The Set

“The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner’s mind.” -Shunryu Suzuki

The Set is the freestyle shooting position of your arms, grip, and head, remembered as one feeling.

With an unloaded pistol, assume your index position. Start with attention in your chest, then slowly move attention up into your head and face, then out through your arms and into your hands. 

Remember the calm feeling in your face, arms, and grip, as The Set.

With an unloaded and holstered pistol, assume a start position, and draw to feeling of The Set. Practice drawing to The Set from every start position, including “distraction starts,” such as moving an object with your strong hand before drawing.

Although he does not know it, Rob Leatham is a master of The Set.

Repeat drawing to The Set until you are certain of how it feels. Practice it daily.

Now take The Set to the practice range. Begin each session by drawing to The Set.

If you have a shooting partner, at “shooter ready,” exhale slightly, at “stand by,” summon the feeling of The Set until the first shot fires. Then you can forget it because you are in it.

Begin in The Set in each stage of every match. You’ll begin calm, aware, and in control, as opposed to coming out of the holster like you were zapped with a taser.

If a stage includes movement, calmly summon The Set as you enter each position.

Once my skill set was complete, if I started in The Set, the shooting took care of itself. In competition, that was all I cared about.

It’s good to begin as you intend to continue.

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Comments are welcome, and all questions will be answered.

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.

Thanks for coming in.