Target Acquisition Speed

[Robco]

Target Acquisition Speed - What is it and how can we train to improve our speed?

Something I got today, from again listening to Enos' Audio book while reloading ammo, was his statement that what really differentiates the top shooters when all is said and done, with respect to speed, is Target Acquisition Speed. Wow!

I have been dancing around this for two weeks or more (for years tangentially), trying to figure out what I needed to work on to shorten my performance times on the clock. All the usual, and appropriate areas were reviewed including gun handling, movement skills, keeping gun up and ready to shoot sooner when appropriate to do so, and I ended up settling on needing to speed up the SHOOTING parts of my game.

Well, obviously, with my actual splits of between .14 and .21 on 90% of targets and match speed draws of between .95 and 1.25 on 90% of targets - these were not places I could gain a lot at this juncture, and certainly do not explain my time difference with the top shooters. So I KNEW it was going to be related to transitions, so I tried to muddle my way thru breaking transitions down into the many aspects of which transitions are composed.

Here I mean, besides the all important time wasters and gains due to efficient body movement, being ready to shoot at the earliest possible time and recruiting the legs for swinging from target to target instead of the arms and upper body, trigger prepping, etc. BUT aside from all of those aspects of transitions, the 800 pound gorilla not yet mentioned here in this list, is VISUAL TARGET ACQUISITION speed. And this is what Brian made me think about today.

It is clear to me that this is where much time is gained or lost in our performances. On the extreme dullard end, which I actually did on at least one transition in my last match, the Florida Open only two weeks ago, is keeping essentially a sight focus during transitioning the gun from array to array. You know, where you maintain your upper body triangle and rotate mechanically eyes/head and gun TOGETHER! Slow and hard to find or land on the next target. Well, the other end extreme is to move eyes to next target before or while still shooting the last one! We have all done that on close targets and hard ones alike, and then are "amazed" to discover we had mikes when scoring the stage! " I had a perfect sight picture"!, Yes, but NOT when we released the shot!

So between these extremes, there is a large continuum and spectrum of varying capabilities and speeds among shooters. And this, I believe, as Brian said, is what differentiates the top shooters most in their performance times.

Obviously, we all, at least intellectually, understand that we should move our eyes to the next target AFTER completing the last shot on the last target having given whatever follow thru that particular target/shot required. And THEN the gun follows slightly BEHIND the eyes moving towards the next target. On any given transition and array, different shooters will have different capabilities and speeds associated with this target acquisition. And it is all complicated further by each shooter's ability and judgment and skill in instantly determining when they see what they need to for the transition shot. A top shooter can do this much quicker than a beginner or even an intermediate shooter. Not just the optical part of the process, but the MENTAL part especially.

Many of us often WASTE time over-refining our "sight picture" beyond what was actually necessary to shoot an A. An A is an A, both are 5 points, right? NOPE! Not if one A took 1.2 seconds and another shooter got the same A hit on the same target in .70 seconds. Right? HF? Assuming the faster shooter won the stage, then the slower shooter only gets 58.33% of the winner's stage points or 2.91 stage points for their slower A. Man, target math is important. This is empirical evidence that the speed of that transition matters HUGELY in scores and match performance.

So we want to be able to speed up transitions, the target acquisition aspect specifically as we are discussing here.

Well, this is what I want to figure out, specific to my own individual capabilities and limitations (age, eyesight, etc) - How can we TRAIN ourselves to SEE FASTER? And this presumes, as I truly believe, that we CAN in fact do so.

I will research this and report back what I find and learn and figure out.

I am anxious to hear from anyone with thoughts on this subject!

[Hi-Power Jack]

Thanks for the post - some good ideas here for an old B shooter.

Thanks for sharing and good luck in your quest.

[Robco]

Thanks for the post - some good ideas here for an old B shooter.

Thanks for sharing and good luck in your quest.

Thanks - we old shooters have to stick together!

My mind is already racing to all of my memories and experiences and sources of info on Target Acquisition speed training.

One that comes to mind, is Max Michel's drill of sitting in his office, with a writing pen held to simulate a sight, and have to spots about an inch in diameter, on a wall with an angle of transition between the two spots of about 90 degrees or so. Then move the eyes and follow with the hand/aiming device, back and forth between the two spots. Can be done anywhere, anytime, and without a gun or any props or targets. I have done it sitting in a busy airport terminal waiting on a flight, and not too many walker by's noticed or thought I was nuts! This alone can help develop the HABIT of aggressive eye movement and accurate hand pointing/landing on a new target.

Obviously this can be even better, done dry firing a gun, when the opportunity to do so allows it. NOT in an airport for example! - TSA frowns on that kind of stuff for some reason?

