rowdyb Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I can't dance. Or play the drums. I can ride a motorcycle. Basically I am not super coordinated. But in watching video of some dry fire drills of movement with reloading I noticed something. If my feet are moving slow, my upper body moves slow. If my feet are moving quick, my upper body moves quick. I tried consciously to still move my upper body for reloading as fast as possible while my feet were moving slowly and then the opposite. It was very difficult and not intuitive to do initially. For those of you who've looked at yourself, what do you do? What have you noticed in your path of improvement? Is this an odd personal thing of mine? Is it unimportant? Have you noticed any effect on your timing from top to bottom of your body based on what the other half is doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyGlock Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 If I am to think like that Im sure I will not be able to shoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 The speed your arms move to do a mag change should be the same whether you are standing or walking. If you do a mag change while you are leaving a position, the goal is to have the mag seated before your first foot touches the ground. Work on that maybe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowdyb Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 I've been shooting a few stages lately locally where in Production the mag change between shooting positions hasn't been done before I arrive at the new position. In other words, my feet can cover the distance of 3' or so faster than the 1.50 seconds I can do a mag change. So I was trying to slow my feet down so that I'd still be doing 1.50 second mag change while moving but arriving at the position, done, gun mounted and ready to shoot. Blending fast hands and slow feet. If that makes any sense. But yes Brian, I will work on getting the mag change done sooner and quicker upon exiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robco Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Rowdyb- I cannot say I have ever noticed or considered exactly what you described in my own experience. But for sure, getting reloads started earlier and thereby finished earlier is a big deal in my game. I shot a lot with Charlie Perez this Sat and Sunday this weekend and I noted how he was gaining big time on me by doing this much better than I was. I can say that many times, I do very fast 1.0 second reloads in stages when I am barely if at all moving my feet (obviously on very close and easy targets). Think of unloaded starts for example, or loads off of a table, or even simply regular draws - in all cases feet may not be moving at all, but the hands and arms move as fast as usual. So, at least in those types of situations, I do not experience what you described. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobapunk Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Well, not moving your feet at all lets you concentrate on moving your hands/arms as fast as possible. When running at or near full speed, your whole body is in "hurry up" mode. When walking or slow running, I can see the challenge of moving your arms faster than your legs.I would address this simply by moving your legs/feet and arms/hands as fast as possible at all times you are not shooting. Can you step 3' faster than you can reload? Sure, I bet you can. However, I think you should still step as fast as you can and reload as fast as you can. If you are in the next shooting position and finishing your reload, your eyes can be on the next target allowing you to get shooting sooner than if you are walking from point A to point B just for the sake of not out running your reload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZip Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 The speed your arms move to do a mag change should be the same whether you are standing or walking. If you do a mag change while you are leaving a position, the goal is to have the mag seated before your first foot touches the ground. Work on that maybe... This is great as it will help with not breaking the 180 when you are moving towards your weak hand side during a reloading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 A bit off topic... Now and then I'd do mag changes in the dark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robco Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 A bit off topic... Now and then I'd do mag changes in the dark. Ha! Not sure if you are joking Brian, but that would be a good idea. I was just listening to your audio book where you spoke about eventually getting to the point with reloads where you do it by feel. I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowdyb Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 (edited) I do them often with my eyes closed, standing on a bosu ball. So what I'm kinda getting here are two things: 1. It is ok if you outrun your reload if it is over a short distance 2. Always try to do the reload as quickly and soon as possible. If so, this is good. As it is very hard to try and time some of these things as bobapunk above understood me to explain. Edited April 2, 2015 by rowdyb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Not quite sure what you meant my #1. But definitely for #2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowdyb Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 (edited) Brian, recently I've been shooting stages where the ports I shoot through are one or two steps apart. So shoot 8 shots through one port and take one, maybe two steps and then shoot another 8 through that port. As I shoot Production, I have to reload during this movement. When I am taking the last shot through the first port and as soon as I'm pulling that trigger pull my brain is telling me "move and reload!" Well I can take one side step much faster than I can reload. Or seemingly "much" faster as in that one side step I arrive at the port not quite ready, ie the gun not full mounted. (not so slow of a reloader i'm still inserting a mag). So in that short distance, my feet can take me place to place faster than my arms can do a reload. So my original post was about how odd feeling it felt to slow down my feet a little in this case so that I timed my arrival to the port with the complete finish of my reload, ready to shoot. My summation point 1, that it is ok to over run your reload, to me meant that it was ok to still move my feet as possible in the above example from recent matches. Being OK over a short distance to arrive at the next shooting position ahead of finishing my reload. That's how I was defining "over run" in this case, to out speed the two different things happening. What I took was that it is not worth it to try and moderate the speed of my lower body versus my uppper body for things just so that I can time two actions to finish simultaneously. Edited April 3, 2015 by rowdyb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobapunk Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 If you arrive in a shooting position while completing a reload, move your eyes to the first target you intend to engage, finish your reload, and shoot the target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Thanks for the clarification rowdy - now I get it. And yes that all makes sense... If you slow down your body's movement to match your mag change time, you will never decrease your mag change time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowdyb Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 The take away from this unique, or I guess not very frequent situation, is the following list? -move upper and lower afap (as fast as possible) rather than each half having a discreet speed. -if at the new shooting position early, be visually where you need to be -? what else? Thank you for all the personal replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 That sounds good to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkrispies Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Great discussion! I know that reloads are something I dry fire a lot and really need to improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimo-Hombre Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 I do them often with my eyes closed, standing on a bosu ball. No kidding? That's pretty hard core amigo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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