Calling shots, transitions questions froma Newbie

[Rockclimbg]

Hi all,

I've just completed my first season on IDPA and a few IPSC matches. Just local stuff as that is all that my work schedule allowed for this year. Hopefully I'll do more next season. I've read Brians book, watched Matt B.'s DVD's and lurk on the forum trying to such up all the good info.....however, one key point keeps escaping me when it comes to target transitions.

I've been playing with trying to speed up my target transitions to the point were they are close to my splits. At 10yrds (7-10 feet apart on targets), I've getting around .25 on my splits and around .41 to .50 on my transitions. I've been doing a drill were I shoot one shot (that I call) and then immediately snap my eyes/head and then gun to the next target to shoot another shot, trying to isolate my transition. I've even tried shooting one shot and then shooting the next shot as soon as I can see the next target without even transitioning the gun and my splits are still around .40. This leads me to believe it's an eye speed problem. Am I be on the right track in saying so?

I've been doing some eye exercises but am not sure if I can feel a difference, has anyone noticed a huge improvement in their performance doing eye exercises? If so, how long did it take to see results and what was your eye routine?

Also, a lot of threads on transitions revolve around seeing the target before moving the gun, would this include seeing the target with periphial vision and then picking the exact spot on the target as the gun is swinging over? Or should I be seeing the exact spot I want to hit before I even move the gun? I feel like I'm faster and just as accurate when I pick up the target periphially and then pick out an exact spot as I'm indexing the gun but like I said, I'm a noob and just trying to figure this out. Hopefully what I wrote here made sense.

Thanks for any advice.

Rockclimbg

[Jake Di Vita]

Hi Rock,

First off, let me recommend you shoot 2 shots on each target rather than 1. It's a whole nother world when you add that second shot in there.

To answer your question, I usually find the target peripherally first and then pick out my exact point of aim as I am swinging to the target.

Do you have the capability of posting video? If so, it would be a lot easier to diagnose your problem seeing it actually happen.

Let me also recommend Matt Burkett's timing drill, it is very effective.

Try setting up 3 targets right next to each other and shoot 2 shots on each with the goal of your splits and transitions being the same. Think of it as a 3 target bill drill.

Hope this helps, let us know of your results.

[Rockclimbg]

Thanks for the reply Jake Di Vita,

I do try two shots on the target as well as three and four just for the sake of breaking it up and not getting stuck in routines that could disconnect my vision from the act of shooting. Also, I routinely set up three targets doing single shots, double shots, etc per target. And I agree that Matt's timing drill is excellent, I typically start and end my practice with it.

I was only doing a single shot and then transition for the sake of trying to isolate my problem with transitions. Funny, typing that, it seems like an isolated transitions IS the problem, so perhaps it's even a mindset problem.

I'll have to see about getting some video.

thanks again for the advice.

Rockclimbg

[sincityshooter]

At a 10Y target the gun does not have to be as stable and steady as shooting a 20Y target, with that in mind try squeezing that shot off the exact moment the site enters the A zone of the second target. Trigger prep alone will knock off a little time. .40 on a 10 foot transition is not all that bad if you are shooting A's. I'm not sure on an exact number for my own shooting, but I would probably be happy with low .30's maybe more in a match situation.

[Duane Thomas]

It sounds like what you're doing is not allowing recoil to move the gun for you. IOW you're recovering from the second shot on target as if you were going to fire a third shot, then usng your muscles to move the gun to the next target. If you want to practice your transitions, isolate the technique: fire one shot on target, and as the gun flips up let the recoil move it to the next target for you. When the sight comes down out of recoil it should be on the next target.

After that, start doing two shots before the transition. Then make it two shots on each target. As you do this, focus on continuing to let the gun move itself between targets. The fact you're adding "extra" shots into the equation, before and after the transition, should have no effect on the transition itself.

Your eyes should run ahead of the gun, however experiment with just how much visual focus you really need to make the shot. At 10 yards, it doesn't really require a razor sharp front sight focus to hit the A-zone. IOW you don't have to pull your eyesight all the way back to the front sight. A somewhat soft sight picture that still lets you know your sights are aligned is all you need.

