There’s a very similar concept in motorbiking, target fixation. It essentially says that you go where you look. If you’re riding along and there’s a pothole in front of you, it’s easier to avoid it if you look either to the side of it or past it. If you look at it, you subconsciously turn towards it.
I remember an episode of Little House on the Prairie from my childhood. Pa has to get a job at the quarry, and he and a buddy are put to work drilling holes in the rock with a long metal spike and a sledgehammer. One of them has to hold the spike in place while the other bangs on it with the sledge. How the spike holder still had any fingers attached at the end of the day is beyond me. That shit traumatized me.
Swinging your hammer is easy.
Avoiding your fingers is the tricky bit.
The trick is to look at the nail and not your fingers. If you look at your fingers so you don’t hit them, you’ll hit them.
I just turn my head away entirely and squeal as I gently tap around hoping to hit something.
Damn, that’s why I keep hitting my toes. Gotta look up!
There’s a very similar concept in motorbiking, target fixation. It essentially says that you go where you look. If you’re riding along and there’s a pothole in front of you, it’s easier to avoid it if you look either to the side of it or past it. If you look at it, you subconsciously turn towards it.
also choke up on the hammer. gives you less oomph, but more control.
“The trick is not minding that it hurts.”
I remember an episode of Little House on the Prairie from my childhood. Pa has to get a job at the quarry, and he and a buddy are put to work drilling holes in the rock with a long metal spike and a sledgehammer. One of them has to hold the spike in place while the other bangs on it with the sledge. How the spike holder still had any fingers attached at the end of the day is beyond me. That shit traumatized me.