Singlestack Posted October 16, 2001 Share Posted October 16, 2001 Well I guess I must learn a lesson here. I went to the Match Saturday with the intention of kicking everyones ass with my newly discovered Zen tactics. I shot miserably. Worst Match I have shot in months. I had 6 mikes. I guess I need to keep my Zen to myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38supPat Posted October 16, 2001 Share Posted October 16, 2001 Got caught playin' with your 'zen' in public eh? Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted October 16, 2001 Share Posted October 16, 2001 That's funny stuff! SS, Don't forget that Zen is not different than doing whatever you're doing - fully, completely, and without hesitation. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted October 17, 2001 Share Posted October 17, 2001 Quote: from benos on 4:52 pm on Oct. 16, 2001 Zen is not different than doing whatever you're doing - fully, completely, and without hesitation. be I think I'm getting the hang of that. I've always gotten stressed in the middle of a stage when I made a mistake, and let it affect the way I finished the stage, and sometimes let it affect me for the rest of the match. Sunday shooting a 24 round field course I had a jam where the slide failed to fully chamber a round. Thinking that I didn't want to jam it shut, I racked the action and gently let the slide forward, creating the same jam over; then I did it a second time before finally remembering to let the slide go on the third attempt. My attention was totally in the gun and as soon as the slide closed I was able to shoot and move through the stage as I had planned before the buzzer. I shot 23 A's in 27 seconds, about seven seconds slower than what I had hoped for. And not until I had holstered the gun did the F word leave my mouth...... If I can keep that going for a couple of more matches, I'll need to push myself to go a little faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamBam Posted October 17, 2001 Share Posted October 17, 2001 SS - So the monkey appears to have won this first fight. Remember not to try to kick ass on everyone with your Zen tactics. That's not shooting well. If you shoot well "only", the ass kicking will surely follow! Your white room was empty when you got there. Who brought the misses to the party? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted October 17, 2001 Share Posted October 17, 2001 Nik, Cool. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted December 15, 2001 Share Posted December 15, 2001 There's something to be said for staying in the game even after early mistakes. About a month ago I absolutely flushed the first stage at a match. It was UGLY. But I figured, "What the hell," and was lucky enough to win the other three stages, and finally the match in Lim-10. "It ain't over til it's over." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jharry3 Posted December 18, 2001 Share Posted December 18, 2001 Maybe your dogma ran over your karma and crashed your match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 To quote the masters... "He who has it, would do well to have it, as if he did not have it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 Ahhhhhhhhh,...... Grasshopper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 Zen not so much like hat you put on then go kick ass... more like shifting of gears in the grey cells. Go peacefully and kick ass effortlessly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadetree Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 "Go peacefully and kick ass effortlessly." nicely said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 When the gun floats the deed is done. The grasshopper relaxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Anderson Posted October 21, 2002 Share Posted October 21, 2002 Trying to win is like TRYING to do anything. When you try, you admit that you may fail. When you DO, you just do... Shoot, and let the scorekeepers worry about who the winner is. When Robbie and Brian just shot the match, they went 1-2, miles ahead of the pack. SA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noname Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 Zen is shooting in the now, not now and Zen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 Now and Zen is the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DT Guy Posted December 17, 2002 Share Posted December 17, 2002 When you are trying to 'win', you cannot-that is not Zen. When you are doing what you are doing with all of your will, regardless of what anyone else does, that is Zen. I think. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 "To the sincere practitioner, shooting is a way of life, and there should be no separation between shooting training and everyday activities. Each shot is shot as if it were the only one, just as each moment of one's life is the ultimate. The shooting practitioner does not look at the target for the result of his or her practice, but inward, for the target is not a target - it is a mirror. And if the heart is right, each shot clears away some more of the obstacles clouding the vision of one's true nature." --John A. Dreyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDave Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 can a Zen newbie chime in??? A co-worker commented to me that my shooting must be a great stress reliever. My reply to her was something like this: I don't use shooting as stress reliever. I see it as a learning tool. More and more lately, I don't even realize that I am shooting, much less care. The line between the time when I am shooting and when I'm not is becoming blurry. Its becomming more and more difficult to seperate the two. One other thing I've experienced is when I try to go fast, like draw, I almost can't. I can barely get the gun out of the holster. Same with shooting, if I try to have a fast trigger finger, I freeze, often so much I can't get off the first shot, let alone a second. However, if I just flow and remain relaxed and aware, it all takes care of itself. Strange, but very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 (BigDave)..."relaxed and aware... it all takes care of itself." How much more right-on can he get...? I keep reminding myself to slow down and relax. And when I do, the bullets just float right over there to the middle of the targets..... every time. If I so much as tense up--even just a little--bullets veer off center..... every time. (BigDave)"Strange, but very cool." Very, very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Yes Dave, Couple calm awareness with clear intent, and witness amazing things happen. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singlestack Posted June 21, 2003 Author Share Posted June 21, 2003 ....and keep your Zen to yourself! Thanks for bringing this thread back to the top. I've been trying/pushing again lately. I go through spells of pushing then coasting. I'm always better after a pushing spell though. I'm getting real close to having my times where I want them, but when I push, I have a mike somewhere. Usually on the first target lately. Always the second shot. I hate it when that happens. Alpha-mike! grrrrrrr... Pushing.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 A co-worker commented to me that my shooting must be a great stress reliever. You know it's weird. I've lost count of the number of times that people have told me that, even other shooters. I can really only remember a couple times having any emotion at all when shooting: once when I was having a bad day - shooting and everything else, and another when I absolutely hammered a tough station in sporting clays with my pump gun - a great day. That's it. I've never gone out to the range for the purpose of venting. What always happens is that I focus on the shooting and whatever I was worried in my other life about fades away and doesn't matter after about 5 minutes (or less) - especially in sporting clays. I find effortlessly breaking 10 or more straight at a station just bam...bam...bam...bam... particularly Zenful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 Shooting by itself is not so much a stress reliever as a "focus changer". I am one of those people who can worry a problem to death. Stuff isn't going well at work or wherever and an hour or three at the range can take care of it. I just need something that demands focus to break the cycle. I think many non-shooters think that we go to the range, put targets up and imagine that they are the boss or co-workers or the ex-spouse or whatever. And, I am sure some of us do that. But shooting is like any other activity that requires focus in that it can help us change tracks. I spent the afternoon at the range today. Lots of junk floating around in the brain causing pretty messy internal turmoil. Job is constant stress, too many people I know dying, yada yada yada. Since I have a Steel match tomorrow I needed to get in a warm up to get used to the steel load again. The first 70-80 rounds were just pure work and it wasn't going well. I managed to get the sights adjusted but that was about it. So I sat down on the tailgate of my truck with a cold bottle of water and had a meeting with myself, did some breathing exercises and redirected the focus toward shooting. Went back to group shooting. That started flowing rather nicely so I switched to the steel. I then ran 12 plates/poppers in a row several times with a cadence and a "flow" I have never, ever had before. See the front sight align with target, bang, see sight lift, see sight align with next target, repeat. All of a sudden I realized it had been almost two hours since I had started and there were over 300 spent cases laying on the ground. I was exhausted and elated all at the same time. It was incredible! I also realized that I now needed to go home and pull the Blue handle a few hundred times to be ready for the weekend as I had just kept shooting and was well into the match ammo. Is shooting stress relief? Maybe not in and of itself, but it provides the fulcrum with which we can pry our stress away from our mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 Kimel, Thanks for summing it up in words that I wasn't able to find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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