ecolyer325, Eric Colyer

[ecolyer325]

This will be the start of my range diary, I need a way of tracking my progress but in a more 'free' manner rather than writing all my drills and times down. I also like the fact that other people can see and comment on this and it holds me more accountable.

1/18/16

5:30am-6:30am - This morning I worked strictly on basic fundamentals, getting my grip on the draw, performing white wall drills while focusing on no sight movement, practiced my basic reload: did not push the time too hard, I am not fully awake at 5:30am. I like to train in the morning when I am not fully awake because I feel like I force myself to focus solely on technique and not so much speed. Ended the session with distance draws (25yd scaled)

7:00pm-8:00pm - Training started with some basic transitions, progressed to transitions while moving - I am able to start pushing my speed a bit more while moving. Went into 6 reload 6 reload 6: the drill went well, all reloads were smooth, need to work on the transitions to the other targets and starting my reload the instant the 6th shot is 'fired'. Practiced on scaled poppers, 6 in a row, transitions are slow and deliberate: want to work on speeding them up. I finished off the session with SHO and WHO transition drills.

[ecolyer325]

1/19/16

5:30am-6:30 - Fundamental skill started out this training session, basic draw and attain sight picture. After some basic fundamental drill I was feeling pretty good and reasonably awake. I decided today's topic is going to be around reloads. Starting with basic reload skill for a few minutes I moved onto El Prez, I wanted drills that involve a reload, 3.5sec was my goal, majority of repetitions the goal was met. Continuing with the El Prez setup I performed the same drill with SHO and then WHO, WHO is getting better and I am able to transition smoother to the next target.

5:30pm-6:15 - Continuing the reload theme of this mornings dry fire session, I started out with 2 reload 2 drill. I was pushing to achieve 2sec, this is a steep goal for me but I pushed to try and make it. I was getting close to it but never hit the goal of 2sec. The next drill was 6 reload 6, this drill went very smooth for me, my initial goal was 4sec. After a few warm up runs 4sec was no issue, I kept creeping the timer down until i was really pushing hard to hit the par time. I was able to get down to 3.6sec. I was planning on continuing with the reload drills but my dogs decided it would be more fun to go outside and play.

[ecolyer325]

1/20/16

5:30am-6:40am This morning consisted of a lot of fundamentals again. My morning dry fire session, actually any dry fire session, begins with white wall drills. I spent a solid 10min working on slow deliberate draws and coming up to a solid sight picture. After this time was put into the equation, a few min of timed draw with trigger pull. After this I worked on pure speed of my trigger pull, as soon as the timer went off I pulled that trigger as fast I possibly can without any sight movement. After working on speed of the trigger pull, working on speed of the draw was next. I pushed as hard as I possibly could and still be able to get a good sight picture, 0.6sec is all my timer will allow me to do so I pushed for that, went about 50/50 on this and mostly was around 0.7sec when i couldn't hit 0.6sec.

5:45pm-6:45pm I used Ben Stoeger's book for most of this dry fire session, even though a lot of todays drills were relatively generic. Bill drills were the start of the dry fire session. 1.6sec is the goal, I was able to consistently hit 1.6-1.7sec midway through this drill i noticed my sights have been very stable while performing the drill. Next was El Prez and I used the par time of 3.5sec, pushing this drill to hit the par time usually caused me to mess up the turn and draw. I also noticed that one of the ways I can pick up time is after the last shot before the reload is fired I need to start pushing to get the reload started. I am able to hit a solid reload in under a sec but I'm wasting to much time between the last shot and starting the reload. Next up was the plate rack drill, now this is where I really need work. My draws and and first shot on target are solid, now the single shot and transition to the next target are in need of work. I am not sure if I am taking to much time to see a solid sight picture before moving on, I will need to just keep practicing this drill and run it during live fire drill. The end of the session was using a revolver and red dot, I was just pulling the trigger as fast as possible while keeping the red dot as steady as possible.

