What to do when you plateau?

[wamcei]

I have been going hard and strong on my dry practice. With that said I have seemed to plateaued on several drills from Steve Anderson's book. No matter how hard I push I can not seem to beat my best par times on a few of the drills. So my question is since I have plateaued should I change up the drills or just keep pushing harder and faster? For example, I have gotten my draw to .85 that is the draw acquiring the sights and getting on target. No trigger pull. But no matter how hard I try I can't seem to beat this time. Any help or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

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[a matt]

To me; that might all you have? Now that is fast. But what I did when I plateaued was do different drills working on something else you know you need to improve on. Then come back and with fresh eyes, mind & muscles after a couple few months. Hope this helps, cheers.

[blaster113]

When I actually had the drive to dry fire regularly I also used Steve Anderson's book. If I recall correctly the book states you'll eventually hit a point where you'll see little or no improvement no matter how much you try (i.e. plateau). I would maybe take a short break, mix up the drills some, then go at it again. I've started mixing drills from multiple sources to freshen things up. Try looking at Mike Seeklander and Ben Stoeger's books. Good stuff in there too.

Edited December 17, 2014 by blaster113

[emjei]

I think Steve Anderson answered that same question in his last Podcast

[co-exprs]

.8sec is plenty fast for draws. That is world class and you don't need to go any faster there. To bust up a flat spot in your learning curve, you need to change it up and work on some thing else. Work on movement drills and things like reloading on the move. Movement will gain you far more than shaving another .01 off your draw.

[Steve Moneypenny]

do something different, take a break from that for a while, work shooting on the move or something of the like. You will impove on the skils you are not practicing... this works for a few days. then if you want to verify them briefly at each practice session that's awesome too. ... also slow down at times an make sure you have smoothness in there too. that your completing all of the motions.

[emjei]

Make an analysis how many times you draw and shoot immediately Vs draw run and shoot upon entry a position

[motosapiens]

What is happening with the times on your live-fire drills?

What skills are you worse at than a simple draw?

Edited December 17, 2014 by motosapiens

[wamcei]

I think Steve Anderson answered that same question in his last Podcast

Never knew he had a podcast will have to check it out thanks

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[wamcei]

.8sec is plenty fast for draws. That is world class and you don't need to go any faster there. To bust up a flat spot in your learning curve, you need to change it up and work on some thing else. Work on movement drills and things like reloading on the move. Movement will gain you far more than shaving another .01 off your draw.

Thanks and I understand that the draw will not get much faster. I was just curious as to what others have done to mix it up.

I suppose the few years I did local fast draw comps help me with this part. But, trust me I have a TON of work to be competitive lol. I was using the draw drill as an example. Was wondering what others did to change things up on that drill.

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[wamcei]

What is happening with the times on your live-fire drills?

What skills are you worse at than a simple draw?

Right now I truly can't say. Here it is cold out and the local ranges won't let us draw from a holster come spring I will learn more!

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[wamcei]

What is happening with the times on your live-fire drills?

What skills are you worse at than a simple draw?

There are a ton I working on. What gets me fits is transitions. I been practicing hard on seeing the target just before the gun gets there. Having a hard time at this!

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[emjei]

wamcei

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/8/f/c/8fc4d5de7ae1afc1/ALL316-103411.mp3?c_id=8054070&expiration=1418930654&hwt=26f8ae83d911e059dcc01428b80a150c

[motosapiens]

What skills are you worse at than a simple draw?

There are a ton I working on. What gets me fits is transitions. I been practicing hard on seeing the target just before the gun gets there. Having a hard time at this!

I'm a low-A but improving shooter, so take that fwiw. It helps to have a good idea of how fast you need to be able to accomplish various tasks in order to be compeitive at the next level. If I have some skills that are already at that level, my first thought would be to list the skills that *aren't* at that level yet, and focus more on them. From a non-race holster I'm kinda stuck at right around 1 second to draw and fire an A/C shot. i seem to have plateau'd there a little bit, but I'm not too worried about it because I know many people make M and GM without being any faster than that on the draw. So I do some maintenance and warmup on the draw, but I don't spend that much time on it, esp for close targets.

Now drawing to a 25 yard target, or a small piece of steel, that's something I still need to improve on, along with reloads, shooting while moving, wide transitions, entering and leaving positions, empty-gun starts, etc...

If you were stuck at 1.3 seconds to draw and get a sight picture, I'd suggest having someone else watch and critique, or posting a vid, or something similar. But if you're stuck at .8 seconds, I would recommend refining that draw to be more accurate and consistent (start drawing on partials, poppers, or distant targets), and simply work on whatever other skills need more work.

