Flipping channels last night, go by The Outdoor Channel and there’s Jim Scouten… talking about Steel Challenge. That’s fast shooting.
As I watched the show, watching the top shooters in the world drawing and drawing and drawing and drawing again it hit me what my problem has been lately.
I’ve been too tense.
When you’re tense, you cannot move fast. When you need to do a certain move you need muscle X to do it. But when you’re tense the muscles antagonistic to X are also tense… thus it ends up acting like a brake and you will not move fast. Or if you can move fast, it’s not as fast as it could be if you were relaxed. Or in my case, my brain is still wanting to move fast so I end up “rushing” it and the results are fast but sloppy.
I turned off the TV. Did some dry fire, forcing myself to relax between each draw. Amazing the difference.
This is constantly my problem. The sort of person I am? I can be high stress. Right now my life is full of stress. And it’s something that has once again crept up on me and I didn’t notice (until last night). So once again I must remind myself to relax, I must remind myself to loosen up. That there’s no need to actually think about moving fast, just move, it will be fast. If I think to move fast I’ll get all tense and thus won’t move fast.
It’s a problem I’ve struggled with for years. Very evident in my martial arts practice, which needs to be loose and relaxed, but I tense up… I hold my breath… and these things all lead to being stiff.
I’ve thought about studying something like Tai Chi or Baguazhang to see if that might help. Maybe even Aikido. We’ll see. Meantime, I just have to remind myself to be aware of my tension and do away with it.
Stuff From Hsoi 
I cross trained in tai chi during that period when I was working my way to Master class. My wife did the same thing but with a different instructor. When you radically slow down your movernents it forces you to pay a lot more attention to what is happening. That will reveal flaws that are best fixed at the slowed down pace before they are sped up. Tai chi can help with balance and smooth footwork. Weight shifting is very important on the steel challenge outer limits stage and in getting in and out if shooting positions.
I have thought about doing just that. Sure I enjoy my combative martial arts training, but I see much value in things like forms. I try doing my Kuk Sool forms in a slow, deliberate way, but those forms just don’t lend well (things like jump spin kicks are just too explosive a movement). Still, when I do them as slow as I can, it’s just what you say: makes you pay more attention to what’s happening. Little corrections. Even experienced that in my workout last night (did some slow forms).
I get the feeling that my next truly formal/structured martial arts study is probably going to be something like Tai Chi.
The Tai Chi form is just a vehicle for learning the concepts. Tom Gohring (Tai Chi Tom) is a KR Training graduate and co-hosted InSights classes with us in years past. Penny trained with him before we left Austin. I trained in Tai Chi with John Blankenship who really isn’t a Tai Chi specialist, but his style of teaching worked well for me.
Ah, that’s good to know. I don’t know Tom but I know someone that studies with him and speaks highly of him.