How do I learn to stop flinching?

[dougmichigan]

I've picked up a real bad flinch and need some advise on how to "unlearn" this condition with carbine and musket. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Kevin Tinny]

Hello, Doug:

Here's some help. It's been a while since I've shared it, so I will probably edit it. Please check here for revisions. Thanks

I have studied flinching, as it applies to hand: eye coordination sports/activities for decades. Flinches are a hand-eye event caused by muscular hesitations when a distraction causes the mind to skip an essential step within a series of steps.

Flinches arise in golf, archery, skeet and trap shooting, baseball; even aviation.
There are lots of studies that point to the same cause, absent a physical or mechanical impairment.

A flinch is a SYMPTOM, NOT THE CAUSE. A runny nose is a symptom of something ELSE. Jamming tissue in one's nose won't stop the symptom.

The wizards at The Olympic Training Center in CO and NASA have determined that a flinch involves truncation/skipping of essential steps within a sequence of physical events. The mind is hard-wired for survival/gratification to get to the final sequence step. After a while the mind wants to skip a step to complete the action sooner. If one movement in the sequence is skipped or put out if sequence, even mentally, the brain "stutters/hesitates and a flinch happens.

There can be contributing factors that cause distractions while one is concentrating on the sequence of steps. A neurological condItion or improperly functioning part may also be involved and cause the distraction.

Watch batters, golfers, even aviators. If they get out of sequence, they "start over", by stepping out of the box, readdressing the ball, or going around.

A person may feel their flinch is unique and loose confidence. There have been all sorts of gimmicks to cause the person to reset their concentration. Some may help for a while, but the flinch returns. Release triggers, heavier/lighter triggers, gripping harder, etc. won't last.

Think about what is happening when you flinch. What were the "distractions" that interrupted your shot sequence. Something is causing you to skip a step or interrupt the flow of steps.

First, write the steps and carefully VISUALIZE them IN sequence to confirm the required series of events. Practice by visualizing so they become a flowing, coordinated pattern. The series begins with positioning your body, usually feet and then grasping and mounting the gun. Then head position, eye activity to aim and focus, etc.

The KEY is to refine the steps into perhaps five to seven items. The important aspect is to do each separately UP TO RELEASING THE TRIGGER SO NONE OF THE EARLIER STEPS ARE SKIPPED AND YOUR MIND STUTTERS OVER THE SKIPPED ONE. If any one is goofed, up to releasing the shot, STOP AND START COMPLETELY OVER, INCLUDING STEPPING OFF YOUR SHOOTING SPOT.

Distractions for bullseye shooters often involve aiming and holding errors that promote a RUSHED release. Primary are switching focus back and forth between the front and rear sights and HOLDING TOO LONG AS THE WOBBLE AREA ENLARGES. Repositioning the cheek on the stock, regripping, etc. INTERRUPT the proper sequence. Trying to hold TOO closely worsens the mental sequence. After about four seconds the oxygen diminishes and the urge to breathe causes involuntary muscle actions. Shooters often resist the need to start the shot steps over. If one tries to shoot through an opening wobble area, jerked triggers and poor follow-through arise. Better to lower the gun, relax, inhale, restart one's aim with release in four to six seconds. As many share: Three hits are better than one hit and five misses. Again, If your wobble area opens, START OVER.

Ok, I am 77 and my eyes and muscles are aging. I HAVE to blink to clear my vision BEFORE starting to aim and cannot hold so well. If you are over 50, be SURE your eyes are ok. Eyes can change in a few months. Droopy eyelids and bushy eyebrows can cause a blurred sight picture, especially if one's face is placed too low. Getting the shot released SMOOTHLY, with step timing rhythm helps. A bit of moderate weight training and dry firing helps reduce the shakes, which can be another distraction.

Olympic level bullseye shooters establish a RHYTHM over the TOTAL TIME INTERVAL for the succession of steps for EACH shot. Fascinating to time them, even with sight correction clicking, to see shots all released within an interval of a half-second. They are NOT stretching aiming time!

