Every gunslingers has lists. Generally, there is the "I can handle him" list, the "I don't know if I can handle him" list, and the "I can't handle him" list. To be competitive, you have to move all the other shooters in the field to the first list. It is just a matter of attitude. You need to truly believe that you are the toughest gunfighter there. It does not matter whether you are shooting the World Champion or the most accurate shooter in the field, you are the toughest and will prevail.
There are some great lines in the movie Unforgiven:
Little Bill: "That is about as fast as I can draw and hit anything."
Biographer: "But what if the other shooter is quicker than you."
Little Bill: "Then he will miss. It is not easy to shoot a man."
Little Bill ruled Big Whiskey not because he was the quickest but because he was the toughest gunfighter there.
I took Dismal to his football training camp at the Wylie Pirates' facility. Every where was the slogan "AHMO" so I ask what it meant. I was told it was from a fiery talk the head coach gave in the 1970s which came from the comedy show "Laugh In." The full quote is "AHMO kick your butt." I may be nice to you before the match and I sure will be nice to you after the match, but at the set command AHMO and I don't care who you are, you are on my first list.
The photos from the Southern and National are great for evaluating form. Here are a couple Shady Mtn shooters:
Although John does not acknowledge the locked elbow draw he shoots it since he has gotten down into the threes. Powder Keg shoots it. Note the locked elbow, the stable anchor point and the level forearm and gun. Old West and Powder Keg will drill the center of the target. Powder Keg is shooting the fasting gun at the event, who shoots the flail. Note in the last photo, the flail is complete, wax long gone, high/low who knows when the locked elbow shooter fires. He will drill the center of the target with a level shot. Dismal is here just to show a good two handed locked elbow draw.
See you on the line. AHMO!
I write because it is fresh in my mind and maybe there is a nugget or two rambling around in there. At Pioneer I shot fairly well. I was the 6th quickest shooter there out of 48 shooters. The draw was favorable, but I did shoot against 3 of the quicker shooters. For 7 of my 9 matches, I stayed focused and shot the Alleluia Competition and Training system. For those seven matches it was mostly three up and three down, averaging just a little over three shots a match.
But in two matches, I lost my focus and got flustered. Why? With all of my training and competition, it should not happen. Why?
In the Bracket A shoot off, Dirty Dan was mowing them down. I think he won 5 matches in a row. Then, for some reason he lost his focus. I do not know for sure, but as he was moving up the bracket in his sixth match, he lost a shot on quickness. I would guess that caused him to worry about speed. That is my guess, that worry disrupted his focus. He was no longer the toughest gunfighter on the line.
In the 5th seeding round I drew Shady. We shoot together so much and I wanted to out quick him so much, I strayed from the system. Loss of focus, loss of match. But it was a fun match, all four of the winning hits were decided on quickness. (Shady Mtn shooters don't practice missing.)
In the Bracket A shoot-offs the only shooters that worried me were Dirty Dan and Rodeo Romeo. Dirty Dan did not reach me. Under normal circumstances, I should have no chance against Rodeo. He is 70 mls quicker than me and normally better than 60%. But in this event I had the opportunity to shoot the 4th seeded shooter and the 2nd seeded shooter (The Rustler, another Shady Mtn Shooter) before shooting against Rodeo. Those shooters were dispatched in 6 shots, all within 3 inches of the center of the light. My guess is that caused Rodeo to worry about hitting. If I would have stayed focus it should have been resolved in 4 but was resolved in 8 shots. I credit my hand judge, Doc, for walking me back onto the target, A good hand judge is priceless in a tough gunfight.
The point of this post is that worry about anything will cause you to lose your focus. Worrying about your opponent will do you in, worrying about quickness will do you in, worrying about hitting will do you in! Trying to hit will not help you hit. Trying to go quick will not help you be quick. You need to stay focused. For Alleluia shooters, shoot the system. It is designed to keep you focused. Now, if only I could heed my own advice.
Shady/Ruah Speed Run: For those of you that practice with a training buddy you might try the Shady/Ruah run. You start at 5 five feet from the target on the light. You are so close that it takes away all of the stress of trying to hit the target. You shoot your normal finalized draw. You are not changing your draw or thinking about the draw for any reason. You are just going as quick as you can from your subconscious. If you are thinking of your draw for any reason, you will not get the benefit of this drill. The only thing you are trying to do is catch the light. Hopefully you will be shooting without the stress of trying the hit the target and the stress of trying to go fast. Your true potential should come forth because you are without the two stressors that hold us back.
