Have been doing my dryfire most evenings (average of 5 times a week thus far this year). Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't...
In general, when I remember things like working the trigger and looking at the front sight, my shooting goes just fine within certain limits. As an example, here is some video of me shooting 3 FAST drills as part of the 2012 pistol-forum.com Performance Challenge:
As you can see, when I remember to work the trigger and see the sights, I do fairly well. When I don't---then I get significant penalties. And I'm hit and miss these days, unfortunately. It isn't that I'm just randomly shooting and sometimes I get lucky--it is that sometimes I just push the gun out there and blast away.
Like an idiot.
Overall, my control and work at close distances has gotten better, though.
Distance shooting, bullseye-style, though? Is ridiculously bad. Part of the Performance Challenge (see here for details) involves shooting a bullseye target at 25 yards freestyle, strong hand only, and weak hand only. No time limits, completely slow fire.
My scores are HORRIBLE. I first did this as part of a Drill of the Week awhile back, and got a decent-but-not-spectacular 252. Tried it this past week---got below 200 once, and a 214 once. (215? Something like that.) I am consistently shooting to the right (enough that I really DO think I need to adjust my sights a bit) freestyle, which is bad enough---but my single-hand shooting is just horrible.
I can keep my shots in a 3 inch circle at 7 yards single hand (WHO or SHO) but outside of that, I tend to just point the gun in the vaguely correct direction and smack the trigger, with expected results.
[sigh] I hate bullseye practice. (Which rather explains this problem.) But it'll help, so I'm going to add that to my standard practice regimen. For every live fire practice, I'll end with some basic, slowfire bullseye at 15, 20, and 25 yards. (Depending on which bay I'm in.) And in dryfire, I'll work on my single-hand trigger control.
In addition to everything else.
I haven't even worked on any USPSA-specific skills yet this year. On the other hand, my movement is generally pretty good, my tactics/plans are generally solid, and my reloads are all right (plus my current practice will help with that). I'm thinking that oddly enough, my current practice will probably make a significant difference to my USPSA shooting, simply because the accuracy part is the part I've always been bad at. :) So maybe this year I'll start hitting what I need to...
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Live Fire vs Dry Fire...
Went out yesterday to run a couple of drills for diagnostic purposes---and found that while my dryfire routine gets me solid sight pictures with good trigger work, live fire causes my brain to stop working.
The entire time was filled with instances of target-focused trigger-yanking, which is a combination of terms you never actually want to have as a descriptive of your shooting.
[sigh]
I was fast, all right---had two shots from concealment consistently off (when aiming at an index card at 7 yards) in 1.73 seconds. Too bad that my chances of HITTING the card with both shots were almost non-existent. Matter of fact, I often pulled both shots. (Inconsistently---both high, both low, one high/one low---all of the above happened. The hits were normally within a half inch of the card---but misses are still misses.)
Not good. Need to keep dryfire practice going (in which I really do make sure the sights/trigger work is solid) but add some live five doing one and two-shot drills starting from a timer, but with a par time of 3 seconds or so, with all hits necessary. That gives me a tremendous amount of time for good, aimed shots, and hopefully will reinforce the dryfire concepts of sights/trigger as opposed to draw!/shoot! which is currently happening.
I can do it---Steel Challenge match showed that. I just need to do it consistently.
The entire time was filled with instances of target-focused trigger-yanking, which is a combination of terms you never actually want to have as a descriptive of your shooting.
[sigh]
I was fast, all right---had two shots from concealment consistently off (when aiming at an index card at 7 yards) in 1.73 seconds. Too bad that my chances of HITTING the card with both shots were almost non-existent. Matter of fact, I often pulled both shots. (Inconsistently---both high, both low, one high/one low---all of the above happened. The hits were normally within a half inch of the card---but misses are still misses.)
Not good. Need to keep dryfire practice going (in which I really do make sure the sights/trigger work is solid) but add some live five doing one and two-shot drills starting from a timer, but with a par time of 3 seconds or so, with all hits necessary. That gives me a tremendous amount of time for good, aimed shots, and hopefully will reinforce the dryfire concepts of sights/trigger as opposed to draw!/shoot! which is currently happening.
I can do it---Steel Challenge match showed that. I just need to do it consistently.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Match Video: Jan 22nd Steel Challenge
This year ENPS started having 6 stages for our Steel Challenge matches, so we get significantly more trigger time on steel this year, which is a good thing.
Pre-video comments:
1) No jams or gun problems this time with the G17 and the 124gr ammo. At all. Ran beautifully.
2) The match felt fairly strong throughout. Yes, there were some stages where I forgot about trigger control, but overall it was decent. Not back up to my prior level, but certainly better than the last few months.
