Draw n' reload tips

[Racer377]

Caveats: the camera really does add 10lbs, and I was wearing a hat prior to the live fire video. I just get awful hat hair. Oh, and there's a bleepable work in live fire one as well. With that out of the way, here we go:

Live fire video from strong side

Dry fire from weak side

Edited April 19, 2012 by Racer377

[mlmiller1]

Looks pretty smooth to me but you are getting some lower body movement in a couple of the draws & also the reload video. Any movement other than your arms is time. Not much time, but time. I can't tell on the video exactly what is moving but something is going somewhere it either doesn't need to be or it needs to be there before the buzzer.

Can you see what I mean?

Remember, you asked so no offense intended, ok? I thought they were smoking draws & reloads. There is always room for improvement, though. How were your hits & how far was the target? Are you really getting two sight pictures on your splits or are you just doing the dreaded "double tap"?

MLM

Edited April 19, 2012 by mlmiller1

[mlmiller1]

Ok, after looking a few more times, it looks like you are bending your knees a bit on the draw but you are reacting really quickly. If you gotta bend, bend before the buzzer. If you do it under time, your sight picture changes from natural, to lowered, back to natural height & that can throw you off, especially on longer shots during a draw.

Good luck, keep up the good work!

MLM

[Racer377]

Looks pretty smooth to me but you are getting some lower body movement in a couple of the draws & also the reload video. Any movement other than your arms is time. Not much time, but time. I can't tell on the video exactly what is moving but something is going somewhere it either doesn't need to be or it needs to be there before the buzzer.

Can you see what I mean?

Remember, you asked so no offense intended, ok? I thought they were smoking draws & reloads. There is always room for improvement, though. How were your hits & how far was the target? Are you realling getting two sight pictures on your splits or are you just doing the dreaded "double tap"?

MLM

Good stuff, thanks! I never noticed that extra movement before.

Hits were all Alpha, except for 1 charlie, at 7yds. As to the sight pictures....well.....I think I am. I'm not to the point were I can call all or even most of my shots. Maybe 1/3rd of the time, probably a bit less at that speed. If I back off to .18-.20, I do better. The 1 charlie was actually a draw shot, low left (called). Granted, at 7yds, you really don't need to pay all that much attention to your sights to hit Alphas. I probably should move out to 10 or 15 for drills, but today I started with Bill drills and had the barrel all set up at 7yds and was to lazy to move the target or my position back a few yards.

[mlmiller1]

I wrote up a little lesson one day for some friends on calling your shots. It is posted here if you are interested. http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=148517 You might find some value in it but you will need to be flexible while working the drills. It is probably best done with an experienced friend that can help you but there are ways around that, too. I'm pretty sure calling my shots is going to take me to the next level as soon as I get better at it than I am presently.

Well, off to the Larue 3 gun!

MLM

[CHA-LEE]

Fast reloads are a combination of fast hand speed and minimized gun motion. When you do your reload you curl your wrist inward so you can "See" the mag well. This additional motion of curling your wrist needs to be recovered from before you can present the gun back on target. The curled wrist situation also creates an extremely deviated muzzle pointing condition.

You have fast hand speed. This is good.

Your gun movement during the reload needs some work. Check out the below video of Travis doing a perfect reload. Closely watch the gun motion and muzzle pointing deviation. He is actually RAISING the gun during the reload and his muzzle is deviating only a little up and to the left. To properly angle the magwell while raising the gun you need to slightly bend the strong hand wrist down. Also note that the bottom of the magwell is at about the same height as his chin when he has the gun pulled back ready to receive the new mag.

[littletoe]

have you ever noticed that as soon as your gun clears your holster that your tongue pops out? thats gotta be whats slowing you down hehe....on a serious note....i think CHALEE hit it....looks like your mags might be hanging a little because of the angle during reload...other than that...looks good

[Racer377]

have you ever noticed that as soon as your gun clears your holster that your tongue pops out? thats gotta be whats slowing you down hehe....on a serious note....i think CHALEE hit it....looks like your mags might be hanging a little because of the angle during reload...other than that...looks good

Lol. I was wonderIng when someone would catch that! Michael Jordan did it when he was doing his thIng, so I'm thinking I'm In good company.

The mag angle thing makes sense. That 2nd reload in the live fire video, the mag hung a bit, which is why I said the naughty word in surprise.

[littletoe]

he was also always about 6 feet off the floor when he was doin his thing....as long as you dont start doing that during reloads you should be ok lol

[BillGarlandJr]

The tongue thing isn't bad at all as long as it doen't cause tension in your face, which in turn can affect your vision. Try to determine if your eyes are closing a bit when you stick your tongue out. If they are, stop it. If not, carry on

[carlosa]

I agree with the comments above..

