Please help critique my draw

[mudman]

I got inspired to pare some time off my draw after reading hf219's thread on sight acquisition: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=102859

Right now I can consistently get under 1 sec in dry fire, and 1.2 is a comfortable A zone hit in live fire (at 7 meters).

I'd be grateful for any suggestions / observations on improving my draw! Video is here:

I'm using an airsoft in the video because we're not allowed to take our blasters home where I live.

Many thanks in advance for your time and suggestions.

[CHA-LEE]

It looks like you have decent hand speed to the gun and getting it up and out. But you are breaking the shot way before the gun is fully mounted and settled. The first draw from the side view, you are not even seeing the sights before you break the shot. This why you are seeing such a big difference in your dry fire time verses live fire. In live fire you force yourself to see and align the sights before breaking the shot.

You are staying pretty still during the draw which is good but are bobbing your head down to the sights. You want to bring the gun up to your eye, not bring your eye/head down to the gun. You also have too much momentum at the end of the draw when you have the gun fully mounted which is causing it to bounce. You want to slow down your forward arm movement just before having the gun fully mounted so it smoothly enters and settles into position verses being punched out there violently. Lastly you break down your grip instantly after breaking the shot. Follow through and keep the gun mounted on target for a minimal pause to confirm you are seeing what you need. It is vary rare that you would raise the gun, fire a shot, then instantly pull it all the way back during a stage run. Most of the time you raise the gun and keep it out there as you shoot multiple shots. When you draw, break the shot, then instantly pull the gun back during dry fire practice, you will to the same thing in live fire, which isn’t a good thing.

Lastly think about your stance carefully in dry fire. Since you don’t have to manage recoil you can have a pretty lazy flat foot or weight on your heels kind of stance, and it works because you don’t have any recoil to manage. In your video you can see your body rocking around a little bit from your fast arm movements alone. If your arm movement is enough to displace your stance then the recoil will for sure. Use a solid stance all of the time with the forward bias and the majority of your weight on the balls of your feet.

[CocoBolo]

1. Gun appears to be too far rearward on belt causing you to move your shoulder.

2. Upper body appears to dip as gun is pushed out, at least head is coming down.

3. Left hand going too far right at times.

4. Movement of left had seems to be a tick behind right hand at the start, in last sequence left had moves before right.

5. Gun is being pushed up and out rather than out so that sights can be picked up as its going out.

6. Knees appear locked need to be bent slightly.

7. Body appears to be upright, need a tick of lean forward.

8. Holster appears to be hanging on draw, notice how it moves, adjust angle so draw is straight up out of holster. Also looks like a slight hesitation at that point.

[mudman]

Many thanks for your keen eyes and great advice. Although I dry fire a lot in front of the mirror, this is the first time I've actually videotaped myself - it's amazing how much more you can see!

I never noticed the head bob in the mirror, but it's painfully obvious in the video. I'll work on getting the brakes on my hand speed a bit earlier too. I remember there was a recent comment comparing the end of the draw stroke to letting off the car brakes lightly when the vehicle's just about to come to a stop. I like that comparison and I'll work on improving my smoothness. I'll also pay more attention to my stance (perhaps once of the drawbacks of all the airsoft practice).

I remember Flex made a comment about the support hand speed driving the overall speed of the draw, so I've been focusing on moving my LH quickly over to the gun. I used to stop my LH around the centerline of my body, but I've found that I'm actually a few ticks quicker when I try to get grip established as soon as the pistol comes out of the holster, then mount it directly under my right eye. For me, it always seemed a bit counterproductive to move the gun from the holster (on my right side) to the centerline, then back to the right (to get the sights lined up with my right eye). Seems like wasted movement to me... Instead, I've been working on getting the gun to move in a straight line from the holster to my eye (at least in terms of L/R movement). I'd be really interested to hear what you guys think about this, since it's a bit different then the traditional "hands meet in the middle of the body" I was originally taught.

I'm going to play around with the angle of my holster to see if I can get the gun to pop out more smoothly. Unfortunately in IPSC Standard division, we have to keep our holster and mags behind the hip bone (one of the few differences from USPSA Limited), but I'll pay more attention to eliminating movement in my shoulder.

Thanks again, CHA-LEE and CocoBolo. I really appreciate your great suggestions - you guys rock! Now back to practice some more.....

[CocoBolo]

The best way to practice your draw is backwards. I learned this from Matt Burkett. With the gun mounted work backwards perfecting the movements. It helps. I do a few bassackward draws every time I practice. Then do some without the timer just working on perfecting the movements. Then a few at speed. Once I am confident I'm doing it right then I work with the timer but my target on the wall is a cross, I want to come up on the exact spot that I intend to shoot, not close but exact, and then breaking the shot and calling it. Keep score on the good hits no amount of speed can make up for bad hits.

A lot of our USPSA starts don't do much for your draw as you have to move first or pick it up and load it etc. Now shooting steel is a whole new game and its drawing from surrender and a 1/4 second is huge.

In live fire drills I will practice for those rare occasion when you draw and have a close target, I call it the instinct shot, it is taken without sights or dot and its good for about a 1/3 second gain. If your draw is indexed corretly you get your A hit, if it isn't maybe you get the dirt to fly up.

