Time Warp exercise

[Clusterfrack]

I came up with this "drill" after yet another demonstration of how perception of time is misleading.

Time Warp exercise

Goals

1. demonstrate that perception of time while shooting is misleading
2. identify mental cues that make you see faster and/or shoot faster

Procedure (shot timer required, partner helpful)

1. Set up a drill of your choice. (E.g. Accelerator, Blake, Distance Changeup https://www.benstoeger.com/livefire-drills)
2. Find your baseline. Warm up. When you're ready, shoot at least 3 runs in your "comfort zone". Shoot ~80% A's. (In a 12 shot drill you shouldn't drop more than 2-3 C's, and you shouldn't be going so slow that you're shooting all As.) Record your average time, and commit it to memory.
3. Focus on shooting faster, while maintaining 80% A's. Do NOT look at the timer, but try to guess your time. Check your points. Disregard any runs where you have too many points down. Record your time estimate, the actual time, and your observations (how you felt, what you were focusing on, etc.)
4. Focus on shooting more relaxed, while maintaining 80% A's. Do NOT look at the timer, but try to guess your time. Check your points. Disregard any runs where you have too many points down. Record your time estimate, the actual time, and your observations (how you felt, what you were focusing on, etc.)
5. Focus on vision while maintaining 80% A's. See as much detail as you can on the targets, and how your sights move. Do NOT look at the timer, but try to guess your time. Check your points. Disregard any runs where you have too many points down. Record your time estimate, the actual time, and your observations (how you felt, what you were focusing on, etc.)
6. (optional) Focus on mental cue of your choice while maintaining 80% A's. As above.

I'm looking forward to your observations. Let's discuss!

[Guerrero]

7. Jump to the left
8. Step to the right
9. Put your hands on your hips
10. Pull your knees in tight




Sorry, I couldn't resist.


Seems like that would be an interesting exercise.

[Clusterfrack]

@JCL and I ran the Time Warp exercise yesterday. Here are my notes:

We shot a Mini-Accelerator (2 @25yds, 2@15yds, 2@7yds).

Baseline: 3.50s; 1.56 draw

Pushing: 3.21; 1.55 draw
Felt faster than baseline. Felt aggressive on the draw pushout (note: wasn't actually faster).

Relaxed: 3.23; 1.41 draw. No sense of how fast it was.

Vision: 2.97. 1.39 draw. I saw everything the dot was doing, kind of in slow motion. Didn't feel "fast" or "pushing". The efficiency of the splits and transitions were good, from watching the dot. I guess it was a good run, based on what I saw.

Observations and conclusions:
Tension = slow. Continue to identify and eliminate unneeded tension. (E.g. wrist tension is good; shoulder tension isn't.)
Relaxation doesn’t always result in speed, but is a requirement. I've been starting every drill and stage with focused breathing, and the cue of "relax".
Vision + relaxation yield my fastest shooting. I know this, but still need work to believe it at the subconscious level.
I can gauge speed by paying close attention to the dot.

Here's @JCL before his "Relaxed" run:

[JCL]

@JCL and I ran the Time Warp exercise yesterday.

Fascinating exercise. I'm a non-competitive defensive shooter who's invested in the process of becoming a better practicioner with a handgun, typically a box stock G19/RMR rig from an appendix holster. Range days with @Clusterfrack are like MJ working with me on my free throw technique. I shot two runs of each part of the exercise. My observations:

Baseline: My focus was on makng the 80% A standard, and with just one dropped shot out of 12 I could have gone harder. Both runs felt similar, and in fact were identical time-wise.

Pushing: The first "shoot to where you want to be, not where you are" run didn't meet the hit standard (more on that later) and felt at least a second faster than the baseline, which was in fact true. I got that fixed and acceptable runs still felt faster than baseline, also true.

Relaxed: Relaxation is a subject near and dear to me which has been proven to be beneficial in a wide range of activiies. My relaxed runs felt somewhat faster than baseline, and were in fact just a bit slower than my botched first pushing run. I significantly underestimated how much faster they were.

Vision: I don't think that I fully met the designer's intent on this one. I called good shots, but my focus on accuracy came with a significant time penalty. The runs "felt" reasonably close to baseline but were in fact about a half-second slower. I also felt like my intent to shoot all Alphas (actually not the objective) induced a bit of tension that I had to mitigate with more thorough confirmation.

I've been indoctrinated with a lifetime of the "bad practice reps produce training scars" message, so I lean toward "get your hits and the speed will come" rather than "learn to execute at speed and the hits will come." My takeaway was was something that I already knew on a conscious level, that relaxation produces the best results. The trick is to cultivate a subconscious awareness of my relaxation state that will allow me to maintain it even outside the current boundaries of my comfort zone.