QuickMick

Some good results in my second IPSC season at local and national matches as well as increasing fun being on the range makes me wonder - what training program for the next season could one propose? The next important match is in March, so there is plenty of time, how to make use of it? My question is not about a specific drill or set of drills but how to time along the next months dry fire, range sessions, ....? Does it make sense to push for speed right now on the range or better to focus on proper technique in dry fire?

I do. I have an A-rate of ~75%, regardless of type of match. It's quite interesting to have such a kind of statistic, also when you know that other shooters have around 90% A-rate.......

weight of bullets is ok, we use 28.6mm OAL - try a 13lb recoil spring.

Thanks, I think your are right but given the circumstances it's hard to get a 3rd person to tape the stages. True, it's underground, perhaps the largest underground shooting range in the world with really tough matches. Plates and poppers somtimes at 40m, really fast swingers at 15m, everything to distract you with options on the stages, top shooters like Cobos, and of course all in the light of a basement.

Here is a vid of my last L III match from good old Europe, I feel I improved a lot over a year but I'm keen to get some inputs for my next training phase. Comments welcome, thank you.

Totally agree. I trained a guy starting dynamic shooting, and all he was talking about was "shooting faster". I took a tape of him while running a training stage, and measured the time he needed to reload on the move (ok, that was mean). So we worked on the "last shot fired get out positon and reload" - stuff, what was a real progress for him following the approach that shots take the time they need but everything else is suboptimal for the hit facor.

Not sure if you do that, but when dry firing get some ammo without primer and powder in the mags for the weight. Also, I believe you don't look into the mag funnel. As written above try the Burkett reload exercise, and: do it while moving out/in of a position, means: left to right, right to left, backwards and forwards. The goal is not to have on or two reloads within a second par time, but to have 999 out of 1000 within 1.2 seconds or so. Also exercise using all mags on your rig.

Learnings of the last 5 months: - get perfect on the "big three": grip, sight picture, trigger. Important for that is high-quality dry fire, including timer and par-times. - focus on precision, and sell it off for speed. - vary speed in training sessions, from 100% As to "chaos mode". - vary start conditions in training sessions, from loaded & holstered to whatever-you-can-think-about. - clearly separate training for technique(s) from training for matches, vary the ratio depending on the overall planning. - Having a skill list for trainign and a plan is crucial to improve, train your weaknesses.

I do, of course, as well as those guys winning level 3 IPSC matches here in europe. I was just surprised of their advice after watching vids like the one in this thread.

I talked a lot with some pretty successful shooters about shooting on the move and also watched their videos as I started including that technique into my training sessions. They do not recommend that at all. In matches they do not do that beyond 3-5m of target distance. Never mind, if trained correctly and used with care I think there is an advantge. So I keep on training.....

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 ;-).

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.

did that at 8m with four out of six in about 6s, best exercise ever. Just struggling a little bit with the first shot (DA) and the draw. Anyway, progressing is not a linear function.....

Full ack! My coach listened (!) to my shooting on stage as it was behind a barricade and said "well done". He knew there were 8 targets but heard I was clearly not shooting double taps but clean transitions....

I was shooting the Icebear Challenge this weekend for the second time, -8°C and lots of snow in the alps. Learning from last year here the conclusion: hot tea or similar in a thermos flask gloves even if you don't feel your hands are cold lots of clothes, breathable sports wear, including knit cap warm up for at least 20 minutes, move a few minutes before you are to shoot the stage when snowy/icy - climbign irons, there are some lighweigth ones you juts put on your shoes in a second during shooting you must be able to move so you have to undress/dress for each stage

Did some training for shooting on the move the last weeks, was surprised how easy that goes when observing two things: pull the gun closer to your body, pull the trigger when one foot is in the air. That works for me excellent, up to 15m forward and backward.

That's correct, but take care when leaving your position downrange and starting a reload.

Brian's book of course, but I would also recommend Saul Kirsch - "Perfect Practice", "Thinking Practical Shooting".

Watch your head, try if it helps to have it more upright.

Brian wrote some precious thoughts about that in his book, so did Saul Kirsch. I think the important thing is to find out what works best for you. For myself that's trying to get cold blooded when I come on deck, because (!) I'm taking that serious. Means: the cooler I am before the beep the better I perform, I don't give other competitors the advantage of me getting nervous or too stressed out.

I use both focus types, but you have to train that. My rule is simple: 100% IPSC targets below 12m I use target focus, anything else sight focus. During stage walk through I may decide to shoot very close targets even not 100% targets with target focus, too. During training sessions I run an exercise with targets between 5 and 20m to get used to changing the focus (some also call that drill "changing gears"). Anyway, target focus allows faster target transitions, but limits precision. On the other side you may get into the bad habit of looking for the holes in the paper instead of calling your shots.

Some facts huh? Show me these "pros" that lock their elbows, because I've shot with a large amount of them and have never seen it. Some pictures/video may give the appearance of locked elbows from the camera's perspective, but I assure you they are almost always slightly bent. As I mentioned in an earlier post, you do not want the recoil to travel through locked arms into your shoulders, you ideally want the recoil to travel through tensed musculature into the ground. I'd like to look at video of you guys who lock your arms, because I bet your shoulders are getting pushed all over the place. You said bent arms act like shock absorbers....yes, exactly...that is a good thing though, not a bad thing. You are never going to stop or eliminate recoil, you can only manage it. It seems like a terrible idea to have two different gross motor patterns for shooting a pistol. The simpler way is often the better way, you'll do yourself a favor in the long run by sticking with one. I actually can't think of a single dynamic athletic movement that benefits from locking joints. The larger the distance between your eye and front sight the better for precision. it's just knowing in a stage where this situations occur and which focus type I use leads me to locken/unlocked, something you can easily train during dry fire. Unlocked elbows speeds up follow-up shots, something I'm (primarily) not interested in for distance above 15, 20m. The more important thing seems that you don't lift your shoulders. Give it a try.

True! So for me it depends on the task: close, fast shots on arrays up to 10m with elbows not locked, anything beyond that distance locked. Personally I combine that with the focus type I use (target/not locked, sight/locked)

I worked on transitions a lot the last months with some drills. What I found out that a key is to have a solid stance, shoulders down (not pulled towards your ears), not fully streched arms, tension but no locking of elbows and shoulders. What I tried a lot was to draw the gun, get into the position with closed eyes and have a proper sight alignment. Took weeks including to find "the grip". Doing transitions was a lot easier then, when using your knees and lower body to move and the gun following your eyes. For the weight: it's all about the centre of mass you move, so stretching your arms with a "heavy" gun won't let you move so fast as with a polymer which seems to be more sensitive to overshoot our target but allows faster movements. Have three targets with about 2m distance and shoot transitions (2 rounds per target), left to right and back. Check your hits on the target and time, change the gun, try again.

Some things after some matches and preparing for the national championships: - the spreadsheet works for me, in conjunction with the post match analysis and video capture I was able to eliminate some weaknesses. - split each range session in three parts: technique (grip, sight picture, trigger), special things like popper ore swingers (weakness part), WHO, ...and combination of all (focus types, distances to target, target types as well as start conditions). - split range training in two session per week, maximum 300 rounds instead of one 500 round session. - do dry fire in the morning - started doing calcs for the stage factor in the matches. hard lesson after a SHO/WHO full-house stage killing 3rd place......