Jake Di Vita

I would guess that a lot of the people not shooting both aren't doing it because a dot is required for CO. It's too bad that you can't shoot irons in that division if you want.

Hider. j/k, my first nationals was L10, because that was the only gear I had that fit a nationals I could drive to. I wish more people shot it. I like shooting 10 round major out of a 1911 better than any other division, but production and SS have way more competitors. Frankly I'm stoked that big mfrs are committing to CO. Eventually I will be too old to see iron sights and I have zero interest in shooting a loud, delicate, expensive, froofy open gun. I think there's something very interesting about minor only, 10 rounds, with a dot. I could see myself shooting it in the future for sure.

Sorry if I misunderstood. If I were accusing someone of shooting a division with no competition with the primary intent of poaching a title I'd probably use real close to the same words as the post of yours I quoted originally. Exactly. Jake obviously is reading a little too deeply into this. I wasn't taking a swipe at Max. So it can't be for sponsor commitments? I don't think I'm reading too much into anything, but w/e. Smelled like a swipe to me, but text has never been a perfect way of communicating. I know for sure there will be people making swipes at him for it.

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't accuse a multi-national champ and current world champ of title poaching. Seemed pretty obvious that the guy I responded to was doing just that. I think it's far more likely that he is doing it because of sponsor commitments or because he's simply enjoying the division. I remember shooting L10 nationals one year and I got a ton of crap from people about how I was trying to steal a nationals. I just did it because I thought it was fun to do a bunch of reloads shooting major with Limited gear. People are generally too quick to assign intent to something when they don't even know the people they are talking about.

Yeah...and get another title in a division that most of the top people won't be shooting. Yeah I'm sure he's shooting that division because he's hiding from the real competition. Gimme a break. Stuff like that is why most pro shooters usually don't contribute here.

Does this semi-retirement mean that Big Daddy E might start shooting a bit again? I'd love it if that were the case.

Find the targets, make your plan, visualize visualize visualize. If you find your 5 minute walkthrough is not enough to get a plan, get to the match a hour earlier and walk the stages and/or find the best shooter around in your division and see how he breaks it down. When you think you have the stage deciphered, visualize the poo out of it. For a 12 round stage, I'll shoot it as vividly as possible in my head at least 20 times before I physically shoot it. For a complex stage, 40-50 runs in my head easy. If you can't execute the stage in your head without hesitation, you certainly won't be able to do it for real to the best of your abilities.

At first glance I'd say more dry fire weak hand only and start using your weak hand more in everyday life.

For 90% of the targets I know from experience that I can slap the poo out of the trigger and still hit the center of the target. I have some sight movement when I slap the trigger, but usually it isn't enough movement to effect my score on target. That being said, I try to tie my trigger control to my eyes in that what I'm doing with my hands depends directly on what I'm seeing. On riskier targets I want the sights to be more rock steady during the shot so I tend to squeeze more than slap. I have noticed however that the more solid my support hand grip is, the less trigger control I need. If we're talking shooting two open targets one at 5 and one at 20, my trigger control is practically the same but I spend more time on the sights on the more distant target. If instead we have an open target at 10 and an extreme noshoot partial at 10, the difference will mostly be how aggressively I'm pulling the trigger. Hope that makes sense.

Can you reproduce it during dryfire? I would guess you have a bit of an inconsistent grip. If your hands aren't always in the same place it sets the stage for things like this to happen. I'd recommend you place your hands perfectly on the gun and have a second person draw lines connecting them so you can check to see how consistent your grip is.

A lot of them have done similar things yes. I remember when Tilley shot a thousand rounds a day for 3 months to prep for Limited nationals. They also have the experience of shooting a large number of rounds over a career of shooting. In my case, I've fired less than a quarter million rounds in my life. I'm pretty sure Eric has done that yearly for over a decade. Regardless, it doesn't matter what other national champions have done. I'm not them. Knowing my abliities both good and bad, that is pretty close to what I would need to give myself the best opportunity.

