Qualities

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” 
-Buddha

The following qualities will contribute to success.

ATTITUDE

A relentless, never-ending desire to improve.

Ask questions of anyone who knows something you don’t, or can do something you can’t. With the goal of improving on what they know or can do.

Study and practice everything. Read any book on any topic that might deliver one helpful idea.

What worked for Rob Leatham or Jerry Barnhart often didn’t work for me. Figure out what works for you and stick with it.

Learn when to think and when to pay attention. Thinking is for everything but actually shooting.

Never overlook ANY detail of anything.

Make it a goal to eliminate doubt in every realm: Equipment, ammunition, fundamentals, technique, execution… Check the gas gauge before you leave for the match, and don’t forget to put your holster in your range bag.

DECIDE exactly what you are going to do, and COMMIT to doing it, no matter what. 

TRUST that what you’ve trained to do is all you need to do. That will always be enough.

Know that is not possible to somehow magically exceed your capacity on match day.

FUNDAMENTALS

Learn the difference between what you must do – the fundamentals of shooting, and how you do it – the techniques that support the fundamentals.

What is essential: see the target, point the barrel at the target, and hold it there until the bullet has left the barrel. And endlessly repeat.

Keep your eyes open and see everything you need to see at all times. 

Or, never blink while you are shooting.

Learn what it means to call every shot.

Keep your eyes moving. (That sentence was key for me.) From the target back to the sights, then back to the next target, back to the sights, and so on, forever.

TECHNIQUE

Eliminate unnecessary motion. 

Keep upper body movement (arms and head) to a minimum during the draw, target-to-target transitions, and while entering or leaving a position.

Develop an upper body position that allows the eyes to look fairly straight out of their sockets, which allows quick, precise seeing.

Develop a strong yet flexible, neutral grip, which allows the front sight to return consistently to the rear notch, shot after shot, in practice and in competition. 

If you approach everything you do as a opportunity to learn—from paying attention—then nothing will be difficult.

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A new topic will arrive each Friday, in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living, or: “how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.” 

Thanks for coming in.