Blindfolded Shooting

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

This week’s episode of Top Shot involved trick shots, culminating in blindfolded shooting:

Mike Hughes explains his method:

Details of Blindfold
The neat thing about this challenge was that we could actually train at the house. I did twenty 4-8 min trainings where I went out back and indexed on two targets that I set based on my fist at arms length (the same angular distance in practice) and trained on raising my hands and using my nail as a sight, opened eyes and saw how close my natural point of aim could be on my intended target. Then I closed my eyes again and transitioned to the other target. If I was off I tried to judge where my body was and adjust my core then feel my arms and upper triangle.

On game day the first shots hit the posts about a foot under the jars. This was good feed back and I figured I must have not set my body correctly. On the second round, the first shot was on post again literally right next to the first shot of the first round. Then I hit the left post about 8 inches from the first bullet hole. So consistency was there but I was not indexing high enough. I think my shoulders may have a bit tight from the cold, I may have dropped my chest forward when Colby pulled down the blindfold, don’t know. So last shot I just jacked the gun up where it felt unusually high and it worked out.

Anyhow, what I learned was that I think I should to train natural point of aim more and try not using the eyes in some drills and build more awareness in how my core feels when I think I am on target. These challenges are very humbling. Makes me want to train everything every day to be ready when we have to perform with some new tool. Been shooting a drill now with my SIRT (shameless plug, I know…but this is a wicked drill) where I look at a target, close eyes, draw and shoot, pin the trigger and see where the green laser is hitting. Works grip and stance ? natural point of aim. I keep adjusting feel of body until I get calibrated and build more awareness of my foot balance, hip alignment, chest angle and shoulders. Good natural point of aim helps with hard targets too because the sight picture is better while the eyes are focusing back to the front sight and there is less minute adjustment of sights to make the shot.

Next Week
Things get stupid next week. The challenge is cool, very creative. Recurve bow: classic weapon, good tool to be proficient in.

The social dynamics get aggressive. When we are in the house we get kind of immune to the cameras. You know they are there but you kind of forget about them in the background. I won’t give any spoilers here, but I have not lost it like that since my last year playing college ball back in ’95. Angie (wife) and I had a talk on how we explain my rage on TV to my 7 year old. I am very curious to see what was all captured on film. uggg

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Isegoria

Blindfolded Shooting

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