Calling shots

[benos]

I think Playco (intentional misspelling) stole that one from me.

If done seriously, the drill is a great one because it forces you to figure it out for yourself. It completely shifts the emphasis from the normal goal of a hitting a particular target to knowing exactly where the shot went. Which is really all we need to know, but since we don't normally think about it that way we don't benefit from it.

If your mind's attention is filled to the brim with "I need to hit that target" or "I need to go fast" those desires make knowing if you hit the target (or not) more difficult. I don't think you can understand the importance of that unless you experience it for yourself on the range.

Only a very small percentage of your attention, directed toward hitting a target, is actually necessary. In fact, most probably pay little attention to that at all. We think about the targets we plan to shoot almost unconsciously, paying more attention to things like the stage procedure, how we plan to position ourselves, and so on.

I've found it to be extremely beneficial to visualize exactly where you will shoot every target. Not just hitting the steel or A box, but exactly where on each target will you shoot it. Thinking about it like that increases the power of the attention we do give to "hitting the target," and you will shoot more effectively because of it. But then once you have done that properly, you can forget about it and shift your attention to doing the most important thing you'll ever do as a shooter - know, at the instant the shot fires, where it went. That needs to happen immediately. Then the decision making function - did I hit the target - occurs simultaneously with the firing of the shot. Now you're cooking with the flame of attention.

Sorry... that just came out.

be

[benos]

Ron,

By "reconsidering my approach" I am wondering if following though a little longer and calling the shots a little better might add some value to the notion of confidence and trust thereby allowing me to get on with shooting the next target a little faster.

I don't think "following through a little longer" is the best way to think about it. It's more a matter of shifting your attention - turning it up - so you are really reading the sites, if necessary. By the time the shot breaks on each target - you're looking right at them. When you're seeing like that, looking right at the sights and aware of the target peripherally, your mind is getting the most precise information about where the bullet went that it can get. It's more of a precise way of looking that time lapse thing (following through longer).

In IPSC shooting, your sights are almost always in motion when the shot fires, so that is when we must learn to read them. And how we do that is what it's all about. Remember each shot as clear visual snapshot from a blur of activity.

be

[Ron Ankeny]

be:

Now you're cooking with the flame of attention.

That's priceless. Thank you.

[Sam]

Check yourself for feelings of resentment. You may acknowledge in conversation that you need to give your attention to calling the shot and to following through as well. But, if you don't fully believe that this is the way, you may feel resentment at not being able to do something else, like think about the next target or shot.

Resentment may manifest itself in feelings of haste, impatience, or anxiety. If you are feeling these emotions, you have not accepted the truth. The truth, in this case, is that there are certain things that must happen to fire this shot successfully. The falsehood is that by leaving out a valuable piece of the shot, like calling or follow through, you are somehow going to have a better shot. This is usually a time related concern. You will not have a better shot by leaving out part of the shot. How could that ever be true?

Pressing the trigger isn't the same as firing the shot.

Our minds lie to us much of the time. They either dwell in the past or in the future. The shooting happens in the eternal present.

Thus, the quote from Augustine, " Believe, in order that you may understand."

[carinab]

I always wonder when I take a class, no matter the subject, where the material comes from and whether or not it's original (particularly in the data world). It's not often that a presenter has such a unique method for communicating a point unless they are very talented at teaching. Given the rest of THAT particular course, I can certainly believe that it was your drill Brian. I usually as a rule always give credit where it's due.

[mcoliver]

Check yourself for feelings of resentment. You may acknowledge in conversation that you need to give your attention to calling the shot and to following through as well. ...

Strange, on the same note...I used to "judge" my hits. The more I failed to "direct" the hits where I wanted them, the more I struggled calling my shots.

Eventually I gave up and just accepted them to be "any where on paper" or "within the A-zone." This seemed an unforseen breakthrough for me because after sometime, I started noticing that most of the time I can already read my sights. And as a consequence to this, shooting make-up shots seem to occur automatically.

