The fancy footwork of JJ Racaza

[Hey QuicksDraw!]

I have started using videotape to review my match performance. I taped JJ Racaza shooting one of the stages at a match this weekend.

This is what I have learned from watching...his feet. From the time the beep goes off he moves smooth. He does not look fast because he's so smooth.

His feet are in constant motion and his body never holds still. He constantly shifts his body wieght, it's always in motion. He does not have to stop and start as he moves into shooting position because he is always on the way to the next target. He is constantly transitioning.

He changes gears. He goes from a fast run to smooth walk and back again. By not stopping he adds no jerky motions. He is very light on his feet and there is no waste of motion. None. Fred Astaire comes to mind.

I reviewed my footwork on that stage. I stopped a total of eight times. JJ never stopped, he just danced on by. Nuff said.

[madone]

Any chance you can post the video comparisons?

I'm sure we all would love to see them.

[Matthew_Mink]

That's currently what I am working on, footwork. At A4 Phil Strader asked why I was dancing and shuffling around when all it took was a couple of steps. I didn't even realize I did that...

[Eye Cutter]

in our club, we have 2 schools of thought regarding footwork while picking apart a CoF.

for those beginning at ipsc, No. 1 is easier to teach and produces better results at the expense of time. No. 2 is faster but scores suffer.

1. Port-to-port (for want of a better term). start fast and move to a way point, assume a perfect shooting stance and engage as many targets as possible per position then move on to the next shooting position. counting steps and precise movement to every position.

2. what we term as "Shaolin Shooting". pretty much just like jj's footwork. smooth, fluid, non-jerky, continuous movement from the start. shooting on the move forward, backwards, sideways. saves time but bec. of a lot of upper body movement, accuracy may suffer specially for those with iron sights.

:-)

[Steve Moneypenny]

Dynamic movement throughout a stage is an incredible experience, it requres expert timing (insert 70's kung fu song here) a perfect blend of foot speed and trigger speed you can't let you feet take you past the area of engagement most importantly

i've always been gifted with pretty good footwork... years of martial arts transferred that well. i think one has to be bale to shoot well standing still before he can shoot on the move. if you can't do 25 yard bill drills (with consistant hits) not stating a time here on purpose. only shooting as fast as you can hit. but it has to bee done in a fairly quick cadence... then you have no business shooting on the move.

[tightloop]

The really good shooters are always moving, hardly every shooting from a stationary position, and make it look so fluid and mostly easy....it is a step past what most of us can do....

[dirtypool40]

you wanna see REALLY advanced? try starting at "A" moving to "B" shooting everything you need to on the way. Now try adjusting the speed of shooting and speed of movement so you get good hits and arrive at "B" juuust as you are ready for the next position.

It is some sort of "chicken or the egg" puzzle. TGO does it a couple of times on Saul's DVD. Suuuuper smooth and sexy when it works.

I have had ONE experience with it. I got a reshoot on a stage at the FL state this past year and taped both of them. First time I shot T1-T3 backing out and stopped and started looking for T4-T8.

On the reshoot, maybe through trial and error, as I am NOT claming to be anybody special, I backed out and timed the shooting and moving so just as I finished shooting T1-T3, T4 appeared. I kept shooting and moving, just swinging the gun through T5-T8.

Something to work on, but very cool when it drops into place. You really need to knwo how fast you'll shoot what kind of available target, and how much you need to move.