Complex drills vs. single skill drills

[KyroWebs]

Excuse me for my noobish poll, but was wondering what everyone thought about running dryfire drills that utilize more than one skill per repetition vs. working a single skill?

I was looking through my dryfire routine and realized that the majority of my drills incorporate multiple skills per repetition. (EX: Draw-2 shots on 4 targets-reload-2 shots on 4 targets)

When I first started shooting USPSA, I worked with a local guy and he always preached that you should only work on one skill at a time. Typical drills would be draw with 1 shot, shoot-reload-shoot, shoot-move to another box-engage 2nd target with 1 shot, etc... These were mostly live fire drills, so I just assumed that working a single skill was a way to conserve ammo.

I can see where working on a single skill would be beneficial, but there is sooooo much more to our sport than just draws and reloads. I was just wondering what everyone else thinks, and how everyone tailors their own specific routine. (Steve and Brian, I would LOVE your opinions!)

Edited May 9, 2012 by KyroWebs

[blaster113]

I use the live fire and dry fire drills from Mike Seeklander's book. some drills focus on a particular thing like draws or shooting around an obstacle, others are macro drills where they focus on multiple things like target acquisition and transitions.

I think a training program should have both types of drills which are flexible as skill level increases.

what helped me the most was following a structured dry fire and live fire program instead of trying to figure out which drills to use on my own.

[Steve Anderson]

Two different mindsets:

Focus skills - New skills, or skills that really need work.

Maintenance skills - Core skills that just need some repetition to keep the rust at bay.

It should be obvious to you which skills to place in which category, and then you move them back and forth.

If you're a total noob, there are a couple of books that do most of the thinking for you.

Speaking just for myself, I like to dry-fire the Maintenance skills (draws/reloads) and live fire the Focus skills. (setups/shooting while moving)

The most important thing, and one of the most difficult to do is to forget all of it at the match and just call every shot.

[Not-So-Mad Matt]

This is actually one of the key concepts of Decision Training: you'll get better results in the short term by training simple skills in long blocks, but you'll get better results in the long term by mixing skills together and randomizing your training.

[jkrispies]

I have asked myself this same question regarding my training many times... and as an educator for the past 16+ years I guess you could say that it intrigues me somewhat.

First off, what Mr. Anderson states about Focus vs. Maintenance training is absolutely correct. The trick for you as a trainee is making the correct determination as to when you've reached the stage where you've achieved "an appropriate level of mastery" of a particular skill and therefore are ready to switch training gears to the maintenance style. Personally, I don't feel that I've reached mastery of anything so I look at matters from the newbie end of things, even though I'm far from a new shooter. A few years ago I would have sworn that I was in the maintenance stage, but as a more mature shooter... I guess the current me would have had a healthy argument with the old me.

Regarding training in terms of "multiple skills" vs. "single skills," I've examined myself, and I believe that pretty much everything we do involves multiple skills-- it's the nature of our beast. For instance, look at all the skills performed within a simple surrender draw and single shot to target from a buzzer.

1. Properly index the body

2. Relax body-- breathe!

3. Focus on target

4. Raise the hands to the proper position (don't be too high... don't be too low... are they in the best horizontal placement as well?)

5. Auditory reaction time to the buzzer

6. Firing hand swings down and properly grasps gun/Support hand to chest at proper height

7. Pull the gun from the holster to the proper position for support hand contact

8. Begin push while grabbing with support hand in proper placement

9. Continue pushing gun up to line of sight (you haven't taken your focus off the target yet, right?)

10. Shift focus from target to front sight

11. Hard focus on front sight

12. Assure proper sight alignment

13. Bring finger to trigger in proper position

14. Pull trigger straight back

15. See sights lift off target

16. Follow through with shot, watching sights back onto target

17. Realign sights as part of follow through

18. Finish and assess

Anything I've missed?

Drawing and firing one shot on target is as simple a drill as there is, but to my mind there are many essential skills within that skill. As a new OR EXPERIENCED shooter, I think it's wise to examine all the parts and practice accordingly. As with any skill, we should all seek to constantly improve no matter how expert we perceive ourselves to be.

Too my mind, if I'm truly deciding to practice a single skill then I'm not going to perform a "drill" as many would perceive it when going to the range and setting up a scenario, or even doing so at home in dry fire. For instance, if I'm practicing moving from one shooting box to the other, I may have a gun in my hand (because doing it without a gun may change my physical balance points) but I'm putting 100% of my concentration on my feet and not much else! OR I will do it very slowly so that I can change my specific focus from one skill to the next so that 100% of my focus can be placed on the skill being performed at that moment:

1. Focus on Target A while doing whatever else I need to do

2. Move my feet out of box

3. Move my feet shifting visual focus to Target B

4. Enter new box properly while stopping momentum

5. Attain proper shooting position as I

6. Focus on Target B while doing whatever else I need to do

All this isn't to say that a training session should be super simplified with no full blown scenario drills. BUT I think that we need to be honest with ourselves as to what we are really training when we're training. Doing "full scenario" training is essential to success, but what is our actual educational goal when doing it? If you're running from box to box shooting multiple targets with the idea that your training goal is to practice "shooting two on paper" then you're fooling yourself. If, on the other hand, your educational goal in that scenario is to mentally prepare yourself to hear a buzzer and remember your firing/movement plan, then you will be properly training for an essential single skill while incorporating additional peripheral skills into the training session.