If your muzzle height is 43 inches or less your target area is the lower right quarter for right handed and lower left quarter for left handed shooters. That is because the bullet needs to rise to the center of the target at 15 feet. For shooter with muzzle height of 44 inches and higher, target area is just below the light.
After five shots, you move back to 10 feet. Again don't worry about hitting. Don't worry about your draw. Just practice catching the light. By now your draw should be really in the groove. For some reason, I am quicker at 10 feet than I am at 5 feet.
After five shots at ten feet move back to 15 feet. If you can keep the same mind set, you will find that you are just as accurate at 15 feet as at 5 feet. That is if you can just shoot from the subconscious. Worrying about hitting is what causes us to be less accurate and for that matter slower. Worrying is what cause the 2 up fluster and those missing streaks we have all had.
On Shady Mtn we never practice accuracy but average for us is 80%. We are all more accurate than we shoot because let our mind get in the way. It is not unusual for the competitors in a Shady/Ruah run to hit 30 for 30. Once you are in the groove you should stay in the groove.
The Levi One Step: For those who don't have a training partner you might try Rodeo Romeo's 3,6,9... drill. He starts at 3 feet and continues to shoot at 3 feet until he hits the target five shots in a row. Then he moves back to 6 feet and again shoots until he hits 5 in a row. As to speed he tries to duplicate the 3 feet times. When he hits a 5 shot set he moves back to 9 feet and so on back to 15 feet. It is a great training routine, except I do not like the emphasis on hitting. I would suggest you move back no matter what you hit. Accuracy does not matter! I would say "Don't worry about hitting, hitting will take care of itself, just shoot from the subconscious getting on the light." You want to find that subconscious groove and walk in back to championship distance.
"Never Ever Slow Down!" Alleluia Ruah
Just had to use that title, Tishminga is such a great name. Hope she does not mind but yesterday was such a great illustration for those who want to be competitive. I had the privilege of hand judging Tishminga for four matches in a row at the Camp Bounty shoot.
In the first match she was high left, then low right, then high left and then low right, all by a wide margin. It was obvious to me that she was thinking during her draw and shooting right where she was thinking. So I counseled her to stop thinking.
In the second match I told her just to draw and shoot and not worry where she was going to hit, I would line her up on the target. She did not need to think about hitting, I would take care of that. I have used this technique before, it especially works well with a new shooter with a good stance and a stable draw. You can normally sight them just like you would a gun. If you can get them to not think about where they are going to hit, then it is just an alignment issue and it is normally easy to walk them right onto the target.
We continued on into the third and fourth match with Tishminga either on the target or just a little off, no wide swings. I did notice that she was hesitating a bit to aim her gun. Generally, the aimed shots were a misses whereas when she just drew and shot she would be right where I had aligned her. We do not aim!!!!!!! We draw and fire wherever we are aligned.
You need to make your alignment adjustment before the set command. Then forget about it. Never worry about where you are going to hit. Thinking about where you are going to hit only causes you to miss and to be slow. No thinking after the set command.
Tishminga got more accurate and quicker as the shoot when on. After four rounds, I was on the line at the same time, but did note she handily sent her opponent to boot hill.
Don't think!
Don't aim!
Just draw and fire!
You will hit because you are aligned on the target!
I think I may have turned some heads in Nebraska. In one match I put a shot low on the plate and then followed it up with two more in the same hole. You could have cover all three shots with a quarter. The sign of a finalized draw. In another match, I put a hit just to the left of the light, about a half inch from the light, then put the second hit about a half inch from the light on the right and said to my hand judge "Next one in the middle." The third shot was exactly in the middle although a little low. The hand judge was still talking about it the next day, although really, "I was just foolin about" when I made the comment.
I don't know if it help me, the hand judge hit 80% as he put me out of the contest in two successive rounds the next day.
Although I brag about my finalized draw that is not to say I didn't have any accuracy problems. The three shot quarter shots came when I was down 2 shots, having missed the first three. At a venue like Nebraska, which is the toughest venue on the circuit, you just can't see your misses. If you have a finalized draw and your alignment is off you can go through match without hitting a shot.
