Index awareness

[Paul Sharp]

Here is a variation on the dot drill that helped me to understand, or at least start to understand, the index and awareness.

Setup for a dot drill.  I used six to nine dots.  Now with the weapon out, align the sights on your starting dot.  Bring the weapon in to your ready position.  Close your eyes and visualize the sequence in which you will shoot the dots.  Bring the weapon up and open your eyes, shoot the dots in the sequence you visualized without waiting for the sight picture.  Shoot it as fast as you can index on the dots.  Try to go faster than you can see the sights.  The point of the drill is to "learn" to trust your mind-body link.  Trust that your mind can process info faster than you can recognize that it is being processed.  Trust the thousands of repititions that have brought the weapon up in front of your eyes with the sights aligned.  

This is one of the drills Bruce Gray gave me to help me break away from a certain approach that I was rooted in.  Bruce really stressed something Brian mentioned in one of his posts, let your index aim the weapon for you.  Not that anyone is saying to not use the sights, but maybe to realize that the mind might just be able to see what it needs to see to make the shot without our conscious approval.

[Nik Habicht]

That's some wacky stuff ------- but maybe it explains my occasional third A.  I'll shoot two rounds at a target, realize somewhere in the sequence that I didn't see a good sight picture for one of the rounds, shoot a third, and then notice while scoring the target that there are three As in it.  Maybe there's something to this....

[Kevin Kline]

I know what you're thinking, but I still feel more comfortable calling the shot and KNOWING its there. I've also done the third hit or third A thing, but it's a relief to know that I had a third hit with only .20 added to my time instead of a mike.

Kevin/IPSC Supercop

[Nik Habicht]

On second thought there's no such thing as a free lunch, is there?  Better not to put one's match performance on a hoper.....

[grayguns]

Hi!  My point with this excercise was twofold: to develop an ability to see ahead to a specific point on the next target rather than to track the sights towards some vague, generalized area; and to call coarse, "easy" shots as a function of memory, rather than to get all wrapped up in a confirm/feedback loop.  Sighted shooting develops the index skills that can carry in close range shooting, but such index skills aren't a substitute for sighted shooting in my mind.  Some pull it off, though.  We gotta look at the fact that much shooting is a hybrid technique.  

Bruce Gray

[Flexmoney]

btt

[Flexmoney]

I wanted to bring this to the top to help open some thinking up.

From hanging out on some other forums, it became apparent that shooters have been trained...or, took away from training a "front sight-press" method.

From what I've read, they take that to the extreme of

front sight - THEN - press (the trigger)

They have it as two separate and distinct activities...often performed consciously (which is even slower).

From what I see HERE...it seems that some might take the drill that Paul Sharp posted (that Bruce gave him) and see that as hosing...or, shooting without vision.

I don't think that should be the case. At all.

What you should try to notice, in my opinion, is that there are plenty of visual cues that we are getting when we shoot. When we "see what we need to see" to make the shot, it doesn't have to be a ridged this, THEN this type of experience.

You can, and should, still be able to call the shot...while the shooting is going on. Calling the shot is, for me, more of an observation. It's awareness and paying attention. (though, until it is part of your regular shooting, you will likely have to work at it as a separate conscious process)