Natural Talent vs. Hard Work

[Chambers]

Scratch a good 3-gunner and you will almost always find a gear-head (motor-racing), Sky diver, Scuba Diver, climber....etc. I have rodeoed, Skied proffesionaly in freestyle, Desert raced and moto crossed (worked for White Brothers for a spell pushing an open bike on Moto, and desert), and dabbled in dirt and pavement cars.

True story. I'm glad I got into all of this as early as I did. I can't imagine doing anything else this seriously.

As for the subject of this thread...in the action shooting sports, naturally ability can take you all the way up to the level of mediocre. Anything past that takes hard work! You hear about the guy that won his first match or whatever. Well, local matches, especially the unsanctioned variety, generally don't prove a thing.

Jesse's right about me, I don't practice at the range, but since I started shooting 2 years ago I can count on one hand the number of weekends that I have not shot a match. I have also dry fired quite a bit. Until about 6 months ago I dry fired probably 5 hours a week.

There are a lot of aspects to this game. Having perfect technique and being able to apply it at speed and on the clock are two different things!

 

[Chambers]

Does that mean I'm naturally talented?

I got news for you boss, you're naturally talented!

 

[jtischauser]

I have an advantage Arns Glock conversion and 7 mags. Damn mags only hold 10!

 

[P.E. Kelley]

That's sig line material there. Couldn't agree more. It applies to pretty much everything.

Natural talent will only take you so far. I am personally seeing it now at all the big matches. For the past 3 years, I've sat back and very minimally practiced for various reasons (working, studying, finances, hot weather, other hobbies, family, general lack of motivation, etc.). Last year, if I didn't count rounds shot at local and big matches, I bet I shot less than 1500 rounds total in actual practice sessions. That includes rifle, shotgun, pistol, and rimfire (probably >50%). Counting matches (majors and locals), I'd bump that up to around 5000-5500 rounds. Dry fire usually consisted of shotgun loading practice for 30 minutes for 2 days before a big match.

Does that mean I'm naturally talented? I don't consider myself to be, but something allows me to do fairly well at the big matches. It damn sure isn't my practice regimen. Maybe shooting a lot of 3 gun majors keeps me going. My vision sucks. I think I've got decent hand/eye coordination. The experience of shooting a lot of matches in a lot of different conditions is good.

All that being said, the top guys in the sport are naturally talented and work hard. Guys who work harder at it are doing better than me as they should be. Being squadded with the top guys at the 3GN Pro Matches has been a real eye opener. At the last Pro match, I heard grumbling phrases like "that is what I deserved, given how much I practiced for this" or "I don't know what I expected to happen because I haven't practiced enough". These phrases came from some of the best shooters in the world when they didn't do well on a stage or weren't happpy with their performance.

Does this mean that I'm going to bust my ass next year and shoot 75,000 rounds in practice? I doubt it. Doing that will involve me making sacrifices that I'm not willing to make at this time. I'm going to keep on shooting matches because I love it. I've had some good stages and even a stage win or two at major matches. However, I have never shot a stage to the best of my ability. Never. Not even remotely close. That is what keeps me going. Am I going to have to practice to ever achieve that? Probably so...

Well put West, and that's exactly where I fall in.

Yes, I could work on getting better but it ain't gonna happen. I just like to play! I did not grow up on a farm with daily shooting forays, I grew up in L.A.! Now, I did grow up around guns and started shooting at 5. My Dad was THE man when it came to pistol prowess and he was infectious in his love of shooting! We, as a family hit the desert 4 or 5 times a year and spent the whole day shooting all manner of arms. Once home it was my task to detail strip and clean AND have a complete working knowledge of each gun. Hell, I became the family 'smith at 13 after a local gun-plumber butchered a Model "A" Hi-Standard pistol. What he screwed up I was tasked with fixing, I did and "tag" I was it!

I love the shooting sports and yea if you scratch my surface I was a "crash expert" on anything that had two wheels. I didn't race in the sport but I raced the **** out of anything I threw a leg over and learned that I shouldn't race! Did some non-professional automobile stunt stuff too while in high school. Loved me some Datsun 510's!

Natural talent??? My big brained wife says I am highly Kinesthetically aware (good at knowing where my hands and such are in time and space) and maybe that is why I have achieved some level of success in various shooting disciplines. I think it is more about applying the fundamentals of marksmanship (which were taught to me by my father) to whatever game is before me. The fundamentals are easily taught but rarely mastered. In my most prolific year (1997) I shot 6,800 rounds though a Para P14 in 45ACP and got me a GM card for my efforts (not my Gubment's) And if you are fact checking I had myself demoted to humble master a few years later. At present I have yet to put that many rounds though any one gun in a 12 month period. Like Kurt said he has shot a metric ton of ammo over his life and I have shot a whole hoopie too! But I bet Mi Amigo Kurt would side with me that it is this mastery of the fundamentals that makes the shooter, not his talent nor the amount of rounds fired, although BOTH certainly can help!

Thanks for having a forum where we can talk plainly about these things.
Patrick

 

[Wall]

Thanks for having a forum where we can talk plainly about these things.

Thanks to you guys for coming on the foum & talking plainly about these things.

 

[KurtM]

Me?? Agree with Pat??? Almost all the time! Well put Mr. Kelley, and she doesn't have a big brain..... she just uses a LOT more of her's than most.

 

[joshappel]

I have worked full time at USSA nearly 4 years and have been running matches nearly 3.5 years. I have had the privilege of meeting some of the best shooters in the world, some of which are members here. I can tell you 4 things from doing scores and shooting with these people: who has natural talent, who has the talent and works to improve, who has the talent but not extra time to work on it and who shoots for the fun of shooting ( which is all of them but you know what I mean).
As for myself, I did grow up on the farm shooting all sorts of stuff, but I don't think o have natural talent. Those of you who know me know that I'm kind of quite during matches, I tend to pick up a lot of knowledge by just watching and listening. One would think that working at a range would give you all sorts of time to practice, but that is not the case. I do not practice as much as I'd like to, or shoot as much as I'd like to, that is why I perform poorly in most matches. Point being, as has been stated before, talent isn't much without the work.