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"Angler's Quest" holistic approach to instruction will change the way fishing is taught forever. Those who embrace it the quickest, will take a quantum leap ahead of the rest. We acknowledge this approach will be questioned by many, and doubted by most. It is not for everyone!
And yet I am continually approached by a growing number of anglers sensing there is more.
The following is an excerpt from Volume No.1 of "Angler's Quest"
Achieving Peak Performance
In the world of sports there exists a phenomenon that many have observed, and a few "gifted" athletes have experienced. As observers we have most often noticed it while watching the best, in any sport, competing against other super stars of apparent equal abilities. In professional basketball the athletes are probably the most all-around gifted humans in sports. Yet, on certain days, for a few minutes or for even the whole game, one individual seems to take a quantum leap and somehow performs at a level far beyond the best of the best. Many adjectives are used to describe this super human leap in performance. It's often referred to as being in the zone, being in the flow, or achieving peak performance.
Is this peak performance reserved only for certain athletes, in certain sports or is it potentially available to all humans? I personally subscribe to the latter. I believe all humans are created with the potential to achieve this level of performance. Whether it is an artist who creates an original master piece, a musician composing music that has never been heard, or a scientist who discovers the unknown, are all examples of human potential manifesting itself at a higher level.
Are fishermen capable of obtaining these lofty levels? I will answer by addressing another question I am often asked. "How good are today's anglers?" I have consistently stated that on a scale of 1 to 10, the best fishermen today are around a 5. Good, great, are relative terms used all too freely in today's world. These descriptive words and others are worn by many but deserved for few. I am not sure who is truly deserving of this type of acclaim and more often then not these individuals are premature creations of the media. The humans that I personally admire are those who have succeeded in obtaining a high level of performance over many years.
Evolution
My evolution as a fisherman included the continuous absorption of knowledge and information. I committed myself to many hours on the water and to becoming the mechanistic and intellectual equal of the best. Then in 1976 and again in 1977, I won the World Championship of Bass Fishing and I kept winning after that. I became the first angler to win over a million dollars in competitive bass fishing. And true to the American sports fans, and media, I became the "best". And what was worse, I started believing it. Yet, I new in my heart that something was wrong. Yes, relative to my sport, I had obtained the credentials of greatness. I had the titles, the honors and awards, the sponsors, the recognition, and most important of all, the Money. Yet, I knew better than anyone that I still failed more often than I succeeded. Like all the other "great" anglers, I all to often came to the scales with an empty creel while others on that same day had experienced success. Conversely, there were days when something magical would occur. I would perform beyond my intellectual and mechanistic abilities, way beyond my own expectations. I would be fighting the wind, fighting the heat, fighting the fish, fighting myself, struggling to understand and then there would occur a shift in awareness. Suddenly, I was no longer fighting. I became part of nature, not separate from it. Everything I had perceived as negative earlier, now became a positive force leading me to the next fish.
The ordinary became extraordinary. I literally began to know what was about to occur before it happened. Just like the basketball player, who's in the zone and knows the ball is going in before he ever shoots, when I was in the flow, I would know the cast and place I would catch a fish before ever making it. For a few rare moments, or even rarer, for a day, I would touch perfection. I would take a quantum leap from being a 5 to being a 10.
Quantum Fishing
At first I wasn't sure whether the cause of these events were accidental, coincidental, or by divine intervention. Even more frustrating than understanding the source of these quantum leaps in performance, was understanding what triggered them, and how I could consciously and intentionally learn to control this shift in awareness.
My desire to understand this phenomenon began in 1983 after envisioning the winning catch of the U.S. Open . The night before I had seen myself running over 100 miles through the vast Lake Mead canyons and basins into the lower reaches of the Grand Canyon. What happened the next day was anything but ordinary. I abandoned the water that had provided me with a limit the first three days of the tournament. I ran to an area of the lake that I had never fished before. The area had never existed before, and does not exist today. I caught two 5 pound bass that I had seen in my vision the night before. (NOTE: to catch one 5 pound bass on Lake Mead in the summer was rare.) I caught the bass using a technique I had never used before, and I have not used that method since. This was not the first of such occurrences in my fishing career. I had been experiencing them since the 1976 Bass Masters Classic, but had successfully been rationalizing them away. After 1983, I could no longer accept this intellectual cover-up. I knew I had to attempt to understand the element of the human potential that was responsible for these incredible experiences.
Reflection
It's now been over 13 years now of purposeful searching and studying. I have read endless books from the great religions of the world to the great philosophies of man. I have studied artists, musicians, scientists, athletes, fellow anglers, and other individuals who have described similar experiences, tracing the sequence of events that led up to their break through. I know now that humans do and have always had the ability, by conscious intent and willful effort, to raise themselves to super levels of performance. I believe I understand most of the elements required and the state of mind necessary to achieve these "super levels".
Note: If you download the registration form, you should note that it has not been updated for 2008. Ignore old dates and information and fill only for the Lake Amistad school November 2-6, 2008. Also note that my new email address is rick4clunn@hughes.net.
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