Advice from Ron Avery

[GJM]

At a Saturday night lecture at a recent TPC class, Ron Avery made a suggestion that totally clicked for me. What he said, was when you are shooting, to treat the one target you are shooting as if it was the entire match. For the moment you address that target, forget about everything else. Execute the reactive shooting cycle on that target without regard to time, the next target, the next stage, the last stage or anything else competing for your attention. Sure seems to help me keep my attention on where it needs to be at that moment. When I finished the match using this technique on Sunday, I was clueless to my times, and those of my squad mates, but the result turned out quite well. Tried the same method in practice today, also with a good result.

[Clobbersaurus]

^^ It’s the same mental trick as calling your shots, or seeing your sights on every target, or center the dot - call the shot. Conscious mind has one job, subconcious takes care of everything else. Thanks Steve Anderson.

Good stuff GJM.

[miller_man]

I was totally thinking "match mode"' too reading GJM's comments. No try, rush, hurry.


I have been watching the hell out of some TPC you tube videos online. Ron Avery is unbelievably brilliant, a freakin stud in the study of shooting. A year or 6 months ago, I couldn't have even understood many of the things I've been watching him say - but his grasp of understanding and analogies of what is happening while shooting is quite superb.

I can't wait to get out there to a class someday, hopefully sooner than later.

[strow]

Excellent post and point! Awareness without attachment.

I hope I am not out of line but it sounds very Brain Enos-ish.

[GJM]

^^ It’s the same mental trick as calling your shots, or seeing your sights on every target, or center the dot - call the shot. Conscious mind has one job, subconcious takes care of everything else. Thanks Steve Anderson.

Good stuff GJM.

These things can be very Enos-ish, in how different people interpret things differently, but I took Ron’s advice very different from “see your sights on every target.” Seeing your sights on every target implies to me many targets, many sight pictures, and a whole stage. Ron’s advice was different to me in that it is focused on only one target, the one you are shooting at that moment. The ones you already shot are behind you, the targets ahead not your concern now, just an intense focus on the one you at shooting now.

[Clobbersaurus]

These things can be very Enos-ish, in how different people interpret things differently, but I took Ron’s advice very different from “see your sights on every target.” Seeing your sights on every target implies to me many targets, many sight pictures, and a whole stage. Ron’s advice was different to me in that it is focused on only one target, the one you are shooting at that moment. The ones you already shot are behind you, the targets ahead not your concern now, just an intense focus on the one you at shooting now.

Your thoughts above are very much the same as what I took Steve Anderson to be saying. My mental mantra before I take my hand off the gun and just before “Are you ready” is, “call every shot”. If I do that (which I am still working on and learning), I take care to see what I need to see on each target before I move to the next. If I see something funky, I make the shot up. So it’s very much the same as what you describe. It feels super slow when you do it right, but it’s not. The value of shooting in this way is consistency and for me, a metnally relaxing way to shoot a match.

One thing I would caution you on is to limit the amount of training time you do in the mode you describe above. It’s not the fastest way to train, and though you need to practice and develop it extensively, I don’t think it really leads to huge improvements in speed. I think it’s best used in a match setting.

Excellent thread as usual. The mental game is huge if one can be disciplined enough to practice and execute the techniques.

[GJM]

One thing I would caution you on is to limit the amount of training time you do in the mode you describe above. It’s not the fastest way to train, and though you need to practice and develop it extensively, I don’t think it really leads to huge improvements in speed. I think it’s best used in a match setting.

Can you elaborate on this thought. What I took away from Ron’s suggestion had everything to do with attention, but not speed.

[JHC]

At a Saturday night lecture at a recent TPC class, Ron Avery made a suggestion that totally clicked for me. What he said, was when you are shooting, to treat the one target you are shooting as if it was the entire match. For the moment you address that target, forget about everything else. Execute the reactive shooting cycle on that target without regard to time, the next target, the next stage, the last stage or anything else competing for your attention. Sure seems to help me keep my attention on where it needs to be at that moment. When I finished the match using this technique on Sunday, I was clueless to my times, and those of my squad mates, but the result turned out quite well. Tried the same method in practice today, also with a good result.