Good Luck and keep practicing its the fastest way to get good.

[mudman]

Thanks again, CocoBolo.

I remember doing reverse draws when I was first learning, but haven't practiced those in a while. I'm going to strap on the rig and get to work now...

I've been focusing on my "stand and shoot" skills recently, because this is where I'm losing time on our local big dogs. I've always been neck-in-neck with them (if not better) in terms of points, but my hit factors are at about 80% because of my time. I was lucky enough to take a class with Saul Kirsch when he came to town last year, and my movement skills improved tremendously as a result. Now I'm moving well enough to win long field courses (when I'm doing everything right), but I'm shooting at around 80% of the top guys on short stages. That's why I've been turning more attention to my draw / reloads / transitions.

But enough typing... back to practice! Many thanks again for your excellent suggestions.

(edited for spelling)

Edited March 18, 2010 by mudman

[CHA-LEE]

I wouldn’t worry too much about your support hand crossing your centerline to meet the gun during the draw. I have heard it from many GM’s that the sooner you get both hands on the gun the sooner you can start building your grip. The sooner you get your grip done the sooner you can shoot. Don’t think of doing things “Faster” think about doing them “Sooner”. Optimize your strong hand and arm movements to grip the gun sooner so your support hand meets the gun at about the same time as the gun is well out of the holster during the draw. Your support hand crossing your centerline is just telling you that our strong hand can draw the gun/move/build the grip sooner. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to cross the center line of your body with the support hand as long as you are still able to build a consistent and solid grip.

Keeping the gun in a straight line as you bring it out and up is also a good thing to do. Optimizing the mechanics of anything is about eliminating waste. Keeping the gun straight towards the target and aligned as you draw eliminates one more variable and is a good step in the direction of optimizing the process.

The number one goal should be to have a completed grip with the sights fully aligned and settled at the end of the mount of the gun. This allows you to break the shot as soon as the gun is mounted. It does not matter if you can draw and fling the gun out in front of you in less than a second if the sights are not aligned and you can’t break the shot or if you do break the shot you have no clue as to where it went. I will take a 1.0 – 1.2 second draw that allows me to break the shot as soon as the gun is fully mounted and aligned ANY DAY over a .7 - .9 second draw that has me fishing to align the sights after I have mounted the gun. You can waste a lot of time fishing for the sights or get killed by lost points if you try and sling shots at the target trying to go fast and end up with a crappy grip on the gun.

I like to draw the gun as aggressively as I can which still allows me to build a 100% consistent strong hand grip while the gun is in the holster. Then bring the gun up and build my support hand grip soon in the draw process then slow it down slightly at the end so the approach of the fully mounted position is smooth and everything is aligned. That way as soon as the gun is up and in front of my face I can unleash all my shooting fury and know that my platform is ready for it. I am not a speed daemon with my draw. I am only running 1.0 – 1.2 sec to solid center A-zone hits on a 10 yard target. But I can do it all day long and run the gun dry shooting A’s at .15 - .18 splits being in 100% control of what’s going on. To me, consistent repeatability is far more important than raw speed which can end with a crash and burn more often than not.

Don’t get too wrapped up on ultra fast standing draws. Its usually more important to work on drawing the gun and building a grip as you are exiting the start position. The vast majority of the time this is what happens at the start of most stages. It is not too common where you are standing in an optimal stance and draw straight to the first target without moving into a different shooting position first. You can save seconds on a stage by optimizing your movement in and out of shooting positions or you can save tenths on a very few stages by practicing stationary draws relentlessly. Which one is going to serve you better and more often?

[lugnut]

To me, consistent repeatability is far more important than raw speed which can end with a crash and burn more often than not.

That about sums up everything to me... in all aspects of shooting.

[mudman]

Thanks again for all your advice, CHA-LEE. Reading your last post was a real "light bulb" moment for me - you've given me lots of things to think about and work on.

I'm not a speed demon by nature, and (thanks to BE's book and this forum) my game has always been about shooting A's as quickly as I can... But now I think I'll change my focus to getting those A's as SOON as I can!

Once again, I really appreciate all the time and thought you guys have put into your comments. We don't have too many world class shooters here in Hong Kong, so it's great to have access to such a knowledgeable group of experts here on the forums.

[Jake Di Vita]

I break shots before the gun is fully mounted all the time.

If you want to get a faster draw (and thus a more consistent 1-second draw), do a few hundred a day at the fastest speed you can.

FWIW, I hear all the time that you shouldn't practice much on the draw because we only use it a handful of times in a match, but I don't agree. I think it transfers over to other areas of shooting very well...and ultimately, the better you are at ANY drill, the better you are at gun handling as a whole.

Shooting all A's is not a useful theory while practicing - especially in dry fire. (Can't wait to see the responses to this).

[pjb45]

Jake, I am not sure if I understand your meaning correctly about all 'As'

I notice when I try to exceed the comfort zone my shots tend to produce more non-As. I view this as acceptable as I am trying to speed up. Last week I ripped about 25 sub-second draws at 18 yds. I definitely did not have all As. I was trying to focus on getting the gun up faster with a correct technique. However, I always end a session with a focus on accuracy. This week I was doing draws at 18 yards but a slower time of 1.18 seconds but my accuracy was much better.

