HELP. How do I slow down?

[CAMO66]

OK, I know this has probably been covered,(everything else has) but I'm having a problem. When I get the buzzer and start my run, I try to move smoothly and ingauge target with 2 to the A and move on. My problem is that after I've moved on I start to second guess myself on what I just shot. "Was that 2 A's or were those 2C's?" and then I kind of loose what I'm doing now.

I think I know that part of it is.

1-learning to call my shots better.

2- slowing down a bit.

3-keeping my thoughts moving forward.

4-? (I don't know but I think there's some thing else. I just don't know what it is.)

I really think I'm posting this more as I want comformation that this is what I'm doing and need to fix it. I've only just started shoot matches last year and have about 7 under my belt in S.S. and I also think with all the mag changes that was just one more thing to think about and overload. I was worring more about keeping the gun running than getting on target. I'm going to Limited this year and actually feel more comfident with this gun.

Any thoughts on this would be great.

Thanks

Scott

[Loves2Shoot]

Trust yourself, this comes with honest self evaluation of your abilities and good practice.

[Flexmoney]

Is your goal to go slower?

[Chris Christian]

If your goal is to score better, and be more in control, and you think slowing down might help, then I would suggest that you stare intently at your front sight and never shoot faster than its position on the target allows. That will slow you down a bit initially. Once you get used to staring intently at that front sight you'll find your speed increasing, while maintaining good accuracy. And, by making those accurate hits your confidence will increase, and you'll be able to go faster. Front sights are very cool.

Chris Christian

[Duane Thomas]

That's one approach. The other approach would be to continue shooting at your current speed, open up your visual inputs, and find out just how much you can see at that speed. In short order you'll find out you really do have all the time in the world to see your sights, even when shooting at speed.

[CAMO66]

Is your goal to go slower?

No, I want to go faster but be accuret too. The "slow down a bit" was in referance to not knowing if I made good hits.

I kind of knew what you all have told me I need to be doing but sometimes I just need to be told that is what I need.

Thanks guys

Scott

[Flexmoney]

You can't have more than one thought in your conscious mind at once. And, that is just what you are trying to do...have a speed focus while also having an accuracy focus.

** Realize that a speed focus could be either fast or slow. **

And, your speed focus will take over (because, really...that is what you are telling your conscious mind that you want).

You aren't going to do anything other than struggle with the idea of "slowing down". On top of that being a speed focus (thus pushing any accuracy focus from the conscious mind)...it is also in conflict with what you really want...to go fast.

Going fast is kinda like trying to hit a home run in baseball. You can swing for the fences, but nothing is gonna happen unless you get the bat on the ball.

Keep you eye on the ball and you can get the bat on the ball.

Keep your eye on the front sight.

Heck...even forget hitting the target. Making seeing the front sight your one and only priority. (your one conscious thought)

Locate the target SPOT.

Get the gun on the target SPOT

** bring the front sight into razor sharp focus **

Watch the front sight lift out of the notch in recoil

Repeat as needed.

[benos]

You can't have more than one thought in your conscious mind at once. And, that is just what you are trying to do...have a speed focus while also having an accuracy focus.

** Realize that a speed focus could be either fast or slow. **

And, your speed focus will take over (because, really...that is what you are telling your conscious mind that you want).

You aren't going to do anything other than struggle with the idea of "slowing down". On top of that being a speed focus (thus pushing any accuracy focus from the conscious mind)...it is also in conflict with what you really want...to go fast.

Going fast is kinda like trying to hit a home run in baseball. You can swing for the fences, but nothing is gonna happen unless you get the bat on the ball.

Keep you eye on the ball and you can get the bat on the ball.

Keep your eye on the front sight.

Heck...even forget hitting the target. Making seeing the front sight your one and only priority. (your one conscious thought)

Locate the target SPOT.

Get the gun on the target SPOT

** bring the front sight into razor sharp focus **

Watch the front sight lift out of the notch in recoil

Right. What is what you must do to call each shot. Which is what you need to do, always.

be

[Flexmoney]

Might be some good stuff here: http://www.brianenos.com/pages/words.html

(Plus, a whole book to back it all up.)

[stockton]

So far, everyone has missed the key question .... When you went back, were they A's or C's?! If A's, you simply have a confidence issue. If C's, you need to NOT "slowdown", per se, but you should do what Flex Brian recommend and that is basically only shoot as fast as you can see. If you don't see the sights (or dot) where you want them (within an acceptable margin of error based on target distance and "ease"), then DON'T PULL THE TRIGGER YET!

