Stressors

I write this post at the prompting of Fowl Shot because he commented on a photo of Deadeye Daisy and I shooting in the final match of the jackpot shoot at Colorado. We were shooting for a CFDA gun.  The match was a repeat of the final match for the 2020 National Gunfigther Championship.  The result was the same.

I should have no chance against Deadeye Daisy because she is 20 millisecoonds quicker than me but so far I am winning.  The only reason I win is that she has not yet learned that she is the better gunfigther. There are quite a few gunslingers out there that are in the same position.  Once they learn they are quicker, I will have no chance.  That is what has happened with Shady. I used to be able to handle him, but now he knows he is 10 mls quicker and 10 mls is an eternity in fastdraw. Confidence is so important in fastdraw.  You have to believe you are the better gunslinger or you have no chance.

An interesting match at the Colorado State was the match in the finals between Deadeye Daisy and Flying Cowgirl.  Generally, Deadeye Daisy is more accurate and Flying Cowgirl is quicker. I have not talked to them about the match but I know what was going through their minds by just watching the match and the results.  There was little stress on Deadeye because she knew she was the slower shooter and if Cowgirl won she would be proud and happy for her daughter.  Flying Cowgirl on the other hand had to deal with the stress of wanting to hit the target.  She knew her mother was more accurate and if she wanted to win she had to hit the target.  Deadeye was free and loose and was just going shoot her quickest, that was all she could do. Cowgirl was careful because she knew she had to hit the target.  There was the stress of "I got to hit the target."  Deadeye Daisy won the match relatively easily on speed hitting down into the .38s while Cowgirl was shooting in the low 4s. For perspective, at their best, Deadeye will be down into the .38s and Cowgirl down into the .35s.

To be competitive, a gunfighter must deal with stress.  I do this by using the Alleluia Training and Competition System. It does work.  I am always looking for shooters who want to learn the system. Right now I have my eye on two shooters, one male and one female, who by the Arizona State should be Mag 7 shooters. Whether they want to try remains to be seen.  It is not easy. It is easy to learn, but to shoot it consistently is another matter.

My poor shooting at the Four Corners Territorial resulted from my abandonment of the Alleluia Training and Competition System.  It is easy to lose your focus.  It was my event to win, all I had to do was shoot average but I lost my focus and abandoned the system.

Now that I have told all these shooters that they can beat, just remember, "I ain't as slow as I look."

"We don't practice missing!"

I am training a new level three shooter and I think it is a good opportunity to reiterate why we don't practice missing. This shooter has just started one handed shooting and has about 300 rounds into it. He is pretty well finalized when this video was made and the one handed draw is now his preferred draw.

When you practice you should always go as quick as you can, never ever slow down.  Never ever worry about where you are going to hit, the wax will go where ever you are aligned.  You can not practice accuracy, don't try.  Just trust your draw.

I prefer to shoot close so that you see every hit.  If you see every hit your mind and your body will move the hits to the light.  Let your subconscious work for you.  It will.  By shooting close you get those small incremental changes by your subconscious.  Don't worry about where you are going to hit.  If change is needed, it should be only by alignment before the set command.

I actually prefer shooting on card board without the light and close.  This removes the stress of trying to hit the target and the stress of racing the clock, both of which slows down your progress to a finalized draw.

Now for the video:  Notice that his first shot is a .581 at the bottom of the target.  Now he did not have to change his draw or do anything, he just let his subconscious move the next hit up on the target at a respectable .641. His next two shots were essentially at the same area of the target with his fastest time being a .509.  His fifth shot is interesting because his mentor told him he had a new PR so he tried to race the clock and missed.

What did this shooter learn from the five shot set. Well, for the first four shots his subconscious was storing data on how to move the hits to the light.  He learned nothing from the fifth shot. He was just practicing missing.

This new shooter is well on his way to a finalized draw.  My expectation for him is that he will be shooting at 80% without ever trying to be accurate.  He only practices to go as quick as he can. PRs for him will come in spurts as he matures as a gunfighter.  He has already shown signs of mental toughness which is a skill you can practice.

Bring me another shooter!

Here we go again! Or What is a miss worth?

I shot pretty well at Rio. Lost the first match but then stayed focused for the next 9 matches.  I was the 5th quickest shooter out of 33 but got that lucky 3rd seed in the shoot-offs.  Defeated in short order the .36 shooter, the .34 shooter and then another .34 shooter for the win.  It helped that  there was a little money on the line.

I am not going to bore you with why except to say the system prevails.  See my May, 2019, post "Flusters."   "Ahmo" and "Never Slow Down," are also worth the read.

What is a miss worth?  Some shooters get angry when they miss, some start changing their draw, and some get flustered. They are missing the point of a miss.  A miss is just an opportunity to excel.  It is a signal to the shooter that they need to make a minor adjustment in their alignment. That is all.  No need to change, no need to get angry, no need to be flustered.  Just adjust your alignment and walk the hits to the light.

I have heard that 50% is good enough or maybe 60 % but if that is your goal you will not be competitive.  100% is not even good enough. You can always shoot better.  BUT never practice accuracy.  Never ever slow down!  You will hit where you are aligned. Don't worry about it, just learn to adjust you alignment before the set command.  Those misses are valuable. They tell you how to adjust your alignment.

Some have ask how I stay so focused.  It is no secret. I have written about it.  It is just the system. It is progressive. You should get better and better the longer the event goes. By the final match you should be shooting your quickest at 100% accuracy.  Bring me another shooter!

AHMO, locked elbow and the flail.

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!

Flusters!

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.

Never Ever Slow Down!

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

Saga of Tishminga

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!