I hope this blathering makes sense to anybody else other than me. Anyway, that's me thinking out loud on this matter... as I lay here sick in bed with too much time on my hands...

Edited May 9, 2012 by jkrispies

[GForceLizard]

...

I was looking through my dryfire routine and realized that the majority of my drills incorporate multiple skills per repetition. (EX: Draw-2 shots on 4 targets-reload-2 shots on 4 targets)

...

Don't you do both multiple and single skills for dry fire? You practice the draw. You practice the reload. You practice draw and shoot 4. Then you practice draw, shoot 4, reload, shoot 4.

As long as the basic skills that make up your macro drill are all being done well, what you are doing is fine.

Edited May 9, 2012 by GForceLizard

[Torogi]

Id strongly suggest buying Steve's book. Also, Mike Seeklanders book is as effective if you are more on the visual side.

To answer your question, id perfect my draw and reload in one session. If for some reason im just having a good time doing reloads, just perfect smooth reload right after the other I wont stop. Id start moving.. If it just goes smooth and fast, id make it harder.. 2 things will happen, ill start losing it or i'll ran out of time.

[Grunt]

Don't you do both multiple and single skills for dry fire? You practice the draw. You practice the reload. You practice draw and shoot 4. Then you practice draw, shoot 4, reload, shoot 4.

As long as the basic skills that make up your macro drill are all being done well, what you are doing is fine.

+1.

If you are new, or trying something new, it is always best to break it down in to smaller components. And its perfectly fine to have an entire practice session on only simplified drills. But at some point it is helpful to "assemble" these parts into something more complex.

Grunt

[Chris iliff]

The most important thing, and one of the most difficult to do is to forget all of it at the match and just call every shot.

I like everything posted, but this hits me close to home and is particularly challenging for me.

When I'm in the practicing a lot mode, it's very hard for me to turn that off at a match.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of Steve's advice.

I personally prefer small (10 shots) or less type drills. Run here shoot targets, run here shoot more. Gun pick up, unloaded start, reload here, I throw in while doing it. Low round counts, but I can throw in specific "micro" skills where I want. IMHO.

[Steve Anderson]

I love this topic... It gets to the heart of what I see so many shooters doing: spinning their wheels.

There's almost nothing you could learn from doing a 28 rd field course over and over, UNLESS you were truly practicing a very strict call-every-shot mentality.

There's just too much for the conscious mind to do, as we can see from some of the step by step breakdowns posted above.

It's far more effective to break the skills down and focus on them one at a time. It's also better for the self image.

My favorite drill right now is move to a vision barrier, shoot one or two targets, then move to a new vision barrier and shoot one or two targets.

I'm physically exhausted before I'm out of ammo, and I have tons of measurable info from the timer. In this case, all I really care about is the time between targets. And I really don't even care about occasional misses... UNTIL I shift my focus back to strictly calling every shot and commit any new gains to the subconscious.

With a regular practice schedule, all of this becomes automatic.

nd you've got to feed the self image good stuff the whole time...that's why we don't worry about the misses in the example above. It seems absurd, but we aren't really practicing shooting...we're practicing moving while carrying a gun. And everything is on the table. Which foot, big steps/small steps, how high to hold the gun: Self analysis.

Hope this helps...

[Flexmoney]

I love this topic... It gets to the heart of what I see so many shooters doing: spinning their wheels.

There's almost nothing you could learn from doing a 28 rd field course over and over, UNLESS you were truly practicing a very strict call-every-shot mentality.

There's just too much for the conscious mind to do, as we can see from some of the step by step breakdowns posted above.

It's far more effective to break the skills down and focus on them one at a time. It's also better for the self image.

My favorite drill right now is move to a vision barrier, shoot one or two targets, then move to a new vision barrier and shoot one or two targets.

I'm physically exhausted before I'm out of ammo, and I have tons of measurable info from the timer. In this case, all I really care about is the time between targets. And I really don't even care about occasional misses... UNTIL I shift my focus back to strictly calling every shot and commit any new gains to the subconscious.

With a regular practice schedule, all of this becomes automatic.

nd you've got to feed the self image good stuff the whole time...that's why we don't worry about the misses in the example above. It seems absurd, but we aren't really practicing shooting...we're practicing moving while carrying a gun. And everything is on the table. Which foot, big steps/small steps, how high to hold the gun: Self analysis.

Hope this helps...

I completely agree.

[38supPat]

Me too. The only way I have used a field course effectively in practice was taking one that was already set up and left on the range (from a Saturday match and it's still up on Monday) and instead of shooting it in entirety over and over, break it down into its smaller components. Shoot first position or move to first position, work on best ways to shoot each position and best was to enter or leave each position and then alter shooting each position based on that if needed. Basically break it down into a series of components