[cnote]

Keep it coming , please and thank you

[Robco]

Keep it coming , please and thank you

Thanks cnote! I need encouragement like anyone does

Glad to share whatever I can offer to those who appreciate it and are civil. Had a long unpleasant run in with one of the Enos forum bad boys today that resulted in my ignoring him henceforth. His loss. Ugliness is not necessary.

Let's have FUN here and in our sport.

Stay tuned as I think of and learn more to post.

Rob

Edited February 25, 2015 by Robco

[Nimitz]

this is something that I've been spending a lot of time on recently as i prepare for the US Steel Nationals. In Steel Challenge there are only 3 things that matter: fast draw, fast transitions & never miss. Since committing to a 5-6x/week dryfire program I've found a large difference in my dryfire & live fire draw times ... like up wards of .4-.5 secs! I have been easily able to execute .7 sec draws to a simulated 10 yd target without trigger pull 85+% of the time and a .9 sec draw with trigger pull. In live fire I'm sitting in the 1.3 sec range usually with some ability to get into the sub 1.2 sec area but not consistently.

With that much difference I'm obviously spending way too much time refining my sight picture before pulling the trigger ... i think. There may be other issues holding me back as well ...

In SC, ignoring my draw for a second, being able to see faster is everything in being able to reduce my times. with 4 transitions on every run, .05 secs of slowness adds up. A great example is Showdown. Most shooters at my current level in open rimfire can shoot sub 2sec strings all day long and put up stage times around 7.5-7.8 secs. I'm currently stuck at around the 8.6 sec mark. I can shoot 2.2 sec runs all day long with no real effort and have been working lately in the 2.05-2.15 sec range but I don't consider taht my current match speed. For exmple, this morning a trained on Showdown and my ave for 25 runs was 2.18 secs but except for 3 runs which I did Speed Mode I can no get consistently below 2 secs where i should be ...

Interestingly one of my SM runs was a 5/5 1.68 sec run! Obviously then I'm capable of executing at that level but I currently don't know what's keeping me from being consistently closer to that kind of time. looking back at that run and trying to understand what I did right to get that time it seemed that I basically just let go and didn't TRY to do anything - somehing Lanny Bassem says all the time ... i think that because I'm having this expectation that I should be able to shoot faster that I'm letting my conscious mind get in the way even though I'm trying not to ... if that makes sense. I did the same thing last week where I posted a 1.71 sec Smoke & Hope run when I just let go and shot the stage.

with only a couple of weeks to go before teh Nationals I don't want to start doing anything too drastic in training but right afterwards I'll be spending my week off before starting training again reveiewing all this things and putting together a updated training plan to see if I can finally break through this issue. I expect this to pay big dividends on the USPSA Production side as well once I add in the things Ben told me to I needed to work on as a result of shooting with him at the end of Jan ...

Edited February 26, 2015 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

since we can only shoot as fast as we can see, working on the ability to see faster is huge ...

[Robco]

this is something that I've been spending a lot of time on recently as i prepare for the US Steel Nationals. In Steel Challenge there are only 3 things that matter: fast draw, fast transitions & never miss. Since committing to a 5-6x/week dryfire program I've found a large difference in my dryfire & live fire draw times ... like up wards of .4-.5 secs! I have been easily able to execute .7 sec draws to a simulated 10 yd target without trigger pull 85+% of the time and a .9 sec draw with trigger pull. In live fire I'm sitting in the 1.3 sec range usually with some ability to get into the sub 1.2 sec area but not consistently.

With that much difference I'm obviously spending way too much time refining my sight picture before pulling the trigger ... i think. There may be other issues holding me back as well ...

In SC, ignoring my draw for a second, being able to see faster is everything in being able to reduce my times. with 4 transitions on every run, .05 secs of slowness adds up. A great example is Showdown. Most shooters at my current level in open rimfire can shoot sub 2sec strings all day long and put up stage times around 7.5-7.8 secs. I'm currently stuck at around the 8.6 sec mark. I can shoot 2.2 sec runs all day long with no real effort and have been working lately in the 2.05-2.15 sec range but I don't consider that my current match speed. For example, this morning a trained on Showdown and my ave for 25 runs was 2.18 secs but except for 3 runs which I did Speed Mode I can no get consistently below 2 secs where i should be ...

Interestingly one of my SM runs was a 5/5 1.68 sec run! Obviously then I'm capable of executing at that level but I currently don't know what's keeping me from being consistently closer to that kind of time. looking back at that run and trying to understand what I did right to get that time it seemed that I basically just let go and didn't TRY to do anything - something Lanny Bassham says all the time ... i think that because I'm having this expectation that I should be able to shoot faster that I'm letting my conscious mind get in the way even though I'm trying not to ... if that makes sense. I did the same thing last week where I posted a 1.71 sec Smoke & Hope run when I just let go and shot the stage.

with only a couple of weeks to go before the Nationals I don't want to start doing anything too drastic in training but right afterwards I'll be spending my week off before starting training again reviewing all this things and putting together a updated training plan to see if I can finally break through this issue. I expect this to pay big dividends on the USPSA Production side as well once I add in the things Ben told me to I needed to work on as a result of shooting with him at the end of Jan ...

