to 30 meters away and i was using a single stack springer and it took me 4 rounds and a change mag to get that stupid thing down.

[mcoliver]

More practice and more matches!

[infinity]

i was actually having a bad time on that specific stage only with the others i wasn't that dumb a shooter though

[Flexmoney]

infinity,

The place you are talking about being...that is NOT the place I want to be when shooting.

i go completely in black out mode...i hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing other than seeing the target and the only thing in my mind is enganging the targets in the way i had studied the COF.

To me, it sounds like you are blocking things out...classic concentration.

I want to be in a mode that allows input in...awareness.

(That is my take/thoughts on it...I could be reading all this wrong.)

[infinity]

infinity,

The place you are talking about being...that is NOT the pace I want to be when shooting.

i go completely in black out mode...i hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing other than seeing the target and the only thing in my mind is enganging the targets in the way i had studied the COF.

To me, it sounds like you are blocking things out...classic concentration.

I want to be in a mode that allows input in...awareness.

(That is my take/thoughts on it...I could be reading all this wrong.)

Flex,

that's exactly what i was saying. it's as if i'm going only 1way. i also would want to be in a mode that can analyze and gather input as i engange targets. what can u suggest?

[Jasonub]

Me i only remember seeing my sights lift at the azone or center of a plate at each cof. Must be working for me.

All i know is that im working subconciously but when i mike a plate i get baffled since i saw my sights lift on it. i just get the sights back on the plate and feel the shot off then its all subconcious again

[infinity]

do u ever panic when u encounter jams or mis-reloads or loading an empty mag?

[TriggerT]

do u ever panic when u encounter jams or mis-reloads or loading an empty mag?

First off, loading an empty mag has nothing to do with where your mind is WHILE shooting the stage, it has everything to do with where your mind is before the stage. I think we have all made that mistake, I know I have, but you learn to have a system for making sure it doesn't happen more than once or twice.

I don't know if I pannic, but it is more like an "Oh Shit" because I know I have just lost on my chance to shoot the stage as well as I know I can. Then it is time to throw your shooting into the "Damage control" mode.

[benos]

I tend to go from a subconscious to self-aware running between arrays.

Erik,

That comment hit me good because for many years my strengths were stand-and-shoot stages, or not surprisingly, the first position of a field course. Every time I moved to a new position I would go "up," and usually shoot off-par for the rest of the course. So I spent several years training the crap out of field courses, which definitely paid off. In the end, the single thing that helped me the most was that I learned how to "set a visualization" as soon as I fired the last shot from a position. You figure out this "visualization set" during the walk through: As you arrive at each new position, what do you know you'll need to see, from experience, to fire a hit. Remember that image for each position. Then as you're quietly visualizing the stage, the visual set for each position becomes part of the overall stage's visualization. So you have prepared a first-shot-visualization for each position in a filed course, not unlike the first-shot-visualization you'd normally prepare for the first shot of the stage.

Properly done, it works because it eliminates "gaps." It may take some commitment before it pays off, as "blanking out" as we move seems to be an innate tendency for most. The trick is that you train yourself to visualize "one more thing" at the end of a string of fire than you normally would. It's like visualizing shooting a 7th plate on a rack of 6 plates.

be

[short_round]

do u ever panic when u encounter jams or mis-reloads or loading an empty mag?

For me it's more like turning my brain on and throwing my immediate actions into the most effective/efficient remedial action that I've ever done with the malfunction that I think just happened. The faster I can turn my brain off again and get back to the shooting the better off I am.

In the past I would give into the urge to "try to make up the time." It has been my experience that my original plan was the best I could do. If there was a faster way for me to do the rest of the stage it would have been in my original plan.

Everytime I have gone looking for the faster way to make up the time it just made things worse. So I "try" not to do that anymore. Now I just "try" to transition back into my plan as smoothly as possible after the speed bump I just hit.

[mcoliver]

Yep, no harm in recognizing an Oh Sh1t! moment when it happens. Just don't fall into the trap of trying to recover lost time by trying to shoot faster.

