What does Proficiency look like

Eight years ago I had this day.

"Some days you on it somedays you aren't. Today I experienced a string of perfect shots. For 20 rounds, the gun did exactly what it was suppose to do. Beautiful snap of the reticle under recoil, coming right back to the point of aim. The sight didn't even leave the target at 200 meters. Much like a perfect shift at 8700 RPMs or a perfect corner, it was application of the fundamentals. This isn't the first time I have done this but it is awesome"

What I didn't know then was it wasn't the fundamentals, but the Shot Process. You can make the argument that yes, it was fundamentals but a process defines as "a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end." While I did apply the fundamentals of body position, Sight Picture, trigger squeeze, and breathing, that day I did it in the proper order to get the particular end. This was learned a few years later, supported by sports psychology, and then etched into Army training in multiple Training Circulars.

By adopting this technique of building a process for application of a skill set, my proficiency in many tasks has improved. I have been able to achieve a Flow state with shooting, riding, writing and content production. The day above, for 20 rounds, I was in the Flow state. That dear readers is where true proficiency is.

Flow is moving through the process automatically with minimal mental and physical energy expenditure. Its just happening and its perfect. if you have done anything with the intent to be good at it, odds are you have hit flow state at some point. The trick is being able to do it on demand. This bring you back to the process. The more refined and practiced the process is, the faster you will get there.

To close, proficiency looks like everything is perfect. The process regardless of application is fast and smooth. Much like the perfect shift, the exact amount of lean, perfect balance of power against traction coming out of a corner or that shot breaking exactly where it needs to and you see the front sight lift out of the rear sight notch, see the brass exiting the pistol, and knowing that the round flew exactly where you wanted it to go.