3) My first stage felt like I was moving fairly slow and deliberately---and it looks that way on the video. However, each string was 5-for-5 until the 5th string---and was the fastest time on that stage out of all the centerfire divisions (including the Open guys).
4) At the start of most strings (and you can tell which ones I forgot) I told myself only one thing: Work the trigger. And mostly, I did.
Here's the video, after which I'll comment some more. (And next time I'll tell my video folks to stand a bit further back...)
Notes:
1) Inconsistent draw. Often fast, but occasionally very deliberate---which isn't necessary, because it isn't the _draw_ that is my aiming problem. Need to consistently get the gun out and on target quickly.
2) "Snatching" the trigger occasionally---and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Later in the day, I started jerking the gun into position as I pulled the trigger, attempting to "Use The Force" to make sure that it went off just as the gun swept the target. And since I tried this on Pendulum, that was one of my worst stages of the match. I did fix it again by the next stage, but Pendulum did go really badly. (Roundabout did have a bit of it also.)
3) Relax my shoulders! Something I'm going to have to work on significantly--I was good at not being tense up until March of last year, but the Rogers school (and how it was pushing my speed limits) ingrained some tenseness that wasn't necessary, and that I haven't fixed. So now, after a year, my stance is too high and my shoulders too high and tense.
Good thing: Often, the trigger work was decent-to-good, with occasional glimpses of very good. Dry fire practice is apparently helping (not a surprise) and I plan to continue.
--------------
On two separate notes:
1) I need to get to the range and find my base times/scores so I can make realistic goals. I'm thinking the ones I have are either too easy or too hard.
2) I REALLY need to work on my distance bullseye shooting. I still need to check to see if part of that is a function of my sudden glasses need at long distance...no matter what, though, it needs work.
--------------
More to follow.
Pre-video comments:
1) No jams or gun problems this time with the G17 and the 124gr ammo. At all. Ran beautifully.
2) The match felt fairly strong throughout. Yes, there were some stages where I forgot about trigger control, but overall it was decent. Not back up to my prior level, but certainly better than the last few months.
3) My first stage felt like I was moving fairly slow and deliberately---and it looks that way on the video. However, each string was 5-for-5 until the 5th string---and was the fastest time on that stage out of all the centerfire divisions (including the Open guys).
4) At the start of most strings (and you can tell which ones I forgot) I told myself only one thing: Work the trigger. And mostly, I did.
Here's the video, after which I'll comment some more. (And next time I'll tell my video folks to stand a bit further back...)
Notes:
1) Inconsistent draw. Often fast, but occasionally very deliberate---which isn't necessary, because it isn't the _draw_ that is my aiming problem. Need to consistently get the gun out and on target quickly.
2) "Snatching" the trigger occasionally---and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Later in the day, I started jerking the gun into position as I pulled the trigger, attempting to "Use The Force" to make sure that it went off just as the gun swept the target. And since I tried this on Pendulum, that was one of my worst stages of the match. I did fix it again by the next stage, but Pendulum did go really badly. (Roundabout did have a bit of it also.)
3) Relax my shoulders! Something I'm going to have to work on significantly--I was good at not being tense up until March of last year, but the Rogers school (and how it was pushing my speed limits) ingrained some tenseness that wasn't necessary, and that I haven't fixed. So now, after a year, my stance is too high and my shoulders too high and tense.
Good thing: Often, the trigger work was decent-to-good, with occasional glimpses of very good. Dry fire practice is apparently helping (not a surprise) and I plan to continue.
--------------
On two separate notes:
1) I need to get to the range and find my base times/scores so I can make realistic goals. I'm thinking the ones I have are either too easy or too hard.
2) I REALLY need to work on my distance bullseye shooting. I still need to check to see if part of that is a function of my sudden glasses need at long distance...no matter what, though, it needs work.
--------------
More to follow.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
2012 Goals:
Have been thinking about my shooting goals for 2012---in the main, these are going to be technical goals (about technique) as that is what really fell through last year. My tactics/strategy work last year was actually fine, particularly since I spent a considerable amount of time refining what exactly I was going to be teaching in various classes, so the extra research/practice I did to make sure what I was going to teach was realistic and effective made for good practice for myself.
Still always plenty to do on that topic, but for this year, it is all about the technical aspects of shooting.
Preliminary Goal-setting (requires evaluation trip to the range to get starting numbers to make sure these goals are realistic...)
All at 7 yards, 10 trials average:
USPSA rig to card: 1.4
CCW to card: 1.6
USPSA to half A zone: 1.0
CCW to 8": 1.20
CCW 2 to card: 1.9
CCW reload to 8": 1.9
USPSA 2 to card: 1.7
USPSA reload to half A: 1.5
At 15 yards on IPSC metric target:
Draw, 2 A hits on T1, 2 A hits on T2 (5 yards separation): ?
