Automation

 Many new shooter lament that they are not able to shoot in competition as well as they shoot in practice, both accuracy and quickness. Top gunfighters generally are quicker in competition.  The answer lies in the mind.  The novice as yet to master the mental part of the game


From the Sport Illustrate article:

"As an individual practices a skill, whether it be hitting, throwing or learning to drive a car, the mental processes involved in executing the skill move from the higher-conscious areas of the brain in the frontal lobe back to more primitive areas that control automated processes, or skills that you can execute "without thinking." In sports, brain automation is hyperspecific to a practiced skill -- so specific that brain-imaging studies of people who train in a particular task show that activity in the frontal lobe is turned down only when they perform that exact task. When runners are put on bicycles or arm bikes (whose pedals are moved with the hands instead of the feet), their frontal lobe activity increases compared with when they are running, even though cycling wouldn't seem to require much conscious thought. To return to Abernethy's point, thinking about an action is the sign of a novice, or a key to transforming an expert back into an amateur."

"Chunking and automation travel together on the march toward expertise."

Any thought process on the line will turn an accomplished gunslinger into rookie.  That is why a slow accurate shooter can fluster me or a match against a faster shooter or even getting up 2-0 with the thought "all I got to do is hit!"

Any thought is bad.  To be successful one must practice to be mentally tough.

Practice Application: 

Many shooters never reach their full potential because they never move their draw from the conscious, frontal lobe, to their subconscious part of the brain that controls automated actions.  To be competitive your draw must be an automatic action, like breathing.  I call it finalizing your draw.  If you are always changing your draw, whether to get faster or to get more accurate, you will be thinking about the draw.  Any thinking is bad.

You need to decide on a final draw, then repeat it over and over again.  Shooting off the clock at 5 feet repeatedly helps to finalize the draw.  Dry fire the same draw over and over.  Many shooter will have a good dry fire draw because they have finalized it but when they are shooting, they do not use that draw, they revert back to the frontal lobe, thinking about it. 

Practice should be 50 rounds repeated in set of five fired off the clock at 5 feet. Maybe three times a week. What you are doing is finalizing your draw.  You are moving from the frontal lobe to the subconscious,   You are not concerned by speed but you will get quicker and quicker.  You, of course, are also chunking data for accuracy at the same time.  You are striving for a smooth, automatic draw that is repeatable.

Competition Application:

To be competitive you must shoot your finalized draw as an automatic action from the subconscious.  If you think about anything you are slow and you are inaccurate.  That is why for most shooters the "go to" shot does not work.  It is not the shot that is the problem, it is the  "going to" that is the problem.  If you are thinking, you will not be as good as when you are using your finalized draw from the subconscious.

You need a pre-shot routine that prepares you to go onto automatic.  You need to go through your physical routine and then your mental routine prior to set command. I then recommend a waggle.  A waggle is a meaningless movement that is your signal to yourself that you are ready to go.  Then no more thought.  You are a loaded spring that explodes automatically on the light.

Most of our best shots surprise us.  How did we do that?  It is because we have shot from the subconscious.  We are faster and more accurate then we know because we keep getting in the way.  Ever once in a while, we truly shut down the frontal lobe and just let all that training take over, assuming we have been training effectively and not chasing some meaningless number.

Chunked Data

Chunking Data

I am write this blog to provide encouragement to AZ Gunslingers training on Shady Mtn.  I may from time to time mention other shooters and if I do it is just for illustration not to needle or to be critical. I intend to write at least four posts on the analysis found in an article in the July 2013, issue of Sports Illustration discussing the research from the book “The Sports Gene.” The article can be found at http://www.si.com/more-sports/2013/07/24/sports-gene-excerpt

This post will discuss “chunking data.” In searching for what makes elite athletes, the article discusses research that shows that Grand Masters at chess are differentiated from ordinary players by the learned ability to group information into useable “chunks.” The information is information that the Masters have learned from prior matches.

At first blush one would not think this has any application to fast draw, especially if you just consider one shot.  However, when you consider the entire match with an opponent or series of matches in an event, there is the opportunity to “chunk data,” or use such information stored from practice.  For example, if I shoot low on my first shot, on my second shot, hopefully I can draw on my reservoir of chunked data to move the second shot onto the plate.

At Texas, I watched Doc go up against Honey Badger.  Both Ladies were blazing fast but both missed their first ten shots, all being about 1 or 2 inches low.  Both got frustrated and consciously overrode their subconscious and training to shoot exactly where consciously they wanted to shoot thereby missing over the top. I shook my head wondering what were the odds that two of the best in sport would miss 22 in a row.  Why does this happen? Well, it happens for exactly the same reason that Albert Pujols cannot hit Jennie Finch.  Albert does not have any stored “chunked data” in his subconscious on how to hit a softball pitcher.  Doc and Honey Badger do not have any stored “chunked data” in their subconscious on how to move their shot 3 inches higher.  Why are they missing this stored information? Because in their practices, their focus is all about speed, whether it is 3.4, 4.4, or 5.4.  In their competition, they are consciously or subconsciously searching for that chunked data on how to go fast.

If I had anything to do with it, which I don’t, a rematch would go, first shot low, second shot low on the plate, third shot two inches higher on the plate, fourth shot in the light. Sit down.  All done without ever thinking about it, all from the subconscious based on the “chunk data” stored from practice.

It is not hard to store “chunk data.” In fact, your body and mind do it automatically for you.  But you have to give your subconscious the opportunity to learn a particular skill. The skill is the ability to move the hit in small increments to the light. I call it walking the hits to the light.

I always shoot better in an event after I do bucket work, shooting on cardboard at 5 feet without the light. Even if I shoot poorly in bucket work it helps, maybe even more.  Without the light because my focus is to store “chunk data” in my subconscious.  If I would be perfect, putting 50 shoots in the same hole, what have I learned, the ability to hit a dot at 5 five feet? But if I put the first low, then without any conscious effort, put the second shot 1 inch higher, then the third 1 more inch higher, then the fourth too high, then the fifth 1 inch lower, that string has stored chunks of data in my subconscious that will allow me to walk the hits to the light, a most useful skill for a gunfighter.

What you are trying to do is store data to move your hits in small increments.  That is why 5 ft. distance works well.  You are storing information on moving 1 inch at a time which translates into 3 or 4 inches at 21 feet.  When you see shooters shoot below the target then the next shot above the target, what is happening is their conscious is overriding their subconscious.  Or they are changing their draw. Then their next shot is low again.  We need to be able to make small changes, not in our draw, never ever change your draw, but small adjustments in our alignment before the set command.

This all should be done by the subconscious, both in competition and in practice. Why, well that is another post from The Sports Gene.

P.S. Clunked data carried me to 2^nd at Oklahoma and at the Southern Territorial. 

 "Put the fear of Alleluia in em!" "We don't practice missing!"