Your hand speed is good

I think your excessive movement comes from trying to hard to be fast.

Relax and just move your hands to the gun..

Cheers,

Los

[Racer377]

I agree with the comments above..

Your hand speed is good

I think your excessive movement comes from trying to hard to be fast.

Relax and just move your hands to the gun..

Cheers,

Los

Man, that "trying" shows through on video, doesn't it?

That's been an opportunity for improvement - being able to relax and just shoot.

I don't know if it's my personality or what, but I always feel the need to push it, and have a helluva time trying to turn it off. Guns, motorcycles, anything competitive.

[leemoe83]

It appeared that during your draw your strong hand moved past the gun slightly and then back down to grip the pistol, it is hard to tell because your hip is right at the bottom of the screen. Ideally you would pull the gun from the holster with a continuous upstroke or as your hand is moving upward come in from the side while going up. I come in slightly from the side as I can not get a consistent grip when doing a straight upward scoop. I maybe wrong but that is how it appears on the first video.

+1 you do have fast hands.

[EEH]

have you ever noticed that as soon as your gun clears your holster that your tongue pops out? thats gotta be whats slowing you down hehe....on a serious note....i think CHALEE hit it....looks like your mags might be hanging a little because of the angle during reload...other than that...looks good

REALLY,,,

[carlosa]

I agree with the comments above..

Your hand speed is good

I think your excessive movement comes from trying to hard to be fast.

Relax and just move your hands to the gun..

Cheers,

Los

Man, that "trying" shows through on video, doesn't it?

That's been an opportunity for improvement - being able to relax and just shoot.

I don't know if it's my personality or what, but I always feel the need to push it, and have a helluva time trying to turn it off. Guns, motorcycles, anything competitive.

It's natural to want to push.

And you should push

Just remember that tension is the illusion of speed.

"Explosive" movement sometimes feels faster becuse you are working and fireing all this extra muscles and in our mind that tweach reads as "pushing hard" and going fast.

The balance is somewhere in the middle how fast can you move your hand with out introducing the feeling of tension?

The hard part is that this ideas can sound incredibly contradicting

[Racer377]

[

It's natural to want to push.

And you should push

Just remember that tension is the illusion of speed.

"Explosive" movement sometimes feels faster becuse you are working and fireing all this extra muscles and in our mind that tweach reads as "pushing hard" and going fast.

The balance is somewhere in the middle how fast can you move your hand with out introducing the feeling of tension?

The hard part is that this ideas can sound incredibly contradicting

More good stuff!

The last few days, in particular at a steel match today, have led me to finally realize a few things about the feeling (illusion) of speed, and how tension plays into it. Feeling rushed is not the same as feeling fast, and feeling fast is not the same as going fast. Chasing the feeling of fast just led to being rushed, which led to being slow. You're right, it sounds contradictory. It really feels contradictory too. All of my best runs today felt painfully slow, but weren't when the time gets read off. It's happened at USPSA matches too. A match a few months ago where I had a "goofing off" mindset It was cold, rainy and low low turnout, thought a win didn't mean much, and so I literally just played around. Turned out to be one of best matches ever. I hadn't really thought about it of it as "not having tension" until you pointed it out just now. I think that might have clicked on a lightbulb or two. Thanks!!

[Racer377]

Fast reloads are a combination of fast hand speed and minimized gun motion. When you do your reload you curl your wrist inward so you can "See" the mag well. This additional motion of curling your wrist needs to be recovered from before you can present the gun back on target. The curled wrist situation also creates an extremely deviated muzzle pointing condition.

You have fast hand speed. This is good.

Your gun movement during the reload needs some work. Check out the below video of Travis doing a perfect reload. Closely watch the gun motion and muzzle pointing deviation. He is actually RAISING the gun during the reload and his muzzle is deviating only a little up and to the left. To properly angle the magwell while raising the gun you need to slightly bend the strong hand wrist down. Also note that the bottom of the magwell is at about the same height as his chin when he has the gun pulled back ready to receive the new mag.

I've made a point of having less muzzle deviation in dry fire. It seems to be quite a bit faster back on target, at least when I hit it. The technique is a bit different and new, so I have a lower hit percentage (as in hitting the magwell straight in), but that will only get better with practice.

From yesterday's practice session - this was the highlight of the day. Only one to break 1 second. Everything came together perfectly - initiated the instant I saw the front sight come up, hit magwell just right, and sights just lined right up to A zone on re-presentation. Average reload time was down over the previous practice by about 2/10s to about 1.20-1.30, with a fair amount in the teens and a few more 1.06-1.09s, so it appears the practice has paid off. Thanks again Cha-Lee!