Making Myself See

[ErikW]

I had one of my worst shooting performances ever at the Columbus Cup. I was thoroughly disgusted with myself. It got even worse on the final day, when I just wanted to redeem myself by winning a stage. I ended up zeroing the first stage after shooting two misses on the first target, failing to engage a steel, and shooting a border no-shoot on another target, in a 9 round stage. I felt sick.

I should say that I wasn't trying to win a stage by rushing. ong45 said I should just let loose like I did on the final day of the 2004 US nats, but I knew success would come only by seeing better. My problems continued all the way until the final stage.

Because I was last to shoot the last stage in our squad, I had a good long time to sit and get my mind straight. It was the closest I've come to meditating: just picturing sights on A zone, lifting, settling, sights on A zone, lifting, swinging into target, sights on A zone.

The course was: Retrieve gun from ice chest, chamber a round, and engage three hardcovered partials, a popper, and a full target, over a large sweeping angle.

When I was done I holstered and turned my back to the targets because I didn't need to see them scored; I knew the score. People in the squad applauded the speedy shooting. Somebody in the squad said I had all As but I already knew it.

The only problem was, I concentrated so much on seeing what I needed to see, I forgot to chamber the round at the start. That put me in second at 94% when I could have had a crushing stage win.

I don't know if I can attain this level of concentration/visualization before each stage. At the very least, I'm going to try it while on deck.

[SiG Lady]

Once in a while I remember to do the all-important 'visualization' thing and actually perform better than usual when I do. It's about focusing, shutting out all else... yes, like meditating. If only I can remember to do it every time. damn. I guess I'd better make it a priority from now on.

[short_round]

Before being able to do something consistently, you first have to do it once.

[Mistral404]

I got to watch Travis at the Nationals for his last four stages. What I noticed was that after his multiple walk-thrus, he sat down and mentally shot the stage-airgunning. He had his eyes closed, his head moved left, simulated his recoil, transitioned to his next target, and so on, He used his mental vision to simulate shooting the entire stage.

I have been trying to employ the same technique. It has helped me significantly. I notice when I do not take the time to mentally shot the stage my scores are significantly lower.

I like your statement about lifting, settling and A zone. I have not used that visualization yet. I was just mentally committing the targets to my mind set. I think your visualization of the front sight, settling and A zone will be very helpful.

Since you have done now, you can repeat it. In local matches are you RO'ing? If you are you might want to give up the clock or board a little early to give you time for your mental adjustment.

[benos]

When I was done I holstered and turned my back to the targets because I didn't need to see them scored; I knew the score. People in the squad applauded the speedy shooting. Somebody in the squad said I had all As but I already knew it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That gave me the chills reading it.

Nice work.

[eerw]

NICE...I liked the

turned my back to the targets because I didn't need to see them scored

For me..when I go through the visualization of a stage..I got to do all the parts...if I don't I sometimes forget the simple things..like chambering the first round on an empty start..

I have to include the engagement of all targets, the reload, the start, the followthrough..all of it..or seems when I actually run the stage I am missing that segment..and right now my head doesn't have a good enough buffer to smooth out the skips...

[BigDave]

Nice thread, Erik. I had a moment not unlike yours yesterday at a local "match" at a friends range. I haven't had focus like I had yesterday in almost a year. When the dust cleared, the runs were fast but didn't feel like it and I knew I had good hits. It is a great feeling.

Thanks for sharing.

[ErikW]

Today I had one of my best vision days ever, but I did little or no visualization before shooting.

I think my worst stage was 1 B, 3 C. Cleaned a 20-rounder all As. Dropped 1 C on the classifier and got a 100% on it. Shot 1 D but called it and made it up. Won the Limited match, finished 90% of a national top 16 competitor shooting Open.

I need to figure out why my vision and shot-calling goes to hell at big matches.

[diehli]

I need to figure out why my vision and shot-calling goes to hell at big matches.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To quote Flex$: "Expectations."