Those with flinches have learned that STARTING OVER, EVEN IF THE STEPS ARE GOING WELL, FORCES THE MIND NOT TO FORGET A STEP. This is WHY batters step out of the box, etc. Many start over every few shots to reinforce.

Please let us know how you progress. I will be at the Fall Nationals if you want to talk further or PM me your phone contact. Smiles.

Kevin Tinny

.

[Maillemaker]

A lot of flinching is due to plain old fear.

Is the recoil hurting you? If every time you pull the trigger you are getting hurt you are going to have a hard time not flinching from that. Make a padded undershirt.

Does the noise bother you? Invest in good ear protection.

Of course it goes without saying that good eye protection is required also.

In short, you have to be relaxed to shoot well. If you're keyed up and nervous, either about the shooting itself or the competition, it's hard to shoot well.

Steve

[Muley Gil]

Back when I started po-leese work, most officers carried revolvers. If someone developed a flinch, the technique used to get rid of it was called "ball and dummy". Basically, someone else would load your revolver with one of two rounds, hand it to you and you shot it. It was real easy to see the flinch when you squeezed the trigger on an empty chamber. Of course, you can do it yourself by loading one or two chambers and then closing the cylinder without looking.

As Steve mentioned above, if you are afraid of the recoil, you will probably flinch. Try to shoot something that doesn't kick too bad. You can also do "ball and dummy" by having someone else load your musket while your back is turned.

[efritz]

All good advice above. You can load/dummy yourself with a revolver. You need a helper with a rifle. You need to be in the zone when shooting. If things distract you, zero them out. If it?s noise. Use ear plugs and muffs. If anything enters your mind while aiming besides target and sights. Lower the gun and start over. No one can hold on target like on a bench when shooting offhand. We try our best to do so but it?s essentially drive bys or controlled jerk. Some can just do it better than others.

I also would be happy to chat with you. My knowledge is too much to print here and not so sure it would come out right. Better to chat.

[Ben Nevlezer]

Hello, Doug:

Here's some help. It's been a while since I've shared it, so I will probably edit it. Please check here for revisions. Thanks

I have studied flinching, as it applies to hand: eye coordination sports/activities for decades. Flinches are a hand-eye event caused by muscular hesitations when a distraction causes the mind to skip an essential step within a series of steps.

Flinches arise in golf, archery, skeet and trap shooting, baseball; even aviation.
There are lots of studies that point to the same cause, absent a physical or mechanical impairment.

A flinch is a SYMPTOM, NOT THE CAUSE. A runny nose is a symptom of something ELSE. Jamming tissue in one's nose won't stop the symptom.

The wizards at The Olympic Training Center in CO and NASA have determined that a flinch involves truncation/skipping of essential steps within a sequence of physical events. The mind is hard-wired for survival/gratification to get to the final sequence step. After a while the mind wants to skip a step to complete the action sooner. If one movement in the sequence is skipped or put out if sequence, even mentally, the brain "stutters/hesitates and a flinch happens.

There can be contributing factors that cause distractions while one is concentrating on the sequence of steps. A neurological condItion or improperly functioning part may also be involved and cause the distraction.

Watch batters, golfers, even aviators. If they get out of sequence, they "start over", by stepping out of the box, readdressing the ball, or going around.

A person may feel their flinch is unique and loose confidence. There have been all sorts of gimmicks to cause the person to reset their concentration. Some may help for a while, but the flinch returns. Release triggers, heavier/lighter triggers, gripping harder, etc. won't last.

Think about what is happening when you flinch. What were the "distractions" that interrupted your shot sequence. Something is causing you to skip a step or interrupt the flow of steps.

First, write the steps and carefully VISUALIZE them IN sequence to confirm the required series of events. Practice by visualizing so they become a flowing, coordinated pattern. The series begins with positioning your body, usually feet and then grasping and mounting the gun. Then head position, eye activity to aim and focus, etc.

The KEY is to refine the steps into perhaps five to seven items. The important aspect is to do each separately UP TO RELEASING THE TRIGGER SO NONE OF THE EARLIER STEPS ARE SKIPPED AND YOUR MIND STUTTERS OVER THE SKIPPED ONE. If any one is goofed, up to releasing the shot, STOP AND START COMPLETELY OVER, INCLUDING STEPPING OFF YOUR SHOOTING SPOT.

