How to increase pistol shooting speed

[GJM]

Here is where I am coming from. Some years back, I discussed splits with Manny Bragg. Manny said that earlier in his career, he was interested in faster splits, and Frank Garcia told him, flat out, that if you are shooting splits faster than .25 in a match, the gun is shooting you, rather than you shooting the gun. If you consider that with minor scoring, a C is equal to .20 seconds on a very high, 10 hit factor stage, and .40 seconds on a more typical 5 hit factor stage, you can see that saving .02-.04 on a split is a tough way to pick up score. Different source, Robbie Leatham, told me his most important piece of USPSA advice is to shoot the close targets slow and the far targets fast. Why, because an A at 3 yards has the same score as an A at 35 yards. Think how often you see someone at a match go blam, blam, blam on 3 yards targets, getting a bunch of C.s. However, many shots in a match are more like .25-.35 speed, and being able to shoot an A in .30 instead of .50 would seem to provide more return in total score.

Different game, but Darryl would tell you that in real life defensive shooting, fast splits bring with them more downside than upside.

I have no problem with shooting faster splits, and along with draws and reloads, they are our metrics. However, I would not lose sleep because a newer shooter is running .26 splits on a Bill drill. Looking at the Gabe White testing standards, he has .25 as the standard at the light pin, intermediate level (and .20 at the turbo level, reinforcing what Clusterfrack is saying about what is a good goal to get to eventually).

As a personal note, I have never found the shoot in the berm practice to work for me, and routinely shoot slower splits when doing it, than shooting at the target. Probably something about tension, as I often shoot my fastest splits when not trying to.

[Mr_White]

A big part of learning to shoot at the paces we're discussing here is becoming familiar with what the pistol is going to look like at those speeds. If you're used to a process where you're letting the sights settle completely, letting the gun stop, then pressing another shot, a two second bill drill is going to look pretty chaotic. I think it's important to become familiar with how the faster shooting looks without the onus of trying to 'hit' something. At least initially.

TOTALLY agree with this!

[spinmove_]

I think the important question is what's missing from your technique that is limiting your split speed? The utility of a 0.16 vs 0.20 split isn't that great in comparison to the other time components in high performance shooting. I'm guessing it's grip (and timing), and that will help with SO much more than splits. (It's not the gun).

A big part of learning to shoot at the paces we're discussing here is becoming familiar with what the pistol is going to look like at those speeds. If you're used to a process where you're letting the sights settle completely, letting the gun stop, then pressing another shot, a two second bill drill is going to look pretty chaotic. I think it's important to become familiar with how the faster shooting looks without the onus of trying to 'hit' something. At least initially.

+1 for dry bill drills or the like also. Lots of value there in just learning to manipulate the trigger at those speeds.

Ok, so it makes sense that getting used to that pace/timing and also getting used to seeing the pistol move around as chaotically as it will in that state will be key. I like the idea of Dry Bill Drills. What else can I work on dry in order to build up to that kind of pacing? I would imagine that this is one of those things where there isn't a ton of dry solutions and it's one of those things that just has to be worked on in live fire.

[Mr_White]

As a personal note, I have never found the shoot in the berm practice to work for me, and routinely shoot slower splits when doing it, than shooting at the target. Probably something about tension, as I often shoot my fastest splits when not trying to.

That's exactly what happened to me the last time I tried shooting into the berm to find faster splits. They were exactly the same as they were on the Bill Drill I subsequently shot at 7 yards, with a target, and all or almost all As (don't remember.)

Tension from too much trying!

[Mr_White]

Ok, so it makes sense that getting used to that pace/timing and also getting used to seeing the pistol move around as chaotically as it will in that state will be key. I like the idea of Dry Bill Drills. What else can I work on dry in order to build up to that kind of pacing? I would imagine that this is one of those things where there isn't a ton of dry solutions and it's one of those things that just has to be worked on in live fire.

I think it's worth saying that live fire is going to be especially key for the things you are talking about working on.

That said, there are some things you can do dry. Since we have this handy Drill of the Week section with some dry drills in it...

Work on the draw to first shot: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....6-CC-Dry-Draws

Work on running the trigger straight back (for the Bill Drill context, put emphasis on the non-register finger start positions, especially whichever finger start position you think applies to the distance you habitually let the trigger forward to get it reset): https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....Three-Triggers

Work on tracking the front sight out of recoil and back to the target spot, and manipulating the trigger in accordance with the sights-in-motion: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....-Single-Target

You can actually do quite a bit on the sub-parts in dry practice. To TRULY practice recoil control, you are going to have to live-fire.

[spinmove_]

I think it's worth saying that live fire is going to be especially key for the things you are talking about working on.

That said, there are some things you can do dry. Since we have this handy Drill of the Week section with some dry drills in it...

Work on the draw to first shot: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....6-CC-Dry-Draws

Work on running the trigger straight back (for the Bill Drill context, put emphasis on the non-register finger start positions, especially whichever finger start position you think applies to the distance you habitually let the trigger forward to get it reset): https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....Three-Triggers

Work on tracking the front sight out of recoil and back to the target spot, and manipulating the trigger in accordance with the sights-in-motion: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....-Single-Target

You can actually do quite a bit on the sub-parts in dry practice. To TRULY practice recoil control, you are going to have to live-fire.

Ok, looks like I've got at least one more target to print off and now 4 drills I can work on dry. Awesome, thank you.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll drill this stuff as much as I can for two weeks and see how it goes in the next live session.

[LSP552]

A big part of learning to shoot at the paces we're discussing here is becoming familiar with what the pistol is going to look like at those speeds. If you're used to a process where you're letting the sights settle completely, letting the gun stop, then pressing another shot, a two second bill drill is going to look pretty chaotic. I think it's important to become familiar with how the faster shooting looks without the onus of trying to 'hit' something. At least initially.

+1 for dry bill drills or the like also. Lots of value there in just learning to manipulate the trigger at those speeds.

This^

I'd add that knowing just how less of a perfect sight picture can still get an A zone hit is also important. Shooting an out of the notch drill where you see how high, low, left and right your front sight can be and still get hits helps to free your mind on not waiting for the perfect sight picture.

[Luke]

All the cool kids shoot fast.

I'd focus on transitions, THAT, is how you win a match.

[Clobbersaurus]

As a guy who has been working on Bill drills a lot over the past year, and as a guy who has recently made a big break through with my Bill drills, perhaps I can help by letting the OP know what I worked on.

1) Bill drills in dry practice, 1.3sec par time. (OWB holster)
2) Dry practice draws .6 second par (OWB holster - no, I do not hit that par time consistently, but I sure do work hard to get there).
3) Lots of Bill drills in live fire.
4) Quite a few "berm" Bill drills, specifically working on feeling what I am capable of without regard to accuracy. I also worked on sight tracking with this drill.
5) Lots of focus on support hand grip and crushing the gun.

[spinmove_]

All the cool kids shoot fast.

I'd focus on transitions, THAT, is how you win a match.

How would one speed up transitions?


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