Nimitz: A lot of good stuff there! I like how well you are noting and analyzing your practice sessions. No other way to really proceed in my opinion. So keep that up.

I understand appreciate your experiences of really burning some runs up when you just "let go." I think this is a key concept in all practical pistol shooting and Lanny has it dead right - getting our conscious mind out of the ways so the subconscious mind (our skill set) can do its best. And getting glimpses of successes, occasionally as you described on a few good runs, is the beginning of improvement. That is how it shows up, not all at once, on every run or stage consistently! That, consistency, takes a lot longer. But feast on the good runs and the fact that it proves you have it in you, even if you cannot do it 5 out of 5 times - it is still not just "luck."

Very impressive that you wisely grounded your dry fire experiences and times with actual live fire counterpart data. Very smart! And can teach you to be a lot better and more effective (honest) in your dry fire. I have always believed that beginners benefit a lot from dry fire work when they just begin shooting, and then top shooters benefit a lot from it because they know how to keep it real. The vast middle range of shooters often actually hurt their performances by dry firing poorly and developing very bad habits. Chief among them, dropping the hammer without calling the shot in dry firing. You obviously are aware of the risks and are handling it all right it appears!

I shot a little SC in my first year, and none since, so not really up to speed on the competitive times for it. But I know the draw times, for example will vary depending on which of the SC stages you are speaking of. Only on the stage with the huge square plates up front (whichever one that is called?) would I think any sub second draw in live fire would be doable. ?

Again, I am not an SC shooter but here are some general thoughts to kick around. Prepping trigger when coming out of recoil and transitioning the gun to the next target must surely be important to fast transitions, so you can fire the instant the next sight picture occurs, without hesitation. I.e., being able to actually release the shot the instant the sight picture materializes, NOT see sight picture, then begin trigger process - often resulting in either just being too slow or worse, releasing the shot AFTER the sight picture already disappeared do to natural hold motion. In other words, how I would shoot would be, shoot P1, call it good, then while still in recoil, move my eyes to next target. Gun may not ever return out of recoil on the P1, assuming that level of follow thru was not necessary. Instead, like when shooting a plate rack, the gun moves over to where you are now looking, at P2, at the same time it is coming down out of recoil, and before the gun gets to P2 I have prepped the trigger already and am just WAITING for the sight picture I need to appear. When it does, I can release the shot almost instantly at the first sight settling period. If you don't do it like this, then you get your sight picture, then begin the trigger pull process and by the time it is close to releasing the gun is no longer on target! So you have to then get a second sight picture, and your competitor is already onto the next plate! Note that prepping the trigger to me, essentially means, re-establishing my strong hand grip after recoil where you subconsciously relax your grip each shot. Therefore, if you wait till you have your next sight picture to prep (re-establish strong hand grip) then you risk moving your fingers below the trigger finger and thus disturb the sight picture while releasing the shot.

As to how all of this relates back to our post subject, I believe it is completely relevant. If I were you, I would focus on my dry fire practice of SC stuff, to training your eye to move immediately directly to the center of the next plate as soon as the prior shot execution is completed (whatever that means for you on that particular target and shot), and then aggressively move the gun right to where you are already staring, trying to prep the trigger while in transit. You do not have to risk an A/D prepping the trigger for all of the pre-travel and some of the pull pressure, to get the benefits of assuring a good trigger reset and a re-established strong hand grip. Just fly your finger off the trigger immediately in recoil and then move it back ONTO the trigger with say, only 3 oz of pressure as your prepping goal. That will likely take the other strong hand fingers properly OUT of your trigger pull as necessary to allow a fast shot thereafter, without disturbing the sight picture.

To summarize, you may be wasting a tenth or more once the gun is to the next target, before the sight picture ever occurs simply by not moving the gun while still in recoil. Also, you are likely wasting another tenth or so because you are not ready to fire at the first time the sight picture occurs. Think of swinger targets. You know it is much faster to shoot both shots on it at ONE LOOK at the target, as opposed to having to shoot one shot, wait till it cycles away and back and then taking a second shot. Not be ready to release the shot at the first glimpse of the initial sight picture after the transition is just as costly.

Anyway, just some ideas!

[motosapiens]

this is something that I've been spending a lot of time on recently as i prepare for the US Steel Nationals. In Steel Challenge there are only 3 things that matter: fast draw, fast transitions & never miss. Since committing to a 5-6x/week dryfire program I've found a large difference in my dryfire & live fire draw times ... like up wards of .4-.5 secs! I have been easily able to execute .7 sec draws to a simulated 10 yd target without trigger pull 85+% of the time and a .9 sec draw with trigger pull. In live fire I'm sitting in the 1.3 sec range usually with some ability to get into the sub 1.2 sec area but not consistently.

