Training vs Matches

[Jimgabelbauer]

I've just started shooting competitively this year, and the first few months I ended up shooting 3 and sometimes 4 matches a week because they're so much fun! But now I feel like I know a good amount of things I need to work on in dry/live fire practice, I'm thinking it would be better to shoot a match or two a week.. and step up daily dry fire practice, and also live fire practice once a week if I can (I can only currently practice live fire at an indoor range with the usual restrictions.. no holster, rapid fire, etc).. So what do you guys think would be best balance for a new shooter?

[carlosa]

It's all about how much ammo you have..

At first I started by shooting a match on Saturday, and shooting groups on Sunday.

250 rounds per weekend, dryfired every night. Did that for a few months if your a d or c class shooter you can easily build the skill to compete in B class this way.

My ammo budget was 1000 rounds per month.

But if you want to get really serious I think finding a home range where you can have a proper practice is imperative (even if your setup is simple). Part of growing is having the freedom to experiment.. There's not much room for that during an actual match, but maybe the host could let you practice after the match??

[Pro-Pain]

They're both important.

The match will get you better at matches. The setups, the timing, the pressure (if any), seeing different COF's, etc.

But there's no substitute for fundamentals: sight picture, trigger control, reloads, etc., all of which you can do anywhere (well, almost anywhere), and usually don't cost anything.

In your live fire, try different tasks, such as All A hits, or different targets, transitions, etc. Off-hand, strong hand only drills will help for some stages too..

[Jimgabelbauer]

That's about what my monthly ammo budget is too. After the summer I'll be able to afford a membership to the range I shoot matches at, so then I'll be able to do more live fire practice. My group shooting could use plenty of work though, so maybe something like daily dry fire, 2 matches a week and shooting groups once a week like you said would be a good plan for me for now.

[sfpmb]

Wow that's alot of matches a month. You can see alot of improvement from any at home stuff. By matches do you mean uspsa, bullseye, idpa. At times I have felt it was better for me to train at home rather than the spend the time and money going to shoot if it was not a uspsa match

[DoubleA]

I agree. I would definitely save at least half my ammo budget for practice. Shooting a lot matches is tons of fun, especially in the beginning, but when it comes to trying to get more than just a little better, you really have to focus on individual parts of the process of shooting a stage. It would take much longer, if at all even possible, to train properly to be truly effective by shooting nothing but stages. Use your matches as a quiz that happens to be a lot of fun. Find what you need to work on(accuracy, draw, moving), and then find the most EFFICIENT way to train those parts into your subconscious, because this is what is driving you during a stage. Your subconscious is like an animal that needs specific things repeated consistently to teach it a new trick. The match is where you see if the training has took or not.

A lot of the components can be trained in dry fire, and save the ammo for things that only live fire can teach you, like shooting groups. You will never hit what you're aiming at quickly if you cant hit it going slow. In hindsight there are thousands of rounds I wish I could take back and use now that Ive learned how to train properly.

Right now I am shooting 2 matches a month and live fire 2 days a week(match included)and seeing excellent results. This just gives you an idea of the ratio of practice to matches that I shoot.

Edited May 3, 2011 by DoubleA

[Chris iliff]

I would add that anything 1 time a week = staying stagnant or possibly getting worse.

2 times a week= getting a little better.

3 times a week = biggest gains in improvement.

4 times a week = just slightly better than 3 times a week.

5,6,7 times a week = gains so insignificant over 3 or 4, you have to ask,.... Is this worth the extra time?

I honestly can not remember the source of the above info, but at 3 or 4 times a week, I made my most improvement and didn't suffer burnout. So, it held true for me.

[BBoyle]

I think it is different for everyone. Taking matches seriously and trying to improve by pushing yourself will give you better results than just going to practice by yourself, or with others, and not pushing at all. If you always do the same drills at the same distances without much effort you will not get any benefit.

I find that if you want to improve and will put in the work with both dry fire and live fire, matches or practice, you will see improvement.