[ecolyer325]

1/21/16

5:30-6:40 The morning began with a lot transitioning work. I primarily used my whole dry fire session as a transition session. Starting out with drawing and two rounds on each target, sights were staying in focus and my par time of 1.6sec was very doable. Next up was plate drills and again, like last night going from plate to plate is still not fast and smooth. If I push to meet my par time of 2.0sec, my accuracy is reduced, Im calling misses on at least 2 plates when I'm really pushing for speed. When I wasn't pushing for max speed, I am able to call all hits on every plate and each movement is precise and deliberate. Once I had enough of the plate rack drill I moved onto 90 degree transition drill, hands at side and from surrender. 1.8sec par time is pushing it for me, I need to work on snapping my head to the next target as soon as that second shot is fired. 180 degrees at 2sec par time was next, and again the 2sec par time is pushing me to the edge. I worked all the variations of these drill as I could think of and I just have to get my head moving as soon as possible.

6:20-7:00 Bill drills and 3 target transitions were a good warm up. Once I really got into my dry fire session the focus was on movement. I only ran 3 movement drills, first up was from Ben Stoeger's book, draw and engage 3 targets but as soon as the timer beeps you must move. I ran this drill while moving in a large square but switching directions once I went completely around. Movement while shooting is important so a lot of focus was put onto keeping my sights steady. The next two drills were also from Ben Stoeger's book, I ran the position entry and position exit drill. The two drills went very well, par times of 2.6sec were easily accomplished, next time I run this drill I will have to start cutting the time down a bit.

Side note: I was planning on going to the range and running some live fire drills but due to this blizzard that is supposed to hit tomorow I had to do a little prep work just in case it becomes a nasty storm. Also with this storm coming I think its going to be cause the first match of the year for me to be cancelled, but I wont know until Saturday sometime.

[ecolyer325]

1/22/16

Dry fire practice was postponed due to the weather and the prep work I had to do at work and around the house. I also needed to give my hands a break, I have a few cuts and blisters that will not heal due to the gun rubbing on them. I will be snowed in with probably 2' of snow so it should be a good day to get some major reloading and dry fire work done.

Any one else have plans for the snow storm happening in the northeast.

[ecolyer325]

1/24/16

Today I planned on being able to get a lot of dry fire training in but that didn't exactly happen. Being in the PA I got this lovely snow storm that dropped about 18-20". So after a morning of shoveling snow and cleaning up I was rather tired. After a quick power nap and some lunch I decided to get some reloading done, got about 500 rounds loaded. After reloading a dry fire session was in order, since I beat myself up shoveling snow, movement drill were out. I decided that I was going to just work on basic fundamentals again. Also my hands still need a break due to some cuts and blisters on them. The session went well, even though I really didn't run many drills, but I did noticed that my eye sight was really on point today and everything was extra clear. I may be due to the fact I was running around all day, but I took advantage of it and trained long distance draws and sight acquisition.

I also decided that I will be getting back into shape and drop a few lbs. I will be post about that occasionally just to keep myself honest and on track, so if anyone wants to comment or yell at me when I screw up please do so.

[ecolyer325]

1/25/16

5:45am-6:40am - Morning dry fire was my usual session of basic drills. I ran through the first few drill of Ben Stoeger's book. The par times set by the book for the fundamental drills are very doable, but as time goes on I am striving to hit that par time and be consistent on every rep I make. Drill performed: white wall, sight acquisition, draw for speed: performed the two micro drill as detailed in the book, then did the reload drill: my reloads were all very stiff and forced this morning as if my body just did not want to perform, which is entirely possible due to my whole body being sore from this weekends snow storm. Final drill performed was the transition drill, I have been getting consistently better results on this drill.

