See One Thing - Brian Enos

“We overlook the simplicity in front of us.”
-Tenzin Palmo

The vague state produced from not being aware of only one thing prohibits decisive action.

At the beginning of a stage, beware of staring absentmindedly at the first target. Avoid that with a visual plan—or visual flow—that you mentally create for every course of fire.

For the next stage… You know you will need to see the sights to call the shots on each target.

An example visual flow… To start, you’re looking at the center of the target. At the buzzer, bring your focus back to where the front sight will appear as it stops on the target. Keep your focus on the front sight until you call the second shot, then immediately look to the center of the next target. As the sights arrive on the target, they should be in focus. Repeat for the remaining targets.

A precise visual flow can occur faster than you can physically move your pistol from target to target. Experiment with that on the practice range until you know it is a fact. Then, as you allow the visual flow to dictate the pace, you will naturally stop rushing.

BE at the Steel Challenge, in 1989 (according to the internet).

A STORY
I was practicing a Steel Challenge stage with Robbie Leatham, and we managed to shoot the target stand out from under the 12” plate at 25 yards. We didn’t want to stop, so we decided to continue shooting “on our honor,” by firing a shot were the target used to be. We could see that spot easily because the target stand was a 4” x 4” wood post.

I had a mind-altering experience on the first shot at the invisible target. Because there was not a target that I cared about hitting, the sights stopped perfectly aligned just above the post. Then the front sight slid up out of the rear notch, beautifully, like I had not witnessed all day. Or in quite some time, for that matter. It was the “easiest” shot I’d fired in recent memory. All of a sudden shooting became simple. See one thing at a time.

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A new topic will arrive each Friday afternoon, 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.

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