Serious Vs. Fun

[hopalong]

I don't know if this is the correct place but here it is any way.

I have been shooting a revolver for the last 2 years exclusively, and have done pretty good with it.

This last 6 months has been quite hard, about completely burned out.

Also in the last 6 months the project Limited gun has finally finished up and made it's way home in 1 operating piece instead of many pieces.

Have shot the last 2 major matches with the limited gun, have had more mikes and no shoots with it than with the wheel gun in the last year(almost).

But here is the kicker...........I don't care!!!!!!

I have also had more fun with the limited gun in the last 2 matches than the last YEAR of wheel gunning(HONESTLY).

Someone asked me the other day........."What's the deal?.....Looking at my Limited gun

I told him....."I'm here to have fun and nothing else, if you see me with the revolver then things are serious, I'm there for another reason"

It is a shame it has come down to that, I did really enjoy shooting the wheel in the beginning. But somewhere in there it became "Serious" instead of fun

Anyone else out there have the same experiance?

HOP

[MikeFoley]

Sam,

I think this is a common thing. We tend to want to be competitive in our favorite division. Sometimes that focus becomes labor intensive and mind melting. Something new can relieve that tension, in your case the new Limited gun. For me, shooting anything other than Limited can be a huge release. Steel Challenge, ICORE, Production, Rifle, Shotgun, rimfires, etc. really change the focus, and allow me to relax. Then when I return to the Limited gun, it is a reminder of how much fun it is and to relax. Some guys take a few months off from shooting to change this, but I prefer just changing guns or sports for a week or two. Hell, even Airedale has been showing up shooting all kinds of semi-autos for the past month, maybe you guys just needed to find yourselves.

A good indicator that you are heading down the path of frustration for me is when a minor mistake makes me sideways for several minutes, or a stage doesn't seem fun at all. That is when you gotta say #$@% it! You will find your way back to the wheelgun when you want to IMO. In the meantime, shoot everything else you have been neglecting and have fun.

[mike4045]

I switch divisions from time to time just to break things up. When I feel that I am getting burned out, I switch for a couple of matches. I will even switch shooting sports. Going back to a glock for a few days is usually all it takes. I really start to miss my dot gun. Last week I took my wifes Taurus out, shot a match with it and actually did pretty good. I got home and practiced reloads with my open gun. Lately I just have not wanted to use it unless I was shooting it.

Mike

[Clay1]

Saul Kirsch in his new book talks about not training with the same intensity all year around and how that can lead to serious burn out. I took two months off after the state shoot this year and it has led to a nice renewed interest in the sport. I Didn't shoot or post on this board in Aug and Sept and it really charged my batteries. The idea of shooting something else also interests me. I love to shoot sporting clays but haven't been shooting a shotgun since the pistol bug bit. Rimfire silhouette was also a grand time. Next year if I get to the same place I think that I will just switch games for a while and enjoy myself.

[dajarrel]

It's funny. Sam has been after me to get back on the wheelgun. I shot the LA match with it this weekend and had a ball. I get back on the wheelgun and Sam goes to the bottom feeder.

Anyhow, I was talking with someone at the match about my shooting the revo and I told them that it does acouple of things for me. First it's fun. Second it causes you to use your sights when you remember you are only managing 6 rounds at a time and because of that eliminate alot of the "spray and pray" I find myself doing with my limited gun.

Have a good time Sam.

dj

[spook]

It is a shame it has come down to that, I did really enjoy shooting the wheel in the beginning. But somewhere in there it became "Serious" instead of fun

Anyone else out there have the same experiance?

HOP

Well Sam, I don't have to tell you I have experience with that I got burned out at least twice. The problem is that it's hard to let go of being competitive. Even if you say to yourself that you are just going to have fun, subconsciencly you're saying that and at the same time hope that it will improve your performance.

To me it's mostly the fear of "losing it". My remedy up until now is do exactly what you want at this moment. Don't go out shooting because you are afraid to lose it.

Have genuine fun

[Merlin Orr]

Personally....I am Damn Serious.. about having fun!

[hopalong]

Merlin,

I am with you!!!!

But, some where in the fun the fun turned into "serious work"

I don't know if it is that since there are so few revolver shooters, one can run up the ladder faster and easier than in Limited and Open, but that might be part of it.

Any way, I get to shoot the "fun gun" a while and then back to the "BIG IRON" hopefully by then things will have gotten better in my head.

HOP

[Bill Nesbitt]

Hoppy,

I burn out from time to time. I always switch guns for how ever long I need. Usually switch back and forth from my revolvers and my Glocks. When I switched from a Glock to a revolver for Ohio it was a blast.

Go ahead and shoot the bottom feeder and have fun.

