Kyle's Flinch Breaker - 101

[ChrisMcCracken]

Now, how do I not blink? I'm not flinching or jerking off target. My eyes just reflexively close with the shot. It makes it hard to see the sight lift. Usually I'm back on the front sight by the time it's returning to my point of aim, so it doesn't keep me from making my next shot.

[Duckbuster]

Now, how do I not blink? I'm not flinching or jerking off target. My eyes just reflexively close with the shot. It makes it hard to see the sight lift. Usually I'm back on the front sight by the time it's returning to my point of aim, so it doesn't keep me from making my next shot.

Same problem here I blink and have to regain my sights on longer shots, but I'll try some of those techniques next time I shoot.

Marcus

Edited April 5, 2009 by Duckbuster

[edgerat]

My name is Isaac and I also blink on the first sometimes second shot, now this has only happened indoors with overpressure issues but I want it gone!

[Singlestack]

I taught myself not to blink using two methods.

Dry fire. It teaches your body nothing bad happens when you pull the trigger.

Forcing my eyes wide open. Like a deer caught in the headlights look.

You really have to break this habbit.

[zipper046]

Great info Flex! Thanks for posting this. I find myself constantly training to "call my shot". It never fails that I start to get a bit weary and my focus on the front sight diminishes...as a result...my groups get larger. This is a great piece of info that I have read numerous times since you posted it. It really does help.

Thanks!

z-

[Duckbuster]

I taught myself not to blink using two methods.

Dry fire. It teaches your body nothing bad happens when you pull the trigger.

Forcing my eyes wide open. Like a deer caught in the headlights look.

You really have to break this habbit.

I havent dry fired for that purpose but I guess I need to concentrate on that as well. Thank you single stack

[R A Miller]

Now, how do I not blink? I'm not flinching or jerking off target. My eyes just reflexively close with the shot. It makes it hard to see the sight lift. Usually I'm back on the front sight by the time it's returning to my point of aim, so it doesn't keep me from making my next shot.

I used to blink, every shot. Holding my eyes wide open didn't help. I read the solution that worked for me here on the Enos Forums years ago.

Relax your jaw. Let it hang loose, slack jawed so to speak. It relaxes the muscles in your face and neck. A few range sessions doing this and I had lost my blink, I could see my sights tracking, brass ejecting, muzzle blast. Then I worked on watching the rise and fall of the sights while being aware of what else I could see with my peripheral vision. It was a huge breakthrough for me. I still use the technique if I notice that I'm getting tense.

It's worth a try.

Rick

[bulm540]

Nice , this was definitely my problem over the weekend. I could clearly see when the bullets would hit the targets ( not the bullet literally but when the bullets strikes the paper). I was also hitting Left and low on long range targets.

[2alpha]

The OP's post and those after are all excellent, I would like to add what I have learned to the discussion.

I think at one time or another I've been thru about every phase and type of flinch imaginable, there are many kinds. Started with shooting 357 mags with no ear pro back in the ancient times.

There are flinches caused by physical factors, pain, the blast and noise, are the main ones. Sometimes you can have a tiny thing on your gun that is causing pain you don't even realize. Like a safety that overhangs the frame just a bit but enough for that edge to bite you just a little bit. But over time it accumulates and your brain ends up telling your body not to pull that trigger because it's going to hurt. My son developed a flinch from just that and I finally saw it, he was 16 and was absolutely without any flinch until that developed, he never said anything about pain. I just noticed a red spot on his hand after a long practice. Fixed the problem but it took a lot of dry firing and short practices to get him back.

Visual flinches happen when you are not seeing what you need to see, to borrow a phrase from the great JB. It is so easy to fall into a rhythm that you expect your shots to break at. If don't have the sight picture you need it's kinda like a fight between two parts of your brain. One saying SHOOT NOW DUMMY and the other saying NO IT'S NOT RIGHT. So the shoot now side wins and you pull a kind of convulsive WTF shot. Or I may just be crazy.

Another type is the fear of failure. This seems to happen more with precision type shots. Anxiety creeps in and true focus get's to be impossible and it's the brain fight thing again. Not many competitors want to admit to this kind of flinch but until you recognize it for what it is the cure will allude you.

[Flexmoney]

Good stuff 2A. Thanks for adding it.

