What one thing to focus on for 'beginners'?

[perrysho]

Nimitz,

Accuracy is great but without a lil speed to go with it, you just got yourself a poor/bad azzzzzzz score. LOL

Also know one can not miss fast enough to win.

Now if you wanna work on both accuracy/speed it takes about a 5 gal bucket of ammo a month, and a fat wallet.

Happy Holidays,

Perry

[Red Ryder]

Nimitz,

Accuracy is great but without a lil speed to go with it, you just got yourself a poor/bad azzzzzzz score. LOL

Also know one can not miss fast enough to win.

Now if you wanna work on both accuracy/speed it takes about a 5 gal bucket of ammo a month, and a fat wallet.

Happy Holidays,

Perry

Painfully true. "You just have to eat more peanut butter and Jelly", one GM told me.

[A45100]

You can't go wrong with getting Steve Anderson's book Refinement and Repitition: Dry fire drills for dramtic improvement and putting in the time with dry fire. It put me in A class.

[wes777]

IMO you need to split up your shooting routine.

DRY FIRE

LIVE FIRE

COMPETITION

in dry fire you need to drive the basics into your bones. draw, reload, SHO to WHO. then do all of these things moving through a room or something. use targets so that you have an A zone to aim at. Draw to sight picture every time. make dummy rounds so that all of your mags are competition weight for reloads. fix your gear to your division and keep practicing. I personally try to dry fire at least 5 times a week.

YOU CANT SHOOT ANYTHING UNLESS YOU CAN GET THE GUN UP, WHETHER IT IS OUT OF THE HOLSTER OR FROM A STANDING RELOAD. Getting the gun up fast is important, shoot steel matches.

Live fire practice always start off with grouping. this will instill confidence in your aim and create a baseline for accuracy... it will also let you know if your sights have mysteriously moved. create shooting drills that play towards your weaknesses, and allways go to the range with a plan of what you are going to do, then stick to it. After you have worked on drills that are hard, get even more diabolical on yourself and push farther, something harder than you would run into at a level one match, SHO/WHO at 25 yard targets (do this until you can consistently hit inside the c zone). awkward movement shooting. 35 yard shot calling drill. 50 yard rush drill (i made this name up, it kicks my butt). figure 8 buckets drill. Always use a timer, the goal here is to push your fundamentals farther than a level 1 match will.

Matches: Go to a level 2 match, great learning experience and will really point out weakness. You will also get to watch some truly fast dudes shoot, and judge your stage breakdown compared to theirs.

visualize every stage before you run it. Dont plan on doing anything that you think you might forget under pressure. keep it simple and plan for something to go wrong (for a while I only ran 4 mags on my belt for SS Major, missed a mag change one day and had to go back for the mag when i ran dry, i have six pouches on my belt now).

Squad yourself outside of your comfort zone. If you shoot production, look for the big limited squad... dont fall into the trap of watching what other people are doing in a stage and then trying to change something drastically in your plan X minutes before you shoot. shoot your plan.

pick someone you want to beat who is well above your skill level, then focus on beating them. When they show up, they are focusing on beating you.

BE LAZY. the fastest way to win is to do as little as possible as fast as possible. shoot only As, running faster = fewer steps, draw/reload/realign sights faster = more time to shoot As.

[warpspeed]

Nothing replaces experience. Nothing.

You can dry fire all you want, practice reloads in front a mirror until your hands cramp but until you do it on the clock with live ammo and 20 people watching it is not the same.

A couple of years ago I decided to take up trap shooting. When I went to the range to practice I could break 25 out of 25 on a pretty regular basis but in competition, no such luck. It took me a while to get my mind and body together. When I was doing well, I'd get so nervous that I'd drop a target or 2. Now, I rarely shoot a round without 2 or 3 perfect scores.

Kurt was spot on about knowing your gear and making sure it runs. If you can, get out to the range and practice drills that emphasize mag changes, shooting on move and accuracy.

The more matches you shoot, the better you will get at dealing with the match pressure.

[ktm300]

I agree with Kurt, learn your gun, I agree with the rest of the folks to get accurate, make everything second nature etc. To me the best thing I have learned is how to relax and have fun while shooting.

The more I relax, the better I shoot.

My guess is you will have the same house, car, job, bank account etc if you shoot a zero or win the match. Go have fun.

[Steve Anderson]

If you are accurate off the clock, then you're making a decision somewhere at some time that accuracy isn't important.

Figure out when/where you are making that decision, then stop doing it.

It's usually done at or near "make ready" and is done because we don't want to look/feel slow compared to our peers.

So we choose speed (at some level, perhaps even subconsciously) and we look and feel super fast, I guess.

If the targets never got scored that would work pretty well...

