What Identifies you?

Posted On: 08-30-2021

I was reading in the New York Times an article on the late Charlie Watts, the drummer for the Rolling Stones for nearly 60 years.  I was like many a fan of the Stones.  What caught me as relatable to youth shooting in that article were these statements by Ben Sisario, “His distinctive drumming style — playing with a minimum of motion, often slightly behind the beat — gave the group’s sound a barely perceptible but inimitable rhythmic drag. Bill Wyman, the Stones’ longtime bassist, described that as a byproduct of the group’s unusual chemistry. While in most rock bands the guitarist follows the lead of the drummer, the Stones flipped that relationship — Richards, the guitarist, led the attack, with Watts (and all others) following along.”  “Watts’s technique involved idiosyncratic use of the hi-hat, the sandwiched cymbals that rock drummers usually whomp with metronomic regularity. Watts tended to pull his right hand away on the upbeat, giving his left a clear path to the snare drum — lending the beat a strong but slightly off-kilter momentum.”

As I read this, I thought of someone that over the course of a 60+ year career had a style that made him unique, but deeper rooted was the fact he was so consistent with his playing he created something recognizable by others because of his consistency. 

Youth shooters of course are not career shooters (yet) but think of the basics one teaches and that word “consistency” keep coming up.  As a youth shooter is there something you can define as your own?  Is your footwork slightly adjusted from the norm, is your finger along the barrel slightly different from others, or does your pre-shot, shot and reaction in your own very consistent way?  Over time if you do things over and over it will be what other notice as perhaps reasoning that you are or have become a great shooter. 

Often when I watch youth shooters, I look for those consistent pieces of each shot and while most don’t catch my full attention, some do for the same reasons the author identified the uniqueness of Charlie Watts drumming style. Something catches my eye and as I watch, the shooter does it over and over. 

I add in here that all the great shooters have something they do that makes them unique and once again they do it consistently to accomplish success.  Consider your own consistencies, can you write them down?  Try this to see if you can identify even the little things you do over and over.

David R. Vaught, Ph.D.