Ninety percent of shooting is trigger control

[MGW]

At first, I was going to slightly disagree with you until you provided your definition of trigger control. It's more of an aha moment now. Shooting well really is about isolation, isn't it? Isolate an acceptable sight picture from over aiming. Isolate the trigger press from the rest of your grip. Issolate letting recoil happen from pre-ignition push. I'm sure there's more.

I think in terms of TPC’s reactive shooting cycle, where step 2 is to “isolate the trigger,” and step three is to “let recoil happen.” If folks followed those steps sequentially, it would avoid all sorts of bad things.

Ernest and Gabe demo a drill, where they show you can grossly misalign your sights and still get good hits with good trigger control. The opposite is not true, as perfect sight alignment with gross trigger control leads to,really bad hits.

I think a bunch of folks here are wasting training effort on focusing on all sorts of things when their poor trigger control is what is holding them back.

I definitely suck at Step 2 and Step 3. Lack of skill for step 2 is more evident when I'm trying to shoot precisely. Step 3 is more evident when shooting quickly.

Short of practicing reloads, or close and dirty Bill drills, almost everything I practice, I think of as being about trigger control. Here are four drills that I think are pretty good as isolating trigger control at different speeds and distances.

Slow - shoot five rounds at a one inch square at 7 and 10 yards.

Medium speed and distance - shoot Garcia dots at 7 yards.

Further distance - put three or four eight inch steel at 25-30 yards, and draw and place two hits on all the steel.

Fast speed — do the Stoeger drill of repeatedly firing two shots as fast as you can and still hit the A zone at whatever distance you can work to.

I in no way believe I have mastered trigger control yet, and as long as I shoot I will be trying to improve how fast I can consistently move the trigger and still make a hit.

You just gave me a new practice focus for the rest of the winter.

[TCFD273]

I am convinced that at least ninety percent of shooting is trigger control, and at least ninety percent of what is discussed here and elsewhere is about shooting stuff other than trigger control.

JJ Racaza was on Mike Seeklanders podcast recently. The first 30min is about trigger control. He attributed his 2018 Nationals performance to putting extreme focus into trigger control. He referenced training with Leatham and it took 5yrs for what Rob was telling him before it clicked earlier this year.

Myself, JJ and Leatham would agree with you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GJM]

JJ Racaza was on Mike Seeklanders podcast recently. The first 30min is about trigger control. He attributed his 2018 Nationals performance to putting extreme focus into trigger control. He referenced training with Leatham and it took 5yrs for what Rob was telling him before it clicked earlier this year.

Myself, JJ and Leatham would agree with you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I kind of learned this trigger thing from Rob and JJ.

[TCFD273]

I kind of learned this trigger thing from Rob and JJ.

I’ve never trained with JJ, I have with Rob


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GJM]

I’ve never trained with JJ, I have with Rob


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

About a year ago, I did a detailed review on training with JJ, including his take on the trigger.

[GJM]

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?29747-JJ-Racaza

[TCFD273]

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?29747-JJ-Racaza

After I got to the “how many walls” I remembered reading that after you posted it. I need to set some time aside to take a class with him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Doc_Glock]

JJ Racaza was on Mike Seeklanders podcast recently. The first 30min is about trigger control. He attributed his 2018 Nationals performance to putting extreme focus into trigger control. He referenced training with Leatham and it took 5yrs for what Rob was telling him before it clicked earlier this year.

Myself, JJ and Leatham would agree with you.

I heard that podcast and I have to say they were talking over my head in that trigger discussion.

[GJM]

The way I think about shooting, trigger control is what allows you to hit what your gun is pointing at.

Aiming is helpful, so your gun is pointed at what you want to hit, but we probably need a lot less aiming than most people think is necessary.

Stance and grip allow you to control recoil and shoot faster, but your trigger press is what allows you to hit your target. If you rely on grip to move the trigger without disturbing the sights, you are going to run into problems when you have an imperfect grip or are shooting with just one hand. Some people, like Eric Grauffel, even think excessive grip with your support hand transmits tension to your trigger finger in your dominant hand.

Isolating the trigger press is extremely simple in concept, but very hard to do every time, especially with distractions or stress. I think Steel Challenge helps you to learn to isolate the trigger, because the whole match is essentially a series of classifiers, and you quickly learn how to shoot with emotional and trigger control if you are going to do well.

[LSP552]

I think most agree that trigger manipulation is the primary reason we miss. What I’ve been told, and agree with, is that shooting is 90% mental. We screw up manipulating the trigger because of lapses of our mental focus.