Question: How do I stay focused through my pre-shot routine, especially if it takes a while? Some top shooters are known for taking what feels like forever on the stand. How do they commit to their routine and follow it without distraction, knowing there’s a line of people behind them waiting for them to hurry up and shoot?
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We hear the phrase, “staying focused is hard for me” a lot, and when we do, we try to listen intently to the person making the statement and ask for examples of what they mean when they say “staying focused.”
“I have a hard time staying
focused through the last pair.”
“When I shoot FITASC, it is easier for me to
stay focused than when shooting sporting because I get bored easily!”
“Just
what is a pre-shot routine, and how does it help me to stay focused?”
“I’ve
tried to use routines and I get bored and just call ‘pull’ and shoot.”
Well, routines do help you keep focused and block out distractions, but they must be developed and they need to have certain things. And they need to be repeated enough so they happen without thinking.
But first, we should probably explain the routines and why they are necessary.
We have worked with thousands of shooters, as well as fishermen, pilots, golfers, and businesspeople on various routines. And while they contain different thoughts due to the venues they were applied in, they all share the same common purpose. They allow for the athlete to predict in detail what they are about to do and to stay focused throughout the action without having to think.
Let’s get into detail from a neurological standpoint why they are necessary and how they work.
The brain sees skill as a sequence of events that, when repeated deliberately enough times becomes one thing. The brain does a great job of automatizing our skill circuits so that they happen without us having to think about what is really going on as we are acting out the skill.
Our brains are so good at taking highly complex actions and, through repetition, correction, and more repetition, enabling us to complete the actions without thinking. Things like speaking, brushing your teeth, walking, eating, drinking, driving, mounting your gun, running a computer, swinging a golf club… all are circuits in our brains that eventually fire without us having to think about them.
Once a skill circuit is automatized, it allows for the brain to actually see into the future and anticipate what is coming next. And the more times the circuit is fired, the farther out in front of what is happening our brains can anticipate. And when the circuit has been deliberately fired many times over, the automatized circuit can actually change human behavior as it is happening.
It takes about 80 milliseconds for the brain to achieve consciousness and pull together a conscious thought or picture. And based on what we understand, this reaction time cannot be changed – it is fixed. And because of this, it would be impossible to hit a moving target with a shotgun, bat, or tennis racket. But athletes do these and many more complex activities every day.
Our brains sense tiny cues in the environment that we are unaware of and make their best guesses as to what is going to happen next. And through repetition, we can make better and better guesses as to what is about to happen farther and farther in front of what is actually happening. Our brains actually are constantly anticipating ahead of where we are and are very uncomfortable when they find themselves in a situation where, for whatever reason, they don’t know what to expect is coming next.
You have felt this uneasy feeling when driving in traffic on an unknown freeway system or going into a new restaurant, especially when the name is written in a foreign language. People experience this the first time they go to a gun club, which is why signage is so vitally important. Thoughts like, “Do I take my gun inside when I go in to pay to shoot? Should I leave it in the case? Darn, I forgot my case. Now what do I do? If I bring my gun in, will they think I’m going to rob them?” among others I’m sure you can think of.
The long and the short of this discussion is that skill is developed through repetition and it can’t be shared or given to someone; it must be developed by each of us!
The brain’s ability to sense these tiny cues in our environment and make its best guess of what is coming next is vital to its ability to predict what is coming, and fire the complicated skill circuits involved in repeatedly carrying out the action successfully, without thinking.
Once our skill circuits have fired enough times, even the thought of doing the skill allows for the brain to get ready to do it, as long as we don’t get involved with the doing. Once the circuit has been fired enough, it is passed off to the automatic part of the brain. And the instant the thought occurs, the circuit is ready and fires perfectly without thinking!
The “without thinking” part is where most shooters are stuck. They don’t understand the futility of trying to think their way through hitting a moving target with a shotgun.