It really depends on how seriously you take it. If I decided that I really wanted to win a nationals and I had the time and money to devote to it, in a years time I'd shoot somewhere between 100k and 200k rounds and shoot 20ish majors which would be the biggest, best, and most competitive matches regardless of distance. There would certainly be equipment costs that come along with that much shooting. I could rather easily spend 50g's in a year on this sport.

In my opinion, ultimately everything needs to be addressed somewhat frequently. Weaknesses need to be made less weak, and strengths should be bolstered or at least maintained. There are several dry fire books out there that can give you some direction. I think those are a great place to start. As for myself, if I had to put a percentage to it, I spend 40% of my time on things I'm good at and 60% of my time on things I'm not good at. I decide what I'm going to practice based on how my matches and practice have been going. The more you do this stuff the better you'll get at knowing where you are and where you should be going.

There are so many ways to complicate what we do. At its essence its always going to be find target, point gun at target, keep gun still until bullet has left the barrel, repeat. I'm a big believer in doing this in the simplest way possible. I don't usually like to see people make a change in technique based on treating the symptom of the problem. For example, if someone has a tendency to pull shots right when shooting left hand only, the last thing I want this person to do is start aiming left and planning on yanking it. The main reason for this is I never want someone to set themselves up to where if they execute the shot correctly they are going to miss. In the same vein of treating the symptom, instead of using different finger positions as a crutch for poor trigger manipulation I'd rather see you adopt your "fast" trigger finger placement as default and figure out why you have problems shooting accurately with it. Then correct that problem. I say adopt your fast position because it tends to be easier to learn control than speed. In reality, with enough work you could likely use either trigger finger position and be fast and accurate with it.

I personally change nothing about placement. I'll slow group fire and smash a 5 yard bill drill with the same finger position.

Tell him I said hi next time you see him. I'd probably spend a lot of time there if I lived in the area as well.

Yeah driving the gun to the target is an absolutely key skill. I think it's one of the primary things that separates lower from higher class shooters. I laugh hysterically the entire time I'm around JJ. Dude cracks me up. It's usually with KC too, those guys together are something else lol.

I know JJ. I have squadded with him 15-20 times in the past. He's a fantastic shooter and I love the guy. I still don't think it actually happens just like he describes. It's going to take a video of his trigger finger during recoil slowed down for me to change that opinion. This isn't even something you can really practice in dry fire since it depends on recoil to practice it.

I'd like to see a super slow video of him showing that because I highly doubt it goes off the same way he described. I also disagree with his premise that it is more efficient to do it that way. If all you were talking about is getting off the trigger during recoil, that's fine and a good idea as long as it doesn't screw with your accuracy. When you add prepping the trigger during recoil by applying pressure to get through pre-travel but not enough to break the shot that is where you lost me. There is no shot we will ever see at a USPSA match that I will prep my trigger for. Single or double action. I don't even prep the trigger with slow fire group shooting.

Just the idea that you are going to precisely prep your trigger consistently during the .06ish seconds it takes for the gun to cycle sounds suspiciously like snake oil salesman talk to me. What possible benefit is there to this technique over learning to just pull the trigger correctly as normal?

I think this is utterly ridiculous advice. I'd encourage you to not prep the trigger, and instead get proficient at pulling it all the way through quickly without moving the sights.

The best thing for a shooter to do at a match is go out there and just hit the center of the targets at a speed that is quick but comfortable. Just go and call every shot. 99% of us really don't need to complicate it any more than that.

Straight but not locked.

I don't have a ton of success by moving super slow. If I was having an issue with indexing on my draw, I'd do a draw at probably 75% speed with my eyes closed and when I open my eyes take note of what the sights look like. Then I'll reholster and draw at the same speed with eyes closed trying to adjust that finishing position so that when I open my eyes everything is aligned. When everything is humming along nicely, I speed up and try to maintain the result.

Target to target transition index is fine. It's just on the initial draw. The sights are misaligned slightly. You move the gun to a new target when you draw. It still applies. It's something you are doing. Do some draws, make minor corrections until everything lines up correctly, then hold those corrections as you speed up.