Mind Games
“All things are ready if our minds be so.” – Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3
Way back when, when I was doing marketing for a luxury gun club, I would describe the process of marksmanship as being like golf, only louder. The actual physical processes of golf are not hard to describe: You hit a ball with a crooked stick, you chase after it and keep hitting until it drops into a small hole.
Marksmanship is also easy to describe: You position your gun to achieve the correct sight picture then press the trigger without disturbing that sight picture*. When it comes to pistols, regular, committed live fire practice at the range and dry fire practice at home will help just about anybody can achieve that goal in a year or two. It’s not hard work, but it does require copious amounts of self-discipline and excellent time management skills.
Consistently pressing the trigger without disturbing the sights is enough to get you to “C” class in USPSA or Marksman in IDPA. This level of shooting ability is great if your interest is defensive marksmanship. If you have your gun on you at all times, you’ve passed the first big test in that area of firearms ownership, after that, it’s a question of how well you’ll perform in the rough 20 percent of encounters where presenting a pistol DOESN’T solve the problem.
However, for some (myself included), that is not enough. To borrow a line from the late, great Jerry Pournelle, I don’t want to just survive, I want to survive with style. If (IF) I have to draw a firearm in defense of life, I want a surplus of speed and accuracy from which to draw from. I don’t want to succeed by the skin of my teeth, I want the outcome to never be in doubt. This is why Delta Force and others at the tip of the spear bring in top-level competitive shooters to teach them the mechanics and mindset of shooting. These units know it’s not enough to shoot “Expert” on a qualification, you have to have a mental foundation that allows you to make the shot when the stakes are at their highest, and top-ranked practical pistol competitors are excellent at that sort of thing.
Okay, let’s go back to golf. Take a few minutes to watch this video of JJ Spaun winning the U.S. Open under extremely difficult circumstances yesterday. It was raining, he had played lousy on the first half of the day, and Oakmont is considered to be one of the toughest courses in the world. In the previous few years, JJ’s mind game had been lacking. He didn’t believe he COULD be a champion, and guess what, he wasn’t. Until he was.
You don’t drain a 68 foot putt to win the U.S. Open without having your mind game on-point, and you don’t succeed at marksmanship without having that same skill.
Like I said before, marksmanship is like golf, only louder.
* Okay, okay, so the clay sports are slightly different, but the idea is the same.
