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Dot Torture/Training Plan for Beginners


alan1985

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I'm trying to work out a training regiment for myself for USPSA. I am shooting Limited 10 with a Glock 21 and hand loading to stay around 170 PF.

I hit the range last night to zero the new sights I put on and I also ran through a Dot Torture set. I shot it at 10 yards and I hit about 75% of the shots. I plan on sticking to that until I get to 100% regularly and then moving to 15 yards and putting myself to a timer. Are there other drills you'd recommend to a beginner competitor? Is my plan for Dot Torture good or should I be doing something different?

With work/kids I get about 2 days a week of live fire time. I need to do some more reading on dry fire practice so I can incorporate that as well. I have the Stoeger books on order and they should be here soon. From what I hear they are basically the bible of dry fire training.

I appreciate any advice or suggestions you folks have!

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I wouldn't mess with the Dot torture drill honestly. With no time limit to make the shots I don't see how it really has any bearing on what we do in USPSA. When was the last time you shot a stage with no time pressure?

The Dot drill I like is a 2" dot at 7 yards. Draw and fire 6 rounds in 5 seconds. All shots must touch the circle. Clean 6 dots in a row to complete. That's a tough drill, I do it from time to time and have never completed all 36 shots clean.

There are plenty of other drills I think are better suited for USPSA training.

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you need to train for accuracy at speed from the very beginning. Being accurate is meaningless if you can't do it at speed. A great drill to teach you trigger control at speed is the above mentioned drill ... it comes from one of Ben's books ... he just calls it the dot drill. Get a reguar 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and put 2 rows of 3 2" dots. Start the drill at 5 yds & set your par timer for 5 secs. Start the drill by drawing & firing 2 shots within the 1st circle within 5 secs. Repeat for all 6 dots; draw & fire 2 shots .... when you can do all 6 dots clean go to 3 shots at each circle within 5 secs. Once you can consistently do all 6 dots within 5 secs that's when you add another shot until you can do 6 shots within 5 secs on all 6 circles. being able to do 36/36 on any consistent basis is GM level shooting ....

Edited by Nimitz
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Sounds like a good plan. I appreciate the advice. I'm headed back to the range tomorrow so I'll get started on it then. Are there different drills I should run or keep focusing on that one until I come to the 36/36 (I'm sure that it'll take me quite a while to get there but for variety's sake ;))?

Edited by alan1985
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I agree with Nimitz 100%, you can go slow and hit your shots but under the pressure of the timer, everything changes. a decent timer or what Ive been using is the "shot timer" app on my iphone will help you along your training. I actually really like the app & it's free.

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  • 1 month later...

It's constant battle between speed and accuracy speed whether it's your movement or moving the gun can always be better accuracy has to be balance with speed. It is a constant up and down as long as your lows are getting better you will improve. Work on all aspects go take a weekend course with someone that has a training system. I would recommend Max Michel courses.

Good luck

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  • 3 weeks later...

Another option is to run the dot torture under a time limit.

http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture

I personally use a ton of different drills/methods to train, and I am constantly adding tools to my box. Whether it is something a find on youtube, here, or something I discover on my own.

One thing to focus on is draw to first shot. This can be done with dry fire at home. The key is to be honest with your self.

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well, first things first..... if you can't put pretty much all your shots into the upper a-zone at 10 yards, or into a 2" circle at 7 yards, I would work on fundamentals until you can. Shooting inaccurately fast isn't going to get you anywhere.

I personally do one of those two things for at least 20 rounds or so at every live fire session. I don't stress about the time, but I do shoot it as fast as I can know where the shots are going, and I keep track of the times.

Other things you should probably be working on are everything. ;)

transitions, reloads, shooting while moving, reloads while moving in every direction, draws from every position, bill drills from every distance, etc... etc....