[co-exprs]

.8sec is plenty fast for draws. That is world class and you don't need to go any faster there. To bust up a flat spot in your learning curve, you need to change it up and work on some thing else. Work on movement drills and things like reloading on the move. Movement will gain you far more than shaving another .01 off your draw.

Thanks and I understand that the draw will not get much faster. I was just curious as to what others have done to mix it up.

I suppose the few years I did local fast draw comps help me with this part. But, trust me I have a TON of work to be competitive lol. I was using the draw drill as an example. Was wondering what others did to change things up on that drill.

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This is just what I've found works for me, so give it a try and then adjust for you. When I am pushing speed in practice, I start the task at what I feel to be a solid, competent speed/accuracy balance for me at that time. I use the timer to set a baseline, then I will begin to safely, ramping up my speed hard. If you never shoot faster than you can, then you will never learn how to be faster than you are. I know I will throw some shots, but I'm not worried about that. What I am trying to do is force my brain to learn how to see things faster. I set some stretch goal for my speed on that drill (whatever it is) and wreck myself to reach that time goal. After shooting at that faster speed for a while, I finish the day by throttling back to competent speed/accuracy balance and compare the new time to my base line. If I did it right I should be faster at the end of the day, without dropping any more points. When you are new, these improvements can be huge. Like 40-50% reduction in time. As you get more and more experienced you have to work harder and harder to gain less and less (law of diminishing returns). These days, I'm pretty happy with 5-10% improvement in a given practice session.

[wamcei]

What skills are you worse at than a simple draw?

There are a ton I working on. What gets me fits is transitions. I been practicing hard on seeing the target just before the gun gets there. Having a hard time at this!

I'm a low-A but improving shooter, so take that fwiw. It helps to have a good idea of how fast you need to be able to accomplish various tasks in order to be compeitive at the next level. If I have some skills that are already at that level, my first thought would be to list the skills that *aren't* at that level yet, and focus more on them. From a non-race holster I'm kinda stuck at right around 1 second to draw and fire an A/C shot. i seem to have plateau'd there a little bit, but I'm not too worried about it because I know many people make M and GM without being any faster than that on the draw. So I do some maintenance and warmup on the draw, but I don't spend that much time on it, esp for close targets.

Now drawing to a 25 yard target, or a small piece of steel, that's something I still need to improve on, along with reloads, shooting while moving, wide transitions, entering and leaving positions, empty-gun starts, etc...

If you were stuck at 1.3 seconds to draw and get a sight picture, I'd suggest having someone else watch and critique, or posting a vid, or something similar. But if you're stuck at .8 seconds, I would recommend refining that draw to be more accurate and consistent (start drawing on partials, poppers, or distant targets), and simply work on whatever other skills need more work.

Thank you so much that is what I was looking for! I have a friend that has critiqued some of my videos and helped me get my draw there. I am going to set down and try your advice out. I seem to be able to work towards something if I see it so thank you

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[wamcei]

.8sec is plenty fast for draws. That is world class and you don't need to go any faster there. To bust up a flat spot in your learning curve, you need to change it up and work on some thing else. Work on movement drills and things like reloading on the move. Movement will gain you far more than shaving another .01 off your draw.

Thanks and I understand that the draw will not get much faster. I was just curious as to what others have done to mix it up.

I suppose the few years I did local fast draw comps help me with this part. But, trust me I have a TON of work to be competitive lol. I was using the draw drill as an example. Was wondering what others did to change things up on that drill.

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This is just what I've found works for me, so give it a try and then adjust for you. When I am pushing speed in practice, I start the task at what I feel to be a solid, competent speed/accuracy balance for me at that time. I use the timer to set a baseline, then I will begin to safely, ramping up my speed hard. If you never shoot faster than you can, then you will never learn how to be faster than you are. I know I will throw some shots, but I'm not worried about that. What I am trying to do is force my brain to learn how to see things faster. I set some stretch goal for my speed on that drill (whatever it is) and wreck myself to reach that time goal. After shooting at that faster speed for a while, I finish the day by throttling back to competent speed/accuracy balance and compare the new time to my base line. If I did it right I should be faster at the end of the day, without dropping any more points. When you are new, these improvements can be huge. Like 40-50% reduction in time. As you get more and more experienced you have to work harder and harder to gain less and less (law of diminishing returns). These days, I'm pretty happy with 5-10% improvement in a given practice session.

Thank you! I have been practicing hard for about 4 months now. Going to take a break for a couple of weeks (holidays and all)

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[g mac]

Maybe, practice something else, like movements, transitions, stage plans, etc.