Looking for help

[irishshooter]

21 months ago I suffered an autoimmune neurological disorder that nearly paralyzed my rhomboid muscles of my dominant arm. At the time I was training for master class in IDPA & shooting was my life. I have been slowly rehabilitating however I am not nearly as fast or accurate as I was then having only shot 5 times in those 21 months. I'm looking for any suggestions for how to get back the "perishable" skills that I have lost. Any drill suggestions to get back to that level of shooting ASAP would be great! Thanks Mike

[Josh Runkle]

As I'm understanding, you're on the mend, correct? If so, glad to hear that you're getting better. That sounds awful.

I would start with a lot of time shooting. Do you have the time/availability to shoot a lot? Even 4-5 days a week of .22? I think some quality/enjoyable time behind a gun would help you remember a lot of what you've forgotten. Then, you should ask yourself, "Am I physically well enough to shoot 'full speed' the way I did before injury?" If not, slowly work back up to it. If you are physically capable, but just need to retrain yourself, start with some of the simple drills that you know. Break things down into simple elements and evaluate. For example do a drawstroke to a sight picture. Do a pressout to a shot. Shoot a low-probability target, reload, then shoot the same target.

By breaking down skills into subsets, you can see where you are messing up and fix those issues one by one. If, instead, you did something like a FAST drill, you might not catch onto what parts you are inefficient or bad at.

If you have a way to record yourself or shoot with someone who can give you good feedback, do so. Scores can't be your only evaluation. You really need a way to check through each part of your process to find your failure points and adjust.

Lastly, go take a fundamentals course from someone you trust. See if you are forgetting some basic steps somewhere.

I know you're probably thinking that you're still light-years ahead of these suggestions, but remember, the best shooters simply execute the basics with excellence; that's why it is so important to focus on the basics.

Do you dryfire? If so, what do you do in dryfire?