Edited January 9, 2010 by stockton

[Flexmoney]

So far, everyone has missed the key question .... When you went back, were they A's or C's?! If A's, you simply have a confidence issue.

I addressed that a bit.

Heck...even forget hitting the target. Making seeing the front sight your one and only priority. (your one conscious thought)

To me, it is more important to learn proper execution. Then, the outcome can start to take care of itself.

[sgtis108]

My 2 cents,

You shouldn't try to slow down, or try to go faster.

An overheard Quote from Todd Litt, "Let your sights be your speedometer"

I would shoot the stage, then remember what you saw, then evaluate (points).

What type of focus did you use? What were the results? If successful, repeat, if not evaluate

and plan your change and visualize it before the next stage.

Thinking or second guessing during the stage is bad ju ju! Get all the details worked out before the buzzer goes off.

The when to buzzer goes off let the shooting happen.

[mike cyrwus]

Sounds like a focus issue.

Only one conscious thought can occupy your brain at one moment. If youre consiously wondering where you hit, you have broken the focus on your front sight.

Focus hard; bear down on it, drill a hole through it, to the target with your eyes.

Edited January 11, 2010 by mike cyrwus

[benos]

When you are just shooting - reading the sights and calling the shots - there will not any sensation of time passing - "fast" or "slow."

be

[Nik Habicht]

HELP. How do I slow down?

Stop thinking about time; focus on what you are doing in the moment you're doing it, let go of everything else....

If you have a smoking time, but missed half the targets and racked up a bunch of procedurals for not following stage directions and faulting --- will that be good for your score? Nope. So, how can you improve on that? You can apply your attention to the things that are under your control --- shooting alphas, from within the free-fire zone, performing stage tasks, etc.

I tend to think about time during my walkthrough, as I'm making my plan. (Will it result in a higher hit factor to stop and shoot these, or should I take a little more risk by shooting them on the move, because the time savings will outweigh a charlie or two? Is it faster to take the longer shots, or to run up and hose them?)

Once I've decided, I work on mentally rehearsing the plan....

Then during the actual run, it's time to focus on executing the plan.....

At that point the time will take care of itself --- it'll be whatever it'll be....

[rvb]

--- it'll be whatever it'll be....

This was a turning point in my shooting when I truely accepted that I could not go any faster than I could call my shots or execute my plan (eg reload the gun or hit a mark entering a position).

I do those things only as fast as I can to still do them successfully. Time takes a back seat. Amazingly those are my fastest runs. It's not "speed or accuracy," rather "accuracy, just as fast as I can."

-rvb

[Nik Habicht]

That reminds me: When things would go badly during a stage (misses on steel, mistiming swingers, forgetting a reload) I used to be thrown of plan and start thinking in terms of time, as in: "Better hurry up, that cost lots of time" or "Better slow down and make sure I get all Alphas."

One of the turning points was just to notice these things: "Oh, that was a miss. Find the plate, shoot the plate" without really thinking all that out consciously, rather just noticing it was happening....

Shot a stage this weekend that involved a single static paper and a swinger from each end of the free-fire zone with a Texas Star from a Cooper Tunnel in the middle. Activation of the swingers was via pullrope from the Cooper Tunnel. I mistimed a swinger on the right side (reached down after the start to grab the pullrope), had a hard landing in the tunnel and threw a bunch of misses at the Star, and didn't look all that smooth exiting the tunnel and finishing the stage.....

I did remain calm and in my happy target/task focused place during the stage --- even though I was peripherally aware that it wasn't going to be a smooth or fast (almost 45 seconds on a 65 point stage)run....

It really comes down to letting go of expectations when you're in the start box....

[benos]

It really comes down to letting go of expectations when you're in the start box....

Very true; but hard to do when you care about results. The IPSC shooter's ultimate dilemma.

[Nik Habicht]

It really comes down to letting go of expectations when you're in the start box....

Very true; but hard to do when you care about results. The IPSC shooter's ultimate dilemma.

I know my performance is negatively impacted by looking at interim match results.....

....yet, at Nationals, I can't not look.....

At least not yet.

It's taken a lot of meditation to get myself to accept that I'm only capable of delivering my own performance, and that preconceived notions should be banished. Experience helped...