Jake Di Vita

I had issues with going first on stages once upon a time. One year at every local match I shot, I talked with the squad and arranged the order so that I went first on every single stage for every match. They were always more than happy since it meant none of them had to go first that day. That pretty much eliminated any mental issues I had with going first. The biggest issues are occasionally with movers or timing things you haven't yet seen. There's not much of a cure to that besides experience and doing your due diligence with gathering as much information about the stage as possible prior to your slotted shooting time. As always, the key is to focus on the fundamentals. Find target, aim at target, hit target, repeat. Having your plan set and burned in when your squad walks up to the stage is a huge benefit.

It's good that you're doing something and that it's helping, however I've always felt romwod was a very poor substitute for mobilitywod.

I always include penalties. No real sense in using the number without penalties since it isn't representative of the real score.

He and I talked in PMs after I made that post. He did do very well, however he did also only shoot 88% of the points at the match he was referring to. I'm guessing the match you're referring to is the Hawktech Arms low cap match? If so, he shot 87% of the points at that match as well. Again, it worked out well for him and he had a strong finish. I still think if you're shooting matches with a strategy that yields significantly fewer than 90% of the possible points, you are playing with fire. So while shooting an iron sight division like you would shoot open can work out depending on the match, it's probably not the best strategy over the long haul for most people. It seems like he should agree with me since his last post in the 2nd page of this thread read, "If you aren't shooting 93+% of the points regardless of division you are doing it wrong."

Right now I'm using my old world shoot model cr speed race holster but I used the same strategy for the surrender draw when I shot production with a regular bladetech too.

Yes you can still shoot pretty well with a less than ideal grip. Pretty well is not at all interesting to me. I want to be competitive with the best in the country. A less than ideal grip is not conducive to that goal. If you're satisfied with performance that is just ok you can get away with all sorts of sloppy technique. So you don't even shoot USPSA?

What actual testing did you do to put your hypothesis through the crucible that led you to figure you used? You might only be losing .02 - .05 on a 7 yard open target, but as the targets get more difficult the cost of a poor grip in both time and points increases dramatically. But hey, I'm not here to convince you of anything. If that's what you want to believe, go for it. Well sure, SOMEONE might experience that. Someone might experience mental problems because they have a hang nail too. What's your point? I've never heard any good shooter complain that missing a perfect grip on his draw scrambled his brains. If you want to start breaking down every aspect of USPSA that could potentially adversely effect less skilled shooters mentally we are going to be here for awhile because the list is practically infinite. Maybe my English is off but I'm pretty sure saying "it isn't all it's cracked up to be" and "it's not the end all be all that's been insinuated" both seem like shapes and forms of saying a good grip isn't that important. You're saying the grip is foundational and allows you to access a higher level but at the same time it's not all it's cracked up to be. These statements are more than a little contradictory. What class are you?

That's quite a tortured thought process you have to come to those conclusions based on shooters elbow. A perfect grip is all it's cracked up to be. I have never been mentally screwed up because I didn't hit a perfect draw. "Being relaxed" is so overused it's become a cliche. I don't even know what flowing with the gun means. Your grip is the only interface your body actually has with the gun....it boggles my mind how one can reason their way to thinking it's not that important.

It's funny because I feel like 90% of my posts are harping about grip, stance, or other fundamental concepts.

Couple thoughts. At 7 yards on a full target the draw really needs to be under a second. First, your hands need to be moving way faster and both should start moving at the same time. Try to focus on slapping the strong side of your belly with your support hand as fast as possible at the start of the beep. If you focus on snapping the support hand as fast as possible...like whipping a wet towel....the strong hand will naturally move faster as well. The support hand will also be closer to the gun allowing you to get both hands on the gun at the earliest moment possible in the draw stroke. That alone will probably save you .15 or more. Also at 7 yards the shot really needs to be breaking at the moment you hit extension. You touched on this a bit. The way to achieve this is you need to be getting on the sights while you are extending the gun. This again as you said is another solid .20. For being pushed back you said your center of gravity needs to be in front of your knees. You have the right idea, but what we are actually looking for is your center of gravity to be forward of the middle of your foot. Hinging your hip with a couple more degrees of flexion should do the trick here. You aren't being pushed a lot so a small change is likely to be all that's needed.

Link? I'd like to look at the stats and see what there is to see. Obviously shooting fast with good points is good. If you want to keep this as mind numbingly simple as humanly possible as if we were explaining it to a 4 year old that's fine I guess. In reality I'm going to make different decisions on how I shoot a stage if I'm shooting minor rather than major. One easy example of this is I'll shoot far more targets on the move shooting major.

The percentage of points you should be shooting is going to depend on the match. If we're being specific, the goal isn't as many alphas as possible as quickly as possible....the goal is the highest points per second. Strategies for achieving the highest points per second are absolutely going to vary between people shooting minor and major. It does matter what division you shoot. Go ahead and shoot a match in production like you would in open and tell me how that works out for you.

No it doesn't. What? I'd love an explanation to that statement.

I have some video as well. Great match as always.

In an ideal world you'd use full size targets at full distance. Compromise however you need to. I've dryfired at more light switches and outlets than I could possibly count.