With that much difference I'm obviously spending way too much time refining my sight picture before pulling the trigger ... i think. There may be other issues holding me back as well ...

I've been working on this issue the last couple weeks. I found that in dryfire, espcially on open targets, I tend to just fling the gun out there, and as long as I saw the sight superimposed on the target before the beep, I thought I must be fast. In live fire, I found myself doing the same thing, then jerking the trigger and missing, partly from jerking fast, and partly because the sights weren't really settled on the target, I only got a flash of them.

What *seems* so be helping me is trying to bring the last part of the press-out under control a little more, and trying to pick up the front sight and start mentally prepping the trigger sooner, so that as soon as the I can pick up the sights I'm ready to break the shot. So I've been doing a few minutes of draws onto difficult targets (mini-poppers at 20 yds), and a few minutes of draw and fire on the same targets, and really working on seeing the sights early and breaking the shot right away, but not in a hurry (without sight wiggle). Then I spend a few minutes on open targets and try to go a couple tenths faster. Then I go on to other stuff.

The result of working on this a little bit is that in the same time (1.2-ish with my SS rig) I used to be able to get 2 shots on paper at 5 yards, not even really seeing the sights, I'm now getting 2 A's pretty consistently at 10-11 yards.

I think the same process comes into play in transitions, seeing the sights sooner instead of flinging the gun aggressively faster to a spot and then starting to look for the sights. I do Hoppy drills a couple times a week, and I think they help with this, but only if I actually spend that time actively thinking about moving my eyes first then immediately starting focus on where the sights will be, so when they get there I can break the shot.

[CHA-LEE]

Here are some Dry Fire issues I have experienced myself and seen with many of the shooters I have trained.....

Issue 1 - Hard target focus while drawing to a "Click" of the hammer drop and staying hard focused on the target the whole time.

Issue 2 - Gripping the gun WAY softer than you normally would in live fire as you drop the hammer.

Issue 3 - Using a less aggressive or circumvented stance in dry fire because there is no recoil to "Manage".

Performing any of the above issues during dry fire tricks shooters into thinking they can draw and fire a shot in live fire super fast because they can achieve "Rock Star" dry fire times. Then they are puzzled when they can't replicate the same performance in Live fire. Issue 1 - They can't hit what they are shooting at, so they delay firing the shot until they observe/confirm the sight alignment. Issue 2 - They delay the firing of the shot because they are anticipating the recoil during the shot but now have to consciously GRIP hard on the gun to manage it. Issue 3 - They can't fire multiple accurate shots or transition aggressively because their jacked up stance does not have enough leverage to manage the recoil properly.

In Dry Fire your gun handling mechanics, stance, and grip pressure MUST be exactly the same as it would be in live fire or its not going to be effective practice. I always tell students that if your forearms are not burning or worn out after 25 back to back draws from gripping the shit out of the gun then you are not gripping hard enough and are probably practicing using an unrealistically weak grip on the gun. Every time I pick up a gun in dry fire and point it at a target I am gripping the living shit out of it just like I would when shooting for real.

[benos]

For quick, precise transitions, the most important factors (from previous posts on this topic) -

Disragarding skill in index, two factors determine split times.

1) How quickly you see the next target.

2) The precision of your call, on the pervious target.

Of the two, number two is about twice as important as number one.

Or, how you leave is more important than where you go.

Only if you know for certain as the shot is fired that it is acceptable, will you move toward the next target decisively. Hesitation, no matter how slight, always loses.

Some more -

The trick, which allows the activity of followthrough to call the shot, is to learn to read where the shot went by reading the sites at the moment the shot fired. It has nothing to do with the activity of trying to hit a particular area or spot on a target, however.

Absolutely devote the time to train yourself to not blink at all times.

IMMEDIATELY after you see enough to call the shot, your eye needs to be locating the next target.

Transition speed is totally dependent on SEEING - at all times.

By simply directing your attention to your eye/face, and consciously holding your attention there during the ENTIRE shooting cycle - shot to shot or target to target - this problem will eventually "fix itself." Then later, now and then, do temporary "re-scans" of your eye/face to be sure your still keepin' 'em open.

Transition speed is influenced by two factors:

1) IMMEDIATE, instantaneous, calling of the shot;

2) Simultaneous visual acquisition of the next target (either centrally or peripherally).

When you understand transition speed properly, there's really no "speed" involved. Moving quickly (to the next target) is the result of your INTENTION to shoot the next target as quickly as possible, and is manifested by the occurrence of the previous two conditions.

[rowdyb]

Go to an eye doctor who specializes also in vision development. There are one or two in most large cities. 90% of what our brain gets is through our eyes. Visual processing is a skill and can be improved. I've made a keen study of this in the past year and also visited said eye doctor.