[9MX]

honestly, i'm understood some of the posts, and on some, i'm kinda confused. right now my problem is this:

i get good hits when i shoot slow but my time takes the toll, recently i tried shooting fast, my time improved but my hits went down. right now, my performance is inversely proportional.

should i stick first to shooting slow until i get the hang of reading my sights? actually, i don't have a problem with close targets, it those in the 11 yards distance that my sight reading is different from actual hits

[Ron Ankeny]

be:

I shot a small 4 stage local match yesterday. I tanked the classifier bad with a boat load of hopers and uncalled shots. I wasn't seeing squat. In fact, I zeroed the stage and I took over 5 1/2 seconds to do it.

The RO allowed a reshoot (so I could get a classifier score) and I told myself to wake up and pay attention. It's funny, on the second attempt I called all of the shots fairly precisely, including a couple of D hits, and I did the stage a second faster. The D hits happened shooting at brown in warp drive instead of looking to the spot I wanted to hit. The sight landed on the D zone and I let it rip anyway. It's that visual impatience thing and my visual acceptance was set pretty low.

I had two stages left to go so I played around a bit with shot calling and visual acceptability. The whole experience was kind of cool. I came away with some conclusions.

First, you are right, it takes no longer to call the shot fairly precisely as opposed to just confirming the shot is good enough. It is truly just a matter of paying attention to what is right in front of you all a long. I also noticed shifting my attention to knowing where the shot went (as oppposed to "it looked good enough") goes along way toward increasing my comfot level, and I shoot with a bit more confidence as a bonus. Knowing precisely what is happening at the instant it happens allows me to drive the gun fairly agressively. Good stuff.

[EricW]

First, you are right, it takes no longer to call the shot fairly precisely as opposed to just confirming the shot is good enough.

That is an absolute truth. If you go to the line with only one thing on your mind, it should be that.

[Flexmoney]

9MX,

How about this...

Try not to think in terms of fast or slow. Get out of the "speed" mindset if you can.

Try to think in terms of vision. See what you need to see to call an Alpha hit. No more. No less.

If you think in terms of speed, you will end up notseeing enough (trying to go fast), or seeing too much (wasting time).

[benos]

Because of the high-speed nature of IPSC shooting, if one comes to IPSC without a good background in the fundamentals of shooting, I've noticed a pattern during the learning curve.

Typically we start out blazing away, so we never really learn what it means or the importance of calling each shot precisely. Then after shooting for some time, maybe years, we start to realize that hitting the targets is more important than going fast, because "you can't miss fast enough to win." During this hosing phase, we ingrain bad visual habits because the targets do not challenge our weaknesses, and after some time we just kinda point shoot most everything. Then, as we start to open up to the fact that calling is important, we're so used to looking at the wrong things while "going fast," it feels like we must really slow down in order to see enough of the sights to call the shots. At this point it becomes a psychological battle, because there's no way we're going to shoot slower.

At this point hearing a good explanation and believing in it become a factor. Furthermore, you must prove it to yourself in practice before you'll ever trust enough to do it in a match.

Spread 6 or 8 targets around the range between 8 and 15 yards, and stick no-shoots, right next to the A-boxes, on a couple of them. Draw and shoot one shot on each left to right, right down your time, then do the same thing right to left, then repeat both strings for a total of four strings. Then figure your score using the time-plus method, adding .2 of a second for each point dropped. Do this forever or until you figure out what you must do and how you must see in order to get the best score.

be

[Jake Di Vita]

That explanation describes me exactly.

No wonder I was stuck in B class for a year and a half.

[lgbmike]

It also describes me exactly.

Great topic and posts.

Question: Can someone please clarify and /or elaborate on the "follow through"? Is it just the time needed to call the shot?

Thanks,

Michael

[Eye Cutter]

Question: Can someone please clarify and /or elaborate on the "follow through"? Is it just the time needed to call the shot?

as i understand follow through, it is keeping the front sight on target for a length of time, until after the bullet has left the barrel so as not to impart a shift or change in direction of the bullet to the intended point of impact, even if you have already looked away to the next target.

the time needed to keep your sights on target maybe a split second or more before you swing the pistol away to the next array.

[Eye Cutter]

Try to think in terms of vision. See what you need to see to call an Alpha hit. No more. No less.

Flex: Do you equate Vision with Visual Acuity? Problem is, I am not able to see the A-zone beyond 15 meters clearly enough anymore compared to people who can still see the A box out to that distance or farther with better visual acuity.