[VegasOPM]

Great stuff here! I do a lot of instruction for new shooters and they start to pick up anticipating recoil (and pushing the gun down and left to fight it) pretty quickly. I found a trick that helps break the habit before it becomes too ingrained. I have the shooters count to 5 while trying to take 1/5 of the trigger slack with each number while focusing only on the front sight. That forces the brain to think about something other than the recoil and helps a lot. It also forces them not to yank the trigger and helps reinforce pulling it straight back.

[Flashooter]

This thread is extremely helpful! I've been away from shooting for 5 years due to health issues. Upon recently returning to the sport I quickly developed a terrible flinch and these tips are helping me to deal with it. One tip I'd like to add is the old standby of randomly inserting inert dummy rounds among your live rounds to help curb the flinch.

My sincere thanx to Flexmoney and everyone who contributed to this thread.

[Singlestack]

Inserting "dummy rounds" will not help with a flinch. If you take a very experienced shooter and insert a dummy round in his mag you will see him push the gun when it fails to go off. This is from a conditioned response to recoil. A flinch occurs before the gun fires, not after.

[js82]

What really helped for me was the drill of shooting as fast as you can into a backstop while looking at the front sight. No target. I think it's part of Matt Burkett's timing drill or something. It helped with both the flinch and the blinking.

Using good hearing protection definitely helps too.

[Flashooter]

Inserting "dummy rounds" will not help with a flinch. If you take a very experienced shooter and insert a dummy round in his mag you will see him push the gun when it fails to go off. This is from a conditioned response to recoil. A flinch occurs before the gun fires, not after.

Singlestack, I think you're right. The randomly inserted dummy round helped to make me aware of a flinch which occurs before the gun fires but didn't really help to correct it. The technique posted by Flexmoney in this thread is what's helping the most. Thanx for your response.

[Flashooter]

What really helped for me was the drill of shooting as fast as you can into a backstop while looking at the front sight. No target. I think it's part of Matt Burkett's timing drill or something. It helped with both the flinch and the blinking.

Using good hearing protection definitely helps too.

js82, yes, the Matt Burkett drill is very similar to Flexmoney's suggestion. I've only had a chance to try it a couple of times but it's helping already!! I'm also using double ear protection. Thanx for your reply.

[BigBets]

What a helpful post!!! I began using some of it at the range and can tell the improvements in my shot calling already

Thanks Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Downrange58]

Here is something I typed out to email to a friend...long ago. I've posted it here a few time, but I don't think it had it's own thread before.

Kyle's Flinch Breaker - 101 (generic version)

- Double plug. I doubt you are flinching due to noise, but double plug anyway...at least when you are shooting.

- Know that the big explosion going off at arms length won't do you any harm (simple, I know...but it is something the shooter has to "decide" to accept)

- less pressure with the strong hand grip...more pressure with the weak hand. The strong hand needs to be relaxed to operate the trigger in a smooth manner.

Calling the shot & follow-thru

If you have a flinch, then you just aren't calling the shot and following-thru. There is no way around that truth.

If you were calling the shot, you would see that it was off. Eventually, you just wouldn't take the shot.

Here are some things to see.

- You have to have a Front Sight focus. Razor sharp. Burn it in!!! Forget the target focus for close stuff crap...there are Masters that shouldn't be doing that.

When you next go to shoot, don't use a target. Aim at the berm. Not a rock or clump of mud, just the berm in general.

Watch the front sight ONLY. Make yourself see it track. That is your only goal here. Do single shots at first. Get a solid sight picture both before and after each shot. That is two sight pictures for each shot...follow-thru.

If you don't see the front sight lifting and coming back, then don't move on. This is vital. If you do see it, move to multiple shots...but keep seeing and keep that follow-thru!

- Next, move to a close target (one yard). Again, the focus is on watching the front sight track. Target blurry. The target just happens to be there. keep seeing the front sight...TWO sight pictures for each shot. Do single shots first.

You should be able to call each and every shot. If you can't, then you weren't focused on the front sight.

Never advance if you encounter a problem. If all goes well, move the target back a yard at a time.

- Never try to 'catch the sight' and pull the trigger as it (sight picture) wobbles around in the A-zone. Accept that the sights will move around on the target. Just focus on the front sight and release the shot. If it is off, then you will have called it from your read on the sights as the bullet was released.

This brings up the next point.

- TRUST. You HAVE to trust your sights. Don't look for hits on the target. EVER! Read the sights. If you shot a hoper or a Delta, make it up!