Distractions for bullseye shooters often involve aiming and holding errors that promote a RUSHED release. Primary are switching focus back and forth between the front and rear sights and HOLDING TOO LONG AS THE WOBBLE AREA ENLARGES. Repositioning the cheek on the stock, regripping, etc. INTERRUPT the proper sequence. Trying to hold TOO closely worsens the mental sequence. After about four seconds the oxygen diminishes and the urge to breathe causes involuntary muscle actions. Shooters often resist the need to start the shot steps over. If one tries to shoot through an opening wobble area, jerked triggers and poor follow-through arise. Better to lower the gun, relax, inhale, restart one's aim with release in four to six seconds. As many share: Three hits are better than one hit and five misses. Again, If your wobble area opens, START OVER.

Ok, I am 77 and my eyes and muscles are aging. I HAVE to blink to clear my vision BEFORE starting to aim and cannot hold so well. If you are over 50, be SURE your eyes are ok. Eyes can change in a few months. Droopy eyelids and bushy eyebrows can cause a blurred sight picture, especially if one's face is placed too low. Getting the shot released SMOOTHLY, with step timing rhythm helps. A bit of moderate weight training and dry firing helps reduce the shakes, which can be another distraction.

Olympic level bullseye shooters establish a RHYTHM over the TOTAL TIME INTERVAL for the succession of steps for EACH shot. Fascinating to time them, even with sight correction clicking, to see shots all released within an interval of a half-second. They are NOT stretching aiming time!

Those with flinches have learned that STARTING OVER, EVEN IF THE STEPS ARE GOING WELL, FORCES THE MIND NOT TO FORGET A STEP. This is WHY batters step out of the box, etc. Many start over every few shots to reinforce.

Please let us know how you progress. I will be at the Fall Nationals if you want to talk further or PM me your phone contact. Smiles.

Kevin Tinny

.
Kevin,
Thank you for an excellent response to the original post!
It has taken me a little while to reread and really process the logic in your post and it all makes perfect sense!

[Mike McDaniel]

Mr. Tinney has given a lot of good advice. I?ll add that dry firing helps a lot, but you have to duplicate the entire shot process to get best results. Weight training is good?but I?ve found working with martial arts weapons often better. A couple of sai katas each day will work wonders for your grip.

[Harry Gaul]

For me, Recoil is a killer of good shooting and flinching. I will shoot just about any thing once. It is the second shot that causes me to pause. When I started skirmishing in 1979, I shot a Remington Zouave with 60 grains of 2f and the 500 grain 575213 bullet. After the pigeon board, I was flinching so bad that it would be a miracle to hit anything but dirt. On the way home I shared with my team mates my experiences with recoil, and they shared that every person was shooting a reduced load around 26 to 40 grains, 2F or 3F, of powder. I found a lighter load that did the trick and practiced shooting techniques and breathing and concentration, and my scores and hits went up. At 72 years old, there are other health conditions that keep my scores down and hit to miss ratio is urinatingly low. I support what others have suggested. Remember you are not trying to Kill anything but hit and break a target. Reduce the powder load and the flinching will go away after your first "good" skirmish.

Harry in Pa.
03626v

[Jim Brady Knap's Battery]

[QUOTE=Mike McDaniel;88230]Mr. Tinney has given a lot of good advice. I?ll add that dry firing helps a lot, but you have to duplicate the entire shot process to get best results....

I agree on Mike's dry firing method and you should make each one a complete shot cycle from butt on ground, come to the ready then shoulder, stare the sights, perform good trigger control to hammer fall. If you are doing it right and are staring at the front sight you will see that it would have been a hit. If you are pushing or pulling or jerking or flinching or even staring at the target instead of the front sight it will be evident when the hammer falls. Live shooting can mask your mistakes in smoke and recoil. Dry firing tells the truth.
No need to buy fancy snap caps. Save the string of cold cast minnies that come out undersize and wrinkled until the mold warms up. They make great snap caps just watch that after a bunch of hammer falls you aren't extruding lead into the nipple. After the minnie is totally beat up toss it back in the pot for recycle.

