[Flexmoney]

Flowing is a form of stability.

[schmitz]

Flowing is equilibrium!

[Singlestack]

Flowing is smooth.

[Bigbadaboom]

What Bruce Lee said.

[rtr]

I have found that if I shoot a stage in a way that I feel flows well it's much easier to shoot it well than if I shoot it in a way that doesn't feel like it flows well. On average I can shoot a stage well more consistently if my plan feels like it flows well, even if it's not the fastest possible plan.

[Merlin Orr]

Go with the flow.

[9x23]

rtr, on Jun 12 2006, 04:41 PM, said:

I have found that if I shoot a stage in a way that I feel flows well it's much easier to shoot it well than if I shoot it in a way that doesn't feel like it flows well. On average I can shoot a stage well more consistently if my plan feels like it flows well, even if it's not the fastest possible plan.

+1

[Ron Ankeny]

Quote

Flowing is a form of stability.

For me, flowing is the most important aspect of my mental game. Interrupt my "flow" and I become hesitant and tentative across the board. That's why I hate "memory stages" and I despise stages that toss the tenants of freestyle to the wind. Looks like I need to work on my mental "flow" as much or more than flowing physically when I execute "the plan".

[Flexmoney]

There is a lot too the idea of flowing (in my mind). Multiple means and applications.

I want to come back and talk on it some more, but I am tight on time today (and stuck on dial-up).

[mike cyrwus]

flowing is continuous

flowing is deceiving

flowing is damn hard after only three months in this sport

[spook]

Flowing means continuously being

[mike cyrwus]

flowing means being continuously deceiving

-deceiving yourself so you can perform, and not think.

[spook]

mike cyrwus, on Jun 14 2006, 02:50 AM, said:

flowing means being continuously deceiving

-deceiving yourself so you can perform, and not think.

Heheh, I like it

[kevin c]

Flow is not slow, I've found in the few times I've found and gone w/ it...

[Chris Keen]

Flowing is seeing!

[davidball]

kevin c, on Jun 13 2006, 07:26 PM, said:

Flow is not slow, I've found in the few times I've found and gone w/ it...

Flowing can SEEM slow while executing, but the timer says otherwise . . .

[kevin c]

True...although I think I thought it slow in reflecting back on what had happened. When it was happening, it wasn't fast or slow, it was just happening. And if you mean by "executing" that things happened as they needed to, then, yes, I executed. But it did not seem as though I was "doing" or "making" anything happen. It just happened as it should have, and I went with it ("flowed with the moment").

That sort of makes sense to me...

This post has been edited by kevin c: 14 June 2006 - 01:16 PM

[Sam]

Quote

Flowing means continuously being

Spook, I'm on the same page as you.

But, it begs the question....what if the flow stops? Do we cease being?

Do people who never experience the flow, die, without having lived?

Jesus cautioned his followers, "whoever puts his hand to the plow, and then looks back, is not fit for the kingdom of God." I'm no scholar, but I have to presume that the plow and the kingdom are metaphorically the same in this statement. There is only the feel of the earth under my feet and the flow of the plow through the dirt. I drink in the sounds and the smell of the rich earth. The day is hot, but it feels good to me. Hard ground, easy ground, rocks, it doesn't matter. I just need to focus on the plow.

[Flexmoney]

Reference: http://www.d-n-i.net...df/strategy.pdf

Words from John Boyd, the fight pilot that originated the OODA Loop concept.

Pages 19 & 20 in particular...


I am always preaching about shooting from a strong and stable platform. I have some top-rated shooting buddies that I know aren't really concerned with hammering that idea home.

Here are a couple of things you will hear me say:

- As long as you can line the tube (barrel) up on the target, it doesn't matter if you are hanging up-side-down from a set of monkey bars and pulling the trigger with you pinky toe...as long as the barrel is in line with the target when the gun goes off, you will hit the target. However, that shooting platform won't provide you with enough foundation to return the gun for the next shot. It won't even provide you with the stability to make single shots in a consistent manner.

- Now, the argument can be made that...who cares? Just line the sights up again as needed and rock-n-roll. And, there is some merit there. The merit, however, is more easily found by the shooter who is already at the top of the score sheet. She/he has enough rounds down range that her/his platform is what it is. Watching top shooters, they often seem like their platform is always in flux.

- I like to use basketball as an example. Nobody is winging shots from the free-throw line. There, they shoot with the most stable platform they can come up with. It a free throw...no time restraint, no defense being played on them. The basketball shooters is almost always better off taking the shot from the most stable platform. Now...insert Dr. J (did he start it all?) or Mike Jordan...etc. Those guys shoot...very well...from a variety of positions.

Now, this flow stuff. After reading from the discourse that I referenced above, some thoughts came too me that I think help me put the concept of stability while "flowing" into words.

The reading mentions a city..with constant inputs and constant outputs. It mentions structures being constant, with the consistency coming from the flow of it's "stuff".

The thought that came to mind for me is the big river that runs near my home town. That river, is constantly changing. The same water is never in the same place twice. Yet, that river has been there for years upon years. Even though it is liquid, it's not something that I could easily change. It's flow is stable.

[Chris Keen]

Deeep!

[Ferrell Spicer]

Nicely put Flex.

[schmitz]

Flowing is a concept, in this forum shooting-related.....
As one acts, flowing is the result of one's actions.

If the shootist is able to maintain balance between circumstances (out) en "the Plan"(in) (whatever that is) he/she is in an equilibrium and therefore, flows.....

This post has been edited by schmitz: 16 June 2006 - 12:49 PM

[Sam]

Flex, I really like the river anaolgy. If I might take it a bit further, what makes a river a river? Water molecules are pretty easily dispersed. Without the right conditions the droplets wouldn't come together. And once together, would they flow?

So, in a river, we have a cohesive medium, water. We have a path, the channel. And we have a driving force, gravity. From my shooter's eye, I see the water as a stream of shots. The river channel as my plan, and my intention as the driving force. The water (shot) flows where the channel (plan) takes it, at a rate determined by gravity (intention).

Back in school, the gang did a lot of float trips on various rivers. Sometimes we would end up just sitting quitely and watching the river flow by. At some point my buddy Steve would usually say in the most profound voice possible, " life...... is like a river". To which someone else would invaribly take the bait and inquire, "How is it like a river?"

Steve -"I don't know...... it just is"

Sometimes that's all there is to it.

[wide45]

"Life is like a sewer - what you get out of it depends on what you put into it." - Tom Lehrer

[Sam]

Quote

Flowing is a form of stability.

-Flex

Dispersion lacks cohesiveness and drifts aimlessly.

Rigidity has too much stability and cannot flow at all.

Flow is stability in balance.

Sand falling in an hour glass is a measure of time. But, there is a point for each individual grain where it has left the upper chamber, but has not arrived in the lower mound of sand. Those grains are the only ones in flow. They are, for the moment, free of time.

Flex, could we say that flow is stability, freed from the constraints of time?