[Xcaliber]

_{Since I had someone hold my hand every step of the way when learning to shoot a handgun, I was never allowed to develop too many bad habits that weren't instantly corrected. One thing that was drilled into me was that "smooth is fast". Also, that safety and accuracy (in that order) are all important. You simply can't "force" yourself to go faster than you can, at least I can't. I joke that you could measure some of my times with a sundial, but those stages were also almost always all "A"s. At some point I a made decision to forget about "trying" to be fast, because doing so was neither safe nor accurate. Then all the sudden I started getting a little faster. Go figure.}

[LarryP]

It all starts with accuracy. If you don’t have it, there is nothing to build on. Lot, lots, and lots more group shooting. You may need a coach or instructor at your local range to help you with the fundamentals that facilitate the accuracy. Start with seeing the front sight lift out of the notch, and calling your shots every time.

It's a hard thing for a lot of folks to swollow, but skip the matches and spend more time at the range just standing in one spot shooting groups...that means slow fire, and one shot at a time. It's a short answer, but maybe it will help.

After years or trying to learn everything else I came back to Calling the Shot! Its a must for speed.

[Sammi]

I have only been shooting for about 6 months and worked on accuracy and thought it was time to work on speed, wrong. Now I am back to accuracy again and doing well.. My IDPA match in October I had a total of 12 points down, tried to speed up the next one and what a disaster... So just keep up the accuracy work and the speed will come, that is what they tell me, lol.. I do have to say today in practice I did 2.53 seconds from a draw with 5 shots in down 0 and 1.83 with 3 shots in down 0, not too bad...

[Steve Anderson]

Oh, I think i forgot to answer the original question.

Best advice for a newb: A regular practice schedule.

You will cycle through all of the mistakes much quicker with a regular practice schedule.

Also highly recommended: ONE mentor.

DO NOT allow yourself to be coached by a committee unless you have 5 years to waste chasing your tail.

If you don't believe me, just read all the well-intentioned advice here and see how much of it is contradictory...

[toothguy]

Oh, I think i forgot to answer the original question.

Best advice for a newb: A regular practice schedule.

You will cycle through all of the mistakes much quicker with a regular practice schedule.

Also highly recommended: ONE mentor.

DO NOT allow yourself to be coached by a committee unless you have 5 years to waste chasing your tail.

If you don't believe me, just read all the well-intentioned advice here and see how much of it is contradictory...

+100

[Nimitz]

I don't want to get too far from the OP but I have to disagree with the notion that for new shooters you should work on speed and accuracy ...the reason for this is that humans learn to do task " fast" by doing thousands and thousands of reps and not by consciously thinking "I need to do this faster". Of course technique matters but once you learn to do a skill perfectly correct the speed comes with repetition.

As an example (though not a perfect one) count to ten, now count to ten faster, now do it still faster, I'll bet you can count to ten amazingly fast although you've never actually practiced saying it really fast. Why can you do that ? It's because you done it thousands and thousands of times for 20 years or more ... That's the power of repetition - amazing speed without trying to be fast.

Like my shooting coach and mentor says, "you can't be any faster than you are" and "all other skills combined can't make up for the ability to shoot alphas on command". My favorite is (not from him): "you'll never win the Production Nationals by shooting twice a month".... Which is why I currently train 11 times a month @ 2,400 rds/month ....

[Penguin]

^{Surprized no -one has mentioned overcoming the dreaded "FLINCH".}

^{Though, i guess you cannot have good Accuracy with a bad Flinch, so they go hand in hand...}

[motosapiens]

Also highly recommended: ONE mentor.

DO NOT allow yourself to be coached by a committee unless you have 5 years to waste chasing your tail.

If you don't believe me, just read all the well-intentioned advice here and see how much of it is contradictory...

I think a rational person can listen to a variety of sources, but don't take anything as gospel. You have to figure out what works for YOU. I try to watch better shooters every match, and read what better shooters say here every day. Some of it makes sense, and I can apply it.

Wes777 makes some great points above. I will add to that with what little I know, as a fairly new shooter trying to move from c to b.

Here are my suggestions for the OP to consider:

1. buy steve anderson's dry fire book, and start practicing 4-7 days a week. Even if it's only 15-20 mins a day.

2. push your speed in practice. Steve's drills, and his suggested technique of increasing the speed .1 sec at a time for several reps are an effective way for me to do that.

3. push your accuracy in matches. If you are doing the drills, you will develop the muscle memory to not have to think about what your hands are doing when you draw, aim and reload. Expect to be slower than your fastest practice times, but as your practice times improve, so will your match times, and all you have to think about is accuracy. I repeat... don't hurry in matches.

4. Keep track of your times for several specific drills. I am tracking el presidente, 10 yard plate-rack, draw-and-fire-2-at 5 yards, and some home cooked transition drills to measure my improvement. I keep separate logs for the ones I can do with a .22. It provides some positive reinforcement, and also point out which areas I'm not improving on (and therefore, which areas I need to practice more, or re-think a little, or see how other shooters are handling the same problems).

The op's posts make it sound like he is trying to go fast in matches, which for me is a recipe for disaster. The time to go fast is in practice. Then you can back off the speed 5% in a match and shoot comfortably and accurately.

Edited December 31, 2012 by motosapiens