CZ 75 custom Shadow competing advice

[1eyedfatman]

I'll be watching these videos tonight and reviewing all this info. One concern.

While I can see during stages, the DA is just the first shot. BUT, when doing IDPA Classifiers, there are lots of mini drills and if doing it as SSP, I have concern that there will be lots of DA trigger pulls. I'll have a classifier comming up the next few weeks and if I don't have this DA trigger down, I may have to go ESP or another pistol (probably ESP as next in line is my XDM 5.25 and I don't train much with my Glock 34 SSP these days). Are there fewer DA's classifier or is each string starting out DA?

Great info on this thread guys. Thanks!

[alma]

If I remember the weak hand stuff can optionally start out in SA. The rest should start DA. Going from a Glock I am not sure that working around the DA will be much more complicated than getting use to manipulating the safety.
Glock has some overtravel on that first triggered pull where you are taking off the trigger safety and depressing the plunger. DA isn't much worse than that and a couple of weeks of dry fire should be plenty to get you ready to go.
IDPA Classifier leaves you with quite a bit of extra time anyway.

Edited August 14, 2014 by alma

[Bunsen]

Relax, practice and enjoy it!

[BeerBaron]

LIke JayDee that was the next thing to fix, making sure that trigger pull on the draw didnt jack up the next one or two. Thus why as soon as I felt I had a good draw I went to bill drills. And in dry fire at home after the DA pull, "ghosting" the trigger pull on the other targets to approximate the SA trigger. Again, I'm a middle of the road person, but I'm trying. Real numbers again. My bill drills are right now 2.50 pretty consistently for clean ones. ( the only ones that count right?)

And the math break down was why we shoot DA/SA guns right? To have an awesome trigger more in the match than the one we don't like, the DA one on the draw.

How important is the draw? A poster above kinda discounted it, but I think of it this way. 1. It is often the very first thing you do in a stage. Doing it right or wrong effects the rest of what you do. Mentally and physically. 2. Draw times can vary widely between competitors in the middle divisions. So to me it is a "free" way to gain two tenths on someone each and every time. We all know the places to save time; shot splits, target transitions, reload planning, movement into and out of positions. This I think is another. 3. Confidence comes from mental and physical preparedness. If the draw is something you once worried about and now have done the physical prep to learn it and the mental prep to know you've got it, then your confidence overall at a match will increase.

mmm, your other questions. By grip I meant just getting a stronger grip overall. And then applying it in dry fire. Keep your dry fire honest.

Support hand others covered way better than I could.

I look through the sights. I file my rear notch to .140 and with a .100 front sight, all to help with faster sight acquisition. I'm looking through them, not over them. But at the same time, I am working on making my index soo good that where I look I'll shoot. The gun follows the eyes, right? Again, what I orignally said is hard for me to describe in words. I could do it in pictures though, hahaha.

Thinking is the enemy of perfection-Bruce Lee. You've thought this out, you got a good plan. Now it's action time. My day job is teaching people to ride motorcycles. In doing this I focus on OAR. Observe, analyze, reinforce. You've observed what your doing. You've analyzed it. Now time to reinforce changes or doing what you do right by doing it over and over.

great point rowdy. I did discount the draw a bit as I think some tend to overemphasize it too much and work on draw at the expense of all others. agian in a 12 stage match you probably only draw the pistol 9 times (yes classifiers blow this figure out a long way).

I do agree totally on the part about draw being the first thing you do on a stage and a good draw setting you up for a good stage. I just feel that people often seem to spend inordinate amounts of time getting their draw from 1 second to 0.9 seconds early in their career when it's not draw time that's holding them back... there's lots of other stuff they should be looking at.

[trgt]

.... I just feel that people often seem to spend inordinate amounts of time getting their draw from 1 second to 0.9 seconds early in their career when it's not draw time that's holding them back... there's lots of other stuff they should be looking at.

