Trying too hard

[3quartertime]

Shooting some El Prez's in practice  yesterday.  ( match got rained out,  dry at home,  lets pratice!!!)  On my last string the Master shooter I was practicing with told me to 'try something'.  He said don't try to 'think' about the shooting.  Just concentrate on the green dot ( front site of course), and let the rest be a 'blur'.  First array I was still chunky,  reload, second array I just watched the green dot.  I don't even remember making transitions,  don't remember my grip,  don't remember my trigger feel.  I just 'glided' through the array.  All 'A's ( dropped one on the first array).   My time was kinda slow,  but I've never not felt myself transitioning.  

I've watched the good shooters on a 'hoser' stage and never could figure out how they go so fast.  I think I just 'noticed' how!!!

[tightloop]

If you are interrupt driven, it takes longer to think your way thru each step of the drill than to just put it on auto pilot.

[BSeevers]

There is no place for conscious thought in shooting. I didn't say it but believe it to be true. That and a lot of practice to perform at high levels.

(Edited by BSeevers at 6:08 pm on Aug. 19, 2002)

[redmist10]

(There is no place for conscious thought in shooting. I didn't say it but believe it to be true. That and a lot of practice to perform at high levels. )

I just started reading BE's book and as has happened a few times in the first couple of chapters something dawned on me.....

During the 2002 TN IDPA Championship I was shooting a stage where you had to activate a mover, shoot the mover, move, then engage two more targets before re-engaging the mover should you not like your hits or you missed it entirely.

I had "walked through" the stage in my mind and knew where to reload, etc. and before shooting I had set in my mind that I would finish at the mover just in case I missed or had a dropped shot.

I shot the stage and during the shooting I "felt" (awareness?) I pulled a shot off the mover so I went back to it as previously determined almost instinctively......then.....I took a second to analyze the target...and froze....no shot = concentrating on the target.  The mover was partially hidden so the body was mostly covered and only the head and shoulders were exposed.

It didn't really hit me until today while reading BE's words that I had interrupted the shooting with conscious thought and locked up.  It not only cost me the miss (5pts) I got a FTN penalty of 5.0 seconds to boot.  Had I went with what I "saw" while shooting I would have been right to shoot the second shot.  As it was there was only one hit.

It would seem that I "called the shot" off the mover but being new to that philosophy I didn't trust what I actually "saw."  

What a concept!  I will keep reading......