It can be done. Whether you choose to muddle through it or have a real program is up to you.

www.covd.org, click on locate a doctor. these are board certified doctors in vision development.

www.aoa.org, locate a member who is part of the associations Sports Vision Section.

And as always, if you parse the results carefully you will find good information on youtube concerning the types of activities you should be doing.

Edited February 26, 2015 by rowdyb

[Nimitz]

at my current skill level shot calling is something i am still learning to do effectively. i made it a primary training objective for this shooting season so I have been working on it but I still have a very long way to go. When I'm training for Steel Challenge, as i think back on when I'm having a series of really good runs and applying what has been discussed here its now obvious that I'm really shot calling well which is allowing me to transition in the absolute minimum time within my current ability. I can remember as I break the shot my eyes have already moved to acquire the next plate because I KNOW the shot was good and there is no need to do anything but just keep going ... there is absolutely no hesitation and the run looks like (and feels like) I never actually stop on any plate although I know there is some stopping of continual motion depending the the plate's particular difficulty. When i struggle with shot calling the runs do not feel as fluid, most likley because I'm sensing the hesitation created by not calling the shot effectively and not KNOWING the shot was good ....

So what other drills besides the Enos tarnsition drill part 1 & 2 are there for really working out the mechanics of transitioning?

Edited February 27, 2015 by Nimitz

[sciolist]

My experience has been that most of this is cognitive, not mechanical. I started USPSA with very little shooting experience, but plenty of athletic background. So running around field courses and learning to manipulate new objects in space was not much of a problem.

I read Brian's book, started shooting a few matches a month, practicing daily, and progressed fairly quickly. It occurred to me recently that it's not that hard to just walk through a match and shoot 97% points in slow fire. If you put that on the clock and compute HF, you start to see how costly dropped points, penalties make-ups on steel, etc. really are. Doing this, I realized that most of my development has been more about refining the art of shooting *at* targets than actually placing hits on them. To the untrained eye, shooting with a coarse sight picture and shooting *at* the target look the same. But they are not the same thing at all.

So my primary goal on most stages now is to experience the sensation of having a little more command than I actually need to place 97% hits on the scoring surfaces. Everything in the match... adrenaline, competitive distraction, props, etc. pulls you away from that basic goal. If you can stay focused on that one goal, you can shoot over 90% points with an appropriate level of urgency, and you will shoot a pretty good HF percentage of what you've got that day. Let the other guys have all the make-ups and penalties.

Shooting in competition, it's natural to try and go fast to beat the other people. But you can't outshoot yourself. The best way to maximize HF throughout an entire match is to operate within your current limits. If you feel like your current limits are too restrictive, then build better mechanicals in practice. But do not flirt with those limits in competition. The math just doesn't work that way.

[Robco]

Here are some Dry Fire issues I have experienced myself and seen with many of the shooters I have trained.....

Issue 1 - Hard target focus while drawing to a "Click" of the hammer drop and staying hard focused on the target the whole time.

Issue 2 - Gripping the gun WAY softer than you normally would in live fire as you drop the hammer.

Issue 3 - Using a less aggressive or circumvented stance in dry fire because there is no recoil to "Manage".

Performing any of the above issues during dry fire tricks shooters into thinking they can draw and fire a shot in live fire super fast because they can achieve "Rock Star" dry fire times. Then they are puzzled when they can't replicate the same performance in Live fire. Issue 1 - They can't hit what they are shooting at, so they delay firing the shot until they observe/confirm the sight alignment. Issue 2 - They delay the firing of the shot because they are anticipating the recoil during the shot but now have to consciously GRIP hard on the gun to manage it. Issue 3 - They can't fire multiple accurate shots or transition aggressively because their jacked up stance does not have enough leverage to manage the recoil properly.

In Dry Fire your gun handling mechanics, stance, and grip pressure MUST be exactly the same as it would be in live fire or its not going to be effective practice. I always tell students that if your forearms are not burning or worn out after 25 back to back draws from gripping the shit out of the gun then you are not gripping hard enough and are probably practicing using an unrealistically weak grip on the gun. Every time I pick up a gun in dry fire and point it at a target I am gripping the living shit out of it just like I would when shooting for real.

Cha-Lee, good points. I am of the same thinking as I mentioned to Nimitz above -he knows it apparently as he does a lot of dry fire and understands the risks. I really value Dry fire, but it is not a substitute for Live fire, nor vice-versa. BOTH are indispensable components of training. I tend to not like dropping the hammer in dry fire for all the reasons you stated. But rather use Dry fire for visual training aspects, without risking creating bad habits by cheating in dry fire.