5:40pm-6:30pm - Today was the first day that I actually filmed myself during the dry fire session, as of typing this I have not viewed the video. What I filmed was the white wall drill, just want to break down each individual part to analyze it. Next I worked a lot of transition drills, my body just still doesn't feel like moving the way it needs to for reloads and movement training. First drill was basic 3 target transition: as with the morning session, this drill is becoming very consistent for me. Next up was 90 degree transitions, I performed this drill going each direction starting with hands at my sides and surrender position. 180 transitions were next and at 2sec this drill was pushing me but still within the realm of completion. I really have been trying to work on getting my head turned first and acquiring the target as soon as I can and then get the gun on target. Near far near transitions were up, I again switched directions for the start and in the middle of the drill I decided to raise the center target up a bit so I had up and down transitions to contend with. The widening transition drill from Ben's book was up next, I have really been enjoying this drill and it really makes me push myself to move from target to target, every 5 reps (going in both directions) I would widen the targets, I got the targets a little over 2' apart from each other and that is were my par time of 1.6sec was not being met on a consistent basis, so now I know I have to really start pushing.

After cleaning out a closet of boxes that I had no idea what was in them I found my 'With winning in mind' book, I thought I lost it and never got around to getting another copy. Well I found it and have started to reread it, this time I am going to analyze the book a bit better and really try to implement his ideas.

[ecolyer325]

1/26/16

5:40am-6:30am - This mornings dry fire session began with basic white wall drills as do all of my dry fire sessions, this is what gets me into practice mood and warms me up. I wanted to focus primarily on sight acquisition, this is due to me watching videos of my practice and I noticed that my first shot times are not as fast as I thought. My draw portion is good but there is just some extra time to get the sights settled and the first shot fired.

Drills performed:

white wall drill w/trigger pull, par of 1.2, performed this drill 10 reps with hands at sides and 10x surrender, I just need to keep practicing getting that initial sight picture.

25yd draw to sight picture: this again was meant to help with the sight acquisition, performed this drill with a par of 1sec, 10x hands at sides and 10x surrender, I am not sure why but it seems as the farther targets are away from me the easier it is to get a good sight picture.

3 target transition: I performed this drill to see if I was able to improve my first shot times, I performed the drill with the intent to really try to get that initial sight picture but at this time I did not see all that much in my times, staying consistently around 1.6sec. Performed about 10 reps going each direction and different start positions.

Last drill of the morning was draw to sight picture but taking a step at the sound of the beep, I performed this drill as if I were stepping on a clock, I step toward each number with the closet foot, so my right foot does 12-6, then my left foot does 6-12. 1sec par time was a very doable goal for me, I went around the 'clock' twice and alternating start positions.

5:45pm-6:45pm - The night dry fire session was geared toward long distance shooting. Distance out to 50yd is very uncommon, but I don't want to be surprised if I ever come across a similar situation.

First drill after a brief warm up was 25yd draw at 1sec par, again the distance targets seem to be easier for me to achieve the par time on. Performed this drill 20x while alternating start positions. A continuation of this drill is to perform it SHO and WHO, SHO had a par of 1.1sec and was performed 20x. WHO was at 1.8sec and was pushing my limits on WHO. I noticed my weak hand transfer is getting better each time I train but getting on target and holding somewhat steady is my current issue, I just need to keep working single hand shooting both in live and dry fire.

50yd draw to sight acquisition is up next and 1.3sec was my par, 1.3 seems to be a good time to push myself a bit but still able to hit the goal 80% of the time, the 20% is usually due to a poor draw. The drill was performed with hands at side and surrender.

25yd 3 target transitions: This was really testing my fundamentals and showing some flaws I have, I noticed I really need to get better at front sight focus while shooting at some distance. I added some partials to the drill and gave myself a par of 3.5sec (as outlined in Ben Stoeger's book), when I first ran this drill I was beating the par time by a lot but then I started to really analyze my shots and really trying to call my hits. Once I started to analyze the drill more the par of 3.5sec was very tight. I really focused on my front sight and placement of the shot.

