Another Dot Observation

[JThompson]

I posted on another thread that my "dot dip" was gone. That's not the case... I was doing some drills and noticed it's still there, but has just increased in the speed at which it happens. The thought now is, who cares? I can crank off rounds from .17-.23 and it has returned to center by then, so why do I care where the damn thing goes. I was getting crazy over it for no good reason. The dot still returns as fast as I can accurately put another round down range, so it's moot.

I can get hung up on things that don't really matter. I shot a stage last house match that was a 75 point and I shot a 74 with splits in the .18-25 area and good transitions around .3. The targets where all around 50ft. I had a high primer jam and dropped the mag got the jam out and didn't get freaked or pissed. I just went about the business of shooting and seeing what I needed to see. With a 3-4 second jam problem I still shot the stage third overall. The guys that beat me shot it 3-4 seconds faster, but 7-9 points down. My point is I didn't even know my dot was "dipping" until yesterday. If I had been thinking about that crap I would have never been able to shoot. I think a lot of times we create a problem to give us some reason for failure. Most of the time now I'm not aware of anything as I shoot... I'm not thinking, "Damn that reload was slow, or looking at the target to see where the round went because I already know having seen the dot at the instant it lifted. What more do I need? I do time it and it should be there when I break it, but it's a near thing. Sometimes I had a little grip issue and it didn't drop right back, but I know that as I called the shot, so the .15 I take for the makeup isn't a big deal. I find this really helpful on steel. Some of that stuff takes so long to fall you are in real trouble if you are waiting on movement from the target. I can't depend on hearing it either as some are heard and some not. But when I watch the dot as the shot break, I know it's there and have shot two or three more before I could have seen the first move. Here's an observation I made some time back. When shooting a row of poppers, if I miss one, bad call or it didn't fall, I am much better of if I keep moving on the string... my side vision will tell me that it isn't moving, but I do not let it affect my flow, and continue to shoot the rest of the string and when I get to that last on in a row I swing back to it. In this way, I only have to acquire one extra target instead of two... This might not work for ones spaced real wide, but it works well for a row. I also noticed if I have an issue and shoot a quick follow up I must be a little rushed/frustrated on the miss because I am more apt to blow a second shot on it than I would be moving on and coming back to it.

Sorry about the tangent, but all that just occurred to me as I was on the dot issue.

JT

Edited July 8, 2007 by JThompson