Nimitz Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 ...... Actually shooting? There was an earlier thread about how much time you spend thinking about shooting, but being a "man of action" I'm more curious about actual time spent participating in our sport. So what counts? Live fire Dry fire Reloading Cleaning/repair Travel time to/from the range and matches Matches Taking training classes Studying books, DVDs, etc Ok, here's mine: 12 training sessions/month @ 2 hrs total per session incl to/from rg: 288 hrs/yr 3 matches/month (pistol, 3-gun, US Steel): 252 hrs/yr Fl State championship, Fl Open, Steel national Championship, Area 6, Uspsa Nationals: 116 hrs Reloading: 48 hrs Cleaning/maintenance: 50 hrs Taking trng classes: 27 hrs Studying: 36 hrs Total for the year: 827 hrs or 15.9 hrs/week on average Sorry, but time spent talking about shooting doesn't count. Anyone can talk about anything but it takes real effort to actually participate in something ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted January 27, 2013 Author Share Posted January 27, 2013 Oops ... Forgot to include my dry fire session ... 2 hrs/ week total or another 100 hrs/ yr so make it 927/yr total .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNshooter Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Does the time I spend on enos or other forums count as "studying"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Depends, if you're actually trying to learn something then sure. If you're just posting to talk about shooting then no ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 IMO, matches are not really all that conducive to proficiency/efficiency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitedog Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Wow... Obviously not enough. If I spent 15 hours a week it would no longer be fun for me. I admire the drive, but "down time" with my girl takes up those hours. To answer though. Between dry fire, books and matches probably 15 or so hours a month. Give or take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNshooter Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 I figure about 928 hours, rounding down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 matches are critically important as a tool to assess your progress; otherwise, how can you tell you are getting any better if you don't compete against your peers? I don't equate amount of time spent with how much fun I'm having. I'd shoot every day if my schedule allowed for it but I currently have to work 40 hrs/week. I still maintain a 200g reef aquarium, am treasurer of my local reef club and have a custom woodworking business on the side .... I bore easily and need to keep busy ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGMorden Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Probably not nearly enough . Most nights I'll try to spend 10 minutes or so drawing and dry-firing. As far as actually shooting - my budget doesn't allow too much of that . I shoot typically 4 matches per month (2 USPSA on 1st weekend, 1 USPSA on 2nd, and Steel Challenge on 4th weekend). On any weekend that I don't actually have a match I try to get out to the range and shoot 100-200 rounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 1, 2013 Author Share Posted February 1, 2013 Hmmmm ... Assuming you are trying to improve I might consider shooting less matches and putting those match fees toward ammo. IMHO 1 or 2 matches/month is more than enough to assess your progress. However, if you're just out to have fun then I wouldn't Worry about it .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZip Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Yeah, but the more classifiers you shoot, the more chances you have to move up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 1, 2013 Author Share Posted February 1, 2013 And your point is what? Why would anyone not try to be classified as high as possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeg1005 Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Yeah, but the more classifiers you shoot, the more chances you have to move up. No you don't. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGMorden Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Hmmmm ... Assuming you are trying to improve I might consider shooting less matches and putting those match fees toward ammo. IMHO 1 or 2 matches/month is more than enough to assess your progress. However, if you're just out to have fun then I wouldn't Worry about it .... Its mostly just a fun thing for me. Not that I don't try my best, but to me I have a LOT more fun shooting a match than I do practicing for one. Latter on I might be able to shoot more practice but I'm not worrying about it too much . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 1, 2013 Author Share Posted February 1, 2013 I love training because it makes me a better shooter which is demonstrated when I smoke my buddies at a match because they don't train very much ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeBruce Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 I'm learning to enjoy dry fire. 3 hrs/week. I got Steve Andersons first book at Thanksgiving. Two months later I'm still doing the first 5-7 drills but my classifier scores are up from low 40's average to mid 50's. Eveyrthing feels better and my confidence is way up too. Live fire practice has only been 300 rounds (so 3 hrs in 2 months) since but shot 6 matches in this time so 24 hrs in 2 months but really what, 30 minutes tops in 6 matches? Annualized, about 200 hrs. Not near enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Anderson Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Dry fire works. And, some structure helps with those that find it boring. I've been doing the same drills for years and I always learn something... (If I'm paying attention.