Our thinking brains take up to 300 milliseconds to function in a complex situation and less time in a simple decision like “red light/green light, stop/go.” A complex situation is when you must focus on one stimulus while ignoring other stimuli in the same scene.
Research has shown that expert athletes are 35 percent faster and 31 percent more actuate than non-athletes in making complex decisions. Remember, we told you that you must build the anticipatory ability in your own brain and it is built by repetition – your repetition! You cannot give someone your skill by telling them what you see, because what you see is not really there. And how you see something is based on your brain’s ability to anticipate in front of what you are conscious of.
The core purpose of our visual processing system is prediction. Vision, along with other senses, provides information to our central nervous system to allow a prediction of what is coming next. Said another way, our thinking (conscious) brain is behind what is happening and our (subconscious) brain is anticipating ahead of where we are.
We now have a choice. To think or not to think; that is the question. We have talked many times in our podcasts about what really happens when we are thinking while we are shooting, and the phrase that keeps coming up is, if you’re thinking, you’re stinking.
So, where are we? Are you beginning to realize why the routines are so important and how the routines allow you to perform without thinking? If not, let us help by further explaining things. If skill is defined as a sequence of events when deliberately repeated enough times so the sequence is seen as one thing, then the order of sequence becomes critical to the length of time it takes to develop a skill. Said another way, the order in which a skill is repeated controls both the time and quality of the skill’s development.
Are you willing to linger in the uncomfortable phase of learning to fire the circuits often enough and, through failure and repetition, to actually learn something? You have to fire your own circuits to train your brain how you want it to react in each situation.
This is why doing things in the same sequence is so vitally important for improved performance. It is not only what you do, but the sequence in which you do them that allows for the brain to begin anticipating ahead of where you are to actually perform skillfully without thinking. This is why routines are so vital: they are the foundation for learning. And it’s also why each person’s routine is personal and different.
But they all serve the same purpose – allowing you to perform at higher and higher levels without thinking.
Many shooters think that a routine is what you do before the shot, and it is. But what the routine does is so much more, which is why prediction is so important when practicing or training. And it is even more effective when the prediction is in detail and visual.
If you are talking to yourself while performing, you are in your conscious brain, the one that is 300 milliseconds behind what is happening. But you must be ahead of the target to hit it, so it seems there is a conflict here that is unresolvable. You can’t be in front and behind at the same time, or can you?
The unfortunate fact about our game is that you indeed can be in front and behind at the same time if you are in front consciously but not far enough to hit the target.
Routines are vital to meaningful training and practice and improved performance. So, if skill is the brain’s ability to anticipate ahead of where we are, and the brain’s ability to do this is its ability to sense cues in what we think and do as we ready ourselves to act, it just makes sense that if you did the same thing every time it would make it easier for the brain to anticipate farther and farther ahead of what you are about to do – you guessed it – without thinking.
You can’t not think, just like you can’t visualize not seeing something. But you can set yourself up to shoot without thinking by using the same routine whenever you’re practicing so the brain begins to be really comfortable with what you are about to ask it to do. Then on tournament day, because you have always predicted where and how you want the shot to come together in your training, the tournament is just an extension of your practice.
Let’s see…that would be bringing your practice game to the tournament, wouldn’t it? Seems like we have heard that before. The problem most shooters have is they never practice using any routine or prediction in their practice, and they are always chasing the target down and trying to fix the shot at the end – reacting, not anticipating.
So when they go to a tournament and really try, their brains are constantly hesitant and confused, drowning in doubt and indecision when they are trying to perform their best. This is due to incorrect preparation that allows the brain to be comfortable anticipating ahead of where you are. The brain is behind what is happening and it does not like to be in a place where it is not in control and ahead of everything.
This is why so many shooters are in such a bad mood at tournaments. They are behind everything including the targets. Of the targets they hit, they have to see way more lead than necessary because they are thinking, and the brain they are using is 1/3 of a second behind real-time.
What is in a routine is less important than the consistency of its application. And the less verbal and the more detailed and visual, the better and more effective it will be.