After those drills I wanted a small change of pace, I worked on some quick Bill drills at 1.6sec and started to see myself finishing before the second beep, next time on Bill drills I will have to drop the par a little. And to change up the session a bit more I did some standing reloads at 1sec par and after about 30 reps I decided to call it quits for the day, plus my cat was terrorizing my targets that were on a bench.

As far as my exercise and diet changes are going: I will say that i started changing my diet when I was about 245lb, 245 may seem like a lot but I am naturally heavy and have a large build plus I was lifting for bodybuilding for that last 3 years. I decided that I no longer need to be big and bulky and want to cut down a bit so I changed my diet and exercise plans. As of tonight I am at 228.1lbs and have started to increase my cardio a bit more, soon I will add weight training back in but it will be moderate weight but high reps.

[ecolyer325]

1/27/16

5:50am-6:30am - White wall drills: slow just to get warmed up and moving. Bill drills at 10yd, 1.6sec par time, performed this drill from surrender and hands at side. The Bill drill is a staple in my dry fire practice, it helps me reinforce basics and also allows me to gauge myself. Turn and draw to sight picture at 10yds: 1sec par time, I really focused on try to get my head turned as quick as possible so I could spot my target and drive the gun on target. The 1sec par time was meet 95% of the time, only times I didn't make par was when I screwed up my footwork. Three target transitions at 10yd: 1.6sec par time, performed this drill in both directions and hands at side and surrender. I like to alternate the direction of travel and start position, it seems to help avoid stagnation of the drill. Standing reloads at 1sec were next, I have been really focusing on looking at the magwell as the magazine is inserted. The last drill of the morning was El Prez. Ran this drill about 16-20 times, this is a culmination of all the previously performed drill of the morning. El Prez drill is really a mental drill for me, I know I have the skill set to complete it in a decent time but there is a stigma to it that I sometimes cant get past, I will just keep working the mental part of the game. I used 3.5sec par time as outlined in Ben Stoeger's book. 3.5 is absolutely pushing it for me and all things must go right, but on a consistent basis I am right around the 3.8-4sec mark.

5:10pm-6:15pm White wall drill start it off as usual. SHO and WHO 3 target transitions at 10yds. I spent a good amount of time on these two drills, alternating start positions and directions. Lately in practice I have been putting slightly more emphasis on one hand shooting drills, all in the hopes to be more comfortable with them as they come up. I don't know how many reps were performed of the drill but I know I spent a good 15min working them. Movement drills are a priority of mine right now, I know movement is key to a lot of peoples success. Using Ben's dry fire book I performed the position entry, position entry hard, position exit and exit hard. The position entry drill were going well, I think due to the fact that I performed drills specifically making steps in multiple directions while drawing. I am able to get moving on the beep, have my gun up and sight picture started as soon as I enter the shooting box. The par of 2.5 for the easy entry was pretty easy for me, I will have to start cutting time on these. The entry hard targets had a 3sec par time, this was a very manageable time but I was on the edge of not making it on several occasions, I guess I need more work with partial targets. Now the position exit drills were where my frustration showed a bit. I was really trying to complete the drill as outlined, but for some reason I cant get my timing down on either easy or hard exit. Footwork for these drill is key I noticed and I need to figure out some exercise to do to make my footwork better and more explosive. I will continue to work these drill more often to get my timing down, I know when I need to start moving but my execution of it is not always there. After all the movement drills my heart rate was up a bit so I did some stand and shoot work: draw work, 3 target transitions and a few Bill drills just to see how I do with the elevated heart rate (not really elevated all that much).

[ecolyer325]

1/28/16

5:40am-6:30am -

White wall drill: for some reason I wasn't able to disengage the safety during each draw, this is a new gun I am working with with a different style safety.

