Training a team of new shooters

[Lange22250]

Reed college (yes that Reed) now has an action shooting team that is an official PE class that started because of the demand for intro to gun safety/shooting program they have. The number of students who wanted to be on the team was so large they had to go to a lottery system.

It was a big surprise to me as well.

Reed approached the board of TCGC requesting range rental to get a practice facility and we ok'ed it.

I had some of them out to the range for a small practice session today.

The group was half women and every one of them had a great attitude and wanted to shoot alot.

I started working them up so they would be ready to shoot the next speed steel match. Worked with .22 pistols and .22 rifles. I told them to shoulder the rifle and find the position that was most comfortable and had the best site picture/cheek weld. Off the bat one of the girls looked like she had just come out of a Magpul class but had never touched a long gun in her life.

The intention is to shoot 3 speed steel and USPSA matches a month and have at least one live fire practice session along with an airsoft indoor practice once or twice a week.

My question and request for input is a list of skills and practice routines to work on and the order of priority. It looks like I'll end up being a coach for the team based of today's interactions. I was ready to play RO and have some input but had not thought about any systematic program for skill building. The safety aspects are already well drilled into there heads but that's as far as they had gone. I worked them through low ready starts and basic target transition and sight acquisition but that's as far as we got.

[G-ManBart]

Accuracy, accuracy and then some accuracy

Obviously, they've got to learn how to load/unload the gun before anything else...I'd probably go over range commands at the same time. Then I'd want to cover the draw to get them to the point that they're safe, and reasonably smooth, but mostly it's just about safety in the beginning. After that, get them hitting what they aim at. I think if you talked to most of the top guys giving USPSA/IDPA classes, they'd tell you that for the average student, they're working on trigger control for a large portion of the class, and that's probably because most people don't really learn it correctly when they started out. Then, I'd work on safe, smooth reloads. Once they can safely load, unload, draw, hit the target, and reload, I'd work on teaching multiple shots and how grip and stance start to come into play. After that, basic transitions and eye drills. At that point you've got them to the point that they can shoot a stage, so they need to work on position entry and exit skills...how to set up and how to leave. Along the way you're going to have to cover stage planning/reloads, but I think you could cover that at various times when the topic comes up. Some video would probably really help with a lot of these skills. The Double Alpha Academy DVDs are really good for covering many of these topics. R,

[Jake Di Vita]

Yep.

If you can't hit what you are aiming at with no time constraints, practice nothing else until you can.

[DyNo!]

Yep.

If you can't hit what you are aiming at with no time constraints, practice nothing else until you can.

Thirded...

[benos]

Yep.

If you can't hit what you are aiming at with no time constraints, practice nothing else until you can.

Thirded...

Foruthed.

be

[2alphas]

and again!