Through out a week of training sessions I try to have a mix of speed, accuracy, and movement drills, each session with its distinct focus but I always try to have the last two magazines emphasize sight picture and trigger control.

So does you statement mean that non-As in training have a benefit? If so, could your provider more information.

Thanks.

[Jake Di Vita]

So does you statement mean that non-As in training have a benefit? If so, could your provider more information.

Absolutely.

All shooting is based on skill. Skill by definition is neurological, thus governed by the central nervous system. Therefore, all adaptation of shooting skill is also neurologically based.

If you are always practicing within your comfort zone (IE, shooting all A's, AKA match performance) you are never stressing your CNS enough to cause a favorable adaptation. If you want to get better at shooting, it's critical to practice within the zone where technique begins to degrade because of intensity. In other words, I want you to push the intensity until you start seeing form faults, and then correct those form faults at speed. This is called threshold training, and it's the most natural thing in the world to do.

When I dry fire for example, I'm pulling the trigger at a fast enough pace to where I don't have enough information to call my shots 25-50% of the time. The critical part is you have to be striving to see as much as you can while doing this. Eventually I am calling my shots at a higher percentage than when I started while going the same speed (measurable improvement). This obviously also transfers over very well to live fire practice - just be careful and don't shoot yourself lol.

I believe "crashing and burning" in practice is a critical tool to use for improvement - if used correctly. This doesn't mean that ALL of your practice should be done like this - it's just a very powerful tool we can use.

This method can be applied towards draws, reloads, shooting on the move, etc...you are really only limited by your imagination, tenacity, and focus.

[mudman]

If you are always practicing within your comfort zone (IE, shooting all A's, AKA match performance) you are never stressing your CNS enough to cause a favorable adaptation. If you want to get better at shooting, it's critical to practice within the zone where technique begins to degrade because of intensity. In other words, I want you to push the intensity until you start seeing form faults, and then correct those form faults at speed. This is called threshold training, and it's the most natural thing in the world to do.

When I dry fire for example, I'm pulling the trigger at a fast enough pace to where I don't have enough information to call my shots 25-50% of the time. The critical part is you have to be striving to see as much as you can while doing this. Eventually I am calling my shots at a higher percentage than when I started while going the same speed (measurable improvement). This obviously also transfers over very well to live fire practice - just be careful and don't shoot yourself lol.

Thanks for this, Jake! I used to play the fiddle, and a lot of that experience carries over to the way I practice shooting now.

If you want to play fast, you have to practice playing fast! I used to work on difficult passages by starting at a speed I could handle, then gradually bumping up the metronome until the wheels fell off. At that point, I'd back it off a tick to get acclimatized to the speed, and then crank it up again. I always practiced going just a little bit faster than I actually wanted to play, so I'd have a "safety cushion" for when I got on stage. I think the process behind practicing any kind of skill is remarkably similar (although I didn't have to worry about shooting myself with my fiddle).

I guess I know what I need to do... Now I just have to go and do it!

I can't thank you guys enough for all your help.

[MemphisMechanic]

Shooting all A's is not a useful theory while practicing - especially in dry fire.

[Flyin40]

Shooting all A's is not a useful theory while practicing - especially in dry fire. (Can't wait to see the responses to this).

So does you statement mean that non-As in training have a benefit? If so, could your provider more information.

If you are always practicing within your comfort zone (IE, shooting all A's, AKA match performance) you are never stressing your CNS enough to cause a favorable adaptation. If you want to get better at shooting, it's critical to practice within the zone where technique begins to degrade because of intensity. In other words, I want you to push the intensity until you start seeing form faults, and then correct those form faults at speed. This is called threshold training, and it's the most natural thing in the world to do.

When I dry fire for example, I'm pulling the trigger at a fast enough pace to where I don't have enough information to call my shots 25-50% of the time. The critical part is you have to be striving to see as much as you can while doing this. Eventually I am calling my shots at a higher percentage than when I started while going the same speed (measurable improvement). This obviously also transfers over very well to live fire practice - just be careful and don't shoot yourself lol.

I believe "crashing and burning" in practice is a critical tool to use for improvement - if used correctly. This doesn't mean that ALL of your practice should be done like this - it's just a very powerful tool we can use.

This method can be applied towards draws, reloads, shooting on the move, etc...you are really only limited by your imagination, tenacity, and focus.

I'm a firm believer in what Jake is saying. The key is what he is saying about the purpose of going faster which is to learn. It is not to "just" shoot fast.

I believe "crashing and burning" in practice is a critical tool to use for improvement - if used correctly. This doesn't mean that ALL of your practice should be done like this - it's just a very powerful tool we can use.

I think it is really important to stress that you need to be careful like Jake is saying. Have a clear plan and stick to it when your on the range. Don't go to the range and just shoot as fast as you can all the time. You'll have gained nothing but a bunch of empty brass and most likely will pick up some bad technique.

Flyin