One thing I really like in your comment, is the discussion about grip aggressiveness. I reiterate what I have stated in other posts, that in my experience, I grip the weak hand MUCH tighter and harder than most shooters can conceive, not for recoil management, but to allow for sloppier (FASTER) trigger control. Stoeger made this point in his book and it resonated with me big time. I know your big banana fingers and hands get a good hold on your gun, and your .12 and .14 accurate splits in match mode prove it. Of course, we are not creating tension by over-gripping or anything detrimental, thus it does not introduce any tremors, etc into the pistol. And I am speaking of only the weak hand in my case. I basically use the three gripping fingers of my strong hand to "anchor" my trigger finger so my trigger finger is always on an exact index - so I can prep a trigger reliably without risking an A/D. I have never been able to measure it, but I would guess that my weak hand is 65% of my total combined grip pressure and my strong hand is 35%. And it is still neutral of course.

Good post man. I just arrived in Vegas, having driven here from Cody today, and am looking out over the pool at Hooter's Casino! Will head to Mesa, AZ in the morning.

See you a week from today at Rio!

[Robco]

For quick, precise transitions, the most important factors (from previous posts on this topic) -

Disregarding skill in index, two factors determine split times.

1) How quickly you see the next target.

2) The precision of your call, on the previous target.

Of the two, number two is about twice as important as number one.

Or, how you leave is more important than where you go.

Only if you know for certain as the shot is fired that it is acceptable, will you move toward the next target decisively. Hesitation, no matter how slight, always loses.

Some more -

The trick, which allows the activity of follow through to call the shot, is to learn to read where the shot went by reading the sites at the moment the shot fired. It has nothing to do with the activity of trying to hit a particular area or spot on a target, however.

Absolutely devote the time to train yourself to not blink at all times.

IMMEDIATELY after you see enough to call the shot, your eye needs to be locating the next target.

Transition speed is totally dependent on SEEING - at all times.

By simply directing your attention to your eye/face, and consciously holding your attention there during the ENTIRE shooting cycle - shot to shot or target to target - this problem will eventually "fix itself." Then later, now and then, do temporary "re-scans" of your eye/face to be sure your still keepin' 'em open.

Transition speed is influenced by two factors:

1) IMMEDIATE, instantaneous, calling of the shot;

2) Simultaneous visual acquisition of the next target (either centrally or peripherally).

When you understand transition speed properly, there's really no "speed" involved. Moving quickly (to the next target) is the result of your INTENTION to shoot the next target as quickly as possible, and is manifested by the occurrence of the previous two conditions.

Wow, thanks Brian. By the way I HAVE been doing topic searches before starting a new topic, but I am not having much luck, or at least still figuring it all out on the forums. So hope I am not duplicating too much!

Man, this is a nice selection of info you found and posted for us here! I assume you either wrote it or at least concur with it all.

Obviously, good shot calling is key to the most efficient and quickest transition. I get that clearly. It pretty much says it all. Now I just need to get better at it.

Your last line is definitely shedding some new light on all of this for me. Your use of INTENTION in this and other areas in your book, has really started to help me understand how to "move beyond" mechanics to a more intuitive execution of many parts of our sport. Including body and gun movement, AIMING focus of all types and gun handling as in reloads and draws. Breaking all of these activities into component parts is great for learning them, but once learned, to support actual real time, fast pace execution they have to meld into an automatic flow which I feel is what you sum up as our INTENTION to shoot the targets in a stage as quickly as we can. Letting go and letting our subconscious execute the whole performance. Amazingly simple yet hard to understand - we make it hard, as you say.

I have experienced this flow many times, even when I was a real first year rookie, when I internalized or "got" a stage so naturally, that when I ran it, I was unbeatable. Everything felt smooth and easy and was very fast on the clock. And looking back on those occasional experiences, I can easily attribute the successes to just INTENDING to shoot all the targets and it just "happened." Those type "glimpses" of success encourage me along the path.

Listened to your WHOLE book on Audio again today while driving to Area 2! I get more each time I "read" or listen to it!

By the way, we met at Area 2 in 2011. I was on TGO's (as a C-class brown-nosing rookie! ) and you drove up on your bike and visited a while. I had already read your book once by then and felt privileged to meet you!

Thanks!

[Robco]

Go to an eye doctor who specializes also in vision development. There are one or two in most large cities. 90% of what our brain gets is through our eyes. Visual processing is a skill and can be improved. I've made a keen study of this in the past year and also visited said eye doctor.

It can be done. Whether you choose to muddle through it or have a real program is up to you.

www.covd.org, click on locate a doctor. these are board certified doctors in vision development.

www.aoa.org, locate a member who is part of the associations Sports Vision Section.

And as always, if you parse the results carefully you will find good information on youtube concerning the types of activities you should be doing.

Wow! This is exciting info rowdyb. I read this while driving 16 hours today, on my phone, and missed the word "development" in your first line, and other parts of your post, so I was confused about your post! Now, I see what you are saying.

