Jake Di Vita

If I have to retreat, and then do something else (like move sideways or around something and then forward again), I found a noticeable reduction in time by delaying the insertion of the mag until the rearward movement was completed. If you have to shoot immediately upon finishing the rearward movement, then it seemed like a wash. Specifically talking about moving away from the dominant shooting hand (righty moving "left" or "back left"). Let's assume movement is ~10' away, so nothing that is just essentially a standing reload. In our case, the options are binary: 1.) Reload then move. 2.) Split the load. Option 1 serializes the time. Option 2 is more complex. Allows you to keep moving. When beginning the rotation to face back towards the targets, that moment where you pivot becomes the moment where you can seat the magazine. It is dead time. Performing the seating there is smart - there is not a lot of motion of the gun, etc. Part of the confusion I think is I don't consider my method to be "Reload then move". I don't delay leaving a position to get a reload done, I reload as I accelerate out of position. Regardless of how you move or if you are reloading, it will take a certain small amount of time to go from stationary to moving. My goal is to get the reload done in that time. I agree that the split load is more complex (and for me, less consistent). I don't agree that seating the magazine as you face back towards the targets is smart though. This is the time I want to be extending the gun to the target and getting on the sights, not seating a mag. The method you suggest is also more costly if it doesn't go just right...in the case of a less than perfect load you are fumbling when you could be shooting whereas if I screw up my method, I still have the distance I need to move to get it completed.

I'm not saying the split load isn't perfectly acceptable for some people or certain situations, I'm saying I am consistently faster if I get the load done first. Eric has more than likely put enough work in to be consistent reloading at a gallop, he's obviously better than I am. I'm not convinced however that he can reload and run to a position faster than I can. I've only met him once or twice so I don't know him well enough to send him a drill we could run to see. I think it'd be interesting though.

I dunno... Imagine the scenario of moving from front to back, for a right handed shooter, turning away from the gun. That means, the shooter would have to standing reload before really getting outta there... I think there is value, in that specific case, to eject the mag, grab the fresh magazine and begin the movement - all at the same time. The shooter needs to pivot to face downrange when they get to where they're going. It is at that point that the shooter can finish the seating, etc. It all depends on how quickly you can get that load done. Someone who is slightly slower on the reload could be better served by your suggestion. For me I see the most benefit from my method when moving uprange because if I execute properly, my reload is done right about the same instant I drop step (hard exit) so I'm not really losing any time just standing there and I can run as hard as possible right from the beginning. I want to start the movement to the next position at the same time as I would if I weren't reloading, it's just on me to get the load done in that deadtime before my body has had a chance to move much.

Goofy angles of movement make it more important to get the load done as early as possible. To add on that a bit, if I'm doing my job right the reload is completed pretty much before my shoulders even turn. So moving left as a righty or needing to turn to run uprange has almost no impact on how I need to execute the reload.

One old school IPSC shooter that I competed with a lot my first couple years of USPSA always pushed me to have the reload done in this first step of movement regardless of the direction of that movement. I've put it on the timer many times and I always scored better if I smashed the load in that deadtime when I shift my momentum at the start of moving rather than trying to move and reload on the way. The goal I work towards is to be done with my reload before my second foot hits the ground on the way to the next shooting position. I can then move at a higher rate of speed than I could if I had to get a reload done mid stride. On the timer it manifested consistently between .2 and .5 faster depending on the situation. For me to be consistent reloading on the move I find I like the same level of body stability as if I were shooting on the move.

Yep. I golf and I shoot, and I like to watch both.

Also, Ben Steoger suggested in a class that I grab a mag and throw it up in front of me and then position the gun around the mag (instead of the other way around). That helped me figure out a better angle to hold the gun and made my reloads way more consistent. This made a large difference for me about 10 years ago. Highly recommend.

One of the primary reasons I think rock climbing is so fantastic for your grip is the wildly varied positions your hand will have to be in from hold to hold. Pinches, crimps, slopers, pockets, and ropes of all varied sizes and shapes means you develop a different kind of strength in your hands that someone who only squeezes something will never develop.

I'm with wtturn. Smooth is not fast...fast is fast. Speed will not just come on it's own over time. If you are doing something 100% perfectly every time, you aren't really getting any better at it. Humans need to be challenged to improve. Period, full stop, end of story.

Yeah that's a great question. I'm inclined to think it is linked more towards the impulse of the recoil rather than programmed into my trigger control or mechanics through dryfire. If I'm doing my job right, everything in live fire is still the exact same until the hammer drops. My take is the compensation for recoil is just the best way my body has found to apply the appropriate force required to get the sights back on target. With great mechanics and reasonable strength you redirect a good portion of the muzzle flip energy in recoil into your body and hopefully eventually the ground. You can't quite get it all though, the muzzle is always going to rise at least a tiny bit. Compensation is just that amount of force needed to get the sights back down from inevitable muzzle rise. Timing it to happen the instant the bullet leaves the gun gives you the earliest opportunity to see/align the sights for the next shot, but do it too early and you miss. Definitely a feel thing.