You can also turn a match into practice. Want to work on accuracy.....shoot for head shots the whole match. Need weak or strong hand? Shoot a few stages at close to medium distances with either. Etc

There are some pros that do all of their practices with drills alone and others that just set up stages to practice on.

IMHO. If you do practice, do not try to do everything in the session. Pick two or three areas that you feel you can use the most improvement on and work on those.

Brian

[RangerTrace]

Wow, this is a great thread, because I've had several of these same issues come up in my personal training recently.

I think dry fire is great for the various draws, magazine changes, transitions and movement, "if" you are honest with your sight picture.

But, if I had the opportunity to: (1) shoot two matches per week or (2) shoot one match per week and live fire practice once per week, I'd choose #2. Matches are great but you only get 5-6 times to work on your draw, etc. In live fire practice you can get multiple reps on draws, mag changes and anything else your are weak on.

Dave Re and Mick Nelson have lots of good ideas on setting up hard shots for practice sessions and I think it will really help improve match performace and overall shooting skills.

[pjb45]

I was working in AZ for a year. I was able to shoot 8-12 stages every Tuesday Night. Then a match on Saturday. I progressed pretty rapidly in the beginning. Shooting matches was great fun.

Then the training scars took over and I languished for years.

If I knew then what I know now!

Nothing beats proper technique. That comes from dry fire and practice sessions. [This year I did not get much practice in for SSN but I was able to shoot my average-dry fire can work wonders.]

On balance to that, you need match experience to learn COF strategy, stress, etc. It is call controlled chaos.

For the indoor range; accuracy, accuracy,accuracy! Trigger control. Can you use two lanes and only pay for one? If so set up targets on both to practice transitions. Some indoor ranges have two clip so I would hang two targets. Shooting groups is a great way to practice.

[rjennings10]

It's just like any other sport, if you want to be the best practice is the only way to get there.

Although it's more fun to attend multiple matches a month, it makes more sense to practice more often. In my opinion you don't really learn much from a match besides knowing how to execute stage and what you learn from other shooters. You attend a match to test the skills you have been practicing! I try to always bring a video camera to matches so I can note what areas to improve on.

Also the cost of matches are about $10-20 depending if you are a USPSA and club member. The closest match to me is 56 miles away. So the cost of matches and transportation adds up. For a typical 6 stage match you are only shooting between 1-3 minutes, you are observing for the remaining 3-5 hours (or however long your matches run)

You should also have a proper training program. If you are mindlessly shooting at targets it is unlikely you will gain much from that. Create a routine and stick to it.

[bbbean]

Take my advice with a shaker of salt - I'm a mediocre shooter with lots of room for improvement: I learn different things from practice and matches. Practice is where I improve overall basic skills (when I do it right) and harden my bad habits (when I do it wrong). Matches are where I find out how much I actually learned in practice, hone skills under stress, get feedback from other shooters, discover my flaws, and pick up strategies and approaches from other shooters. I'd hate to have to choose between one and the other.

I also notice that as a general rule, the better shooters tend to be from areas with lots of matches and lots of other good shooters. Given a choice between an afternoon alone at the range or a match against a bunch of A/M/GM shooters, I know which one I'd choose!

BB

[pjb45]

Think of Tuesday Night Steel in Mesa, GMs include; TGO, Golembieski, Bagnato, Hobdell,

Burkett, ......

You get to shoot between 4 and 12 stages with great GMs floating all around.

[bkeeler]

I would add that anything 1 time a week = staying stagnant or possibly getting worse.

2 times a week= getting a little better.

3 times a week = biggest gains in improvement.

4 times a week = just slightly better than 3 times a week.

5,6,7 times a week = gains so insignificant over 3 or 4, you have to ask,.... Is this worth the extra time?

I honestly can not remember the source of the above info, but at 3 or 4 times a week, I made my most improvement and didn't suffer burnout. So, it held true for me.

Lanny Bassham mentions something like this.