Weekend Practice or Shoot Matches?

[Jerome]

I know practice and shooting matches both have their place. We learn different things from both. But I've been wondering, what is better for developing a shooter faster, more practice or more local matches? The shooter's goal is to perform best in Level II and above matches.

In our area, we can shoot some kind of match (USPSA, Steel, Other) Saturday and Sunday every weekend. I try to shoot matches both days on the weekend, live fire practice twice during the week and dry fire in between. I've been debating, is 2 matches every weekend too much.

Shooting matches, you don't get the repetition of practice or the number of rounds but you get more experience at, well, shooting matches. Every shot counts. With practice, you get more repetitions but you can be fooled about your skill level because you can run a drill over and over again until you get it right. You also tend to discount screw ups. In a match, you only get one shot at a stage. You can try and simulate a match in practice but you can never really reproduce the pressure of a match.

That said, there are some very, very, very good shooters that rarely shoot local matches. They spend their time all in practice and focus only on Level II and above matches.

So, what do you think? Would you/do you spend the weekends on the practice range or shooting a match? Is shooting 2 local matches every weekend too much?

[AlamoShooter]

The Key thing you said is "a developing shooter" very few first and second year shooters know how to practice. in fact very few work at it as hard as you outlined.

A steel match that is set up rite has at least a few of the stages planed out to focus on a skill-set. and the shooter gets up to five runs at it.

I personaly spend as much or more time training as I do in local matches. But I am working with several diffrent guns for 3 gun now.

For Handgun I am just trying to hang on skills I -Used to Have- battling age and injury

My advice backed up with over 20 years of shooting competion at 6 diffrent kinds of disiplins is. ( Look For The Joy ) If you go more than a few weekend with out seeing the Joy in what your spending your -Life- / time at = The loss will cost you more than monie

[Hi-Power Jack]

I don't think you can "shoot too many matches" OR practice too much.

(I don't do enough of either, at this point

As Alamo mentioned, I practiced and shot matches for YEARS and

developed very LITTLE. Neither did much for me.

I took two different two-day courses and they helped a little bit.

What really helped (if you can call making B Open, better) is working

with other shooters on my squad over the years. Watching them

carefully and talking to them really helped me. As well as the Dot

Torture Drill, which helped a great deal with my trigger control.

I think that dry firing practice would probably be a great idea - but

I can't force myself to do it.

[Bunchies95]

Jerome,

I personally think that 2 matches every weekend is too much. Sure its fun to go to matches, and you do learn some things, but what they really do is confirm what you do or do not know. For the same amount of rounds and much less time investment, you can learn much more in practice.

What my plan for this year is to shoot 1-2 local matches a month. This will help expose weaknesses and confirm my strengths. The rest of the month will be 2 live fire practices a week, with a bonus one on weekends where I am not shoting a match. On the bonus sessions, I think setting up a small stage with multiple options is going to be my best bet. Being able to run a stage multiple times in different ways will really help learn how to properly break down a stage. You are more than welcome to join me on the practice range anytime you want.

I really need to try and make one of AlamoShooter's matches (well whoever runs them now for him). My .22LR needs to get a workout every now and then.

At the end of the day AlamoShooter is right: what brings you the most joy?

[Dirtychemist]

If I could shoot two USPSA matches a month at the same range I'd shoot them all and practice inbetween. Think about how often sporting events are held. Football is every single weekend/ Pop Warner, high school, college, NFL etc. Hockey is even more often. Competitions give you time to see how well your practice is going. IF you practice during the weeks you're not competing you can see how your training is coming along. If you're practicing draws, reloads, transitions to weak hand, draw from a box, unloaded draw etc. you might see your times decrease and you could attribute that to your practice.

Or you could shoot one match a month and practice live fire and see if that makes a difference. Plenty of free applications are available on smarth phones that are shot timers. They don't work too often on dry fire but you can set the par time to 1.5 seconds or whatever you want and time yourself that way.

Hi-Power Jack...shooting the dot torture drill is live fire practice and I really don't understand how you could practice and shoot for YEARS without getting any better but in 4 days you saw improvement. Either you didn't practice correctly or just went to the shooting events to hit targets with bullets. Start working with some local guys and you get better = training program.

dry fire drills

live fire practice when you can

matches to judge youreself. Maybe they'll even let you look at the splits for first shot to see how your draw is going for that day. I can tell you between my first and second match I started doing about 30-45 minutes of dry fire practice draws and I hit a LOT of As. A couple stages it was ALL I hit with some reduced times. I even worked up the ranks and was in the top half vs bottom 5. 40 shooters that day.

[grapemeister]

Yep, too many matches. Spend more time practicing and working on the lessons learned from the two or three matches shot a month. Dry fire practice is great, and invaluable, but nothing replaces putting lead down range. Skip a few of those matches you've been shooting, and use that time and ammo to practice at the range. I'm just a lowly B class shooter, but I have a feeling that I'm right........just my humble opinions.

The following excerpt is from an article in a recent issue of Golf Digest.

You don't get better just by showing up a lot. It takes structured , mindful practice. You have to break the game down into all the shots, and apply a consistent method to mastering each.

The Game Gave Me the Focus I Needed

By Adam Hergenrother with Max Adler

Golf Digest, Dec 2012

[kosh79]

I'm by no means a USPSA BA but what from I have gathered about anything is this. If you shoot too many matches like anything else you'll probably get burned out and find yourself in a plateau so to speak where your not getting any better. I try to shoot 2 matches a month and practice different drills from draws to reloading to shooting trying to develop certain skills and kill bad habits.

[a matt]

Two local matches a mo. & one major each mo. for the first 6 mo. Then the same except the major are only every two and a half mo. Dryfire every chance you get practice live fire twice a week. Practice is much faster than matches as long as it good practice, with Dryfire.. Hope this helps!

[RangerTrace]

I think y'all may have missed the part where he is still getting in two live fire sessions per week along with dry fire. I'd love to be able to get half of that in my schedule.

In my opinion, if you are truly following that schedule and seem to be continually improving, don't change anything. If you weren't getting in the live fire during the week and had to choose between the two on the weekend, I would probably go with 50/50, which is what I'm having to do.

[a matt]

Yes SV Cop, I did miss that and I agree with you suggestion.