The “Dreaded Flinch”

Hello Vicki and Gil,

My scores have progressed from the mid-50s to the low 80s, so I am making progress. Now, however, I have developed some form of a flinch, or maybe it is something totally different like “target anticipation.” I don’t know what “target anticipation” is, but maybe it’s better than a “flinch.” 

Here is what happens: I will be swinging on a target with laser focus and maintained lead. When I’m “dancing in the window,” I pull the trigger and nothing happens. The feeling is similar to trying to pull the trigger with the safety on (of course, the safety is not on). In fact, when this first started happening, I thought I had a gun malfunction. It turns out the gun works fine for everyone else. I’m dropping anywhere from four to seven targets per tournament due to this malady. 

I shoot a heavy DT 10 with light 1oz shells for practice and 1oz 3-dram shells for tournaments. I wear earplugs and noise-canceling muffs. I shoot approximately 500 shells a week for tournaments and practice. The malady was so bad last fall that I stopped shooting from October to April, hoping a layoff would help. I still have the “malady.” I dropped four targets in last weekend’s tournament. 

So, am I really cursed with the “dreaded flinch”? If so, what can I do to get over this ugly situation?

Thanks,
Jeff from Colorado

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Dear Jeff,

Thanks for the question. While traveling the country teaching, we have encountered many people with this problem and have been successful in helping people understand, and in most cases, eliminate it from their game. While we are sure that there are as many theories about what causes the problem as there are people who have the problem, we have found a few common threads in all of the instances we have encountered. In our experience, a flinch has more to do with an interruption in the visual input to the brain than any other thing.

Perhaps the most confusing thing about a flinch is separating perception from reality. The perception is that you can’t pull the trigger, but the question is “why?” In almost every instance we have encountered this problem, we have asked the student what they saw when it happened. The first few times we ask the question, the answer is “I don’t know.” Eventually, the student begins to realize that the last thing they saw when the flinch occurred was the gun. That’s the reality.

Now, before all you flinchers out there get your knickers in a knot about your theories and experiences with this phenomenon, hear us out. 

We are sure that there is more than one cause for flinching. Our objective is not to deal with all of them. It is our objective to share with Jeff some of the things that have worked for many of our students in the past. They may work for him or you, or they may not. But you will never know until you try them.

One of the biggest problems with a flinch is that when it occurs, the shooter tries not to flinch on the next shot. This increases the probability that he will. The more the shooter tries not to flinch, the more flinching is on their mind. The subconscious mind does not understand the word “not.” We have all experienced this phenomenon when shooting. You are shooting a round with your buddies and somewhere about the middle of the course, you realize that you have only missed one or two targets. You do the math and realize you could shoot a 98 if you keep going the way you are. The problem is that you don’t keep shooting the way you were. You become tentative and cautious. You overtry. You begin to shoot not to miss. Because the subconscious mind does not understand the word “not,” it only hears “shoot to miss,” and it does. 

In our experience, this is how flinching becomes a huge problem. Because you are afraid you will flinch, you do. Fear is a powerful emotion. Your emotions are the gatekeepers to the learning process and the performance process. The more you fear a problem, the bigger it becomes and the harder it is to overcome and eventually eliminate.

In your description of what happens, there are a couple of things that cause us to suspect that your flinch is caused by visual awareness of the gun. “I will be swinging on a target with laser focus and maintained lead.” This is a red flag for us. The fact that you are swinging on a target with maintained lead says to us that you are probably riding the target and that you have some awareness of where the gun is. There is a fine line between fishing and goofing off, and there is a fine line between laser focus on the front of the target and “laser” focus on the target and an awareness of the gun. 

It’s our experience that you can get by with a 3 to 5 percent awareness of where the gun is and still hit the target. In other words, it’s okay to know that the gun is ahead of the bird, but the more you know about exactly how far ahead the gun is, the more your focus has shifted from the target toward the gun. Your next statement about “dancing in the window” also infers that you are a little more aware of the gun or lead than you ideally should be.  

How does excessive muzzle awareness cause a flinch? Well, first we must look at what happens when you take the shot.  Hopefully, you have learned by now that when you move your focus from the bird to the gun during a shot, the gun stops. The reason it stops is that the eye has stopped transmitting the data from the moving target to the brain. With no movement input coming into the brain, there is no movement output. Therefore, the gun stops.