Clock drill: performed the draw and step drill for two rotations around the 'clock', par time of 1sec, I wanted to specifically work on this drill to start helping out with my footwork and movement off of the beep. This drill allows me to get used to moving in multiple directions while drawing. The 1 sec par time to a sight picture at 10yd is very doable and I will start cutting this time down.

Position entry drill (easy and hard entry): par time of 2.6sec for easy and 3sec for hard. I wanted to work this drill first thing in the morning because I worked it last night and wanted to ingrain it in my memory better, so after sleeping on it and still having it reasonably fresh in my mind I worked this drill for about 15min.

Position exit: par of 2.5sec, The exit type drills seem to be a killer for me, I need to work on moving as soon as possible and in this particular drill I need to start shifting my weight to move half way through the target array. Normally I either have not started to shift my weight soon enough and I am really trying to explode at the last shot or I am moving to early and am taking a step as the last shot is fire, but maybe that last part isn't a bad thing especially if I'm getting my hits. I will have to specifically work on this drill during live fire to get some true results.

5:45pm-6:30pm I want to start out by saying that today was the first day in awhile when I got home from work I truly did not want to do anything, my body just didn't want to move anymore. I made myself a nice light dinner and relaxed a few minutes, at this point I really didn't want to move or do anything but I forced myself to get up and have a dry fire session.

Warm up of white wall drill and some Bill drills got me moving and ready to go a little bit more.

Ben Stoeger's quick step drill: par of 3.5sec, mostly performed this drill from surrender and did 6 shots move then 2 shots. I am not sure how many reps I did for the drill but I worked it for about 10-15min. After 10-15min I started doing 2 shots reload on the move then 6 shots. The par time for the drill without the reload was easily accomplished and it even gave me enough time to really concentrate on my footwork and how I wanted to move. Now when I added the reload component to the drill, the 3.5sec par time was very tight for me but I managed to hit it almost every time. I truly enjoy this drill just because it is a lot of smaller drill rolled into one relatively quick drill.

Barricade to 3 targets: 1.8sec par time at 10yds. The barricade is relatively new for me to work on while dry firing, but I really want to expand my game and be prepared for anything. I just worked on drawing from behind the barricade, leaning around and making 2 shots on 3 targets. The 1.8sec par time was tight but doable, I also switch sides of the barricade and switched up the target engagement, meaning I would start outside and work my way in or start on the inside target and work toward the outside target.

Movement drill: 2sec par time at varying distances. Movement while shooting will really help with cutting my overall time down, and today I really focused on having the sights be as steady as possible while taking large deliberate steps. While performing this drill I told myself to really crank down with my weak hand to see what would happen, and not to much surprise my sights were a bit steadier and my transitions seemed quicker. The 2sec par time is good, I can get all the shots off while moving and have just enough time to move a bit more.

[ecolyer325]

I wasn't able to post yesterday about my dry fire session I had due to other obligations.

1/29/16

5:40am-6:30am - This morning I wanted to run through a lot of drills and just keep the reps low. I did this because I knew I wasn't going to be able to dry fire or live fire at night and most likely on Saturday. It being Saturday I can say that I wasn't able to train today, I just had way to many things that needed to get done around the house. Any way, back to Friday mornings session. I used Ben Stoeger's dry fire book and started in the beginning and just went from drill to drill performing each drill between 10-15 times. I am not going to go into detail about each drill, but I will say that all the drills went well. All the pars times I picked were meet, I felt smooth and fluid with all of them. It was nice just too go through all these drills for a small rep range and just get a lot of feedback that your training is paying off.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get some live fire in, I am planning on getting up early and getting to the range around 9.

Side note: my diet is still on track and I'm starting to feel much better on it, and as of today I am at 227lbs. My diet consists of a llot of meat and vegetables with a good amount of nuts and fats, it is very similar to the paleo diet except I am not that strict with it. I have been eating what I feel my body needs, so if I feel run down I will eat some oatmeal or some yams, if I need something sweet I have a large jar of local honey so I take a small spoonful. I am by no means depriving myself of foods, I am truly going for an overall diet lifestyle change, something that is sustainable and will allow me to indulge occasionally but in moderation.