[Bear1142]

Sam,

Everybody has some natural talent when it comes to shooting, or any type of competition for that matter. Some have more than others, but we all have some level. At some point in time your going to reach your maximum attainable skill level on just your natural talent. It's at this crucial crossroad that you must make a very important decision. You must either accept the fact that this is as far as your going to go on your natural talent or you must get serious and start to train to be a better shooter. I'm not talking about going to the range and shooting, I'm saying that you need to go to the range with a organized set of practice regimens designed to improve you skill level. Most of the time, these drills are not going to be the fun ones that we all like to do, they will be the boring ones or the tough ones that really show our weaknesses. In the end, they will help you to become a better shooter. Sometimes they are fun and sometimes the are not, but they are always serious. Jerry Miculek doesn't go to the range to have fun, he goes to become a better shooter. He may have fun at what he's doing, but his purpose for being there is to improve his skills. It's always serious and sometimes it's fun. For all this rambling remember this one thing. Anyone can practice what they are good at, champions practice what they are bad at. Hope this helps.

Erik

[schmitz]

I'm burned out on IPSC-shooting right now, I am raised to be competitive (Dad was Navy, Uncle joined the Marines), I am/was competitive in all I do, my job, shooting, racing, everything...but some things went wrong.

Did I quit, no! Did I want to?, Yes.

For now I'm timing out, going back to Basics...teaching people how to shoot (on a club-level) enjoying it, recharging my battery.

Changing things, I quit my position being Chairman of an IPSC-shooting Team...too much stress involved. Stress that hampered my shooting. Back to my roots..had a lot of fun in clubchampionships (non-IPSC), does it mean anything to the outside world NO!

Did I have fun, YES. I'm Clubchampion in Open (normally I compete in Limited) this year, I'm satisfied with this result. Any other position in the rankings, OK but:

Fun is NUMBER ONE! To be Competitive can be FUN

Growing older opens new perspectives.

Hop, all the best and my best guess: Merlin is right!

Henny.

Edited November 6, 2005 by schmitz

[benos]

A problem is the accumulation of care, that builds up over time. When we're a beginner, we don't have a results-oriented image about ourself. So it's easy to just go out and shoot, and have fun doing it. After some time goes by, and our overall finishes take on more of a predictable quality, our self-image is not happy if we don't finish with our expected result. Then we start to try to shoot good; the cycle just keeps getting worse, until we burn out. Then we do things like switch guns or take a break to bring the freshness back into what we are doing.

It's a tricky knife edge to walk. If I care too much, I'll shoot poorly, and won't be happy. If I don't care at all, I'll shoot poorly, and won't be happy. I had to learn to care only about the shooting, and not about the expectations, the results, what my friends would think, where my name would be on the results page. Then I could compete fairly close to my ability.

Another problem is the results-oriented habit thinking that builds up over time. We don't even know how much of our thoughts become dedicated to what is actually fairly useless thinking. Study your mind and become aware of key thoughts repeated, uselessly, over and over. Any thoughts related to how poorly you've been shooting lately, for example. As you notice them, stop their continuance by replacing them with another key phrase - like I'm gonna enjoy myself at the match and only care about the shooting while I am shooting, for example. Shoot with care; the kind of care you'd have for a loved one or good friend. And let everything else, like the score or your finish, be what it is. Love the journey of learning.

be

[Sam]

[iweiny]

...

It's a tricky knife edge to walk. If I care too much, I'll shoot poorly, and won't be happy. If I don't care at all, I'll shoot poorly, and won't be happy. I had to learn to care only about the shooting, and not about the expectations, the results, what my friends would think, where my name would be on the results page. Then I could compete fairly close to my ability.

Another problem is the results-oriented habit thinking that builds up over time. We don't even know how much of our thoughts become dedicated to what is actually fairly useless thinking. Study your mind and become aware of key thoughts repeated, uselessly, over and over. Any thoughts related to how poorly you've been shooting lately, for example. As you notice them, stop their continuance by replacing them with another key phrase - like I'm gonna enjoy myself at the match and only care about the shooting while I am shooting, for example. Shoot with care; the kind of care you'd have for a loved one or good friend. And let everything else, like the score or your finish, be what it is. Love the journey of learning.

be

I agree with everything you say Brian. But this brings up something I have been thinking about a lot lately. While I agree that IPSC is a very personal sport I find judging ones performance very different than other "personal" sports. For example, I used to swim competitivly. When you swam a personal best time you knew you had improved. You could set goals such as "break 1min in the 100yrd freestyle".

Some may point to classifiers as the equivalant of this but there are problems with classifiers 1) there is some question as to if they test "real" stage skills 2) more importantly not every stage is a classifier. I guess it would be like saying well today the event is 110yards so you really have to sort of add 10% to your best 100 yard time...

So I find myself looking to the score sheets a lot. More than I would like to in fact... But what else can one do? I have also tracked things like % of points in a match as well as a rough "speed" factor. Of course this is slanted by the type of stages but I find it brings back some of the personal aspect which is really what I care about.

Thoughts?

Ira

[Sam]

Ira, maybe figuring Hit Factors would be more meaningful for you?

