# Intuitive shooting



## pmatty77 (Jun 12, 2011)

I would love to be able to shoot intuitively but alas it doesn't work for me but still think it looks great, so is it actually aiming but the shooter is that good they do it without thinking or is it some kind of sixth sense that only some people have


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## SlingNerd (Mar 15, 2017)

It's accumulated muscle memory.

Instinctive shooters fire so many rounds that eventually their minds correlate shot placement to body language at the time of the shot.

Subconsciously they probably think something like this:

"If I pull back this far and hold the ammo this way than it should land right about there"

This is why it's said they "Feel" the shot instead of "Aiming"


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## pmatty77 (Jun 12, 2011)

Excellent description


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## SlingNerd (Mar 15, 2017)

pmatty77 said:


> Excellent description


Thanks, I try to be clear as possible!

Fail miserably at it most of the time though :screwy:

You *can* become an "Instinctive" style shooter yourself, all it takes is the time and effort and your amazing brain does the rest.

Champion ping-pong players for example, they don't track the incoming ball all the way up until they hit it back. Their brain recognizes the speed and angle the ball hits the table and they position themselves to return it preemptively. There's actually a massive amount of calculation involved but it happens in the background. and their bodies just move. It comes form hours and hours of real-world experience boiled down into complex equations.

And in case it isn't obvious I love documentaries and science.


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

I agree with SlingNerd above, well said.

In addition, I think that when we speak of "intuitive" shooting we probably mean many things - many of us, and we do not have a standardized definition and description of what it means.

I have a problem even with "aiming". For me the only true aiming is that one that happens with a rifle or a gun where your eye is best aligned with the front and with the back aim (I do not the proper names of these in English, sorry) and with the target in one line.

Please notice that in spite of people claiming that they "aim", in my opinion it is questionable, at least for the most cases.

Consider this: maybe you align somehow a point on the forks or on the rubber with the target but what is your other hand doing and how do you align center of the pouch with the target if you in most cases do not see it at all. For example, if you stretch the rubber to the shoulder blade the center of the ammo is BEHIND your eye mabe some 20 cm. Also and in the same time, your eye is way ABOVE the line of the bands, say, some 15 centimeters. And if you use a more free style of shooting such as floating point then you probably have the line of your bands AWAY from your eye, probably another 15-20 cm. That is, the centre of the ammo is away from your eye in all three dimensions. If that person claims that he/she "aims" then the former type of aiming, when I mentioned rifle, should simply have another name, or vice versa, because they have nothing to do with each other.

And in my opinion if there is anything of "aiming" in the above case then it is dues to our brain, as SlingNerd mentiones above that does its homework for us.

This topic, aiming vs intuitive shooting in the sense which one is better, what are the differencies etc. was started many times here and was never clear to me, or is partialy clear and this is only because - I think - because we do not have a simple, and acceptable by all, the definition of what is what.

cheers,

jazz


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## pmatty77 (Jun 12, 2011)

I get on better with tubes so when I aim I have the tubes lined up my anchor point the same and my reference point the same so theoretically the ammo should go in the spot where my reference point is, interestingly I think the more you aim the exact same way the more it becomes sort of intuitive because even when you aim sometimes you just know it will go where you want


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## pmatty77 (Jun 12, 2011)

So based on that intuitive shooters aim but don't know their doing it,shall I run now????


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## VAshooter (Feb 10, 2015)

There are some very good descriptions of how to hit where you want with a slingshot. Lots of practice gives us the muscle memory to execute the shot but you don't get the muscle memory unless you are consistent in both form and function every time you shoot. All of the successful shooters talk about consistency because that is where muscle memory comes from. How can your muscles remember how you did it if you don't do it the same every time? Aiming as Bill Hays describes it includes a notch on the arm of the slingshot and drawing a line on the band but these are simply an aid to develop the consistency we need to gain the muscle memory to shoot well. Intuitively aim consistently covers it.


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## mattwalt (Jan 5, 2017)

pmatty77 said:


> So based on that intuitive shooters aim but don't know their doing it,shall I run now


don't give the secret away...

I find I 'feel' the shot. Though have noticed that if I stop before release and examine the setup its in almost always the identical spot I would aim from...

I do know that I'm staking elastic stretch and shot weight etc. all into the equations on an almost sub-concious level.


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## pmatty77 (Jun 12, 2011)

I do notice that most intuitive shooters have the forks straight up,haven't seen many shoot gangsta


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## mattwalt (Jan 5, 2017)

45º usually when I do...


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## Joey Jfive Lujan (Jan 19, 2015)

I think it's a feel thing ... and I also believe that any one can do it .. although ones with better eye hand coordination learn much quicker ... as far as pfs shooting instinctive shooting ... once you are past the fear of busting your hand to pieces .. that's when the learning starts !

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


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