I am going to dig into researching what you revealed here.

I am headed down to Mesa, a week early for Area 2 in the morning, and am going to check with a good shooter there at Rio Salado, Kerry Pearson, who is both a USPSA GM and also an Optometrist and see if he is involved in this area of vision development! How cool would that be! He owes me one. He was running the clock when I shot a 97% classifier in December and it did not get into the nook! HA!

Can you please elaborate a little on what such a program entails? Drills? Exercises? Vitamins?

I am seriously intrigued! And I don't want to muddle any more than I have to!

Thanks man!

[Robco]

My experience has been that most of this is cognitive, not mechanical. I started USPSA with very little shooting experience, but plenty of athletic background. So running around field courses and learning to manipulate new objects in space was not much of a problem.

I read Brian's book, started shooting a few matches a month, practicing daily, and progressed fairly quickly. It occurred to me recently that it's not that hard to just walk through a match and shoot 97% points in slow fire. If you put that on the clock and compute HF, you start to see how costly dropped points, penalties make-ups on steel, etc. really are. Doing this, I realized that most of my development has been more about refining the art of shooting *at* targets than actually placing hits on them. To the untrained eye, shooting with a coarse sight picture and shooting *at* the target look the same. But they are not the same thing at all.

So my primary goal on most stages now is to experience the sensation of having a little more command than I actually need to place 97% hits on the scoring surfaces. Everything in the match... adrenaline, competitive distraction, props, etc. pulls you away from that basic goal. If you can stay focused on that one goal, you can shoot over 90% points with an appropriate level of urgency, and you will shoot a pretty good HF percentage of what you've got that day. Let the other guys have all the make-ups and penalties.

Shooting in competition, it's natural to try and go fast to beat the other people. But you can't outshoot yourself. The best way to maximize HF throughout an entire match is to operate within your current limits. If you feel like your current limits are too restrictive, then build better mechanicals in practice. But do not flirt with those limits in competition. The math just doesn't work that way.

Paul, I have to tell you, your post has intrigued me since I read it while today while driving 15 hours to Vegas. Could not reply till tonight.

You are obviously getting this in big way, becoming an M class in under three years. Your insights shared here reveal a lot to me about your accomplishment in mental management.

"Funny" that I had not considered that the visual part of quick transitions had a MENTAL component! DUHHHH. You pointed that out in the first sentence! Rowdyb posted another big mind-expander for me too, above. So my erroneous presumption that training our eyes was a PHYSICAL thing, only, is obviously deficient.

So I am now in an excited mental state, anxious to explore this whole cognitive aspect of vision development pointed out by both of you guys. Clearly you are both onto something big as relates to the topic. Great job!

Your statements about shooting "at" targets vs. "placing hits on them" is thought provoking. If I understand you correctly, the point is that you are acting, as Brian puts it, guided by your INTENTION of shooting, not on outcome (score). You are "focusing" on the process of executing each shot, as it is performed, in the "present" just like Brian says. Awesome! You have added yet another perspective to the whole discussion above, and Brian's post.

You seem to be accomplishing, and describing your goal for match performance as "shooting within yourself," at a controlled pace, which pace is totally residual of whatever the tasks of doing so takes in time. I like it. And my experience supports your conclusion too. As has been said often by those who KNOW, we shoot our best performance when we shoot at our current capability level, not more or less. You have learned, as I am still working on learning, that match performance is kind of like the tortoise and hare story. Rushing ourselves and having to take many makeup shots, penalties and poor hits, is SLOWER on the clock and most likely lower-scoring. Especially tough lesson for striving intermediate shooters like myself. I desire to speed up my stage times, but have not been able to do so in a way that nets me a higher HF, with any consistency. In other words, I am "running the gun too hard" or pushing myself into the red-line of my capabilities, and beyond, with resulting failure. You are nailing the way to correct this type of error.

I am going to use your phrase "but you can't outshoot yourself" to remind me of how silly and ineffective it is to push myself in match performance. Great!

Thanks!

[rowdyb]

This is not meant to be rude, so please don't read that tone into my reply. More 'matter of fact' is what I am going for.

First and foremost I shoot for the competition aspect of it. So if I've paid hundreds of dollars and days of my time to go see a sports vision specialist I am not going to give what I learned out on a forum.

Generically as you seek to improve this is what I can pass on. From a board certified doctor. Not a self taught pro, not someone really good. But a person whose job it is to increase professional athlete's performance.

-90% of the decisions you make during a physical activity come from what you "see". visual processing is one of the paramount skills to develop.

-you can work on improving with drills and such your ability to track, focus, change focus ect.

-developing hand eye coordination will improve your shooting measurably.

Going to a sports vision dr or a vision development dr will get you lined out on all of this in detail. Our sport is driven by seeing and vision once you master the physical basics. Because very few people get paid to shoot, very few people have taken the time to really check this aspect of training out in my experience/opinion.

