[benos]

I was walking behind in the park behind the soccer field (goal). The goalie missed a shot, and the ball was shooting right at me, just skimming the grass.

In that instant two things happened simultaneously. I recalled a visual image, from about a week ago, I was watching a pro-level team play when a player made an amazing shot to score a goal. The soccer ball deflected of the bottom of the top of the goal - to score.

I remember saying to myself, "whoa - that was pretty cool shot." I can still visualize it now.

The second thing - immediately upon seeing the ball coming at me, a soft voice in my head said, "slow it down." I looked right at the ball - it was spinning in slow motion... It bounced off the side of my foot and hit the bottom edge of the top of the goal. It bounced down and slightly back toward me. It didn't score - but I didn't care. It was such a cool experience. Although I never played soccer - it was as if I instantly summoned the "zone" state.

The goalie stuck both arms up over his and head and gave me an enthusiastic "Nice"!

"Slow it down" is now my daily, all-day mantra.

I, like many, especially IPSC shooters, naturally rush everything I do. It's a natural tendency I always have to fight, if I want to do whatever it is I'm doing as good as I can currently do it.

In shooting, as well as everything, I never reached a state where not rushing is my natural tendency.

I was looking through some old writings this morning, and saw, "greed is the inability to accept our capacity."

I had quite a few "zone" experiences when shooting, but all occurred spontaneously, and were marked with a complete lack of caring or trying anything whatsoever. I've never summoned the "zone" till the soccer ball expeience.

Still working with it...
be

[leam]

It's been a long time since I was able to just see outdoors stuff and enjoy it. I've been looking at my life the past couple of days and trying to slow it down. Breaking the habit of "go here, do that, then go there and do something else". Have to get back to the "what do I need to get done this very moment?" state of mind.

Having a good index is not just for shooting...

Leam

[snertley]

Very good advice. Sort of stop and smell the flowers. Slow down and soak it all in: shot, stage, match, life in general. Heck, life will blow by you like a high speed train as it is. Take it all in, learn it live it.

[xsniper]

[quote name='benos' date='Sep 21 2009, 06:19 PM' post='1062297']

The second thing - immediately upon seeing the ball coming at me, a soft voice in my head said, "slow it down." I looked right at the ball - it was spinning in slow motion... It bounced off the side of my foot and hit the bottom edge of the top of the goal. It bounced down and slightly back toward me. It didn't score - but I didn't care. It was such a cool experience. Although I never played soccer - it was as if I instantly summoned the "zone" state.

"Slow it down" is now my daily, all-day mantra.
=================================================================================
I hope I am understanding this correctly. You didn't try to slow yourself down, but slow the situation down ??? From what I have read here before it seems that the idea is not to speed up or slow down our actions, but allow them to be what they are, so......is it the situation we are slowing to a speed we can accomodate??? I think even my daily health would improve with that "daily mantra".

[MichiganShootist]

Like the Oak Ridge Boys country song says....


"I hurry and hurry to get things done until I'm so busy that life's no fun"

[JThompson]

http://www.perceptio....cgi?id=v050456

[benos]

xsniper, on Oct 1 2009, 07:55 AM, said:

benos, on Sep 21 2009, 06:19 PM, said:

The second thing - immediately upon seeing the ball coming at me, a soft voice in my head said, "slow it down." I looked right at the ball - it was spinning in slow motion... It bounced off the side of my foot and hit the bottom edge of the top of the goal. It bounced down and slightly back toward me. It didn't score - but I didn't care. It was such a cool experience. Although I never played soccer - it was as if I instantly summoned the "zone" state.

"Slow it down" is now my daily, all-day mantra.

I hope I am understanding this correctly. You didn't try to slow yourself down, but slow the situation down ??? From what I have read here before it seems that the idea is not to speed up or slow down our actions, but allow them to be what they are, so......is it the situation we are slowing to a speed we can accomodate??? I think even my daily health would improve with that "daily mantra".

Yes. My daily mental health is of a higher quality from that mantra.

The best I can say is "slow it down" meant to perceptually slow down everything.

Quote

In conclusion, time dilation is independent of perceived speed, which makes it tempting to suggest that there are separate processes for time and speed perception.

[JThompson]

benos, on Oct 2 2009, 05:14 PM, said:

Quote

In conclusion, time dilation is independent of perceived speed, which makes it tempting to suggest that there are separate processes for time and speed perception.

[calishootr]

Mr. Jordan of basketball fame said that when he was 'in the zone' everything and everyone around him was in slow motion, i heard an interview w/ ken griffey jr. saying how he can see the actual rotation of a 95 mph fastball as it leaves the pitchers hand, on several occasions I have had the same feeling where i thought wow, this run is going to suck because i'm soooo slow, when in actuality, when it was all said and done, andthe RO calls outthe time and it was a smokin run.....it happens, it tales patience, and a lot of inner self searching to draw it out, but its there forthe taking....

[Duane Thomas]

Quote

It has been proposed that perceived duration is based on the total number of events experienced by observers

This is a thought that I have had for years. That the reason things seem to go into slow motion is because our baseline perception of time is hooked into a scale relating the number of inputs we receive to a set time frame. For instance, five seconds seems to us like five seconds because our brain has received the amount of input, the number of things noticed, that we normally perceive in five seconds.

OTOH, when open up our inputs while shooting fast, suddenly we're getting the same amount of input in one second that we normal do in five, so one second seems like five. This, I think, is one place the old cliché "If you feel slow you're fast" comes from. For some people this expresses itself as time going into slow motion.

