"I'm a tank, I'm a tank"

[short_round]

I was practicing in an indoor bay today. I setup two small IPSC targets and was working on target transitions. I'm standing there so I'm not moving my feet. My shots on the left target (I'm right handed) were hitting to the left of the target. It's the sights, "yeah, that's the ticket!" but my shots on the right target were centered.

I thought about it for a little while and I was rotating on my shoulders which made my left arm to compress and my right arm to extend causing me to push from the right side. Then I remembered that from the waist up I'm supposed to be like a turret. Duh! rotate from the waist first, then the hips, then the legs if you have to but keep your shooting platform stable. I know I've read that somewhere. If I can screw up that much standing still I'm afraid to think of how bad it must be when I'm moving.

more to work on ...

[kevin c]

I have the same problem on plate racks. If I miss, its usually the 4th or 5th plate, because I've been acquiring the plates by shifting my arms with each successive shot, not by rotating my upper body. By the 4th or 5th plate, I've stacked up enough torque in my stance to destabilize my platform, screw with my recoil recovery, etc.

'Course, it'd help if I looked at my sights once in a while...

[EricW]

If you're actually reading your sights (instead of just slinging lead), you should be able to diagnose this problem immediately.

And guess who shot the world's crappiest match ever today because of it?

[kevin c]

Actually, for me it's also a matter of no visual patience. Being twisted up means my recoil recovery is very inconsistent. Being aware that it is taking longer for me to get a satisfactory sight picture makes me rush the shot.

I need to see what I need to see, and be aware of what influences how quickly and consistently I do that.

[Skywalker]

I'm a (stage) tank(er), I'm a (stage) tank(er)...

If I only could get rid of those additions in parenthesis...

[short_round]

Honestly, the sights looked okay. The push pull effect that I was getting was killing my follow through. Maybe I also doing more of that "Sights are about to look good ... so I need to shoot ..... NOW!"

EricW, the highly motivated never improve as fast as they would like, but they improve faster than the others.

[eric nielsen]

Buy Eric Grauffel's tape & watch how he points his body at each target. See how often/how quickly his feet shift around, and how his hips track with his gun.

If you think you have a better way than him, you haven't watched him enough. Max Michel Jr has the 2003 Open SuperSquad DVD on his website. It's good.

2003 USPSA Open Nationals overall scores

1 ERIC GRAUFFEL F38440 GM Open Major No No No Yes 1697.8527 100.00%

2 TODD JARRETT L2458 GM Open Major No No No No 1621.7748 95.52%

3 MAX MICHEL JR TY26022 GM Open Major No Yes No No 1570.4857 92.50%

4 JOJO VIDANES L1993 GM Open Major No No No No 1554.6547 91.57%

5 ROBERT LEATHAM L684 GM Open Major No No No No 1553.9722 91.53%

6 HENNING WALLGREN TY25335 GM Open Major No No No No 1544.8106 90.99%

7 CHRIS TILLEY * TY38861 GM Open Major No No No No Junior 1518.3027 89.42%

8 ERROL THOMAS F23255 U Open Major No No No Yes 1512.7951 89.10%

9 JJ RACAZA TY40802 GM Open Major No No No No 1510.0865 88.94%

10 TRAVIS TOMASIE L1973 GM Open Major No Yes No No 1507.8067 88.81%

11 MICHAEL VOIGT RD4 GM Open Major No No No No 1506.8626 88.75%

12 SAUL KIRSCH F44236 GM Open Major No No No Yes 1500.4645 88.37%

13 EMANUEL BRAGG L2476 GM Open Major No No No No 1484.2786 87.42%

14 MATTHEW BURKETT * L2135 GM Open Major No No No No 1476.1141 86.94%

15 DOUG KOENIG TY5804 GM Open Major No No No No 1463.7133 86.21%

16 ADAM POPPLEWELL TY38584 GM Open Major No No No No 1451.2971 85.48%