This is not mine, I found this post on the airgun Field Target forums. Since I mainly shoot .22, I felt I would repost it here, as it can fit most any shooting discipline:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-style: italic">"Revelations From The Wasteland"
If you do a thing often enough, or long enough, you begin to see the ripples beneath the surface. You become so attuned to that repetitive action that it is no longer the plane in which you exist; you move into a deeper level of awareness and begin to notice the subtle nuances of motion below normalcy. The ghosts in the machine so to speak. The background noise comes into focus and supersedes the repetitious task being performed. You begin to see the atoms in the molecules rather than the molecules themselves.
Over and over you focus on the crosshairs dissecting the target and the subsequent point of impact. You make your adjustments and struggle against the tide of error. You curse the wind, your pulse, your breath..the molecules.
Shoot more, shoot longer; hours on end, non-stop, unceasing and the ripples appear beneath the surface, the background noise moves to the forefront, you notice what you have overlooked by default. You begin to see the atoms.
There is a parallel between everything you do and the end of the barrel or, more precisely, the point of impact.
Descend the stairwell once, hand on the rail----that is the molecule. Descend the stairwell a thousand times and your hand begins to know the rail more deeply, the small aberrations that make up its true character, familiar only through the intense closeness of infinite encounters. A knick in the lumber here, a swell in the wood there, a poorly sanded area somewhere else---the atoms of the rail. The ripples beneath the surface.
After a thousand shots or more you begin to SEE the nuances of your shooting as well. The miniscule jerk or push of the barrel, The quick snap of the trigger. An overzealous pull. The shot taken in haste. And more. You know what they are. The atoms of your shooting.
Flyers are a myth, for the most part. Two high and three low, four in and one out, vertical stringing, these are the molecules, the pronounced viewable results of your shooting. Look to the atoms of your shooting. Watch for the ripples below the surface. There is where the answer to your best shooting lies. There is where you will correct the misalignments of your foundation upon which you build your shot methodology. In the hidden behavior of your smallest mistakes, to small to see until you have viewed them a thousand times.
You only have yourself to blame. You just have to know where to look.
The ripples beneath the surface.
Appel</span>
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-style: italic">"Revelations From The Wasteland"
If you do a thing often enough, or long enough, you begin to see the ripples beneath the surface. You become so attuned to that repetitive action that it is no longer the plane in which you exist; you move into a deeper level of awareness and begin to notice the subtle nuances of motion below normalcy. The ghosts in the machine so to speak. The background noise comes into focus and supersedes the repetitious task being performed. You begin to see the atoms in the molecules rather than the molecules themselves.
Over and over you focus on the crosshairs dissecting the target and the subsequent point of impact. You make your adjustments and struggle against the tide of error. You curse the wind, your pulse, your breath..the molecules.
Shoot more, shoot longer; hours on end, non-stop, unceasing and the ripples appear beneath the surface, the background noise moves to the forefront, you notice what you have overlooked by default. You begin to see the atoms.
There is a parallel between everything you do and the end of the barrel or, more precisely, the point of impact.
Descend the stairwell once, hand on the rail----that is the molecule. Descend the stairwell a thousand times and your hand begins to know the rail more deeply, the small aberrations that make up its true character, familiar only through the intense closeness of infinite encounters. A knick in the lumber here, a swell in the wood there, a poorly sanded area somewhere else---the atoms of the rail. The ripples beneath the surface.
After a thousand shots or more you begin to SEE the nuances of your shooting as well. The miniscule jerk or push of the barrel, The quick snap of the trigger. An overzealous pull. The shot taken in haste. And more. You know what they are. The atoms of your shooting.
Flyers are a myth, for the most part. Two high and three low, four in and one out, vertical stringing, these are the molecules, the pronounced viewable results of your shooting. Look to the atoms of your shooting. Watch for the ripples below the surface. There is where the answer to your best shooting lies. There is where you will correct the misalignments of your foundation upon which you build your shot methodology. In the hidden behavior of your smallest mistakes, to small to see until you have viewed them a thousand times.
You only have yourself to blame. You just have to know where to look.
The ripples beneath the surface.
Appel</span>
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