I think that is GOLD and within that target, at the micro level it's each shot. I have a problem shooting all 2, 3, or 6 shots specified for "that target" vs sinking each individual. Basically applying that same concept to each shot. Very quickly of course. This is quite important in hunting and tactical shooting as well of course. Years ago it was the bane of my pass shooting at ducks. I had 3 in the gun, I came up to shoot 3, vs ONE. :D

[BehindBlueI's]

I have been watching the hell out of some TPC you tube videos online. Ron Avery is unbelievably brilliant, a freakin stud in the study of shooting.


I'd really like to take a class from him. I picked up quite a bit just watching him online as well. Plus he just seems like a really laid back and cool guy.

[ranger]

Sporting Clays has a similar mindset for many successful competitors - there are 100 targets in a round but approach every single clay target as a match to itself. I knew a world class clays shooter who got so upset when he missed a clay that it would negatively impact his whole match - he never reached his potential.

[PD Sgt.]

It reminds me of the old mantra, “Be here now.” That is to say, focus solely on what you are doing at that given moment. If I remember correctly I first heard it in relation to weightlifting, as a reminder to focus on the rep you were doing, not thinking about the one before or the next. It was a way of maximizing performance every rep.

[Clobbersaurus]

Can you elaborate on this thought. What I took away from Ron’s suggestion had everything to do with attention, but not speed.

I feel weird talking about this stuff. I’m not the best shooter on this board, but I really do believe that the mental game is responsible for any progress I have made in the shooting sports. Committting to shot calling or “match mode” as Steve Anderson calls it, almost feels like cheating, or a secret that everyone should already know. The fact is though, and I have seen this happen with other shooters I have exposed this concept to, is that it requires mental toughness and not everyone can do it successfully. It feels slow, and you have to commit to it for an entire match. So basically you are committing to feeling slow (but not being slow) in a sport that requires speed at the limit of human function to be competitive.

Now to answer your question, as best as I can:

The way I understand it, and the way I try to train, is that when you give your total attention to a task, in this case the target you are shooting, all the other stuff has to be run in the background, or subconscious. You are basically focussing on shooting the targets to the best of your visual capabilities and observing the gun firing and calling the shot, which is not about speed, it’s about attention to what you need to see to make an acceptable hit. If you train that way, all the time, you are forgetting about the other most important part of practical shooting, which is speed.

So the way I prefer to train, and I really do subscribe to this as a method of continuous improvement, is to train those aspects of the game in isolation. I would say 90% of my time is spent training for pure speed. Getting faster at movement, at draws, at reloads, at transitions, etc, etc. Faster, faster, faster......always. Training to focus attention on every target, or shot calling, or match mode (whatever you want to call it) is done in dry fire and sprainingly in live fire practice. It is then employed as close to 100% as possible at the match.

My experience is that speed gains become ingrained subconsciously through all the speed training, and the attention to targets or committing to shot calling, pushes all that speed into the subconscious so that I don’t have to think about it during a match. I just have to call my shots and my speed will be there, subconsciously. It’s an incredibly calming way to shoot a match, and also incredibly tiring mentally, and you have to really work at committing to paying attention to the targets and calling your shots.

I believe if you train in dry practice and live fire with only pure attention to the targets you will limit your speed gains, as you can’t train both modes at the same time. I hope that makes sense?

[MGW]

I know I’ve made plenty of bad trigger presses because I was thinking about what comes next instead of just making the best shot I could at that time.

I’ve competed in a lot of different activities over the years and been pretty good at several of them. I’m amazed at how many times I’ve had to learn the lesson that to perform at my best I need to focus on now only. Thinking about the outcome or what I need to do next is a recipe for inconsistency at best and complete failure at worst.

Shooting is a process. Each shot is a process. To make the best shot possible at any given time the process needs to be executed completely. It really doesn’t matter what the pace is or the difficulty of the shot. Just execute the process the same way every time.

Not preaching here. Just thinking out loud and hoping that I can make this lesson finally stick in my brain.