Draw, 2 A hits on T1, reload, 2 A hits on T2 (5 yards separation): ?
At 25 yards on B-8:
Freestyle: all 10 in black
SHO: ?
WHO: ?
Plenty more to work on, but this is a starting point. Need to get to the range to find starting information, and give myself a realistic goals for the 25 yard and 15 yard targets.
Still always plenty to do on that topic, but for this year, it is all about the technical aspects of shooting.
Preliminary Goal-setting (requires evaluation trip to the range to get starting numbers to make sure these goals are realistic...)
All at 7 yards, 10 trials average:
USPSA rig to card: 1.4
CCW to card: 1.6
USPSA to half A zone: 1.0
CCW to 8": 1.20
CCW 2 to card: 1.9
CCW reload to 8": 1.9
USPSA 2 to card: 1.7
USPSA reload to half A: 1.5
At 15 yards on IPSC metric target:
Draw, 2 A hits on T1, 2 A hits on T2 (5 yards separation): ?
Draw, 2 A hits on T1, reload, 2 A hits on T2 (5 yards separation): ?
At 25 yards on B-8:
Freestyle: all 10 in black
SHO: ?
WHO: ?
Plenty more to work on, but this is a starting point. Need to get to the range to find starting information, and give myself a realistic goals for the 25 yard and 15 yard targets.
Pistol-Forum.com Drill of the Week 16
I've been doing the p-f.com DotW for awhile, and it has been fun---and it keeps me making myself go to the range even if it is raining, freezing, I'm tired, etc. I still manage to get out there, which means I get live fire time doing a bunch of different drills that wouldn't normally occur to me.
It isn't often that I'm doing a drill or practice session based on someone else's ideas---so this is good.
So, I'll be trying to keep commenting on the various DotW that I do, along with commentary about my own practice drills.
P-F.com DotW 16: Acceleration
http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?2801-DotW-16-Acceleration
And here is how I shot it:
This drill doesn't really work on my specific weaknesses, I think---matter of fact, it may make them worse. To increase speed, one of the things that happened was that I stopped worrying about the sights so much, and relied on my (fairly good) body index to put the gun on target. As such, this trained me to do that MORE---and I have the opposite problem. I "use the force" enough as it is, and I need training to focus on those sights more.
That being said, it DID show up my wildly inconsistent split times---0.32 to 0.18? Granted, it was cold out, and my hands just freeze up---but nonetheless, my trigger control for splits needs work. Multi-shot drills needed.
Perhaps the most useful thing this drill showed me occurred when I was watching the video. When I shoot, of course the recoil changes my posture slightly. However, if you watch the 2-shot and 3-shot sections and watch my hip and shoulder level, you can see that as I push more shots, I hunch my shoulders and straighten my arms (which is unnecessary, and actually lowers the level of recoil control and thus aiming ability) and ALSO overall my stance raises upward.
Which is really bad, because not only does that make recoil control (and followup aiming) worse, it also means that any movement that may need to occur after will be slower due to the need to drop my weight again.
I'm a martial artist---I shouldn't be screwing up like that. Apparently, time for some 3-shot drills with movement to fix my aiming platform.
Glad I started doing this again---lots to fix.
It isn't often that I'm doing a drill or practice session based on someone else's ideas---so this is good.
So, I'll be trying to keep commenting on the various DotW that I do, along with commentary about my own practice drills.
P-F.com DotW 16: Acceleration
http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?2801-DotW-16-Acceleration
And here is how I shot it:
This drill doesn't really work on my specific weaknesses, I think---matter of fact, it may make them worse. To increase speed, one of the things that happened was that I stopped worrying about the sights so much, and relied on my (fairly good) body index to put the gun on target. As such, this trained me to do that MORE---and I have the opposite problem. I "use the force" enough as it is, and I need training to focus on those sights more.
That being said, it DID show up my wildly inconsistent split times---0.32 to 0.18? Granted, it was cold out, and my hands just freeze up---but nonetheless, my trigger control for splits needs work. Multi-shot drills needed.
Perhaps the most useful thing this drill showed me occurred when I was watching the video. When I shoot, of course the recoil changes my posture slightly. However, if you watch the 2-shot and 3-shot sections and watch my hip and shoulder level, you can see that as I push more shots, I hunch my shoulders and straighten my arms (which is unnecessary, and actually lowers the level of recoil control and thus aiming ability) and ALSO overall my stance raises upward.
Which is really bad, because not only does that make recoil control (and followup aiming) worse, it also means that any movement that may need to occur after will be slower due to the need to drop my weight again.
I'm a martial artist---I shouldn't be screwing up like that. Apparently, time for some 3-shot drills with movement to fix my aiming platform.
Glad I started doing this again---lots to fix.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Sloppy, lazy, poor shooter!
