Shooting and Concentration – Where Is the Connection?

Concentration refers to the ability to fully focus on a specific thing. It is the aspect that helps you do your job properly, and something that you shouldn’t lack if you want to get stuff done. When it comes to shooting, concentration is just as important as it is for anything else.

Shooting with a gun is something serious that you can’t play around with, as the simplest mistake could not only cause you to fail, but also put you and those around you in danger. Therefore, shooting and concentration have to work together to ensure you shoot accurately. But how exactly are these two connected? You’ll find out in this article.

What Is Concentration in Shooting?

Concentration is what allows one to control his attention by directing it to a specific thing – in this case, shooting. Different from the usual attention that is just being grabbed randomly, concentration adds focus into the mix and allows a person to exclude any thought unrelated to the current task from their mind.

Moreover, concentration allows you to do one thing properly at a time, rather than going from one task to another. The latter would only consume all of your energy and end up causing your failure.

When it comes to shooting, concentration is related to focusing on the act of pulling the trigger. Basically, you direct all your focus on the target in front of you, or the gun you’re handling. That means you ignore everything else in your surroundings – it’s just you, your gun and what you’re trying to shoot.

How Shooting and Concentration Are Connected

Just think about it – how many thoughts invade your mind at random moments during the day? No matter what you’re doing, you’ll always have a thought that you shouldn’t have during an improper moment. This is bound to happen when you’re getting into shooting too.

Basically, many people tend to be overwhelmed by thoughts of failure, injury or anything of the sort during a shooting session. But what they’re not aware of is the impact that these thoughts have on their mind and concentration. When you’re being pessimistic and can’t refrain from thinking about failing, you instantly influence your mood and thus affect your concentration.

There have been many cases when shooters have missed a shot due to the bad influence of their thoughts. “What if I shoot someone by mistake?” “What if I miss the target?” “What if the recoil will be too strong to handle?” are only a few of the worries that beginner shooters have. However, they’re enough to make them lose focus, lose control of their breath and put themselves in a bad mood.

Meanwhile, these thoughts will simply make you think about something else besides the act of shooting. Even if the target is right in front of you and both of your arms are holding the gun and aiming correctly, you may be thinking of that time in school when your teacher gave you a surprise test, or anything else. Suddenly, you forget about what you’re doing in the real world, and if you perform the action without thinking about it, you’re doomed to fail.

So, to put it simply, what you do is controlled by your train of thoughts. Your body will be controlled by your mind, and if you manage to take control of your thoughts and only think about the current task, you’re going to master concentration.

How Shooting Concentration Works

Lack of concentration is not something you can solve overnight. You need constant practice to be able to gain focus and complete your task. So, there’s no need to be discouraged if you don’t get the hang of it too quickly.

Here are a few things that could help you concentrate while shooting:

1.   Visualization

Visualization is the act of creating mental images of your goals. In this case, it could be you shooting the target, or effectively striking the animal during hunting. It’s said that visualization has the power to influence perception, the cognitive process, planning and many other things needed for concentration. You’re more likely to have success in real life if you’re successful in your visions.

2.  Thought Control

Putting a leash on your thoughts will take a lot of hard work, but if you want to shoot without being distracted, you have to master it. It might take whole months until you improve your thought control. This is why you have to revert back to the important thought as soon as you notice your mind is invaded with different things. Thoughts influence your mood, so controlling them and thinking that you can shoot the target properly will make you feel motivated – thus, influencing the outcome.

3.  Breathing

Breathing helps you relax and makes it easier to focus on a specific idea, in this case, shooting. When you’re being overwhelmed by thoughts of failure, your breathing may go out of control and you lose more focus. Therefore, you need to control the breathing in such a way that you’re able to go through with your task. Practice it, and you’ll be able to have control while shooting.

4.  Exercising

Exercising your shooting skills is another thing that helps you improve your concentration. The more dedicated you are to the act of shooting, the more likely you are to have full focus over time.

You can help yourself with some familiar options such as sniper scopes. Lacking optics will make the shooting process much harder but having them will allow you to aim your gun properly and focus on what’s in front of you. A Primary Arms 4-16×44 may be one model that interests you, as it’s cheap and makes it easy to practice your concentration. You will be able to shoot at longer ranges, and the more you succeed, the more dedicated you’ll be and thus more concentrated on shooting the target.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to say how shooting and concentration are related. If you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing, you won’t be able to perform the task properly. Furthermore, your thoughts could increase your nervousness and cause you to lose even more focus.

Now, you should understand how concentration works in shooting and how important it is for your success.

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