Local Match Video - Critique Away!

[Shawneeboy87]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsuFsy2Ve50

I know the video's aren't the best, but appreciate any feedback.

[CHA-LEE]

The first thing you need to work on is hitting what you are shooting at. You can see on just about every stage that it takes you many shots to get your hits on the steel. You can also see the target stands wiggling round which is a tell tail sign that you are hitting in the D zone where the target is stapled to the lath.

Slinging a bunch of rounds down range when you can't get your hits is a complete waste of time and ammo. You need to figure out why your on target hit quality isn’t where it needs to be. Are you mashing the trigger? Are you looking at the target instead of your sights? Are you flinching before the shot breaks?

Solid marksmanship is a base which you build your other skills upon. If you have poor marksmanship then trying to do anything faster or more difficult is just going to be a waste of time. You may be able to "Hope" hits onto targets some times with poor marksmanship, but you will never have any consistency. Once you get the fundamentals down in breaking a clean and accurate shot then you can start working on calling your shots.

[mikeg1005]

What as your time on that classifier? (one with the low port) I shot the same one this weekend.

CHA-LEE hit it on the head.

You need to slow down on steel.

Taking twice as long to aim will still be faster than taking 2-3 make up shots.. it might feel slower but the clock will say different.

MIke.

[Shawneeboy87]

I appreciate the feedback guys. I just started shooting back in March and taking the extra second feels like an eternity but is definitely something I need to work on.

I shot the classifier in 6.95 and 54.6 stage points.

[CHA-LEE]

Here is a piece of advice that Manny Bragg gave me about shooting steel one for one. He says "Every make up on steel costs you at least .5 - .7 second to make up. If you take an extra .1 - .2 second to aim hard and break a clean shot to ensure hits on steel you are still ahead of the game verses missing and needing to make up shots". Shooting USPSA stages are ALL about minimizing stage time. If you are wasting multiple seconds of stage time with misses and makeup shots, you could easily trade that for taking a little extra time to ensure your hits and not need makeup shots. Think about it, if you spend a total of 1 second in extra time to aim hard for the steel and get your hits that is way better than wasting 5 - 6 seconds in misses and makeup shots.

Work on the fundamentals of breaking a clean shot without disturbing the sight alignment. Marksmanship is a required skill in order to shoot well and fast. Without marksmanship all you end up doing is flinging shots down range and hope that they hit what you are shooting at.

The next time you go to the range for live fire practice setup 5 targets. Put the first one at 10 yards, second at 15, third at 25, forth at 35 and the fifth at 50. Then shoot all five targets two shots each in a single string of fire. Only body A-zone hits count. Shooting this array of targets front to back and back to front or mixing up the order or target engagement. These drills will quickly teach you how refined your sight alignment and quality of trigger press needs to be for each target distance to ensure A zone hits every time. Knowing how refined the sight alignment and trigger press needs to be for all of these shot distances is vital in order to effectively switch up your shooting speed during stage runs. Its best if you use a shot timer setup with a conservative par time that enables you to achieve A zone hits on every target. Once you can shoot all A's at that given par time start lowering the par time until your on target hit quality starts to suffer then focus on what is degrading in your shooting fundamentals so you can focus on improving those skills.

[Shawneeboy87]

It's nice to hear some drills to run. I DEFINITELY look forward to trying that.

I hope it's alright if I pick you're brain in the future.

When I first started shooting the issue I had was I was focusing on the targets RATHER than the front sight. I've adjusted that issue and the last match was the first time i focused on the front sight which I think is why I saw such an improvement, but I realize I still have a long way to go and look forward to the challenge.

[Mat Price]

its good to keep your gun out and read for the next array be carful when you are tight against obsticles

[Loves2Shoot]

You need to slow down on steel.

I will disagree with this, and opine that you need to hit the steel faster. Many new shooters think that the better shooters must not be seeing a good sight picture because it looks like they are going fast. This is a major incorrect assumption, the good fast shooters see fast.

[Shawneeboy87]

You need to slow down on steel.

I will disagree with this, and opine that you need to hit the steel faster. Many new shooters think that the better shooters must not be seeing a good sight picture because it looks like they are going fast. This is a major incorrect assumption, the good fast shooters see fast.

How do you train yourself to see fast. I've been dryfiring like crazy and have noticed that I see the sights MUCH better, but is there anything else really I can do?

[CHA-LEE]

Shawneeboy87> How do you train yourself to see fast? That is simple, shoot fast and stay vigilant on watching your sights as the gun fires. You can't really train yourself how to "See fast" in dry fire because the gun never goes bang. This can only be learned when you are actually shooting.

[Loves2Shoot]

What Cha said, plus, take away the targets and just look to see what the sight is doing and react to the sight and nothing else. Try to fire the instant you see the sight "reappear." Eventually, you will be able to make the adjustments needed to make the sight return to the center of the notch.

[Shawneeboy87]

I appreciare the advice..you can clearly see in my next match video that I was frustrated with the steel (with the exception of the one bomb of a stage where I forgot two paper targets)...I guess it'll just take time...

http://youtu.be/s4C5EWWOWa8

Edited September 29, 2011 by Shawneeboy87

[beltjones]

In looking at your scores from that match, I can see you had a lot of mikes, charlies, and deltas. As much as I know it will pain you to slow down, I really think you ought to first focus on making hits. You have tremendous natural speed, and it will serve you well. In fact, I think you can expect great things once you have the ability to make every single shot required on every stage.

However, at your level you really shouldn't be moving while shooting steel targets. You should be seeing a very good sight picture in the A zone for virtually every shot, and definitely you should have a very clear front sight focus for every piece of steel.

Things like how to shoot swingers and Texas stars will come with match seasoning, but if you don't start building accuracy into your shooting right now, you won't see the benefit of your natural speed. Think of it this way: A delta is as bad as a miss, and a C is an accident that happened while you were trying to hit an A. A miss should be a terrible surprise, though one day you will call all your misses and will make the conscious decision to not make some of them up because it isn't worth the time. In the meantime shoot As, and one day very soon the movement and speed you show in the videos will have you crushing people who have been in the game for a long time.