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Stoeger Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Sorry, but time spent talking about shooting doesn't count. Anyone can talk about anything but it takes real effort to actually participate in something ... If people knew how much time the top shooters spent practicing, then the wins would seem a lot less impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 but unless they have a ton of natural ability they had to spend time becoming a top shooter, right? I'm not too surprised that once you reach the top level you don't need as much practice to stay there as you did to achieve that level in the first place ... So are you saying that the top shooters are just naturals and don't need a lot of practice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas H Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 but unless they have a ton of natural ability they had to spend time becoming a top shooter, right? I'm not too surprised that once you reach the top level you don't need as much practice to stay there as you did to achieve that level in the first place ... So are you saying that the top shooters are just naturals and don't need a lot of practice? (I'm betting he is saying the opposite---that to get to that point and to stay at that point takes so much work that you wouldn't be impressed---that you'd more likely think "well, with THAT much work anyone could do it.") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Stoeger Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 but unless they have a ton of natural ability they had to spend time becoming a top shooter, right? I'm not too surprised that once you reach the top level you don't need as much practice to stay there as you did to achieve that level in the first place ... So are you saying that the top shooters are just naturals and don't need a lot of practice? (I'm betting he is saying the opposite---that to get to that point and to stay at that point takes so much work that you wouldn't be impressed---that you'd more likely think "well, with THAT much work anyone could do it.") Did you use google translate on my post? That is exactly what I was talking about and you translated Benspeak into English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 That's fair but I'm not one who believes that just because you put in a lot of work you will be great at something. I know someone who typically shots 400 rds at a time when he practices but he's not getting any better .. Why, well I believe it's because he doesn't have a structured training program, he's just slinging lead down range ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Anderson Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 "That's fair but I'm not one who believes that just because you put in a lot of work you will be great at something." Why not? And i'm genuinely curious, not trying to be argumentative... "I know someone who typically shots 400 rds at a time when he practices but he's not getting any better" I see that all the time. Talking to these types reveals the answer immediately. I believe you MUST learn something from every round you shoot in live fire practice. What if you made that a rule, or at least a goal: To learn something from every round... "Why, well I believe it's because he doesn't have a structured training program, he's just slinging lead down range." In one example I can think of, the shooter may be slinging lead to satisfy the requirement to practice without doing the kind of serious self analysis that's required to really get better. Why? Perhaps because It's hard on the ego and not a lot of fun. But it is fun to get better... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas H Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 but unless they have a ton of natural ability they had to spend time becoming a top shooter, right? I'm not too surprised that once you reach the top level you don't need as much practice to stay there as you did to achieve that level in the first place ... So are you saying that the top shooters are just naturals and don't need a lot of practice? (I'm betting he is saying the opposite---that to get to that point and to stay at that point takes so much work that you wouldn't be impressed---that you'd more likely think "well, with THAT much work anyone could do it.") Did you use google translate on my post? That is exactly what I was talking about and you translated Benspeak into English. Oh man, I'm starting to understand how Ben thinks. That's not a good sign. Electroshock therapy, stat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 (edited) because "putting in a lot of work" is only one small piece of becoming good at something. Putting a lot of practice time is required but not sufficient. As you said, it's the quality of your training not just the quantity. Quality training is hard work and is much more than simply doing repetitions. I believe its the self-analysis portion of training that seperates those who become great vice those who just put in a lot of time. Self-analysis leads to correcting mistakes quickly and thus improving a particular skill. I've talked with him about this many times & the answers are very obvious. He doesn't do any self-analysis so he has no idea if a) he's doing things correctly & if he's getting any better. Also, like a lot of people he has an unrealistic timeline for seeing major improvements. I ask him why he does the specific drills he does and he really has no specific reason. He does not video his training sessions nor train with anyone else so how can he possibly know he's doing things correctly. He has not laid out his drills to work on specific skills in any specific order. My training is very structured. It is broken into distinct phases of 4-8 weeks long depending on what I'm doing and for each phase my weekly training is further broken done into focus areas. I train 3 days/week with one day for fundamental skills work, one day for movement & one day for speciality skills. Since I'm only one year into this, having picked up a handgun for the first time last Jan i still need to work on all areas of the sport. As I progress I expect to focus less on certain things and more on others that I identified problems. As an example; for this first year I have been focused 100% on accuracy and ignoring time to the point where I stopped using my PACT because it was causing me to rush. Now that I have a consistent recoprd of 88-90% "pts shot" in a match I've changed my training to focus more on movement. I recently shot the Fl State match (my first lvl II) with the 3rd highest % pts shot & 4th highest total Alphas shot; both of which were higher than the division winner Frank Garcia. However, my finish was fairly low because I was much slower than most so it's clearly time to start working on movement. While I'm well on the way to meeting my 2013 goal of being a B class shooter by year's end I have no illusions for how long it will take to make GM ... Edited February 7, 2013 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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