Athens GA Gabe White School Informal Log

[JHC]

I've given a lot of thought into the "on demand" level of performance topic and discussed it a good bit with Kevin B and gained some insights from him which if I wasn't so dense I'd have internalized from the lesson plan in post #3 above.

The impetus was the thought which a few of us students discussed later in Day 2 were mine and one or two others thoughts "Dang, I shot a lot of Light Pin scores practicing up but they didn't show up this weekend on the timer yada yada yada".

So with regards to ". . . ability to deliver a given level of performance."

I think that I have to "own" that level over a longer period of time and volume of shooting. I think going into the class I was a couple of weeks of being on the ragged edge of Light level shooting with the G19 (I changed to from my 9mm Operator for issues), but I hadn't owned it long enough to innately know how every draw and every transition felt. So to hit a certain result, I deep down felt a need to rush it.

I'd seen a lot of Light Pin in practice when I'd nail it, but maybe 50-75% of my reps. That's certainly not "owning" a given level of performance.

This I think is where VALID confidence comes into play vs my "hero or zero" swaggering confidence.

I'm reminded of the thread here about what someone's 100% clean FAST was vs hitting PRs.

So that's where my mindset thinking has wound up. Methodical process oriented shooting vs outcome (fast on the timer) "lookee I hit the high standard on that one! Lemme try that again!"

[GJM]

Does all that volume of practice increase your on demand to a higher percentage of your max performance, or just keep driving higher your max performance, with an on demand that also moves up along with max performance?

[JHC]

Does all that volume of practice (1) increase your on demand to a higher percentage of your max performance, or (2) just keep driving higher your max performance, with an on demand that also moves up along with max performance?

I think the former (1) more than the latter (2) in my case. Moving up the max (2) me thinks takes stepping out to the ragged edge again vs a super reliable performance near the former max. If I understood the choices.

[GuanoLoco]

Does all that volume of practice increase your on demand to a higher percentage of your max performance, or just keep driving higher your max performance, with an on demand that also moves up along with max performance?

I think primarily the latter, but some of both.

Lots of practice will cause max performance to slowly creep up.

Lots of practice will cause on demand performance as a % of max performance to rise, I think more easily than max performance. It will also improve the consistency of on demand performance - you can correct minor errors and still be basically on track.

Due to practice, I felt like the gap between my on demand and max was relatively low. My on demand was basically a med-high light pin, and my max was, at best, at the threshold of Turbo. I made small errors (too fast, grip, not crisp enough, etc.) but they really didn't change my results very much. I had enough 'training bandwidth' in reserve to correct and still come out with an expected/acceptable result (by my standard per my level of investment) in each run.

The larger the gap between on-demand and max the higher the risk of 'going for it' and making expensive errors.

[Mr_White]

Lots of good thoughts there you guys.

I think there are some generalities to this code but it also varies somewhat.

I've started to think of two big pieces of this puzzle in terms of Skill and Discipline.

You need to push in order to deepen your reservoir of Skill, in terms of accuracy and time, separately and together in various ways.

You need to establish Discipline in correctly applying the Skill you have available to the problem at hand - as aggressively as possible when that's demanded, as carefully as needed, and as careful as possible when that's the way to go under the circumstances.

Being Disciplined enough for each of the many different shots we might shoot, without unnecessarily leaving unused Skill on the table, can take people years and years to learn. I think it's very much what the sports of Practical Shooting are all about, as is the term Practical Shooting itself.

People might approach building Skill and Discipline different ways, depending on their level of motivation and resource. Everyone needs to devote practice to Discipline. If you have a lesser level of resource for training, probably better spend it on correct application (Discipline) of the existing Skill level. If you have enough resource and motivation to throw at training, you better still work on Discipline, but you may also be able to deepen the reservoir of Skill that your Discipline will be drawing from.

I think that, as GuanoLoco said, as max performance increases, so does the on demand performance level - so I think they are connected - but I also think different manners of practice can affect them differently.

Anyone can shoot clean if they shoot conservatively. The idea is to change your definition of conservative shooting.

JHC, I really like this thought from the practice plan in post #3. My narrow experience precisely agrees with it. Stress is hard. On demand performance is hard, even within the context of the square range. If you want to be able to perform even on the square range, under stress and on demand at a certain level, I think one of the best (maybe the best? I don't know) ways to accomplish that is to get your max performance level high enough, that when you 'get careful' and fight through the stress, the performance level is still where you wanted it to be.

[jlw]

It depends on what you are practicing.

As Gabe said in the class, "How many repetitions of lifting 100 pounds does it take to get to where you can lift 400 pounds?"

At some point, your going to reach the limit of your physical ability. Proper practice moves your on demand performance closer to that limit.

[GuanoLoco]

... At some point, your going to reach the limit of your physical ability. ...

Hush, I'm aging and in active denial here. If I accept that I'm at or even near the limit of my physical ability I would become very sad.

The notion of Discipline as a distinct goal is quite interesting to me.

My current match performance usually hinges on the discipline to make ALL of the shots in a match, and often just a few penalty shots out of many usually make/break the match for me.

A serious goal for me is to have the discipline to be accountable for *every* shot (not almost all of the shots) - while utilizing a high % of the skill that I have developed. This isn't the same as shooting overly conservatively - a losing strategy for sure.

[Mr_White]

Hush, I'm aging and in active denial here. If I accept that I'm at or even near the limit of my physical ability I would become very sad.

Growth Mindset absolutely rules. I applaud you for it. Irrespective of what is actually true with regard to a person's potential, Growth Mindset is part of everyone's best possible strategy to improve.

[GuanoLoco]

... Proper practice moves your on demand performance closer to that limit.

I think this is key - I want to improve my max (physical ability), and pushing / speed mode is the best way to accomplish this.

But Speed mode implies mistakes, and those mistakes must be correctable in match mode, a.k.a. 'on demand performance'.

I really liked the structure of Gabe's training for this - many reps of speed/push mode, maybe half as many reps of match/on demand mode, then TEST yourself.

If I was to make a change to this for my own use it would be to test myself on a cold run BEFORE starting speed mode practice, and then another day, as soon as I got to the range.

Edit:

Further thinking - this is straight forward for a single skill, like a string in the Food Court Standards(tm). It is mostly the same for the set of all 4 strings. Where it gets complicated is the broader set of skills required for matches or the unpredictable requirements of the streetz, where the test is given first, and the learning occurs afterwards.

[GJM]

What a nice conversation -- on a topic which goes to the ore of what I like most about Pistol-Forum.