Reflections of a new shooter

[packapax]

With only three matches in production and limited limited under my belt I don't claim to know much of anything about this sport, but what i do know is that when I hear that buzzer sound I am taken to state of mind that I have not expirienced while doing anything else. Growing up with a scoped rifle, 12 gauge, cheap pistol, or nintendo's "Duck Hunt" had not prepaired me for the enviorment that I've been drawn into. Prepairing for my first match I sent hundreds of rounds down range grewling over groups, grips, trigger control. My first stage was very much like my first deer hunt, a pound heart, shaking knees, and an obsessed effort to land my shot in the center of the target. Very calculated shooting. After the jitters and obsessions of that first stage were behind me the other side of my brain took over with no concious effort. Suddenly I would just raise my arms and it seemed like the targets came to me instead of me chasing them. I began to aquire them instinctively.

ALL things in nature have instinct, SOME things in nature have the ability to calculate. A rock has the instinct to do nothing, a river has the instinct to flow, a tree has the instinct to grow and regenerate, and an animal has the instinct to breathe. It is our ability to calculate that often interfears with our natural ability to exist. The time spent over-analylising people and situations prevent us from reacting naturally to the stimuli. We, in effect, alter the natural flow of nature by trying to control it. We change who we are in an attempt to gain something small by minipulating the situations around us. As difficult as it is you must not care what others think of you and just live instinctivly. You must aquire and negosiate people and situations the way you do targets. Which is that you consciously and subconsiously understand the entire course of fire but when your sights align with an individual target you know that it is there and you just have to pull the trigger. This probibly makes no sense at all but it just came to me like that....Instinctivly.

[Field]

your thinking about the whole thing too hard

[boz1911]

A analytical way to look at things. I understand and there are instincts that take over in this game.

[Jake Di Vita]

I like it.

I would say at the top levels that calculation and instinct almost become one in same.

[Jadeslade]

Couple things-I love it when shooters get the adrenaline rush and experience shooting as a whole new endeavor that is worthwhile. Welcome. Now to nitpick-inanimate things like rocks and rivers do not have instinct, instinct plus experience is what moves you forward. If all of it was instinct, then drills and preparation and experience would not be important. Baby cougars will play with a snake, thinking they might eat it. Old cougars will simply trot around it. So be cool, use your instinct, but don't let it get in the way of your experience. DVC

[Chris iliff]

I personally don't live instinctually, my co-workers would suffer. I definitely would hone your instincts into solid dependable "skill sets" and understand from whence they come. I love your enthusiasm, don't mistake good instincts for all the hard work the top shooters put into the craft.