[Sam]

Eye, in a mechanical sense, follow through means keeping the gun on target until the bullet has left the barrel. One shot, it's easy.

In practice, when firing .20 splits, between each shot, it means staying with the shot you are shooting and not rushing the next shot. When doing a Bill Drill, I get nice tight patterns when I follow through. When I don't, they start to string vertically. Without proper follow through, I shoot the gun again before it has settled. I should be following through on the last shot, but I start the next one early. In essence, my shots are colliding with each other because I fail to respect the space between the shots.

S p a c e h a s p u r p o s e.

Yes, time and space are still related, so allow some time to allow some space.

The trick is finding just the right amount of space when and where you need it.

Inside my shoes, a little is nice. Inside my wallet, not so good.

[Flexmoney]

Try to think in terms of vision. See what you need to see to call an Alpha hit. No more. No less.

Flex: Do you equate Vision with Visual Acuity?

No. Not at all, really.

The context I was referring to would be along the lines of visual attention.

Brian covers this stuff in the book (far better than I).

[9MX]

flex, be

thanks for the tips. i'd definitely use them.

the order of the day revolves around a cliche' mentioned so many times before, "smooth is fast!"

[mcoliver]

During my experiments with sight alignments, I learned I needed to show myself how it looked before I can actually see it.

A very simple example is shooting with the sights intentionally mis-aligned. It was only when I started doing this at diferent distances that I finally understood what my sights were telling me.

[benos]

Can someone please clarify and /or elaborate on the "follow through"?  Is it just the time needed to call the shot?

If you think of it as "time needed to call the shot," that can be misleading because you're thinking in terms of time after the shot has fired.

It might be better to think of it as - the time needed to see what you need to see to know where the bullet is going to go. Or - visual patience. That way of seeing "happens first."

When you are seeing and witnessing in that way, you are also in a state of continuous knowing (precisely where your gun is pointed). So time, as in time needed to call the shot, is non-existent.

A good way to understand followthrough is "finish the shot." (Was my tag line)

Keep your eyes open and a your attention properly tuned in so you witness everything that happens. See the front sights relationship to the rear sight at the instant the shot fires... see the front sight beginning to lift out of the rear notch... and see all that in relationship to the target.

be

[schmitz]

At this point it becomes a psychological battle, because there's no way we're going to shoot slower.

At this point hearing a good explanation and believing in it become a factor

I'm at this point right now. After hosing for several years in open I've started to compete in Limited and I'm trying to revise my shootingtechnique

It's difficult to "uninstall" those nasty habits from the past. Struggling!

[jkushner1]

Just as a refresher - I have read the book - now re-reading. On my main competition gun after algining the sights, focusing in hard on the front (all else becomes fuzzy), I break the shot. Hopefully I don't blink, pretty good at keeping my eyes open now. The front sight rises 1 - 1.5 " up and to the right and then I let it return naturally. MY QUESTION: Where did my shot go - I forgot how to call - Is the POI where the sights were aligned just prior to the break ?. If thats the case, then If I remember that psotion but then blink wouldnt I still be able to call the shot, but the main question is: Where in the process is the "call" of the shot determined.

Thanks - I definitely have reading comprehension problems.

Jkushner1

[Flexmoney]

[Dude alert]

Dude...read the sights when the bullet leaves the barrel.

Experiment with shot calling...your live-fire experience should tell you all you need to know.

[Stuck in C]

I shot NRA Bullseye pistol for a few years before I ever tried IPSC, and still do. I can call my shots when shooting at the sedate pace of Bullsye but have been totally unable to do so in IPSC. I'm not sure why, but maybe its the error of trying to shoot to fast, which ends up being slow.

[Dalmas]

I shot NRA Bullseye pistol for a few years before I ever tried IPSC, and still do. I can call my shots when shooting at the sedate pace of Bullsye but have been totally unable to do so in IPSC. I'm not sure why, but maybe its the error of trying to shoot to fast, which ends up being slow.

I have the same background, and had the same worries in the start but it will come with practice, once you relax and let your sights tell you what you need to see rather than concentrating on asking them?