[JerryDGeek]

There are two points that should be emphasized when you're talking about transition time between targets.

First, the idea of moving your head, then the gun, to the next target allows you to complete the shot before you move the gun.

Second, moving your gun to catch up with your eyes is often referred to as "driving the gun". You can see a much better discussion of it on page 96 of Brian's "Practical Shooting", and I very much wish that he had spent more space discussing this concept. I suspect that Mr. Enos considered this such a basic concept, he assumed that it didn't need much explanation.

I'll never shoot to the level of expertise that Mr. Enos does, but I do offer this perspective: When you drive the gun, there is no effort involved. You don't have to "concentrate"; rather it very much accords with his concept of "focus".

When you try to move faster, it doesn't happen. That is, you CAN move faster, but the results aren't what you are seeking.

You've got a handle on it when you consider that you don't want to get very fast split-times and very slow transition ("Index") times; but it's not true that they should be the same. Most folks can double-tap faster than they can index, but since split-times are so easy to do you might consider letting yourself FOCUS on the index time and let the split-time just ... happen. When you're not concentrating on the split-times, it's a lot easier to index quicker.

I THINK your transition time (index time) of point-five is slower than you can do. With practice, you can easily accomplish a transition time of .32 - .35 with no effort at all ... and get consistent A-hits in the process.

How do you do this?

You quit trying to get fast split-times (double-taps).

Shoot the first shot at the first target, and when the gun gets back on target take the second shot. Don't force it, let it happen. See the shot, and let it break. Then snap your eyes on the next target, and when the sights are where you want them, it's time to take your next shot(s). Discrete movements, that's the ticket. The tough part is, you have to get out of the way of what your body wants to do and let it do what it knows how to do. When you try to rush it, it doesn't work as well.

Yeah, it takes a while to make this work right. I've spent 20+ years at it, and I'm just getting started, but it doesn't have to take you any time at all. Find a realistic goal (eg .25 splits, .35 transitions) and practice with a timer. You'll find that practicing with a timer focuses your attention wonderfully.

Here's a specific way to get your index times down to an acceptable level:

When you start your live-fire practice, work with several targets in a single array. I'm not talking about three or four targets, but eight or ten ... all of a similar degree of difficulty. Big, fat, open targets. Don't make it difficult. But do shoot for A-zone hits.

As you work your way down the line of targets, you'll find yourself thinking "Hey, I can do this faster!" Then just ... let yourself do it faster. This is good not only for the confidence-building value, but also for the reinforcement of your innate skills.

Then review your times. I think you'll find that on the very first run, you'll discover that your transition times (and probably your split times) are faster toward the end than they were at the beginning.

Eventually, you will discover that you can accomplish the same index-times on much smaller arrays. If you let it happen, every time.

This is probably the easiest drill possible, because it doesn't challenge you or force you to do anything. Rather, it's a drill that demonstrates your innate ability to do a familiar action faster without losing any accuracy. Anybody can do this, and probably anybody can end up with better transition times toward the end of the array than they recorded at the beginning.

The important thing is to focus on getting good hits, not to focus on getting good times. Get good A-zone hits on the first few targets, if for no better reason than to establish your confidence. As your confidence increases, your transition time AND your split time will shorten, if you just let it happen.

Don't try to shoot faster. Just let yourself realize that you CAN shoot faster. As Mr. Enos says, you can't do it by concentration; you do it by focus.

This is the best way I know to learn the difference.

To understand the difference.

To accept the difference.

There. You've just saved 15 years of fumbling around, trying to FORCE yourself to do something that you can do naturally with no effort.

Guaranteed.

Shake it out.

jB)

[Ron Ankeny]

you can easily accomplish a transition time of .32 - .35 with no effort at all ... and get consistent A-hits in the process.

You make that sound pretty simple.

[Paladin]

Duane:

Learnt the 'recoil move your gun' technique from John Shaw sometime ago and it really shrunk my split times. I however discovered that if I didn't think it through then something would go wrong e.g. alignment off, timing thrown out etc. and I would have these wild fluctuations in split times on a stage.

