What mainstream sport can benifit our skills?

[NFLcavediver]

Or hockey, if you want to play a man sport

I play hockey a lot better than I shoot.

[us820]

Hockey was awesome right up until my back surgery.

[Chris iliff]

FWIW, Sevigny came from a ice hockey background. But then, TGO came from a shooting background...

I've heard tell that TGO was actually a damn fine basketball player during his school career, like scholarship good. Can't remember where I heard or read this,.......anyone know?

Oh, I think basketball by the way.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Chris iliff

[killab]

Tennis has been mentioned several times, I've played league tennis for years. But to a degree, I believe it has a pitfall.

When you play tennis, the racket is in your "strong hand" and you "grip it and rip it".

When I shoot, that strong hand tends to grip more than my weak hand. Not so much that I lose dexterity in the trigger finger, but strong hand does the majority of the work.

Haven't decided if it's a help or a hindrance.

[Ranger6]

Mentally, I would say golf. Try reading the "Golf is not a game of perfect" book collection for mental preparation.

Ranger6

[MarkCO]

Hot yoga and racquetball.

[Gunnar]

Agree with golf.

[hankdiesel]

Baseball or softball middle infield...you use all the same skills as mentioned above.

[GunBugBit]

I'll say judo, basketball and ping pong.

[DrewHewes81]

Any of those first person shooter games of course. Especially for recoil management.

Seriously though, tennis sounds pretty good.

[one-gun]

Motocross and mountain bike for enjoyment and all over fitness.

Taught myself to juggle years ago bc I was impressed by my older cousins who could. I think it really helped the hand/eye. Without thinking about it, I've dropped things and caught them before they hit the deck. Some were surprisingly quick and ninja worthy.

[Garmil]

Tennis, racquetball, basketball, soccer

[seanc]

Any sport is going to be good for you, especially one that has physical fitness requirements to help one be less of a fatazz.

Rather than find one that uses the same skills, I would find something different, for a mental break and a bit of cross-training. More importantly, I would find one I enjoy.

I personally spend a lot of time riding bicycles and dirtbikes and playing ice hockey. In the past I've played lots of volleyball and soccer. Since I have been mostly serious about individual sports, I get particular enjoyment and balance and freshness out of participating in team sports at the hobbyist level.

This is the right answer. The Russians, I think zatsorksy, wrote about this in some of his literature.

If they wanted better Olympic lifters, volleyball was good....

It's better for you to do something more different than something more similar, lots of stuff about your nervous system being able to incorporate the sport specific stuff better...

[crazygiant]

I vote any martial arts. Personally I do Muay Thai and bjj. Both are great for working grip strength, hand eye coordination, and cardio (unfortunately I've seen a couple of not so active guys get winded from just walking between stages).

[jkrispies]

It's better for you to do something more different than something more similar...

I like this philosophy!

[crazygiant]

You could also always try Crossfit!

Let the flaming begin

[Jadeslade]

I'm down with Call of Duty. But I think slot receiver for the Dallas Cowboys is good, too. start, stop, catch ball, duck the inside linebacker, bite the safety if he piles on. Repeat. not sure what a mainstream sport is anymore. all of the above suggestions sound good. Steve RA, this thread is no good without pictures!

[arkadi]

There is a common trauma called tennis elbow for a reason. Do not over-stress the hands. Shooting suck then, and recovery is slow.

[motosapiens]

There is a common trauma called tennis elbow for a reason. Do not over-stress the hands. Shooting suck then, and recovery is slow.

hockey and dirtbiking contribute to that condition too. Fortunately, the advice and exercises at absolute PT have solved that problem for me.

https://www.absolutept.com/shooters-elbow/

[benos]

With the right (always attentive) mindset, all the "little" things you do will enhance your shooting mindset.

Less and less, discriminating between "important" and "not important" activities, is key.

[WillM]

Sporting clays

[sciolist]

A lot of the kinesthetic and analytical skills I developed in rock climbing transferred over pretty well to shooting.

[K31Scout]

3D archery, recurve. Form is as complex as the pistol games (sighting, release, follow through) and both have the weapon hanging out on our arms in front of us drifting around the target waiting for the release. Both shoot from awkward positions. It's what I did until a rotator cuff injury. Reloading was cheaper though!

[imeyers78]

my parents are retired military, so during my summer breaks I spent most of my daytime youth at the AFB rec room playing ping pong, fooseball, basketball, flag football, baseball, etc.. All these activities whether sports or rec room related have physical and mental requirements that can carry over into the shooting world.

[photoracer]

I have played competitive table tennis, bowled in a couple of PBA events, played some Div. 1 basketball (1 year), and won motorsports titles in drag racing, midget racing, and road racing both motorcycles and sports cars. I took up shooting as a pre retirement sport around 2009 (I am 68). While all sports share some factors the one I can say that to me has the most common factors to action shooting is road racing cars or motorcycles. Mainly because while all sports touch this one area to some extent only in shooting and some motorsports is this one thing at the top of the list. And that thing is the perception of speed. Until your brain gets to processing perception faster so time subjectively slows down you will never be fast in either activity. Many people have seen and wrote about this including Brian and Keith Code but the only one who has analyzed this from a brain perspective is my friend Warren Chamberlain. If you look him up you will find excerpts from a book he has been working on for at least 15 years I guess. He and I were Internet friends during the 2 decades I raced sports cars in the SCCA. Much of his research was on plateauing and why it happens. His work allowed me to break thru at least 2 plateaus in my driving career. And you know when it happens because it is like a revelation or an epiphany. In driving and shooting you are doing things while still concentrating on what is in front of you, meaning the track or the target stages. When you transition from target to target as you break the shot your eyes are already on the next target, while in racing you have reference points on the track which you keep at a distance in your vision. When approaching one, you car is planted where it needs to be you shift your vision to the next marker even though you have not actually reached the previous one. You do this because the farther you look down the track the less sensation of speed you have.

I used to say to people there are 2 kinds of accidents, those that happen in slow motion and those that you say afterwards "what happened". I can replay in my mind every crash or scary moment I ever had in very small slices of time. Because I was thinking things thru in the very short time frame of the event that seemed to take forever to me personally. I remember everything I thought and why I did certain things during the event to change potential outcomes. And like shooting when you get everything right there is an adrenaline rush you can feel right after the run.

Everything you need to know about the perception of speed can be seen in one TV commercial but most people never figure out what they just saw. Go online and look up "Honda the fastest seat in sports" IndyCar commercial. I have used this as a test for people.