Grailfever

Rodeo Romeo has made some personal and hurtful comments to me.  I did not mean to start an argument or say anything offensive to him, but if I did I apologize.  He asks for an explanation and so here it is.

To be a competitive gunfighter you must have a finalized draw. By that I mean you draw to the same anchor point and fire each and every time.  Each draw is identical to each other draw. Perfection is when every bullet hits the same hole in the exact identical time.  By definition, if you have a finalized draw your quickest draw will be your most accurate shot because you are getting to the anchor point as quickly and as smoothly as possible.  Anything that causes you to change your draw will cause you to have to re-finalize or re-learn your draw.

If you are constantly changing your draw to get that last millisecond of time, you have to relearn your draw with each change. Every change for whatever reason brings you back to the entry level of accuracy, from my observation less than 30%.  To constantly chase the clock impedes a gunslinger's development. Disregard for where you hit takes away the opportunity for your subconscious to learn accuracy.

Partime in Texas is a good study in the development of a gunslinger. When I first saw him he was just another pretty gun. He would come to titled matches and after four rounds go home.  Quick but hitting less than 30%. He even wrote a song about it. Then he came to the Springs and had a session with Marshall Cooper. Within six months he was the best gun in Texas.  What happened?  He finalized his draw. He began to hit the target and see every hit.  He no longer was practicing missing.  If you see every hit your mind and body will walk the hits to the light.  Some will say he learned to be fast then he learned to be accurate.  No, that is not what happened.  When he was "learning to go fast," he just was not paying attention.  Hitting didn't matter. He was depriving his subconscious the opportunity to learn to be accurate.

DO NOT PRACTICE ACCURACY! You can not do it. Practice speed only. To think about accuracy or to try to be accurate causes you to miss.  "Any thought changes an expert into a novice."  The Sports Gene.  

What is needed is to give your subconscious the opportunity to learn those small incremental changes that walk the hits to the light.  If you think about hitting you will miss. If you try to be accurate you will miss. If you think about going fast, you will be slow. (For me, trying to go fast in competition causes me to be about 30 mls slow)

"I was lucky in the order, but then I have always been lucky when it comes to killing folks." William Munny

Now to get personal.  Saturday at Pioneer we shot an Arizona Bracket shoot.  The field was divided into three brackets by x count and time out. In A bracket there were 15 gunslingers, all good and tough gunfighters, not an easy draw in the bunch.  Of the 14 matches only three matches were decided by quickness, Old West was quicker than Shady, Holli Day put Old West out on quickness, and I put Ranger out on quickness.  Quickness is important, but not as important as mental toughness.  In the last seven matches only one match was decided on quickness. The rest were decided on something else and it ain't accuracy.

Those matches were decided on the mental processes of the gunslingers.  Based on time out 6 of the 7 were quicker than me.  What happened.  Well, the same thing that happened at Nationals when 5 black badges went down to Johnny Three Toes.  They thought about it.  In some form of another they all thought, "I got to hit the target!" or they tried to slow down because you are more accurate when you slow down (another myth).  When you think about hitting, you miss.

A couple of shooters Saturday were "slow shooting."   Slow shooting is the kiss of death to a gunslinger. Why?  Because you have to think when you are changing from fast to slow or from slow to fast.  Any thought changes an expert into a novice.

Getting back to the subject at hand. I have suffered through several bouts of grailfever before and I know it takes about 6 months for it to run it's course.  Even knowing that, come February 5, based mainly on comments by Levi, I will start a new stance and an new draw.  I will start off the clock.  Time does not matter. Only a finalized draw matters. It may be quicker or it may not be, but I will let my subconscious walk the hits to the light, there is no excuse for less than 80%.

"I warned em!"  Virgil Cole