I don't like to walk up to a stage in a match and think "Oh, this is a 10 factor for me." Because, it is very easy to create an expectation by doing that. But after I shoot a stage, sometimes I'll go back and analyze my performance that way. If you get used to breaking down the elements of a stage, distances, movements, and transitions in practice, then your "best known level of ability" is more easily determined. With me, it has become almost instinctive. For instance: I know almost exactly how much time it takes me to fire two "A" hits, move five yards and shoot two more. I can usually do it in practice and then look at the timer and see that it is very close to how "it felt". I'll bet there are certain drills that you already know the "feel" of. One great value of this method is that in knowing what a good run feels like one can also determine where the time or smoothness has been gained or lost.

After a match I sometimes break down the stages and compare them to my practice logs. If you keep good practice notes, this is a great tool for continuing education. If you haven't started keeping detailed practice logs, I hope you will. I can go back as far as 2002 and readily see where my learning has increased and where it has remained stagnant.

I hope this is helpful.

[Clay1]

I've already had my slump for the year and right now am on a nice positive note. One of the things that I had to deal with is that winning depends on the performance of the other shooters.

If you train hard and have a goal of winning a particular match and you shoot your best that you have ever shot in that match but don't win because someone else shot better, did you loose? No, you shot better than you ever have. I personally win by seeing my draw times for an A hit decreasing, my reloads getting faster, my movement getting much better and my mental training seeing successes where in the past I focused on my failures.

The hobby is so varied, which keeps us coming back. It is very unlike shooting skeet, where you shoot the same game over and over and can compare last week's score to this week's or last year's scores to this year's scores. It is hard to get a handle on the progress.

A local GM, Ben Stoeger, told me: "Everyone thinks I am a total dorkass for the notebook that I keep, but whenever I have that "feeling" that I don't have the skills to win, I look at the book. There it is PROOF, I am indeed getting better." I kept that piece of advice and think of it often when I make entries into my own training log.

Rick

[carinab]

It's not science till you measure it. I've always had a hard time looking at a stage and guestimating how long it should take me to shoot a stage to figure a target hit factor. I finally decided to re-start my practice logs. I have standard excercises, an excel spreadsheet with formulas and trend graphs, to let me know if I'm improving (or slacking).

On Brian's thought, I try to care only about the process of shooting a stage - to refine the details. To me a successful stage is one where I do everything I have planned as I shoot. I have to be happy with that because I've then shot to the best of my ability. When I focus on the process, the shooting is fun. I may not be the fastest shooter but I don't have to be. Sometimes it's not who does the best, it's who screws up the least.

[Sam]

I have standard excercises, an excel spreadsheet with formulas and trend graphs, to let me know if I'm improving (or slacking).

That is way kewell!

Would you mind sharing some ideas about what I could track and graph this way? Right now, I'm just writing times and stage diagrams in a spiral notebook. Definately time to make the leap to techno-boy.

[Airedale]

Sam,

When it's work, it isn't a hobby any more. You've made great strides in your wheelgunning but you worked hard at it.

I don't. I have a job-that's for work. Pulling the trigger is for fun.

Take a break-I am. I'm headed to Iowa Saturday for a week of chasing pheasant. When I return, I'm pulling out the 25-2 for a test drive.

Have fun buddy!

Dave

[Bill Nesbitt]

I was thinking about this thread today and for some reason the phrase "be true to yourself" popped into my head.

Shoot whatever is the most fun to you at that point in time. Your buds may try to make fun of you but don't listen to them. We do this to have fun.

[hopalong]

Thanks guys/gals !!!!!

Bill, that is pretty well on the spot of what it has come down to for now.

This is Deer season from now until mid January, I really enjoy that and don't HAVE to get one to enjoy it. So the only thing that will most likely be going bang is the 41 mag I use to deer hunt with. (Another revolver........Who would have ever guessed?)

When I get back into it I now have a nice Benny Blaster to play with, and a new to me 25-2 to see if it wants to play with the rest of the bunch.

Have a good winter break, for those of you who take one.

See ya'll at A-6 in May! (first weekend in May)

HOPALONG

Dave, save one for me.....I'll be up in March if all goes well.

I've never had the Chinese chicken to munch on. (i live kind of a sheltered life)

[Merlin Orr]

Shoot whatever is the most fun to you at that point in time. Your buds may try to make fun of you but don't listen to them. We do this to have fun.

So True.. I already have a job... Sure don't want to make shooting my second one!

[Steve Moneypenny]

Burnout managment is a hard thing to do it seems the season can last almost all year. and there is sooo much tempting me to practice my butt off this winter. so i'm practicing in spurts, i'll hit it hard for a week or 2 then take a few ways away from the gun.. I have found that much of my "burnout" is in the traveling not the shooting it's self.

[Flexmoney]

You gotta find a way to have fun. No matter who looks back at you in the mirror...chance are that you are going to get your azz handed to you.

Even if you win all the time, you still have to face the mirror. Don't let that person in the mirror beat you down. (Or, as Gunny said in Heartbreak ridge..."don't give the prick the satisfaction.")