Kimberkid Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 A very good friend of mine attended a local match this past weekend and it lit a fire in him, just like it did to all of us. For now he is gonna borrow one of my set ups until he decides if/ how much money he wants to sink into this venture. I've helped teach a couple small local beginners classes, and showed a couple girlfriends how to shoot, but am not real sure where I should start with him. He has never shot anything before, so we will really be starting at square 1. What drills or excersises should I show him first, as well as advice to me as a novice teacher. Obviously we can cover stuff like sight alignment and trigger control, but are there any other basic drills that in particular helped anyone along quickly? The current plan is to practice and familiarize ourselves all winter and then he will be ready to run and gun come springtime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 If your friend has the temperament and patience - start him on shot calling drills early. I think the key to rapid progression is getting past the blink/flinch ASAP. Break it up with some fun stuff like Bill Drills and some El Prez's from low ready. Teach movement with an empty gun initially and really crack the whip over his trigger finger location. As soon as he has basic gun manipulation down - start him working on transitions. Make him do it on paper plates. Might as well break him of overdriving early. I haven't taught anyone to shoot in ages, but knowing what I do know, I would put seeing ahead of all other skills (except safety) - including pure accuracy drills - since every other pure shooting skill derives from seeing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
froglegs Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 Something that has helped me is going to other ranges, without this I would have quit about 4 months ago. The advice and the different classes of shooters found at other matches is priceless... take advantage of it! The first pointer that made a huge diff for me was static reloads, no clue I was doing them till someone told me Second was a good grip thats a hole post in itself, made a huge improvement for me Third, steve andersons dry fire drills, also priceless you can feel yourself improving. I've practiced a couple of them 3 times and I can smell A CLASS -started april 30 2004 now B class Simply do not try to shoot fast it never pays off, if you feel like your going slow your probably shooting really well. Whenever I follow this rule I do great! Getting on this forum has also been a major help tons of info for free and great people too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevepitt Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 Good advice so far... in addition, probably the most common thing I see new shooters do is aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, jerk the trigger. I've had great success explaining that once the sights are aligned on target, refining the aiming and pressing should happen together. Not sure how to write that! Aim, press, aim, press isn't right. Sounds like it's still 2 separate operations. Basically, people spend too much time aiming and too little time (and awareness) pressing the trigger. As skill increases, the trigger press time decreases. Ok, it's easier to explain in person (they can watch my finger). Steve Pitt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDave Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 Mike - tell him to get Steve Anderson's dryfire book, and a timer. If he does even 1/2 of the drills, he'll be light years ahead of even most of us. If you can get him to Jimmys and wear him out on the 25 yd line on the Plates, that would be cool too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberkid Posted October 13, 2004 Author Share Posted October 13, 2004 Thanks for all the tips guys, wrote it all down and made a bit of a practice agenda that we can follow for a while. Eric, thanks for the paper plate idea, I never gave much thought to overdriving, but it makes sense now. Dave, I think that I dont wanna demo anything on 25 yard plates right now, as I'm not sure I can hit them with a rifle anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnshapiro Posted October 13, 2004 Share Posted October 13, 2004 How do you break overdriving? I often overshoot the target with my eyes. End up shooting where I was looking, but wasn't looking where I needed to be! Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberkid Posted October 13, 2004 Author Share Posted October 13, 2004 Joel, for whatever it is worth, I've found that overdriving is usually due to too much stress in your arms and too much forceful intention of getting to the next target. Like BE talks about in his book, just let the gun float... Least I hope thats how he meant it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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