[Kevin Tinny]

Thanks for the helpful comments:

Everything is connected.

Recoil can be a major distraction and a discouragement for new (precious) shooters that causes some to drift away. The first few times out with a novice, I favor lighter loads and SAFE short distances that result in broken targets, so they go home with a very satisfying experience.

Please think about it:
If recoil DISTRACTS, it interferes with maintaining concentration. Recoil has ruined a lot of people's interest in shooting. Sad to put a 12ga. in a youngster's or wife's hands. "A 20 is plenty", a 1960's GUN DIGEST article.

Also, I have observed many that shoot high recoil loads that create headaches or a bit of a headache the next morning. Those headaches, per my neurologist trap/skeet shooting buddies, are probably a symptom of mini-concussions! Why do most sheet shooters have higher averages with 20 vs. 12 gauges? Recoil = more flinching via loss of concentration.

A friend and revered shotgun coach, Red Hill, that worked with Winchester was intrigued with the "porch" loads the Russians used at sheet. The BOX LABELS listed MAX ALLOWABLE shot charge and velocity! Well, he traded some equipment to a Rusky for a few shells and found they were lots lighter in velocity and recoil. The ploy was to trick competitors into using high recoil loads to cause recoil fatigue! In this life, things are rarely what they seem to be.

"Snap shooting" the moment the sights align in archery and our bulls-eye skirmishing is another technique that is used. Some do well using it. I saw a now retired Air Force General, Jack Still, win major national trophies, including the Wm. Randolph Hearst Trophy as a youngster by CONTINUALLY lifting the front sight and releasing the shot AS THE POST was 6:00 tangent AND MOVING upward in his offhand stages.

Thanks for all of YOUR help. Smiles.
Kevin Tinny

[dougmichigan]

Many thanks for all the great coaching! I am going to try many before our next regional. I really appreciated the time you all took to respond to my request for help!

[Rob FreemanWBR]

Doug,

Im late in replying but hope I can add something to consider in helping.

During practice, my dad would take several caps that were basically ?duds? and mix them in my cap pouch.

When practicing I?d be none the wiser if the cap I uses was hot or not. As you can imagine, by simply standing back and watching, when the hammer fell on a dud cap a jerk or flinch was CLEARLY evident. I would then simply recap and discharge the piece.

IF you do this, ensure you empty out your cap pouch and remove any remaining duds before you shoot in a skirmish!

As many will say, you want ?to be surprised? when your shot breaks. In these instances, your brain and distractions are not involved and as if found 90% or more of the time, I hit the mark despite thinking that I blew the shot.

Practice, practice, practice... Over time, you will get to the point where each time you load, aim and shoot - it will be as if you?re ?running a program?. ENSURE you?re are always employing all of the basic fundamentals of marksmanship (stock welds, breath control, etc...). Then with repetition, the conscious aspect of shooting will be replaced by the sub-conscious (muscle memory). Like golf, shooting requires a lot of things to happen simultaneously and our brain can only truly concentrate on one thing at a time, hence the absolute need for the subconscious to take over when on the line.

Hope this helps!

[Rick R]

I'm replying even later just to make Rob feel better. I couldn't help but think of this thread as I watched a few misfires last weekend and saw a lot of flinching going on.

I found flintlock shooting to help. The dummy cap in practice, oops sorry the "P" word, is a great idea. Overall, practice, follow through holding on target a bit after the shot will get it done as long as your load isn't punishing.

Rick

[dougmichigan]

I wanted to again say thank you for the great advice and coaching. I've been working on several of your suggestions and it's working! I took 2 gold medals in 50 yrd carbine and 1 gold medal and 1 4th place in 50 yard musket in our last two regional skirmishes! On to the Nationals.

[Eggman]

For the folks that follow up on this - I would say the key piece of advice, that is my own, has been deleted. I was reviewing the criteria I laid our for possible edit a while back, and my right hand somehow involuntarily jerked, deleting the whole thing. My apologies to all would be expert shooters out there.