Confusing "relaxed"...

[spook]

I was practicing reloads with the Glock yesterday. When I focussed on being relaxed, my attention level would go down. Somehow I confused relaxation with unattentiveness, thinking that "physically being relaxed", would make everything go as it should. The result was sloppyness.

I turned up my attention level (which I found a hard thing to do) and forgot about any technique. The result was perfect reloads.

Attention/Focus is a result of true interest in what you are doing. It is difficult to "be interested" all the time.

Guess I'm just rambling. I'll come back and edit this post when I found the right words, but figured I might as well post it to see if others have some nice words on this (usually others can put this stuff into words much better than I)

[dajarrel]

Somehow I confused relaxation with unattentiveness, thinking that "physically being relaxed", would make everything go as it should.

What I find is that a "Controlled Tension" is what I need. Too relaxed and I start watching birds flying around in the background , too tight and I physically can't move.

Attention/Focus is a result of true interest in what you are doing. It is difficult to "be interested" all the time.

Could that be the result of too much practice? Didn't someone write a book with the idea of "perfect practice"

Guess I'm just rambling.

Rambling is good when you really don't know what to say.

[XRe]

I struggle with finding the right level of stimulation/tension in my body to perform maximally. There's a couple of things I read above that you might consider...

Tension is opposite from stress - the *right* spot is somewhere in between. You probably already know what tension feels like Most of us have to learn what it feels like to truly be relaxed. Then, you can find the right spot in the middle, and figure out how to get there reliably when you need to. Then, relax in between stages

Focus and awareness are two terms that are used to represent how much you are paying attention, and what you are paying attention to. They seem to tie directly to tension level, at least in that it's hard to be aware when you're too tense. Awareness is your ability to notice and pay attention to everything around you - focus is basically directing your awareness at one thing or a set of things and narrowing it down. These skills take practice to perfect, of course - these are what allow really neat things to happen, though... like batters seeing individual seams on a baseball in flight, or shooters being able to find a target, drive the sights onto it, break a shot and then watch the dance of the sights fully...

Boredom (from too much practice of one thing...) can result in a complete lack of focus, and also lack of awareness (ie, just not paying attention at all).

Sounds like you're either practicing to the state of boredom, or you're struggling with finding that fine point of the right amount of tension, coupled with finding the right level of focus. When you relax (lower your tension level), you're getting sloppy. That's probably too little tension. You turn it up a little bit, and you start nailing them.

Note that tension arrives in many forms - remember that it's the opposite of relaxed, so anything that moves you away from relaxed is a tension of some sort. Turning up your awareness and focus (or.. attention) is a type of tension - a good one, in this case.... Obviously, too much of a good thing is also a problem - it's finding that zone where you're in the right spot that I struggle with sometimes - but I'm getting a lot better at it

[Ron Ankeny]

Attention/Focus is a result of true interest in what you are doing. It is difficult to "be interested" all the time.

I don't think you need to bother looking for better words.

[benos]

Attention/Focus is a result of true interest in what you are doing. It is difficult to "be interested" all the time.

I don't think you need to bother looking for better words.

+2!

Looking back over 20 years of practcing mag changes - I kept my interest high by maintaining the ever-improving goal of having every mag change be the best one ever.

be

[Sam]

I finally discovered that I frequently missed mag changes because I was allowing my attention to "sign off" just as the magazine approached the well. When I finally saw what was really happening, I realized that there is a lot of neat stuff that goes on between seeing the magazine approach the well, seating that mag, re-establishing the grip, and seeing the sights come back on the target. Now I pay attention to the entire process and I actually enjoy the reloads as much as any part of the COF in a match.

[benos]

I finally discovered that I frequently missed mag changes because I was allowing my attention to "sign off" just as the magazine approached the well.

Right. That's HUGE. Complete each act before moving to the next.

be

[Flexmoney]

Sam, that is the make or break point in my high speed draw-one-reload-one dryfire drill at the lampshade. If I shift my vision off the mag insertion a bit too soon, I am toast.

Wait...I should phrase that in a positive manner.

When I see the mag in, I smoke that drill/skill like a cheap cigar.

Right. That's HUGE. Complete each act before moving to the next.

be