How do I start shooting faster?

[rojocorsa]

Some of you might have seen this, since I posted on a different place on the Internet.

I've competed in my first ever USPSA shoot last Sunday at one club (Richmond Hotshots in Richmond, CA (SF Bay Area)), and I did another USPSA match at Chabot (Castro Valley, CA).
I am new to the game, but I am not exactly new to shooting. Unlike the first match, today I didn't have any small errors etc.

I am having solid hits, but I am too slow when shooting the metric targets. I know that in the match I did today, I got most if not all of the points on a stage, but my times made me really uncompetitive.

I am sure some of it is probably due to the fact that I've only shot 2 entire matches thus far. I feel confident with my pistol basics, except for the speed factor....so:

Any tips on how to approach this correctly in order to shoot faster?

*I am shooting production with a stock M-9.

Thank you.

[GJM]

The advice part is easy -- learn to shoot A's faster. The doing it part, is what is difficult. Dry fire a lot, live fire a lot, get instruction, go to matches.

As a Production shooter, I don't think sacrificing accuracy is a good strategy, except perhaps in practice when building speed. Penalties and C/D hits are ruinous in Production.

[Sal Picante]

*I am shooting production with a stock M-9.
Thank you.

I'm only chiming in because you're the only other retard with a Beretta.

My advice? Buy this book, read it, start doing that stuff:

Got video?
What is slow?
What do you consider fast?

[rojocorsa]

I placed 23/32 in the last match I did.

Here are my results, (I am still learning how to decipher all of these)





I will try to get some video of my very first match up later.

[nwhpfan]

I'm only chiming in because you're the only other retard with a Beretta.

My advice? Buy this book, read it, start doing that stuff:

Got video?
What is slow?
What do you consider fast?

Yep, and get this one too. http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Shoo...rds=brian+enos

I shot a few matches and was probably just like you. I shot about 99% of the points and was about %40 slower than everyone else.

I bought the books above and went to work. Within just few months of Dry Firing most nights the week I was knocking on the door of Master Class. Then I took a class from Steve Anderson.

But I'll give you a hint on going fast.

First, go as accurate as you can as quickly as you can. Then go as fast as you can for fast sake to see how fast you can actually go. Don't even worry about hits. In fact, don't even use a target.

Take that high accuracy standard and that high speed standard and force the accuracy into the speed. Or the speed into the accuracy. This is where you will "learn" what you need to do to do it.

[rojocorsa]

Would it sound dumb to you guys if I said I need to get a feel for my gun as far as rapid fire goes? I've never actually fired this pistol rapidly because that gets me kicked out of the ranges where I usually shoot....and I've only done two competitions thus far and up until now, speed wasn't a priority as much as being safe with the firearm was, or learning the game correctly. It was only after this last match in which I had no technical errors or fumbles (or procedurals, etc) that I realized---ok, I am ready to start acquiring speed. I think what I will do is skip the next match and only go to the practice session. That way I can get some much needed trigger time.

[olstyn]

Would it sound dumb to you guys if I said I need to get a feel for my gun as far as rapid fire goes?

Not even a little bit. Slow fire is not the same thing at all, and seeing your sights quickly and pulling the trigger quickly without losing (too much) accuracy is something that has to be learned. I've been shooting USPSA for several years and I'm still learning it, to be honest. Your scores look fine for a beginner, especially given that in 3/4 of your stages, the worst you did, accuracy-wise, was either 2 C hits or a single D hit. 69/80 points in the last one isn't even that bad, really, although it looks like you exchanged accuracy for speed on that one a bit, at least judging by the times vs the total points on the other stages.

Probably the quickest area of improvement for beginners who are slow but accurate is to learn to be efficient with your movement, and to RUN. If you think about it, on a field course, you spend more time moving than shooting, so what you need to do is figure out the most efficient (least number of steps) path through the course, and make sure you're moving fast when you move. Also, in Production, planning your reloads is huge. If you can set yourself up to never have to do a flat-footed reload, you'll save a ton of time. (Reloads while running cost you little to no time vs reloads while standing still - efficiency, just like finding the shortest path.)

All that said, unless you've got a time or ammo constraint that's preventing you from doing both, I'd say skipping a match for a practice session is a mistake. Especially at the beginning, there's a lot you can learn by watching more experienced competitors shoot. Most of the time, in my experience, anyway, they'll be happy to give you advice on how you can improve and/or what a good stage plan is, so talk to them! Of course, if you're limited on time or ammo, then you have to make the call on whether the practice session or the match is more valuable to you, but if possible, I'd do both.

Good luck, and keep asking questions!

[GJM]

It really boils down to the same thing as for everyone else -- figuring out how to press the trigger faster, without disturbing the sights such that it spoils your shot.

[Luke]

It really boils down to the same thing as for everyone else -- figuring out how to press the trigger faster, without disturbing the sights such that it spoils your shot.

I know you are far more experienced and a far better shot than I, but wouldn't you say theres more to it than that?

i know you have to do that to go fast, but you also have to do other things a lot quicker, like get back on target, back on sights..ect. I thought no it's totally possible to be able to move the trigger very fast with no sight movement and still shoot slow. Isn't the trigger press just one part of the equation when talking about shooting fast?


EDIT: so I re read your post, maybe all of what I'm talking about falls under the "figure out how to pull the trigger fast without moving the sights..?"

[HopetonBrown]

Become a member at Richmond and they have practice every Saturday.