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Thread: Practicing to Increase Speed and Accuracy

  1. #11
    Chasing the Horizon RJ's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Quote Originally Posted by Clusterfrack View Post
    Go for the low hanging fruit first. When you do the math, splits aren't going to move you up in match performance until you get to the higher levels of the sport. In fact, trying to smash 0.15-0.20 splits will probably result in worse hits. The people I see moving up to B class and competing effectively at that level (not an easy thing to do) usually slow their splits down. A lot. That's because they have moved from pulling the trigger twice with one sight picture (maybe not even that) to being able to track the sights through recoil, stabilize as needed, and fire an accurate second shot. Obviously you can't be a complete turtle, but I do not recommend worrying about splits for quite a while.

    Try working on these:

    -Stage planning, memorization, visualization. See yourself shooting the stage in detail at least 10x before you do it live.

    -Shoot Alphas (or A&C's if you're shooting Major). Do not shoot Ds or Mikes. This seems obvious, yet most newer shooters lose a ton of points. Make sure you see the target in terms of your scoring zone, not just a big brown thing.

    -Transitions: Are you pulling off targets before you're done shooting them? Shooting before your gun is on target? Or are you slow? Work on these things for Yuge improvements.

    -Movement: gun up and ready to shoot before you enter a position

    -Marksmanship: are you confident in hitting far steel and tight partials?
    I can’t smash the like button hard enough.

    This should be required reading for every D shooter like me before every single match.

  2. #12
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    Kansas
    Quote Originally Posted by Clusterfrack View Post
    Go for the low hanging fruit first. When you do the math, splits aren't going to move you up in match performance until you get to the higher levels of the sport. In fact, trying to smash 0.15-0.20 splits will probably result in worse hits. The people I see moving up to B class and competing effectively at that level (not an easy thing to do) usually slow their splits down. A lot. That's because they have moved from pulling the trigger twice with one sight picture (maybe not even that) to being able to track the sights through recoil, stabilize as needed, and fire an accurate second shot. Obviously you can't be a complete turtle, but I do not recommend worrying about splits for quite a while.

    Try working on these:

    -Stage planning, memorization, visualization. See yourself shooting the stage in detail at least 10x before you do it live.

    -Shoot Alphas (or A&C's if you're shooting Major). Do not shoot Ds or Mikes. This seems obvious, yet most newer shooters lose a ton of points. Make sure you see the target in terms of your scoring zone, not just a big brown thing.

    -Transitions: Are you pulling off targets before you're done shooting them? Shooting before your gun is on target? Or are you slow? Work on these things for Yuge improvements.

    -Movement: gun up and ready to shoot before you enter a position

    -Marksmanship: are you confident in hitting far steel and tight partials?
    I can’t love this post enough. Part of the thing I have not learned is how to more effective let off the gas when shooting at home. It probably sounds rather dumb, but the struggle is real.

    That said, the stages I absolutely suck at are the ones with three or six targets in a line and you engage them all with one or two rounds, possibly move, and engage again strong handed or the like. Since I don’t have a photographic memory, from what I do remember and remember reading in one of Ben Stoeger’s books is I’m not getting the sights settled on the target before shooting.

    Stages with cover and multiple positions, close multiple targets, and partial targets generally go fairly well.

    I’ll see if I can’t throw up screen shots of my scores from Practiscore when I get to my computer.

  3. #13
    Site Supporter
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    Nov 2019
    Location
    Kansas
    For whatever information it provides

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  4. #14
    Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Looking at your target, you need to spend time working on your grip and performing a clean trigger press. The best drill for that is Ben's double drills. A 8 yards you should be very close to keeping all your shots in the down zero zone as fast as you can pull the trigger.

    Once you get your grip down then you can focus on transitions. As someone stated earlier, you can gain the most time by transitions over splits but until your grip is solid everything will be a struggle.

    For perspective Ben has stated that half of all his practice rounds are spent on double drills.

    I have started prepping for serious competition again after many years off and was shocked at how much better I am shooting after spending much ammo on the doubles drill getting my grip correct.

    Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

  5. #15
    As they say, splits are for Youtube/The 'Gram, transitions are for titles.

    The main objective in practical shooting is to reduce time not spent shooting, as that costs you points. The key to this is to shoot sooner, not faster.
    This means that you must be fast/efficient at everything except for the shooting part. You must be ready to engage a target as soon as you get to a position, you need to exit a position quickly and effectively, you need to shoot targets in a good order, and you need to avoid waiting for moving/activated targets without doing anything else.

    With splits, there is a point of diminishing returns - depending on what kind of accuracy you are after, you can only shoot so fast while maintaining that.

    If you, at 7 yards/meters, can hold the Alpha while consistently shooting .20 splits, but you have a 2 second draw to first shot at 7, or a 3 second reload, your time is better spent elsewhere than trying to shave of a few hundredths on your splits.
    It is also simple math, if the difference between two solid A's or potentially a C/D or even a Mike is measured in a couple of hundredths of a second, it usually doesn't pay. Especially when you can shave off tenths if you practice your transitions.

    I fully agree that the Doubles drill by Ben is one of the best drills out there for this purpose.

    Attached is a video of a stage at a match last year, which I hope shows how you should enter a position ready to shoot.
    I shot all A's on the stage. Not sure what my split times are, but at the distances those targets were at, it is a comfortable pace for me shooting .40.

    https://youtu.be/BpIduE9IqGs

  6. #16
    Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Western Ohio
    Also buy more magazines and pouches and shoot Production in USPSA. Limited minor blows.

  7. #17
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    Kansas
    So I am just now getting back to the range again. The weather is getting better, and I have some free time. Trying to work on my draw, namely from concealment. At some point I need to start working the IDPA/USPSA holster, too.

    While I've seen and heard the info before, I saw this video from the man himself hit, and talking about support hand surface area on the grip (starts at 1:30) got me thinking. Doing just what he's talking about to get the support hand on the grip more today and it's significantly more controllable shooting fairly quickly to not only control recoil, but thus stay on the sights.

    Now my issue is getting the pistol gripped correctly coming out of the holster in order to get a good support hand grip, as well. Not to be one of those idiots that whines about minutia, but one thing I would like significantly more is if my M9 had that slight cutout under the beavertail that pretty much every other model has. However, I'll work with it.

    https://youtu.be/qvOmkcN_ioY

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