I am seeing an improvement in accuracy as I keep my focus on the front sight. Last night I ran 5 or 6 mags and kept all but 3 rounds in the large circle of Todd's FAST target @ 15 yds. As I increased the cadence of fire, it seemed like it took more time to find the front sight and I would slow down again.
Is there some technique I am missing here, or do I just need more practice?
I do a front sight drill, where your only goal is to follow the front sight. Aim at a plain sheet of paper (or even the berm) with no specific bullseye. The only goal of the drill is to be able to follow the front sight up and out of the notch and back in. Your cadence is dictated by the front sight being in sharp focus and centered in the rear notch. Just start squeezing the rounds off as fast as you have perfectly clear fosuc on the sight, and you must track it through its full range of movement. I usually find that I shoot some extremely small groups when running this drill. If I have not done this drill in some time, it usually takes about a half a mag before I can "see" fast enough to follow the sight, and I don't worry to much about speed, so long as I can follow the sight.
The other half of this drill, which does greatly affect your speed, is grip and stance. If you are lacking in either of those two, your sights won't track back to the start quickly and efficiently. This will require you to slow your cadence in order to achieve proper sight alignment.
O M G I didn't think I was lacking in this until yesterday NGCSUgrad observed me and suggested an mod to my grip - specifically the placement, and direction of pressure of my strong hand thumb, and a small change to the placement of my weak hand thumb and fingers. Holy satori! The difference in tracking the front sight across longer strings of fast shooting (4-6) was visually obvious to me. And it showed on the target immediately.Originally Posted by John Ralston
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
SOOOOoooo, where do you now put your SH thumb and WH thumb and fingers?
Last edited by supersix4; 06-13-2011 at 02:08 PM.
Something like this..
Gotcha, that is my grip as well, just though I might be missing a fine point on my grip.Something like this..
Thanks,
Supersix, I'm so glad John posted those awesome pics. I wasn't thrilled about trying to put it to words alone.
Last week, a profile pic of me would have looked pretty similiar. But here were the tweaks I got yesterday.
See his support thumb - where it contacts the frame? My thumb WAS a bit further back, and it's been moved up to the position of the pic.
See all 4 of his support hand fingers fully under the trigger guard? Last week, mine were leading up across the front lower end of the trigger guard. Now tucked under like the pic, facilitated by the support hand camming further forward to place that support thumb.
And the strong thumb was in nearly the same position but not leveraging downward as hard as learned yesterday.
Those tweaks by NGCSUgrad seemed like tiny tweaks until I ran it with some extended strings rapidly.
Thanks John R!
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
How much pressure are you putting down with your strong hand thumb? Are you using pressure with your support hand thumb and index finger? Do you have a crush grip with your strong hand or more of a squeeze between your finger tips and palm? The same question for your support had grip.
I use 100% strength on both hands - may not be for the competition world, but I do follow the theory that when I really need to use my pistol the adrenaline will pretty much throw the 60/40 ratio thing out the window.
I put some downward force with my strong thumb, can't really say how much, but not a huge amount. Support hand thumb does nothing except point at the target. SLG recommends putting pressure on the grip with your palms by squeezing your pecs together (in addition to the squeeze of your hands). Kind of like trying to squish a tin can by just pulling your palms together. This lets you pull in a big muscle group (as compared to your hands and arms only). Makes quite a difference. You should also have a fairly firm core. Of course, this is all way easier if you are in shape. The stronger you are, the more you can control the gun without fatigue.
Support thumb forward position is dictated by the trigger finger. I try to keep the tips of both at about the same position on the frame (when extended of course). I think this comes from Brian Enos's book.
I use 100% strength on both hands - may not be for the competition world, but I do follow the theory that when I really need to use my pistol the adrenaline will pretty much throw the 60/40 ratio thing out the window.
I put some downward force with my strong thumb, can't really say how much, but not a huge amount. Support hand thumb does nothing except point at the target. SLG recommends putting pressure on the grip with your palms by squeezing your pecs together (in addition to the squeeze of your hands). Kind of like trying to squish a tin can by just pulling your palms together. This lets you pull in a big muscle group (as compared to your hands and arms only). Makes quite a difference. You should also have a fairly firm core. Of course, this is all way easier if you are in shape
Support thumb forward position is dictated by the trigger finger. I try to keep the tips of both at about the same position on the frame (when extended of course). I think this comes from Brian Enos's book.
When the timer goes off I revert to gripping tightly with both hands.
SLG's comments have made a huge difference in my ability to manage recoil. Pushups have been helping with upper body strength.
I heard about the support thumb and trigger finger lining up from Jarrett. All good points thank you for taking the time to post.
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