I guess everyone's different, for me this does not express itself as a sensation of time going into slow motion. Rather things that are happening very fast seem to me to be moving at a "normal" pace. I'm going along, taking my time, or so it seems to me, it doesn't seem like anything is happening particularly fast. This seems to be very hooked into watching the front sight, letting everything else go. However the difference between that state and my normal mindset is very noticeable to me (though I do think that good shooters, to a certain extent, carry that changed perception of time around with them always - but that's another topic that I have addressed in the past). I know I've said this before - in the Brian & Duane Talking thread running right now, among other places - but it's only when I'm done shooting, in that moment when the normal world, the normal perception of time rushes back in, that I realize how fast I'd just been performing.

[DoubleA]

I guess a good way of illustrating this would be to think of viewing 100 mph from a camera that is 1" off the ground vs 20' in the air. Down low there is only so much you can see going that fast. Its all there you just dont notice it. Get up 20' and it seems you are going much much slower because there is so much more to see. To me that translates into not so much focusing on "target, front sight, shoot,repeat", but your focus being in keeping your awareness as open as possible while maintaining the goal of shooting the targets. Maybe that can explain the feeling of standing back and observing "someone else" shoot. Am I correct in thinking so?

[benos]

That makes sense to me.

The more you see the slower it feels.
be

[Pat Harrison]

benos, on Oct 2 2009, 07:14 PM, said:

The best I can say is "slow it down" meant to perceptually slow down everything.

Lately I have been using "see precisely"
Especially after watching someone smoke a stage, it gets me out of the idea of doing things fast. There is always the tendancy to want to go fast after seeing or hearing a fast run on a stage. Now I tell myself "see precisely" and it causes me to pay attention.
While explaining this to another shooter, they said something like "oh yeah, see the sights" and I replied, no see everything precisely.

[benos]

Good stuff Pat. On most of the really good strings I can still remember, I saw the targets and front sight in incredible detail.
be

[Sam]

Quote

"see precisely"

I like that, Pat! When we aren't doing, what ever we are doing, with total precision, we are actually focused somewhere else (another time, another place). I think this may be where our consciousness of a different measure of time originates. Slower, faster, either way, if we don't "see precisely" (pay attention) very often, time will seem altered when we finally do get around to it. A question to ponder is, "which sense of time is altered and which is pure and true"?

As in Brian's original post about the soccer ball, something came along and "clicked" and the zone opened wide. It was there all along. Why it wasn't opened by a cool motorcycle crusing past or noticing a bee headed toward his face really doesn't matter. The soccer ball opened the zone at that time and place for Brian.

Sometimes I wonder, when we are not in the zone (present) where are we?

[Duane Thomas]

Delusion.

[Sam]

Exactly!

[benos]

Sam, on Oct 15 2009, 07:38 PM, said:

Quote

"see precisely"

I like that, Pat! When we aren't doing, what ever we are doing, with total precision, we are actually focused somewhere else (another time, another place). I think this may be where our consciousness of a different measure of time originates. Slower, faster, either way, if we don't "see precisely" (pay attention) very often, time will seem altered when we finally do get around to it. A question to ponder is, "which sense of time is altered and which is pure and true"?

Self-perceived time is "altered time," in the sense that there is no time without it.

Sam, on Oct 15 2009, 07:38 PM, said:

As in Brian's original post about the soccer ball, something came along and "clicked" and the zone opened wide. It was there all along. Why it wasn't opened by a cool motorcycle crusing past or noticing a bee headed toward his face really doesn't matter. The soccer ball opened the zone at that time and place for Brian.

Sometimes I wonder, when we are not in the zone (present) where are we?

To me, that's when I'm conscious of "myself." Not nearly as fun as the zone, but that's where we live and survive.
be

[S391]

I find that the shooting sports in general are about the only way I can slow down most days. It forces me to focus on the task at hand and ignore everything else going on.

Throw in a good cigar and life is downright tranquil.

This post has been edited by S391: 03 November 2009 - 12:12 PM

[Duane Thomas]

I'll bet at that point you look just like your avatar. (grin)

[Patrick82]

Yesterday I had my first match and I also experienced the slow down effect (for a short moment).
It where 4 half targets next to each other at about 1,5 yard distance so they can be shot very fast. But I could very clearly see each hole being made in the paper.
One thing I did notice was that I saw everything very clear but I didn't hear any sound, like the focus was only on the visual senses.

This post has been edited by Patrick82: 23 November 2009 - 03:26 AM

[eric nielsen]

Articles by same researchers as JThompson posted. First one talks about abrupt appearance leads to perception of longer time. "Soccer ball"
 1113.full.pdf (320.09K)
Number of downloads: 20

2nd one tests many "slow it down" theories and looks at speed of visual appearance changes. "Seams on a fastball"
 Kanai_2006_jov_6_12_8.pdf (637.9K)
Number of downloads: 20

Please don't paste them into a forum or other web page.

[eric nielsen]

Maybe Brian and 2 other people will get all the way through this, a very good look at what happens when one eye sees one thing [sights with a target behind] and other eye sees other thing [slightly offset target, massively offset sights] and whether binocular vision is even the way to go in such a situation. And effects on perceived speed.

 Baker_2008_jov_8_4_26.pdf (1.13MB)
Number of downloads: 28

Again, please don't paste.