I can give you a concrete data point on this if helpful. I'm a high 'C'-- a good classifier or two away from "B" shooting CZ/production, I have the privilege sometimes to do drills with a pair of 'A' shooters (one single stack, one production Glock). I can draw to A zone hit reliability 1.4 seconds, they are 1.2 and 1.4. But with a simple target array, no movement, maybe Paper-steel-Paper/reload/Paper/steel/Paper, they will have times closer to 6 or 7 second while my times are closer to 9, for a particular setup getting all the points. So in this case transitions, seeing faster, reloads, the works (and again, no movement -- more there), lots for me to work on besides the holster to move up and close in on their times.

Moving from Glock to CZ was a bit of dry fire, then no problem generally for the DA first shot and manual decocking, but given a choice, I do go for a bigger target on the draw :-)

Edited August 13, 2014 by trgt

[BeerBaron]

Thanks trgt. That illustrates exactly my point. You are giving away .2 seconds on the draw but loosing 2-3 seconds on a 9 second stage/classifier.

I totally agree most c and b shooters (and even d shooters) will gain a lot more working on seeing faster, transitions, getting in and out of positions rather than max reps on the draw. As long as it's safe, repeatable and around 1.5 then you're probably not giving much away till you hit a grade. Then it's time to refine down all the skills including the draw if you want that m or Gm after your name.

[bthoefer]

I'd almost completely agree with BeerBaron that as long as your draw is sub 1.5 you are fine on most field courses. It won't hold you back until you get to the high A level and are trying to make M.

I'm chasing that last 2% for M now.

Edited August 14, 2014 by bthoefer

[1eyedfatman]

Step aside you Expert and Master types with your 1.5 draws. Its time for amatuer hour again.

Had first range outing tonight with the CZ 75 Shadow. All your advice gave me a game plan on techniques to work on. I worked on the DA trigger pull comming out of the holster and started it as soon as the hands met through extension. Not quite as difficult as joggling and riding a unicycle at the same time, but I was starting to get the hang of it and had my draw at around 2 seconds with A hits at 7 yards. I know, an eternity for some of you..but I'll take it first time out with a DA. I'll be a DA, dry firing fool for the next few weeks.

I worked on several things including just single shot DA from holster, then added a head shot follow up in SA, then worked on mag changes and then ran through the IDPA Classifier Stage 1 strings 1-7 about 3 times noting splits and points. All the while repeating the decocking practice. Only thing I forgot was an unload sequence. It certainly is different from the XDM and Glock! I stayed longer then expected just to keep practicing the manipulations and getting used to the 2 triggers. An accurate pistol I would say although I didn't spend much time testing accuracy (have na IDPA club match tomorrow night and wanted to see if I could get comfortable enough to run it). That SA trigger is short and sensitive...caught myself a couple of times a little early...which put me off a few inches. So, just went back to smooth instead of fast. And I think that's what I'm going to have to think about for a while to keep it under control.

Next on my agenda...will you guys help me make Sharpshooter on my first IDPA Classifier in the next few weeks?!? Have my first sanctioned match in October. I got this, just a little Expert coaching would make the difference.

[motosapiens]

Had first range outing tonight with the CZ 75 Shadow. All your advice gave me a game plan on techniques to work on. I worked on the DA trigger pull comming out of the holster and started it as soon as the hands met through extension. Not quite as difficult as joggling and riding a unicycle at the same time, but I was starting to get the hang of it and had my draw at around 2 seconds with A hits at 7 yards. I know, an eternity for some of you..but I'll take it first time out with a DA. I'll be a DA, dry firing fool for the next few weeks.

Sounds like you have the right idea and are already seeing results. One thing that has helped me is just spending a couple minutes at the start of most practice sessions working on the DA trigger pull. I set the par time for 1.5 seconds or so, line the sights up against a white wall, and when the start beep goes, i try to pull the trigger without moving the sights before the beep finishes. Then I do a 2nd pull for the stop beep, again trying to complete the trigger pull before the beep finishes. I found that experimenting with tension in my hands during this exercise was pretty valuable, and I do better if I consciously increase the weak hand grip and try to relax my strong hand just slightly.