As I moved more to the mental side, I realised that just by having the 'intention to shoot the target' my body will take the necessary steps to get the gun there. This is different from having the 'intention to fire a shot' which may or may not result in shooting the target. The only thing I would add to this is what determines when I leave the current target-both in transition or moving. For me I work along a spectrum with at one end for less precision-'See sights lift' and at the other end for more precision 'See sights lift and resettle on same target'. After this I am awareof a trigger reset 'click' and then the next target is ready to be shot, just like that. Transition is automatic.

For me precision is ipsc targets > 12m, plates > 7m and targets very close together as these will blur into one for me if I don't really focus my vision which 'see sights resettle on same target' allows me to do.

I always encourage shooters not to think about speed and accuracy because when you become so result-oriented you tend to shoot yourself in the foot (figuratively speaking, of course). Rather focus on the journey as it is each step that will take you closer to the destination.

[JerryDGeek]

You make that sound pretty simple.

Yeah, Ron, I guess I did. <G>

The thing is, it IS pretty simple. It's just that it takes more effort to explain than it does to actually do it. (Of course, you have to practice.)

Paladin had some valuable comments here, so it's worth the effort to go back and read them several times until they become clear ... and obvious.

The neat thing about this forum is that you have a lot of folks who have read Brian Enos's book until it becomes clear ... and obvious. Not to become an Enos Fanatic, but he knows this stuff and when you get away from feeling self-conscious about the "Zen of IPSC Shooting", and you get over it messing up your game (just as trying to become accustomed to a high grip will do), it makes a world of difference.

I once took a one-day class from Travis Tomasie. That young man knows what he's talking about. The very first exercise he ran was to let us shoot at a 3-target array as we normally do, recorded our times, then encouraged us to pay more attention to transitioning between targets than to getting great split-times. The 12 people in the class uniformally gave up a couple of hundredths of a second on the split times (with corrsponding improvement in accuracy), and we SAVED more time on transitions.

With beginning shooters, it's a matter of not delaying your transition because you're not sure if you have to make up a shot on the earlier target. With more experienced shooters, it goes beyond calling your shots and approaches achieving a rhythm where your split times and your transition times move a little bit closer together.

It helps if you visualize your performance in transitioning.

For most of us, we need to use the crutch of mounting the gun and working ourselves through the array so we see the distance between arrays as a matter of driving the gun to the next target. I suppose better shooters can do this intuitively, and they don't need to acutually spend all that time playing Miitch Miller as we "follow the bouncing ball". (Yes, I am dating myself.) For me, it's a useful exercise to follow the sights through the array(s) a couple of times, so I get a feel for how far I have to index the gun to have it bounce from the last shot on the first shot to the first shot on the next target, etc.

But although I may seem to be over-simplifying the process, it truly is easy to move smoothly between targets so that it seems obvious & effortless, and you discover that you really CAN move more quickly during the transition.

It isn't necessary to hurry the process. In fact, rushing your movements (like rushing your shots) is actually counter-productive. All you have to do is get out of the way and let it happen naturally. Get into The Zone, and it's amazing to discover the natural skills you have developed. All you have to do is start relaxed, get the muscular tension out of the equation, and KNOW that you can move faster without special effort.

Remember that out-of-body experience when you seem to do everything right, and you're just along for the ride? That's the goal. It requires practice, and preparation, but as Brian says: when you aren't concentrating and TRYING to go faster, you find that being focused is the most rewarding approach.

[Rockclimbg]

Thanks for all the great advice......after reading and contemplating, I think because of my "newness" in shot calling, I'm just really hung up on following through with calling shot and still "thinking" about it while I'm shooting rather than just trusting it. Kind of like when I first realized (thanks to Brians book) that undisturbed sight alignment was more important than sight picture......I had to really tell myself where to put my focus...which slowed my shots down alot, not I don't think about it. I have such a long way to go!

Anyway, thanks for the great tips, I'm off to the range to give'm a try.

Rockclimbg