Now that shooting season is here, I'm grateful for all of the dry-fire practice I've been doing during the off-season. I've been working pretty much exclusively with transitions during my sessions, and can start to see some areas of that skill improving during my match performance. Most notably, I've realized that I've been tracking the sights from target-to-target much more than I thought that I was. While I knew that I wasn't supposed to do that, I wasn't quite sure how to get my eyes to the next target ahead of the gun. The two main things that I now pay most attention to are 1) am I seeing the target first and then the sights moving onto it, and 2) can I feel my legs pushing instead of my torso rotating?
For getting my eyes ahead, a couple of things that seem to have helped: calling a good shot on the last target, and picking a specific spot on the next target at which to aim. Being able to call a good shot frees up my eyes to move the next target, and picking a specific spot on the next one makes it easier for me to tell when it's "close enough" to break the shot. As I started consciously paying attention to these things during my dry-fire, the skill of noticing when they didn't happen transferred to my live-fire and match runs, too. It's almost like that uneasy feeling you have when you get a bad grip on your draw--you know it right away that something's off.
The other thing I've been working on is using my legs to transition instead of swinging my arms or twisting my torso. I'm starting to get a better idea of how far apart my feet ought to be, the feeling in my toes as they dig into the ground, the slight delay of my arms following to the target (instead of them leading). I'm still puzzled about how to simultaneously enter a position, shoot early (before I'm fully settled), and setup my feet for transitions. Often times, there seem to be extra footsteps that result in delays shooting or transitioning. In my latest match video, you can see that for almost every position with multiple targets, I enter and then take an extra step to move my feet further apart.
As for this match, though, I'm mostly satisfied with my mindset throughout--I didn't try to go beyond what I felt comfortable shooting, and I shot 96% points (not counting the steel behind the barrel that I completely forgot about). Instead of feeling like I could've shot faster, I'm learning to critique the individual skills that'll eventually lead to lower overall times.
Also, shoutout and free plug for @CHA-LEE on finishing his first book, Path Of Focused Effort. Many of us spend a lot of time thinking about this sport; few can break down the qualities needed for effective training like Big Panda. Hit http://www.bigpandaperformance.com/ and get your copy of the book!