A big part of people missing is that they start to look for the hits. They end up looking AS the gun fires. As they look over the gun, they pull it off target.

If you call the sights, then there is no need to look (or listen) for hits.

If you find yourself doing the "pull the trigger NOW" thing, try this...pretend that your gun is a giant paint brush that extends to the target. Use your gun (sighted) to "paint" a circle around the A-zone. Keep painting the circle, then release the shot at any time along the circle. Call that shot. (don't worry about the hit in the A-zone).

If you find yourself looking at the target, or looking for hits ...instead of focusing on the front sight...then close your eyes (safely). Line up the sights between shots, then close your eyes and deliver the shot. Chances are your group will tighten up.

If you do the above...and still have a flinch (dry/live-fire) then let me know. Chances are, your flinch might come back during a match. If so, then slow down and call the shot...and follow-thru.

Hope you find this helpful!

Kyle

I know this is an old post, but I am glad I found it as yesterday's live fire practice confirmed to me what I had suspected for a long time, I flinch.... For some reason my G35 doesn't go into slide lock (another story... and I don't always have a good count in my head as to how many rounds I have let go and invariably I will flinch low and to the left when it runs dry. I haven't given it too much thought because in my matches I am getting good hits except for in the later stages of the match (indicator?) when things start to break down. Yesterday with a friends help, I was trying to figure out how to call my shots and I swear they were hitting dead center of the freshly painted plates on the plate rack.... I would call the shot dead center because that is the last vision I had of the sights when I triggered the shot. Almost everything was a 7 o'clock hit on the plate... Ugh!

I will start this regimen and see if I can get a handle on one; understanding and mastering the calling of shots and the fixing of what I believe to be a flinch. Thanks again for this great info!

[Downrange58]

I went out to the range to work on my flinch and shot calling and had some interesting results.

I double plugged and relaxed my jaw and I did see the sights rise better. I worked all week long on my pre-shot routine of keeping my jaw relaxed and to breath through my mouth and hopefully I can apply this in Sunday's match.

Calling the shots is another story... I am a pretty confident shooter and I am confident in my ability to learn, and I have almost NO confidence I am going to be able to learn to call my shots... Let alone remember them... I call my wife/kids "Honey" because I CAN'T remember their names let alone a shot that happened at the beginning of a target LET ALONE A STAGE.....

I did the paint brush drill you were talking about and low and behold I was able to call every shot.... This did give me a little hope, but when I went back my normal drills, I wasn't able to call my shots. Although I did call two very poor shots.. I finished the session with the paint brush drill as well and was again able to call the shots. I will keep at it, but I am hoping I have an "Ah Ha" moment because I just don't seem to get it! Thank you again for sharing your knowledge! Kent

[Flexmoney]

DR58,

Remember, calling the shot is different from recalling what the shots were. It is a moment of observation (as opposed to remembering what was observed).

Also, calling the shot is a separate activity from making the shot happen. One is observation, the other is the execution.

[Downrange58]

DR58,

Remember, calling the shot is different from recalling what the shots were. It is a moment of observation (as opposed to remembering what was observed).

Also, calling the shot is a separate activity from making the shot happen. One is observation, the other is the execution.

Thank you for the clarification Flex! Both are going to be a challenge I can tell... I did call an off shot yesterday which made me very happy! It was a C and I quickly followed it up with another C... Hey at least I called a shot..

[Flexmoney]

It sounds like you are getting there (from successes in your last two posts).

I don't want to drift this into a shot calling thread (there are some good ones on the forum), but...

A key to being able to call the shot well is to get rid of any flinch. A flinch will often mean the eyes close and/or the shooter has lost a moment of observation.

[Downrange58]

It sounds like you are getting there (from successes in your last two posts).

I don't want to drift this into a shot calling thread (there are some good ones on the forum), but...

A key to being able to call the shot well is to get rid of any flinch. A flinch will often mean the eyes close and/or the shooter has lost a moment of observation.

Understood and thanks! I double plugged for the match, but I can't recall whether I was flinching or not. I will continue the drills you suggested at the beginning of this thread as part of my normal live fire regimen. Thanks Kyle!

[blueorison]

Very good advice.

On the note regarding speed;

stop thinking fast or slow. These are polar concepts.

think "efficient".

[inkballedtarget]

I know this is an older thread, but the info collected here has been invaluable to me as a new shooter with a flinch/jerk/push/yank when excited.

Thanks for posting this.