And if you want to become proficient in clearing out jams or recognizing problems in the middle of stages, don't gauge your practice ammo or let a buddy load your mags or both.

[JerryDGeek]

It sounds as if the "blacked out" phenomenon is similar to the not-uncommon experience of driving a car for a long period of time, and suddenly realizing that you can't recall what you've done for the past ten minutes. Sure,you know you were there and doing the control thingies necessary to keep the car on the road; you have the incontrovertible evidence of still being on the road, so you must have been driving the car adequately.

When I experience this, I realize that I have been thinking about something else, usually out of boredom (does anyone experience this on a twisty mountain road? I don't think so.)

The analogy is imperfect, because you have only been shooting the stage for a few seconds, and that's not long enough to achieve a fugue state for most people. But I suspect that the shooting version is sufficiently similar that you are somewhat discomforted when you realize that you've done all of this 'stuff' and you don't have the impression that you were "there" at the time.

You probably were "there", and I think you may have been concentrating so hard on what you were trying to accomplish that you simply weren't paying attention to the actual event as it unfolded for you. It may be more like having steeled yourself so intensely for the effort of shooting the stage that you locked yourself rigidly into the state of concentration, rather than that of 'focus'. Evidence of this is that when something goes wrong, it is a distraction and it breaks up your plan to the point where you don't deal with it as you know you can and should.

Ideally, we establish a plan to shoot a stage during the walkthrough, and we pay particular attention to timing, sequence of events, and points of aim (eg: noting a spot on a vision barrier where, if we have our eye pointed there and the gun is mounted where your eyes are fixed, when we 'round the corner' the gun and our attention is perfectly set to take the first shot without any delay or confusion.)

When your focus is ideal, you are indeed aware of everything that is happening, but you are following on as nothing more than an 'interested observer'. If something goes wrong, you are aware that you need to take corrective action and have the presence of mind to do so smoothly, quickly and flawlessly. While you may not have aural memories .... you may not remember the sound of the gravel crunching beneath your feet as you take each step ... you can later visually recreate in your mind the exact sequence of events, and you see your progress on the stage as a mixture of your point of view (the view over the gun) and you can also call up the image of yourself shooting the stage as if you were outside of your body, watching you shoot the stage.

Perfect focus happens rarely for most of us, but when it does happen everything seems to happen SLOWLY and the memories are there for you to call up at will, even some considerable time after the event. For example, I can remember a stage I shot in the 1999 Area 1 match in Reno, as a C-Limited competitor (before L-10 Division existed) with my Kimber Single-stack. I remember it so vividly, I can still see every movement and every target in my mind. Eric W. was squadded with me, and I remember him saying at the end of the run "Yeah! That's looking like a B shooter!" because ... I was in the zone, I was floating, I couldn't affort to miss a shot and I didn't. The stage was potentially intimidating, but in that mind-state it was easy.

The answer to the question is to <b>just shoot the stage</b>. Don't over-train yourself, don't let yourself feel any tension. Shoot it as if it doesn't matter. Drive the gun, certainly, but don't "drive the car".

After you have mastered the fundamentals (I'm going to sound even more like a Brian Enos acolyte than I have so far, and perhaps like a Ron Avery acolyte too), you don't have to worry about the mechanics of the game. Just relax, let the muscular tension go, see what you have to see, let the gun shoot when it's pointing where it needs to be pointing. You don't have to control the gun, you don't have to control the trigger or the sight alignment or the sight picture. You can just focus on the larger goal of shooting the stage. You already know that there is noting on the course of fire that you can't do.

Say to yourself: "just shoot the stage" Watch it happen. Smile to yourself when you're done, and listen to that still, small voice that says "I coulda shot it faster"

Let that voice be a nag during practice, not during a match. Because it's a technical thing, not a shooting thing.

It's all in your mind.

PS:

<sigh>

I sure wish I could do that every time.

Or even most of the time.

[infinity]

JerryDG,

thanks man!! u make sense!!!

[Jasonub]

As long as when you wake up from blacking out in the range and not in the hospital you will be fine

[infinity]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!