No, certainly not. You never want to simulate recoil in dryfire. I think if you are holding the gun tight and driving it into the targets, the compensation happens on it's own.

I've worked with some people that had some issues with peripheral neuropathy. I don't recall where right now but I remember reading in the past that sometimes hyper-insulinism can lead to this, so controlling the amount of sugar you ingest is always a good first step. I've also heard of some people having a lot of success supplementing with 500-800 mg of alpha lipoic acid per day. Best of luck. Nerve issues suck.

I'd bet that everyone "tries" subconsciously to compensate for recoil at least a little, which is the primary reason I didn't like the snap cap drill you posted. I can't think of a single shooter I know including myself that wouldn't have their muzzle dip if they were expecting the gun to go off but it didn't.

If you try hard enough, you can find "potential insult" in anything anyone says. Can we please get back to talking about shooting instead of feelings? That would be great.

I never had to focus specifically on that, it came naturally through a desire to get the gun back on target at the earliest moment possible. To me, it is a combination of squeezing the hell out of it and always driving the gun to the target.

Yeah I'm sorry but I'm still having a hard time figuring out exactly what you're trying to say. Since you don't actually know me at all and text on the internet is a less than perfect way of transmitting information, I'm just going to let it go.

Snide? Jesus Christ. I was not being derogatory or mocking in anyway, least of all towards you. Holy sensitivity Batman. I brought up the topic of pitiful strength for the exact reason that I stated. You said use whatever strength you have with good technique. I'm saying no amount of technique will make up for someone that has the strength of a noodle. If that is snide to you, you may be a little thin skinned to have a discussion with me. Unreal.

Well yeah. There absolutely is a difference between raw strength and productive application of force. Technique is what bridges the two. But no amount of technique will make up for pitiful levels of strength.

Whatever you say man. Coaching sensitive people is just about an art form in it's own right. I don't consider anything that has been said here to be even remotely insulting, nor do I see it as a "high wall". I've trained people with cerebral palsy who are plenty strong enough to control the recoil of a pistol.

You can probably get away with that in matches where you only need one round per target. In USPSA I don't want to let the recoil take it's course.

I'm really not a fan of this. The problem I have with this drill is that it doesn't differentiate between flinching and compensating for recoil. They are both the similar motions, but the flinch happens before the bullet exits the barrel and compensation happens after. Flinching is obviously bad but compensation is good and the difference between one being the other might only be a couple hundredths of a second.

Yeah I don't agree with much of anything said here. Your formatting makes it a little hard to decipher what actual point you are trying to get across though. My full size open gun with fully loaded big stick weighs 3.7 pounds. If any male or female who isn't a child finds that too heavy to shoot, the term wimp is applicable and is probably a gross understatement. I've said it in other places, but being extremely strong is not a huge advantage. Being extremely weak is a gigantic disadvantage. The amount of strength required to control recoil effectively is substantially lower than what I would say someone needs to be considered strong. If I were to give levels of strength classifications like USPSA, I would say you don't need to have much more strength than C class to control your gun well. You certainly don't need to be the Hulk. If you're too skinny to control recoil, start eating like an adult and get your ass in the gym.

I personally think a little added stress to the CNS can be a good thing for developing skill, especially if there is any chance you will have to execute the skill while fatigued. The hard part is making yourself use proper mechanics / line of action when you are tired. I'm a fan of training skills under as many different conditions as possible. Tired, cold, sweaty, exhausted, hungry, fresh, etc. You are likely to notice something different when you change the conditions it is performed under.

Easily 100x. Probably more.

What you're speaking of is exactly why it is important to train outside your comfort zone. As you increase speed, you also increase the demands on your technique. This is critical because the rate at which we improve is proportional to the demands you put on yourself. In the same vein, we as humans don't generally improve by doing something that is easy. In your case of missing the grip 50% of the time at .7, that might be a little too high failure rate. If you asked for my advice, I'd tell you to do the bulk of your training at a speed which gives you about a 75% success rate. Then as your success rate improves, you one again increase the speed. It is certainly possible to reinforce bad technique. Avoiding this requires proprioception (knowing where your body is in space), video analysis, and attention on what you are doing during practice. Even then you'll still likely have some less than ideal stuff work it's way in, this is one of the reasons coaches exist in most sports. The other side of this coin is if you don't push hard enough to where your technique starts to degrade, you don't have any stimulus for favorable adaptation. If you are doing something with a 100% success rate, you are not improving.