Have you ever been at the range working on a particular skill, see steady improvement and then suddenly start sucking? It happens to all of us. The causes can vary, including things like muscle fatigue, mental tiredness, distractions and changing what you’re doing. When you suddenly start sucking again, it can be frustrating and even angering. If it’s something you were working on for a long time, the anger can lead to doubling down and working harder, followed by sucking even more!
But, there’s a sure way to break the cycle, and a recent post on social media reminded me of it:
Really, this is a universal part of the human experience. It’s easy to get engrossed in something you’re working on and start seeing things go wrong. When you double down and concentrate harder, you can see things get worse and worse. The vicious cycle can cause you to make increasingly big mistakes until you’re not only getting it wrong, but facing danger.
Why does this happen to us? Well, it’s all in the environment humanity evolved in (or was created for, if that works better for you). Going back thousands of years, most of humanity didn’t live in cities. Hunter-gatherers, small-scale farmers and herders weren’t faced with complex legal frameworks, machines or any of that. If someone did something to scare you bad enough, the appropriate response was to club them until they were no longer a problem. Anything that got in the way of becoming a vicious, simple killing machine in that situation could get you killed.
To make sure you’re focused, the human brain does some seemingly dumb things when adrenaline dumps. Tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, and loss of fine motor skills all happen. Higher brain functions shut down. You get the tendency to want to destroy almost anything that moves.
But, this doesn’t only happen when someone is trying to kill you. Anything that can get you emotionally worked up can start making you act like a caveman. In the mechanic’s example, if you find yourself cussing and swearing at the engine bay, it’s good to take a break and clear your head a bit. Coming back at it rested and fresh can help you to slow down a bit and get it right, come up with a better approach or simply not have tight muscles that kept you from being able to get the job done.
This applies on the shooting range and is perhaps even more important there. I’ve seen in many classes that when people don’t get enough breaks, the learning and training process breaks down. At worst, it can lead to dangerous situations (like an elderly man who started repeatedly shooting the ground in front of him when he got dehydrated and lost track of what he was doing).
So, when you’re training and you notice that things are suddenly not going well, go sit down for a few, have a drink (preferably nothing alcoholic!) and relax for a bit. After just five to 10 minutes, you’ll probably find that you’re suddenly doing great again!
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