Posted by Bubba on July 17, 2000 at 09:52:14:
In Reply to: Trigger controll posted by Roland Cannon on July 17, 2000 at 08:38:43:
I believe you have stumbled on to a secret long held, by competioion shooters. There is much information available on how to shoot. Experts share their techniques. But still some of us can't shoot as well as we should. Could it be that the experts have not, in fact told all. Could it be that there are so few very high scoring shooters, because they can't stand the pain. I too smashed my trigger finger, and noticed a marked improvement in my shooting too. I think I'll have a little time to shoot today. I'm going to try it with and without a painful trigger finger. We may be on to something here.
Posted by Andre on July 17, 2000 at 12:31:19:
I don't think there's any secret to good 10m pistol shooting. The problem is the most people are not willing to train hard enough. I think that Roland, knowing that his trigger finger was less sensitive, simply squeezed the trigger more carefully.
But if it improved his shooting so much, maybe we should all try hammering our trigger fingers the night before a big competition!
Posted by Will on July 17, 2000 at 14:29:25:
: But if it improved his shooting so much, maybe we should all try hammering our trigger fingers the night before a big competition!
So, the night before the 2001 Nationals, I want all you AA and A shooters to use the hammer and smash your trigger fingers. I'll be the control group.
What might be going on here is similar to the 'new equipment syndrome' that a lot of shooters go through. They try a new piece of equipment, like a pistol or grip or shoes or sights, and they shoot better for a brief period of time. Then, after the novelty wears off, they are back to their old performance levels.
I agree, it is probably that the shooter, sensing that there is something 'different', concentrates better, and foucses on the basics, hence the performance increase. Maybe.
Posted by Roland Cannon on July 17, 2000 at 15:43:47:
I think what happened was this...It Hurt! I had to be very careful how I pulled the trigger or it was instant pain. I quickly realized how poor my trigger technique was in the pre pain days.
Posted by Jon Powell on July 19, 2000 at 00:35:49:
I once had the theory that cutting the nail on my trigger finger very short (almost painfully short) would improve my trigger control. I haven't fully tested it. If someone else would like to do it enough to be statistically significant I'll be happy to learn from the results.
Posted by Charlie on July 18, 2000 at 13:59:26:
Had a similar experience with pain as a training aid in military flight school. Myself and several of my classmates had a tendency to tense up and do iscometric squeezes ( death grips ) and the stick during emergency procedures when things got scary. The bigger the scare, the harder we gripped until we where muscling something that needed a gentle, relaxed control touch. Several of our instructors used pain to break this by having us wrap our thumb and middle finger around the control stick and extend the second, fourth and little fingers away from the stick. A pencil was then jammed between the middle three fingers on top of the middle finger knuckle and underneath the second / fourth finger knuckles. As anxiety increased the second and fourth fingers contracted forcing the pencil to dig into the middle finger knuckle and excruciating pain was self inflicted forcing one to relax the grip. Several applications of the pencil during low level engine failures were so painful that we became more fearfull of the pencil and death grip than of crashing - resulting in much better control touch. One of my classmates refused to admit to the pencil pain so the instructor beat the back of his hand on a pointed switch several times until pain was acknowledges - he simultaneously aquired a very light control touch and the loss of his hand grasping anything for several days. Long story but message is - PAIN WORKS if you're desperate enough!!!
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