[GJM]

I feel weird talking about this stuff. I’m not the best shooter on this board, but I really do believe that the mental game is responsible for any progress I have made in the shooting sports. Committting to shot calling or “match mode” as Steve Anderson calls it, almost feels like cheating, or a secret that everyone should already know. The fact is though, and I have seen this happen with other shooters I have exposed this concept to, is that it requires mental toughness and not everyone can do it successfully. It feels slow, and you have to commit to it for an entire match. So basically you are committing to feeling slow (but not being slow) in a sport that requires speed at the limit of human function to be competitive.

Now to answer your question, as best as I can:

The way I understand it, and the way I try to train, is that when you give your total attention to a task, in this case the target you are shooting, all the other stuff has to be run in the background, or subconscious. You are basically focussing on shooting the targets to the best of your visual capabilities and observing the gun firing and calling the shot, which is not about speed, it’s about attention to what you need to see to make an acceptable hit. If you train that way, all the time, you are forgetting about the other most important part of practical shooting, which is speed.

So the way I prefer to train, and I really do subscribe to this as a method of continuous improvement, is to train those aspects of the game in isolation. I would say 90% of my time is spent training for pure speed. Getting faster at movement, at draws, at reloads, at transitions, etc, etc. Faster, faster, faster......always. Training to focus attention on every target, or shot calling, or match mode (whatever you want to call it) is done in dry fire and sprainingly in live fire practice. It is then employed as close to 100% as possible at the match.

My experience is that speed gains become ingrained subconsciously through all the speed training, and the attention to targets or committing to shot calling, pushes all that speed into the subconscious so that I don’t have to think about it during a match. I just have to call my shots and my speed will be there, subconsciously. It’s an incredibly calming way to shoot a match, and also incredibly tiring mentally, and you have to really work at committing to paying attention to the targets and calling your shots.

I believe if you train in dry practice and live fire with only pure attention to the targets you will limit your speed gains, as you can’t train both modes at the same time. I hope that makes sense?

Thanks for taking the time to explain your thinking. Only half kidding, instead of apples to apples we may be comparing Avery to Anderson. One difference is you are describing Anderson match mode, which implies shooting at less than 100 percent speed, and as I understand Ron Avery, he posits that shooting with full attention allows you greater speed and accuracy. One thing I am not shy about is practicing speed, although I am trying to add additional focus to individual shots.

[Clobbersaurus]

Thanks for taking the time to explain your thinking. Only half kidding, instead of apples to apples we may be comparing Avery to Anderson. One difference is you are describing Anderson match mode, which implies shooting at less than 100 percent speed, and as I understand Ron Avery, he posits that shooting with full attention allows you greater speed and accuracy. One thing I am not shy about is practicing speed, although I am trying to add additional focus to individual shots.

I still think they/we are describing the same thing. Match mode does not mean neglecting speed, it just means you aren’t focussing on it. Anderson always says vision is a performance enhancing drug, and as you get hungry to confirm a great shot by observing the gun react to your stimulus, your speed actually improves. I think it would be very tough for me to add additional focus to each shot while still focussing on 100% speed. It sounds to me that you are practicing match mode, which isn’t as elegant a thought as Avery’s explanation.

Anyway, I agree with what you are writing, and what Avery is preaching. It’s important stuff that many people don’t consider.

[GJM]

I still think they/we are describing the same thing. Match mode does not mean neglecting speed, it just means you aren’t focussing on it. Anderson always says vision is a performance enhancing drug, and as you get hungry to confirm a great shot by observing the gun react to your stimulus, your speed actually improves. I think it would be very tough for me to add additional focus to each shot while still focussing on 100% speed. It sounds to me that you are practicing match mode, which isn’t as elegant a thought as Avery’s explanation.

Anyway, I agree with what you are writing, and what Avery is preaching. It’s important stuff that many people don’t consider.

I think this is all good stuff. Something Ron Avery said in his Saturday night lecture was different people learn differently, do things differently, and need to find what works best for them. Eric Grauffel said the exact same thing in a recent podcast I listened to. An example of a different approach is how I press the trigger on a Glock, which is with the sights in motion. This would seem to be contrary to the TPC reactive shooting cycle where you bring the gun to the target with sights aligned, see what you need to see, and isolate the trigger press. Carry on with the learning and experimentation process!