Lots of people have gained good knowledge from their own empirical data, which is good. But if you are really capital S serious and want to push the learning curve I say go see someone from the links I posted above. College sports athletes do this, the professionals in many sports do this but shooters seem to think it will just happen with time and experience. It might, by why put it to chance and trial and error? You wouldn't do that with developing the mechanical skills of shooting well.....

[pjb45]

Brian has a three target drill which helped me. Ping him for it.

When I dry fire the drill, it helped immensely during a match.

[Willz]

I was fortunate enough to be squadded with Jerry Miculik at the VM challenge recently.

He said. "To shoot fast you have to see fast."

I'm understanding more and more exactly what he meant.

I'm just not sure how to train myself to "see" faster.

One thing that has helped as one of his videos states keeping my head up, face flat and bringing the sights up to my eye and not hungering over to get into the gun.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Willz

[Robco]

This is not meant to be rude, so please don't read that tone into my reply. More 'matter of fact' is what I am going for.

First and foremost I shoot for the competition aspect of it. So if I've paid hundreds of dollars and days of my time to go see a sports vision specialist I am not going to give what I learned out on a forum.

Generically as you seek to improve this is what I can pass on. From a board certified doctor. Not a self taught pro, not someone really good. But a person whose job it is to increase professional athlete's performance.

-90% of the decisions you make during a physical activity come from what you "see". visual processing is one of the paramount skills to develop.

-you can work on improving with drills and such your ability to track, focus, change focus ect.

-developing hand eye coordination will improve your shooting measurably.

Going to a sports vision dr or a vision development dr will get you lined out on all of this in detail. Our sport is driven by seeing and vision once you master the physical basics. Because very few people get paid to shoot, very few people have taken the time to really check this aspect of training out in my experience/opinion.

Lots of people have gained good knowledge from their own empirical data, which is good. But if you are really capital S serious and want to push the learning curve I say go see someone from the links I posted above. College sports athletes do this, the professionals in many sports do this but shooters seem to think it will just happen with time and experience. It might, by why put it to chance and trial and error? You wouldn't do that with developing the mechanical skills of shooting well.....

I understand and appreciate your perspective here rowdyb and agree with you 100%. So no worries. I just intend to pursue this, immediately, and want to avoid any missteps possible. Thanks for the explanation.

Even though I drove over 15 hours yesterday, and then spent 3 hours out walking the strip in Vegas after midnight, I still spent another hour researching vision development before going to bed, and I have 5 more hours driving today, and a lot of work to do on a travel trailer this afternoon and will be shooting a match early Saturday morning at Rio Salado. So just wanted you to know I am not wasting your time here, and I have already done some research on it all.

I could hardly sleep last night due to the excitement over your revelation about this subject. You have nailed what has OFTEN been said is the key to our sport - SEEING, and doing it faster is obviously the key to higher level performance. So you have my attention my friend!

I even found some YouTube examples of types of exercises, etc as well as read the success stories linked from the COVD site you pointed me too! It is ON now! http://www.covd.org/?page=Sports

I get it. I will update you on my progress with this new priority of mine, obtaining pro services on vision development. I can hardly wait to get to it!

You may have just single-handedly guided me here to finally being able to launch myself out of my M class rut now, as I know this is at the heart of and the main impediment to my progress .

Thanks.

[Robco]

Brian has a three target drill which helped me. Ping him for it.

When I dry fire the drill, it helped immensely during a match.

Thanks pjb45. Will do!

[Robco]

I was fortunate enough to be squadded with Jerry Miculik at the VM challenge recently.

He said. "To shoot fast you have to see fast."

I'm understanding more and more exactly what he meant.

I'm just not sure how to train myself to "see" faster.

One thing that has helped as one of his videos states keeping my head up, face flat and bringing the sights up to my eye and not hungering over to get into the gun.

Willz- Jerry is something isn't he! Fast as anyone I have seen, on the gun. I agree with you, especially about the keeping the head up so eyes are not deformed or obstructed by the skull and brows and sockets etc. Very good point. And a related issue I am creating problems for myself by shooting with one eye closed - Brian says in his book that doing so can reduce visual acuity by as much as 20% - and this is not even counting the loss of peripheral vision I believe. Closing one eye causes at least a partial closing of the other. Man! I have a lot of work to do.

Check out other posts in this thread for potential and exciting possibilities for how to train our eyes to see faster. Rowdyb has opened up a whole new world to me with his sharing his experience with Eye doctors aiding in vision development.

Thanks!

Edited February 27, 2015 by Robco

[Willz]

Great thread Robco,

I have to remind myself to keep both eyes open.

I was always taught to keep my non-dominant eye closed. Tough habit to break.

I'm going to look into local Sports Vision doctors, I never knew such a thing existed. Especially since I wear prescription lenses.