I had more than one match where I and the hand judge thought I was high when in fact I was low. If you are off just a bit you can consistently drill those shots into successive misses. But don't ever change the draw. The problem is the alignment, not the draw. If you start changing the draw you are lost. You will never be accurate.
All I can suggest if you are missing and can't find the target, guess. At Kansas, on the south range that has the same problem as Nebraska, I missed about ten in a row thinking I was shooting high. Finally I guessed, maybe I am low, and I was and then put three on the plate. Don't have blind faith in the hand judge. Many times a low hit right under the target will look like a high hit to the hand judge because the backstop above the target will move. On range A, lane 4 at Nebraska, you will see a hit high and right because of a defect in the ballistic. I still have not figured out whether that is true hit or just the way the ballistic moves on a miss any where.
If you have a finalized draw you can still struggle to find the target. Don't give up. Help is on the way. At Nebraska it is impossible to see your misses at 21 feet. But the second chance match was shot at 15 feet and you could see ever hit, on the plate or on the backstop. With the move to 15 feet at the World you can expect a much better hit percentage by all shooters because all will be able to see the exact location of the misses. For us finalized draw shooters, it should be a walk in the park, just like shooting at the camp with that 8 by 40 foot wall.
Remember, "We don't practice missing!"
At a recent shoot at the Camp, we had 17 of the toughest gunslingers in the valley. Rodeo Romeo was probably the quickest shooter there, but finished 7th. Afterwards on facebook he commented that he has "accuracy issues and needs to go back to the wall." Rodeo does not have any accuracy issues. He is one of the most accurate shooters in the CFDA. When he hits early he will normally follow up with two more hits almost on top of the first, three hits, and he is done. It is the sign of a finalized draw.
Rodeo's slump stems from one or more of three issues: 1) alignment, 2) mental toughness, and 3) temper.
Alignment: When Rodeo's first shot is high on the target, he will follow it with 2 more high on the target. When his first shot is low on the target, he will follow it with two more low on the target. If he is shooting at 21 feet all will be within 3 inches, at 15 feet all will be within 2 inches. It is the sign of a finalized and accurate draw. But if his early shots are off of the target, he struggles. He is like Albert Pujols trying to hit Jenny Finch. Because his practice has been so focused on speed and accuracy, he does not have chunked data in his subconscious on how to walk his hits to the target. He needs to store data on how the make those small incremental alignment changes that will bring the hits to the target and once on the target to the light. With the wall, Rodeo has no excuse to be less than 80% at any speed. If the first shot is a miss, his second should be on the target, next shot should be closer to the light, next shot in the light, and then sit down because of his speed.
Elevation: For most folks, I suggest that they determine their target height then draw two lines, one 3 inches above and one 3 inches below the target height and shoot 50 rounds from 6 feet. An average shooter will start out with 40% in target zone for first 15-20 rounds then move to 60% and then by last 10 shots be 100% in the target zone, all done without thinking about it. Let the subconscious do the work. One inch change at 6 feet equals about 4 inches at 21 feet. This drill will probably not work for Levi because he is so accurate. He will put the first shot at the target height and follow it with 49 more in the target zone. What will he have learned, little.
For Levi I suggest he shoot at 6 feet and at a 17 inch or blocker target. Draw a line 3 inches above the center of light and a line 3 inches below the center of the light. For first five shots, the target is the area below the bottom line. First shot is a guess. He needs to adjust the elevation before set command however he does that. Do not aim! Do not think! Adjust the elevation, waggle and draw! The shot will go where ever it is aligned. Keep adjusting until the hits are below line. For Levi, for the next five shots, the target is the area above the top line. For the third five shots, target is the middle six inch area. Do three sets of 15. The point is to store data on how to make small incremental adjustments prior to the set command so that you can walk your hits to the light. Do not adjust by aiming! Do not adjust by thinking! Make the adjustment, then let the shot go where the alignment takes it. Make all adjustments before the set command, then forget them.
Right and Left: I normally do not concern myself with right or left when I practice because those adjustments are so easy to make. But some shooters struggle with it so I will cover it. Right or left adjustments are made by rotating your stance. For me one degree of rotation equals about 4 inches of movement at 21 feet. I wrote a earlier post on this. Adjustment right or left again should be made before the set command.
