TargetTalk

"She further indicates that the farther from your own body your focus is, the more effective it is. Perhaps Brian Zins is on to something when he says you should focus on the target, not the dot (red dot sight). You still see the dot of course, but you're seeing it with ambient vision, not focal vision. Focal vision is processed by higher order processes in the cerebral cortex. Ambient vision is processed by lower level processes in the basal ganglia and cerebellum. Both types of vision provide visual proprioceptive feedback, but the feedback loop for focal vision is much slower, allowing only about 3 corrections per second."

Brian Zins only advocates focusing on the target when you are shooting a red dot. The reason is that it is almost impossible to keep the dot still no matter how good your hold is and you will find your vision jumping back and forth from the moving dot to the target. When shooting with iron sights he does not think you should be looking at the target at all but should be using a sub six area of aim and focusing on the sights. He is also a believer is using the trigger squeeze as part of your hold and prefers a heavier trigger for this reason. Isabel

In terms of shooter confidence, I find this to be deceptively tricky for me. Certainly if I lack confidence or am trying too hard, I have a tendency to anticipate the shot, leading to chicken finger and jerking of the trigger. A lack of confidence is one of my biggest problems, in fact. However, I've also shot poorly by shooting confidently -- not concentrating enough and forcing a crappy shot to happen with lots of confidence!

It needs to be calm confidence that includes not anticipating the shot.

I am in complete agreement with Ed Stevens. There are two attitudes that produce poor perfpormance. One is being too aroused and the other is the opposite, Not being arroused enough to force yourself to pay enough attntion to delivering the shpt and messing it up. This is related to your emotional state and is part of the winning shooters repretior. Learn what the level of arrousel allows you to perform at your best and develope an almost mechanical mental process to create that level before shooting and maintain the level through out the course of fire. This must be done whether you are in a competition or engaged in training.. You will shoot better if you learn to do this good Shooting Bill Horton

I just had a "relapse" during a low stress shooting event:

When I started shooting match AP acouple of years ago, I could hold quite still, but when I started the "trigger work", my hand often started shaking/vibrating. Not "chicken finger", but more like "ol' shatterhand".
The firing/trigger pull as such was OK.

Last week this started happening again.
I observed that the trigger didn't feel very heavy: not a working against "a brick wall" thing. I haven't been bothered much by this for a long time, but now it just struck out of the blue. Maybe I was tired or something.

I was more puzzled than stressed by this, but it was hard to control, and certainly destroyed my score (not important or a big deal, but annoying).

I guess I'll almost be dissapointed if it just goes away next time I shoot: I want to investigate this to get it under control......
Anybody else got ideas about what's going on? I'm thinking along lines like antagonist muscles trying to slow down/control the trigger finger etc.

Our scores seem to be the yardstick by which our performances are measured and today has been no different; 520 points in an SP training competition then shooting a second SP match a quarter later scoring 532. I don’t usually shoot two training matches the same day and much less within 15 minutes… but I felt like I could do a lot better when I saw that first 520! Maybe I’m not being humble enough with myself.

Right now, I made this flashcard with Bill’s advice plus a couple sentences of my own:

On one side it reads:

“Learn what the level of arousal allows you to perform at your best and develop an almost mechanical mental process to create that level before shooting and maintain the level throughout the course of fire.”
[by Bill Horton]

While on the other side it reads:

“TRUST YOUR HOLD”

“TRUST YOUR TRIGGER FINGER”

I like making those cards which I keep reading for like a week before discarding them. Yet I couldn’t really say whether those flashcards are being useful in my shooting development or not.

Isabel1130 wrote:Brian Zins only advocates focusing on the target when you are shooting a red dot.

True. I believe I said that. With iron sights, you have to focus on the front sight in order to maintain sight alignment. If you don't do this, then the front sight becomes blurry and it becomes harder to detect small errors in alignment, which are far more critical than small errors in aim.

Isabel1130 wrote:He is also a believer is using the trigger squeeze as part of your hold and prefers a heavier trigger for this reason.

He has compared using trigger squeeze this way as being similar to using the gas pedal in your car to steer toward the opening to a tunnel. In both cases, your focus should be on your objective, i.e., the target or the tunnel, not your internal processes, i.e., squeezing the trigger or pressing the gas pedal.

Dr. Wulf also discussed the phenomenon known as 'choking'. She said this is caused in high stress situations when the athlete wants to be extra careful to execute correctly, and thereby directs his attention to his technique rather than the outcome.

Regards,

Al B.

EdStevens wrote:In terms of shooter confidence, I find this to be deceptively tricky for me. Certainly if I lack confidence or am trying too hard, I have a tendency to anticipate the shot, leading to chicken finger and jerking of the trigger.

A lack of confidence may very well lead to an internal focus on your technique, rather than on your objective, i.e., hitting the 10 ring. This leads to 'choking'.

There is no shortcut to achieving mastery, it requires practice, practice, practice. There is, however, the long way around, by using poor physical and/or mental techniques.

Al B.

A lack of confidence may very well lead to an internal focus on your technique

Yep, that's pretty much it. I become aware of my trigger finger, become hesitant in applying pressure, start thinking, start feeling, and .... well, I think we all know the rest. :-)

I often say that shooting is similar to a sport like golf -- in that both are slow enough in execution that there is plenty of time to screw up -- instead of a more "reactive" sport like tennis, where the subconscious has to act quickly and there is less chance for the conscious mind to get in the way.

I use a trigger setup with a 1st and a 2nd stage for my Standard Pistol. What I’ve found out is that for some reason I want to be über-precise with the release of the 2nd stage of the trigger which invariably leads to jerking the trigger. I also have a certain tendency to look at the target to check my aiming after pulling the 1st stage but before pulling the 2nd stage.

What I’m doing now to avoid the above behavior is to area aim way under the “six ring” to avoid being distracted by the black bull. As for releasing the trigger: pull 1st stage, check sights alignment, release 2nd stage, all without ever thinking about the target—I keep an empty mind during that process but focusing on the sights.

What initially disturbed me is the slight change of the point of impact that seems to be related to my improving on the release of the trigger. Also, there seems to be more 8s than before on my targets but the overall scores seem to be the same as before for now. I figure it’s just a matter of time and practice for my scores to go up?