Been quite awhile since I've posted---and indeed, my shooting shows that I haven't been putting in the thinking time that effective shooting has needed. So, back to actually tracking what has been going on...
Some background: Last year was full of gun problems---and I don't mean shooter-induced gun problems (though my shooting suffered significantly). I mean the gun itself had numerous problems that resulted in significant numbers of gun jams on stages. And during practice. And all the time.
As such, much of last year's practice time was spent trying to FIX said gun problems, which meant that I didn't actually get to spend much time practicing shooting skills. Much to the detriment of my shooting ability.
So---last year's matches went horribly badly. Including Nationals, in which I ranked 60th---compared to the 25th from the previous year.
I have since retired the G34s that I was using, and will be writing Glock to see if there is any way they can get them fixed and running. (Factory ammo of multiple types STILL resulted in multiple jams of the slide-over-base type.)
I've been using a Gen 4 G17 for the last couple of months, and the first local match of 2012 occurred last week. [sigh] 4 jams over 3 stages, plus one stage that I completely blew on my own. As such, I scored significantly worse that I should have.
NOT acceptable. I don't mind losing---but I DO mind shooting significantly below the level of which I am capable.
I've since switched ammo types, and between the gun change and ammo change, have not experienced any other problems. (Including shooting SHO and WHO.) We'll see if that continues....Steel Match this coming Sunday, which will be a good indicator of where I'm starting (skill-wise) this year.
I have a lot of work to do, to get myself back up to Master-level shooting. At the moment, I'm about mid-B, from what I can tell. Last year's degredation in skill level really hurt, and the Roger's Shooting School (while a good thing) ingrained a set of habits that I need to alter.
So: dryfire at minimum every other night (I've actually been doing 5-6 nights a week for the last couple of weeks) and range practice as often as I can, even in extremely cold weather. One thing that helps is that I'm part of pistol-forum.com, which has a Drill of the Week which is a lot of fun. Pulls me out of my normal zone, gets me out to the range on a weekly basis, and makes me think from different perspectives. It helps...
Short-term goals: In March, I'm taking the Aim Fast, Hit Fast class from Todd Louis Green in Pittsburg, Kansas. As part of that, my goal is to do well on the FAST drill---specifically to win a challenge coin.
Long-term goals: Significantly increase my accuracy at distance (25+ yards). Consistently hit (at speed) low-percentage targets at 10 yards or less.
Specifics to follow. (Measurable goals are always better.)
Time to get to work----because the current skill level is flat-out unacceptable.
Some background: Last year was full of gun problems---and I don't mean shooter-induced gun problems (though my shooting suffered significantly). I mean the gun itself had numerous problems that resulted in significant numbers of gun jams on stages. And during practice. And all the time.
As such, much of last year's practice time was spent trying to FIX said gun problems, which meant that I didn't actually get to spend much time practicing shooting skills. Much to the detriment of my shooting ability.
So---last year's matches went horribly badly. Including Nationals, in which I ranked 60th---compared to the 25th from the previous year.
I have since retired the G34s that I was using, and will be writing Glock to see if there is any way they can get them fixed and running. (Factory ammo of multiple types STILL resulted in multiple jams of the slide-over-base type.)
I've been using a Gen 4 G17 for the last couple of months, and the first local match of 2012 occurred last week. [sigh] 4 jams over 3 stages, plus one stage that I completely blew on my own. As such, I scored significantly worse that I should have.
NOT acceptable. I don't mind losing---but I DO mind shooting significantly below the level of which I am capable.
I've since switched ammo types, and between the gun change and ammo change, have not experienced any other problems. (Including shooting SHO and WHO.) We'll see if that continues....Steel Match this coming Sunday, which will be a good indicator of where I'm starting (skill-wise) this year.
I have a lot of work to do, to get myself back up to Master-level shooting. At the moment, I'm about mid-B, from what I can tell. Last year's degredation in skill level really hurt, and the Roger's Shooting School (while a good thing) ingrained a set of habits that I need to alter.
So: dryfire at minimum every other night (I've actually been doing 5-6 nights a week for the last couple of weeks) and range practice as often as I can, even in extremely cold weather. One thing that helps is that I'm part of pistol-forum.com, which has a Drill of the Week which is a lot of fun. Pulls me out of my normal zone, gets me out to the range on a weekly basis, and makes me think from different perspectives. It helps...
Short-term goals: In March, I'm taking the Aim Fast, Hit Fast class from Todd Louis Green in Pittsburg, Kansas. As part of that, my goal is to do well on the FAST drill---specifically to win a challenge coin.
Long-term goals: Significantly increase my accuracy at distance (25+ yards). Consistently hit (at speed) low-percentage targets at 10 yards or less.
Specifics to follow. (Measurable goals are always better.)
Time to get to work----because the current skill level is flat-out unacceptable.
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