A good drill for this is to shoot cross target. See my post on this.
If you are trying to adjust right or left by changing your draw you will be hopeless lost. Never ever change your draw to adjust. All adjustments should be by alignment and done before the set command.
Mental Toughness: When Rodeo is on, mentally tough, he will put three on the plate at .35 speed or less all within a 2-3 inch circle. He is shooting from his subconscious. When he is struggling he will shoot at .38 speed and where he hits is just a matter of chance. "Any thinking will transform an expert into a novice." The Sports Gene. When he is struggling he has moved from shooting from the subconscious to shooting from the frontal lobe. He is thinking about it.
If you are missing to the left, and you think about it while you are making your draw you will hit exactly where your mind has told your body to shoot, and you will miss to the right. Shooting from the frontal lobe results in wide swings. First, a miss to the right, then a miss to the left, then a high miss, then a low miss. The body does what the mind tells it to do. You also run the risk of changing your draw. Once you start changing your draw you are lost to the agonies of the mind.
A pre-shot routine is essential to mental toughness. I have given you mine in a prior post. Walking the hits to the light is not about accuracy, it is about mental toughness. Evaluate, adjust, waggle, (no thinking after the waggle), coiled spring, shot will go where alignment takes it, normally closer to the light than the last.
Temper: I have noticed that Rodeo has a temper. When he is struggling, he will get mad at himself. This does not help. The last shot is water under the bridge. Anger will only be a disruption of mental toughness.
I struggle many times when my first shot is near perfect. A perfect first shot disrupts my pre-shot routine. I have no adjustments to make. A miss is just a opportunity to get useful information on our alignment so we can continue our stroll to the light. Once you have evaluated a miss for alignment information, forget it. It is just a distraction.
Rodeo Romeo, who I believe to be one of the few shooters capable of being a true 3 flat shooter (.25 to .35 at 80%) gave me permission to write this post. I greatly appreciate his permission. After he wins World, he is going teach me to go fast!
If you want to go fast, go to the Camp.......!
Rodeo Romeo and I do not disagree on much when it comes too fastdraw, but he has said that if there is another human being doing something then he can do it too if he works hard enough, or words to that effect. That is also the premise of the book "The Sports Gene," in the first few chapters, that it is all about learning and practice. Then the author destroys that premise by showing that top performance sometimes results from genes, such as the cow stealing tribe in Kenyan that produce elite runners.
The truth is we are all given certain talents and abilities and how far we go depends on those abilities as well as how we use them. At Shady Mtn I have tested the reaction times and draw times of most of the shooters. It is an elite set of champions. The two fastest reaction times were Holli Day and her mother, Troublemaker.
Holli Day is a 175/150/30 shooter when she shoots to her ability. Troublemaker is a 180/400/30 shooter when on. That is reaction time/draw time/flight time or .355 and .610 respectively. Where do we go from here?
Troublemaker has the most clear cut decision to make. At the Colorado State Championship, she missed a total of five shots for the entire event and finished 2nd. She can keep her current draw and become a solid 6 flat shooter. With enough events clearly she can move into the top ten of Top Gun shooters as 6 flat shooter. She will be at the top of most events if she is shooting 80% or better. Her choice is between staying with her current draw and being a top shooter with that draw or totally abandoning the draw to learn a draw that will move her down to maybe a 5 flat shooter or even a 4 flat shooter. The room for improvement is clearly in her draw time.
Half Cock Willie (7th in Four Corners Territorial) faces a similar decision. He can stay where he is at as a 5 flat shooter, or abandon that draw to move to one with more potential.
I face a similar decision. I am a 200/200/30 shooter. I have tried and tried to improve reaction time. My only place for gain is draw time. 200/150/30 would be nice. My mentor is itching to tear down and rebuild. Been down that road before.
The point of this post is that after World a shooter should evaluate where they want to go in this sport. It helps to know your reaction time/draw time/flight time. You can get those by using a program such as coach's eye. If you are in the Valley of the Sun, see me and I will video you and calculate those for you. That information would be useful in trying to decide what to work on.
Rodeo says it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit and hence at least 21 days to rebuild your draw after abandonment. I agree with the "at least" statement. Back to the premise, maybe you are at the limit of your ability, but you will not know until you try. Loverboy and Doc are on me constantly to get faster. We will see come October 11.
