Slowing Down

Slowing Down


I had a discussion a few weeks ago with some other shooters about how I felt that the game was starting to slow down for me. I never really realized how busy my mind was before I heard the buzzer. I always thought that I was reasonably calm, but I knew I was rehashing my plan, where I was going, what I was doing, and where I was going to reload. The last couple of matches I shot, especially Texas Open, I realized that I'd stopped doing that kind of thing. Suddenly, instead of all those thoughts, I just executed my plan, my eyes were focused on my sights, and I only had to reload one time, so it felt like I had one thing to remember, and suddenly I was not having to tell myself to do that, I was just doing it.


Interestingly, most of the accomplished shooters I talked with all felt that this was a phase that they went thru before the really started to see jumps in their performance. Once their unconscious was starting to take over, the better they started doing, and it was a definite step in the process. I had to go back and relate to what I did when I played football, and how I improved. Most felt that once they hit this phase it still took some time to "complete it", and this feeling came and went. With work it became more frequent, and eventually a way of life.


Now I'm hoping that I start finding that feeling more and more often. I know it won't happen all at once, but with Double Tap just a few days off, I'm hoping for 50% of the stages there, I just shoot, focus on my sights, and don't think. I'd like to see a little bit more each and every match after that. We'll see how it goes.