OrigamiAK's phenomenal article on AIWB in USPSA

[LittleLebowski]

Thanks for letting me host this, OrigamiAK!

Article

[Mr_White]

Thanks for hosting it!

[1slow]

Great article, this is an inspiration for me on the path to my improvement.

[justintime]

Awesome stuff

[jetfire]

Thanks for hosting it!

Serious question: how do you get to "like" dry fire? I've had people compare it to batting practice, but I liked BP because I was actually HITTING the ball. Not standing in my basement pretending to hit the ball.

[Mr_White]

Serious question: how do you get to "like" dry fire? I've had people compare it to batting practice, but I liked BP because I was actually HITTING the ball. Not standing in my basement pretending to hit the ball.

I enjoy shooting and hitting in live fire. I want to be really, really good with a pistol. Seeing a good sight picture and feeling a good trigger press in dry fire is directly representative of hitting in live fire. The dry fire became more enjoyable (though I have always enjoyed it to a degree) because it was kind of like I was hitting if I was doing the right things to hit, even though there wasn't any actual hitting. I feel some of the same enjoyment that I feel in live fire.

This was so helpful because the dry fire I came to enjoy is a big part of the process that leads to improvement and success, and I came to focus on the process that would lead to actual improvement rather than just concentrating on the desired end state of 'being really good', which doesn't necessarily lead anywhere.

I am not strong with baseball, so this may be totally wrong, but in the example of you in your basement pretending to hit the ball, is there any analog to calling the shot? If not, that seems very different from dry fire, where the shot should be called so you would/should know if you 'hit' or not. I don't think I would enjoy dry fire nearly as much if I had to guess whether I was doing it right.

[jetfire]

I enjoy shooting and hitting in live fire. I want to be really, really good with a pistol. Seeing a good sight picture and feeling a good trigger press in dry fire is directly representative of hitting in live fire. The dry fire became more enjoyable (though I have always enjoyed it to a degree) because it was kind of like I was hitting if I was doing the right things to hit, even though there wasn't any actual hitting. I feel some of the same enjoyment that I feel in live fire.

This was so helpful because the dry fire I came to enjoy is a big part of the process that leads to improvement and success, and I came to focus on the process that would lead to actual improvement rather than just concentrating on the desired end state of 'being really good', which doesn't necessarily lead anywhere.

I am not strong with baseball, so this may be totally wrong, but in the example of you in your basement pretending to hit the ball, is there any analog to calling the shot? If not, that seems very different from dry fire, where the shot should be called so you would/should know if you 'hit' or not. I don't think I would enjoy dry fire nearly as much if I had to guess whether I was doing it right.

Probably the closest analogy would be using a tethered tee-ball stand to work on your swing mechanics. Which I never really enjoyed either.

[Jared]

I really enjoyed that article, particularly the brutal honesty where he talks about realizing that he had a lot of room for improvement after shooting the IDPA classifier and then setting about doing something about it. Things like that are one of the reasons that OAK is one of my favorite online posters. I'm not as good as OAK is by a long shot, but I do understand why he pursues continual technical improvement.

Caleb: When it comes to liking dry fire, I think that it is one of those things that some people just never come to like. I love it, but I do vary it quite a bit, never spending more than a week doing the same thing. After that, it's time to work on something else. I might do say a week of 25 yard stuff, a week of 10 yard stuff, a week of wide transition type stuff, then a week of movement drills.

[Cecil Burch]

I have never liked dry fire. I did it because I knew it helped, and I could not get the live fire time I wanted. Now that I am seeing it pay dividends when I do get to blast away, I am starting to enjoy it more.

[JHC]

Serious question: how do you get to "like" dry fire? I've had people compare it to batting practice, but I liked BP because I was actually HITTING the ball. Not standing in my basement pretending to hit the ball.

Dang, how long did you play? (joe c) Good question though!

OP titled this "Phenomenal" - perfect word to describe it. Awesome job.