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Working on my live fire practice plans. Recently added much more accent on Blake drills in dry fire and saw a lot of opportunities to improve: over/under transitions, vertical offsets, horizontal instability and reverse pre-transition swings. Basically all the problems I’ve had in Blake drills in live fire. Some context: My recoil control approach was functional workouts and just precision - doubles cycle in live fire. Precision: 10 shots from draw on 8” plate at 30yd, doubles 20yd IPSC target. Functional training: shooters elbow recovery exercises and hammer levering. Complete brute force, but works. For now. The perception gap between live and dry fire in actual stages is slowly but surely shrinking. So my question is: do transitions behave differently enough in live fire to dedicate time/rounds for them, like more than 50% of rounds per session. Or is 10-20% per session in the end of it enough? Outside of actual/simulated stage runs and specific skills like reloads/draws/unloaded/oneHanded/prop/whatever - what is/was your most productive schedule/plan for live fire? Thanks!

I'm wondering what your guy's opinion is on the schools of thought behind this. As far as Inward Should Pressure goes, specifically what I'm talking about, is in addition to canting and locking your left wrist, and clamping hard with your support hand, you clamp your hands inward (Hold your hands out where your gun would be, but hold them together as if you were clapping. Now try to push them together as much as possible, this is the pressure I'm talking about). The only shooter I've found who mentions this mentality when gripping the gun is Bob Vogel. (Multiple videos of him mentioning this specifically, here's one link: https://youtu.be/688tyvWxaYg?t=207) I feel that when I've implemented this, and I'm actively thinking about gripping the gun like this, my groups get better, period. feels like the gun comes back to zero more consistently and faster than if I wasn't. And my splits also seem to improve a tad. The counter to this, Is that very often, I hear a lot of top shooters talk about everything being relatively relaxed while shooting other than your wrist+grip (shoulders relaxed, arms and elbows bent and not completely stiff, etc.) The specific instance I'm thinking of is in Ben Stoeger's "Breakthrough Marksmanship", where he is talking about general tension when shooting, but I know I've heard it in a myriad of other places and videos. The usual reasoning behind wanting the tension in your body to be more or less loose is for smooth transitions, and more specifically not driving the gun too hard/over transitioning. Which I have noticed is the case sometimes when I'm gripping the gun like this because, instead of driving the gun to the next target with the correct amount of force, the tendency is to use my whole body to over drive the gun because my shoulders are forward and relatively stiff, elbows, while not locked to still have some suspension for recoil, are decently tight and forward, so I over transition sometimes. Are these things not actually contradictory and I'm thinking about this wrong?... Is one consistently better and one worse?... Is it all personal Preference?... Just Suck Less?... Let me know what you guys use and your thoughts, thanks! Also first time post, be gentle.

I started this sport a little late in life at 49, and now 5 years into it, I can see why they set the age for senior at 55. I can definitely feel old age starting to creep up… Honestly, I always thought it would be great to make Master I but never really thought it would be possible. Last year I made production A class and spent a day and a half with Shannon Smith, and I think reaching Master just may be possible. Although, the recent updates to the classifier high hit factors really hurts… I know it’s generally not recommended, but I’ve started shooting classifiers a lot in practice. Since Master is my goal, it seems to make sense to use classifiers as a benchmark to test myself against and learn from. Not to mention I really stink at classifiers in general… My early live fire training was focused on a lot of field course work. This was really helpful with transitioning from running/moving to accurate shooting modes and seemed to make me fairly successful in matches overall, but I perform poorly in classifiers. Long story short… I need help. I’ve really put a lot of work into getting where I’m at today and improvements seem to be harder to come by. I’ve currently got several issues I’m dealing that I’ll detail in my next post. It really boils down to pride. B class was good, and I’m was super happy when I made A class, but “Master” really sound nice. Master.. master.. maaaasteerr Yea… You guys have been an extremely valuable resource over the years, and I know I’ll benefit greatly from your feedback. I know we all love talking about the sport we love, but detailed replies take a lot of time, so let me go ahead and say how much I appreciate all the help.

For those of you who do shoulder/hand transitions, how do you recommend getting a similar grip with your "weak" side as with your "strong" side? My grip on a handgun with my right hand always flocks to the same spot, but when I switch to or draw with my left, I always feel like I have to readjust. Is it just practice, or are there specific techniques to get near identical/symmetrical grips?