[Nik Habicht]

I need to figure out why my vision and shot-calling goes to hell at big matches.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

'cause you think it's different than a local match?

I had a similar experience last weekend at the PSA Shootout --- a steel match where every one of the six stages consists of 25-29 pieces of falling steel, ranging from full poppers, to split poppers, to 4 inch circles to 4 inch equilateral triangles, to the really evil small donuts --- think a six inch plate with a three inch circle cut out of the center. Some stages are big targets close and fast, others are tiny targets far away.

I shot the match in the morning in Open Division, using my production blaster, focusing on speed and snapping my transitions. I snapped the transitions so well, that I needed lots of make-up rounds. I really had my head up my ass all morning long. I was most ticked at my 53 shot performance on the 29 round tiniest steel stage --- a whopping 81 seconds. During lunch, I managed to think about something Anderson once said here, about getting what you program. In the morning I had programmed speed and transitions --- and that hadn't worked too well. I decided that I'd be willing to hold the sights on each piece of steel for two to three seconds, until I was sure that I had the sight picture I needed for one shot = one steel down. It didn't quite work that way --- but I needed only 47 seconds to shoot the 81 second stage, with only four extra rounds. I shaved 55 seconds off my morning performance, finishing in 45th place in Stock Division, compared to 138 in Open.

I think that programming might be like the different levels of sight pictures --- some stages will require exceptionally detailed programming, others you might be able to shoot better with a little less detail. The trick is figuring out what you need, and then allowing yourself to receive that.....

[benos]

I need to figure out why my vision and shot-calling goes to hell at big matches.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That will improve with experience at big matches, and it may take some years depending on how many big matches you shoot a year.

At a match you consider "big," you're gonna be more amped up than you would at a "not big" match. Obviously. I was never able to convince myself that I wasn't at a big match when I actually was. So I gave up trying. Instead, I learned to consciously adjust the visual patience required so that I knew, in the same way I knew in practice, that I was hitting the targets as I shot at them.

But it's not easy, because you do not feel and see in the same ways when you're overly amped up. In a big match, everybody feels the heat - the winners included. The winners have learned to deal with big-match heat, while those still struggling are still trying to replicate what they do in local matches. The speedy nature of the sport is the biggest factor in this.

When overly nervous, you lose some of your fine motor skills and you tend to see less clearly, or continuously. You can probably remember stages where you seemed to see "in spurts." You can remember bits and pieces of what happened, but you can't remember the whole thing.

After analyizing my performances for 20 years, I feel like it comes down to - since you don't feel the same in a big match as you do in a small match, how it feels while you are shooting a big match does not feel the same as how it feels when you are shooting a small match. So you have to learn to ignore that discrepancy.

With practice and determination, you can learn to allow your vision to see what is necessary to finish each shot in a big match. But that's hard to do because it will feel slower. And the last thing an experienced IPSC shooter wants to feel is slow. So you end up fighting and battling your innermost instinct - "I gotta go fast." But after you've shot for long enough, you'll begin to realize that what feels fast doesn't have anything to do with what fast is. That's when you will develop the confidence to "back it off" in a big match. And then, like you've tasted, when you connect that - although you just shot a killer run, you didn't feel rushed at all and you "saw everything" - you will stop caring about speed start caring about how to preserve "visually finishing each shot."

First you learn how to shoot. Then you lean how to compete. Within competing, first you learn how to shoot small matches and then, finally, you learn how to shoot big matches. When you are totally immersed in what you are doing, you will not have any concept of or perception of speed.

be

[Catfish]

wow.

[Ferrell Spicer]

WOW!

[mcoliver]

But that's hard to do because it will feel slower.

Constantly battling the inner speed demon. And the times he wins I end up smarter, learning a lesson or two.

While looking at the video footages of the Columbus Cup, I swear, listening to the splits alone I would think JJ would be far ahead of Eric. And there's something about Eric's splits that tells me, "Hey! I can shoot like that, too!".