I personally have had the best results paying attention to steve anderson's podcast and his 3rd book (get to work). Ben Stoeger's skills and drills book is also a good first resource. The real key is to be able self-analyze (or get help from other shooters) to figure out what you suck most at, so you can direct the most attention and work to that facet of your shooting. It also helps to see other people do it right, and compare video of yourself against them. For example, it was taking me around 1.7 seconds to draw and transfer to my weak hand and get a sight picture. In one of ben's videos I saw an A class shooter doing it in more like 1.1 or 1.2. I didn't even realize it could be done that fast.... so I worked on it, and got almost 1/2 second faster in 30 minutes, just by knowing it was possible and not being satisfied with where I was.

There are some of the opinion that shooting on the move is overrated and not worth working on until you can stand and shoot at a high level, but IMHO, the most important skill you can learn is the ability to call your shots (know where the shot goes by the sight picture you see as the gun goes off). The three things that have helped me most in learning to do that are practicing shooting while moving in both dry and live fire, shooting at least some pure accuracy shooting, where I don't judge the time, and treating EVERY drill as a shot calling drill (trying to score the targets from my memory of the sight pictures before I look at the targets, and then comparing that to what is actually on the paper).

Note that all of this is only what has worked for *me*, and something else may work for someone else.

Edited by motosapiens
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Another thing to remember is to micromanage all the time spend when not shooting, learn how to effectively and efficiently "cut corners" on stages. Watch what the better shooters do, where to reload, what order to shoot a particular array and how to get into and out of shooting positions smoothly and quickly. Think of it like car racing, every small detail adds up to seconds, and a few seconds saved on each stage adds up to a successful match.

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Another thing to remember is to micromanage all the time spend when not shooting, learn how to effectively and efficiently "cut corners" on stages. Watch what the better shooters do, where to reload, what order to shoot a particular array and how to get into and out of shooting positions smoothly and quickly. Think of it like car racing, every small detail adds up to seconds, and a few seconds saved on each stage adds up to a successful match.

So much truth here. I ended up taking 2nd in limited at the last match I attended by 0.19%. Thats maybe a second or two... or the difference between One charlie to one delta.

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you need to train for accuracy at speed from the very beginning. Being accurate is meaningless if you can't do it at speed...

But what if the shooter can't yet shoot accurately at any speed? I see shooters who are obviously emphasizing speed and when I go up to score their targets, I get a little queasy feeling in my stomach when I see the number of mikes and no-shoot hits. Sometimes tough love might be OK, where you say those dreaded words "slow down and learn to put those bullets on target." There is no use going fast if you can't hit stuff.

For those of you who sorted out your accuracy issues long ago, maybe this seems ridiculous. No problem with me. People point at me and laugh all the time. :D

Edited by GunBugBit
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you need to train for accuracy at speed from the very beginning. Being accurate is meaningless if you can't do it at speed...

But what if the shooter can't yet shoot accurately at any speed? I see shooters who are obviously emphasizing speed and when I go up to score their targets, I get a little queasy feeling in my stomach when I see the number of mikes and no-shoot hits. Sometimes tough love might be OK, where you say those dreaded words "slow down and learn to put those bullets on target." There is no use going fast if you can't hit stuff.

For those of you who sorted out your accuracy issues long ago, maybe this seems ridiculous. No problem with me. People point at me and laugh all the time. :D

+1

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you need to train for accuracy at speed from the very beginning. Being accurate is meaningless if you can't do it at speed...

But what if the shooter can't yet shoot accurately at any speed? I see shooters who are obviously emphasizing speed and when I go up to score their targets, I get a little queasy feeling in my stomach when I see the number of mikes and no-shoot hits. Sometimes tough love might be OK, where you say those dreaded words "slow down and learn to put those bullets on target." There is no use going fast if you can't hit stuff.

For those of you who sorted out your accuracy issues long ago, maybe this seems ridiculous. No problem with me. People point at me and laugh all the time. :D

Correct. The other half of this I didn't mention but which is equally true is ... Speed if irrevelant if you can't do it accurately. As one of my instructors is fond of saying ... Any monkey can whip the gun out fast but if you can't guarentee a A zone hit every time with a 1 sec draw then you don't actually have a 1 sec draw ...

