To offer another possibility, I think one of the reasons a lot of people don't train is much the same reason a lot of people don't lift/exercise (I am the pot calling the kettle black on that one for sure lol), or any other number of hobbies and/or endeavors in life. Basically, it requires sacrifice. It requires you to sacrifice some of your precious time, to do that thing. People have jobs. They have families. They have extracurricular activities they might already be obligated to. Compounding that is the fact that people are so inundated with so many other things in life these days, that even deciding to consistently do ONE thing for just 15 minutes every single day, seems like an overwhelming commitment to them. Inserting yet another time-draining component in their life often seems like just too much for a lot of people, or so they think.
I'll say this much. My personal experience over the last 2 years has shown me quite a bit about what can happen when training consistently and achieving a certain level of performance, as well as what can happen when not training as consistently, and going increasing periods of time with minimal to no training. I've found that some of the common sayings people have along the lines of "use it or lose it", actually are not always true. I've found that, if you achieve a fairly decent level of performance and build a decent amount of neural memory (less correctly stated as "muscle memory"), that you can actually retain a fairly high percentage of those skills, and that there are primarily certain areas which will decline. For example, for me, for quite awhile I've been going months on end without firing any live rounds, just with some dry practice in between, and of course always working on my mental game, perception, etc. I find that I can go fairly long periods of time without shooting, and my accuracy is still there I would say to about 90-95% when I get back to the range cold that first time. Also, I would say that under the same circumstances, my speed with most things is around 85-95%, depending on exactly what we're talking about. In terms of speed, I might be off 0.1-0.3 seconds on a lot of things, from where my performance was previously. Where I would say I've seen the biggest decrease is in manipulations with the gun. For example, I notice if I go long periods of time (months) without any dry practice or live fire, I tend to start fumbling reloads a lot more frequently, reloading a bit slower by several tenths of a second, etc. The big decrease for me has really been the reloads for some reason, and maybe firing at speed at distance (say 15yds+). I still find, though, that I can go cold for months, go to the range, shoot B-8 bulls for score, or shoot a particular scoreable drill that doesn't require significant manipulations, and I'll find I'm still at anywhere from 80-95% of where I was before, it's just those certain things are a little bit more rough around the edges.
I don't say any of that to advocate making excuses not to train, just more because I've found it very interesting how things have played out over the past year or two. What I have found in particular, that seems to really help me at least, is because of my nature, I am usually always still doing things to work my mind, work my perception, continually making myself aware of my surroundings, and constantly working that mental game.
Also, here's something to really mess with your mind, so to speak.It has been a year or two since reading this but, I remember awhile back reading a study on I believe PubMED, that showed some potential indicators that mentally rehearsing a task may actually stimulate some degree of additional growth of myelin around the neurons associated with performing that task. For those that don't understand what I'm talking about, in essence, "muscle memory" is a misnomer. When you learn and repeat a task to the point of building "muscle memory", what is actually happening is as you perform those repetitions, the neurons in your brain that keep firing the signals to perform that task, have additional layers of a myelin sheath secreted around them. In essence, as these layers build up, they effectively help serve as I believe an insulator and conductor, helping the neuron to actually fire its signal faster. The end result, you achieve subconscious competence with that task and can perform it proficiently and at greater speed without even thinking about it. So in that regard, "muscle memory" is more appropriately called neural memory.
Anyways, what I was getting at is, I came across some studies that had research data showing that there is potential for additional layers of this myelin sheath to be generated around neurons associated with a task, sometimes simply by mentally rehearsing and imagining yourself performing that task. From what I remember, this was by no means a definitive study, and it may not apply to all people all of the time. I found it very interesting though, as I will constantly find myself mentally rehearsing things like drawstroke in great detail (to the point of perceiving the feelings of actually doing it, as well as all of the idiosyncrasies involved). In hindsight, after thinking about it, I honestly think that all of this mental rehearsal in great detail has probably benefitted me significantly in maintaining at least certain skills during periods where I've gone a long time without firing a live round.
Nice shooting.
There's also competition, which I feel is very important as well, to put one's self to the test and add some additional degrees of stress.
I
I think there very definitely is often a confusion in terminology when it comes to these things, and the general term of "training" could be taken many different ways. There are also many different types of training. It would probably benefit us if we specified what specific types we were referring to, to avoid some of the confusion. I know I'm probably guilty of this as well.
There's also competition, which I feel is very important as well, to put one's self to the test and add some additional degrees of stress.
In terms of training versus reality, I once heard it summarized perfectly, IMO: Understand the principle of the drill. Don't confuse the drill for the application.
I particularly like Bob's description of people sometimes going a bit overboard.
OIF2 aka "The guy that posts the best looking pictures of the best guns."
.
17 sidebar threads coming . . .
OIF2 aka "The guy that posts the best looking pictures of the best guns."