Accuracy at speed is specifically a practical shooting fundamental skill not a shooting skill. It should go without saying that you should develop fundamental marksmanship skills before you ever try to develop fundamental practical pistol shooting skills but most never do this ... Of course most never make it out of B class either ... There's a hint in there somewhere ... :)

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All of the resources, Ben's Skills and Drills, etc, have par times for different skills. The dot torture can be a way for you find what your par times are for the level of accuracy you are working for. You will always have competing priorities of speed and precision. Learning where your limits are and then focused training to improve is kinda the key. If you like the dot torture, use it for what it is worth and enjoy.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

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There is nothing wrong with the dot torture drill. As with any drill, it can be customized to fit your needs. I started using the dot torture drill and it really helped me. I started closer than you are and it made it easier. By making it easier, it allowed me to speed it up a little the more I practiced. When I felt that I had a good amount of accuracy and a fair speed, I then increased the distance. I believe that it is a good drill to use. It is not the only drill to use. Change up your practice sessions, use several different drills. If every practice session is the same, then you will get bored faster. Work on speed with a drill and then do a different drill for accuracy. Structured practice is the best. If you just go to a range and shoot, you won't improve as fast. Keep it fun.

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  • 5 weeks later...

One thing I remember about shooting the Dot Torture sheet in dry fire is that it made me pretty good at cleaning plate racks. I haven't been dry firing Dot Torture these last few months and my plate rack skills have fallen off. So I have now included scaled-down plate racks in my dry fire setup and have been working the Steve Anderson plate rack drills. I might as well go back to dry firing Dot Torture as well. It definitely never hurt me.

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I'm with the guys who argue for variety in the drills you use and how you use them.

I disagree that all drills must be done under time pressure.

Doesn't every dry fire drill in Steve Anderson's book start off with a non-timed set of reps?

Since there is no drill nazi standing over us when we use the Dot Torture sheet or any other set of drills, we're free to run the drills untimed or to whatever par times we like.

After heating up your muscles with a series of fast draws and reloads, why not relax a bit and do some in slow motion, thinking about whether your movements are truly efficient? Can that hurt?

On the other side of it, sometimes you could start off a practice session with aggressive par times, going fast right off the bat as when you're shooting stages cold. Maybe this should be done often since it's more like the reality of match shooting.

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Well just figured I'd check in. It's been a few months since this thread started and to be honest I haven't had a ton of time to spend at the range. What I have been doing is working on dry fire drills in my garage after the kids are in bed. At first I was frustrated because I didn't see much score improvement and I almost gave up on dry fire completely. Finally about a month or so ago I started to see a steady climb in my scores and where I finished. I've never had a huge issue with making clean hits but combining that with speed was a struggle for me.

I still have a long way to go and need to spend more time at the range. Hopefully when the weather warms up I can head out to the pistol pits at my club and set up some mock stages for myself. I think at this point the more time I can spend practicing movement and transitions are the most beneficial. Thanks everyone for the input.

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Since I re-started doing the dot drill my average acuracy improved a lot, I found two or three things I can do better so I keep on doing that drill as a life fire warm-up with around 80-100 rounds. I don't use a timer, just start slowly so you make your hits and then try to speed up a little to around 1shot/second or when you feel you're leaving the comfort zone.

Also a standard exercise for my range sessions are cadences (different targets at the same distance 8/10/12/15m) and Changing Gears, means a set of targets with different distances. The first drill is to get used to different sight pictures, the second one to change between focus types.

At the end of the session everything is prepared for a small stage I run through several times in "match mode", with changing starting positions and gun conditions.

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Sounds like a really good way to practice, QuickMick.

Yes, I think it is and also the results in matches show that. I try to challenge myself in every training, vary the topics I'm working at and separate technique and match training ;-).

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I'm a newbie at uspsa but a long time recreational shooter. The dot drill from Ben's book has been helpful to me. Oddly I find slowing down helps. I can do a 1.08 draw, but not often and rarely accurately where a 1.35-1.40 draw is usually on target. Then trying for .3 splits leads to 1-2 misses, but .5 splits are usually all good and it results in that sub 5.0 total.

My issue is eyesight (over 50 age) and yes trigger control.

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