[ecolyer325]

1/31/16

9:15am-10:30am - Live fire training today. I went to the local indoor range to get some marksmanship drills done. I performed the Dots drill at 5yds, I ran through this drill 4 times. Although I did get a performed score on any of the runs, all of my groups for each dot were all touching each other. All the groups were low and on the bottom of the dots. I did not that my current load for my ammo does seem to shot a little lower a close targets and around 15-25yd the hit right were my sights are so I am OK with all my groups being low. Its not as if one group was low another was high and another was to the side, each dot on all 4 papers had consistent touching groups at the bottom of the dot.

After the Dots drill I just did some group shooting at 15, 20 and 25yds. Now I didn't performed normal slow fire group shooting as if I were shooting bullseye, instead it was a faster pace drill and when I was comfortable with the sight picture I broke the shot. 20 rounds at each distance was all I did today.

Last thing I did was 5 yards, 20 shots as fast and as accurate as possible. The main reason for this was because I had one mag loaded, and the target was sitting at 5yds so for fun I decided to blast it.

No dry fire was performed today, between live fire and jobs around the house I didn't have time for dry fire today.

[ecolyer325]

2/1/16

5:40am-6:30am - Morning dry fire fire was very similair to Friday morning's dry fire session. I started at the begining of the dry fire book and went to each drill but I performed each drill approximately 20 times. Since I wasn't able to have a training session for a couple days I wanted to just get some basic drill done. I performed all of the basic gun handling drills and then the marksmanship drills. I pretty much hit all the par times for the drill except the draw at 0.6sec, that time still is hard for me to hit while getting a sight picture.

7:20pm-8:00pm - I had a long day at work and had a bunch of stuff to get done before the end of the day, due to this I had to have a late training session. It felt a little weird having such a late session but once I got into it I didn't even realize the time.

First drill was just some Bill drills to see how I am doing on basic gun handling and trigger control. The 1.6sec par time was hit each time I performed this drill.

I wanted to get some reload work in, some standing reloads were up first at a 1sec par time. As long as I look the mag into the magwell I hit the par time, otherwise I'm about 80% consistent. Continuing the reload drills, I performed the 6 reload 6 reload 6 drill. I performed this drill 20 times at a 5sec par time. I was able to work myself down to just hitting the par time around the 15th rep.

The El Prez drill was up next, one because it has a reload in the middle of it and another reason I performed it was because I really suck at it. I really believe that this drill mentally screws me up more than anything and I just need to get over it.

Continuing with drill that I have a hard time with I did a few reps of the plate rack drill. The outlined par time of 2sec is not even remotely achievable for me yet, I am around 2.6-2.8sec. I am having a problem with it because I need to see a certain sight picture to ensure a hit on target and it takes me a bit longer. I will just keep working at it and I'm sure my time will go down.

Just to end the session on a better note I did some one hand drills. All just basic draw and fire on 3 targets, I did notice I was getting very shaky during this drill and fatigue in my forearms was setting in. Once I noticed this I decided to end my session for the night and forego strength training of my hands tonight, plus i have been beating up my hands and arms a lot at work and doing jobs around the house.

[ecolyer325]

2/2/16

5:45am-6:30am This post is a day late but I will be posting two today. Morning dry fire started with me try a new surrender position, I happen to be watching some videos of Bob Vogel and noticed that his surrender start position has his hands more out in front of his and almost around chin level but still above the shoulders. I thought this was interesting so I tried it a bit and seem to help me get a better and more consistent grip while in the surrender position. After a little bit a playing around and getting used to the new start position I ran some basic drills while in this position. I started with some draws for speed, I am consistently hitting 0.7-0.8sec on this drill.

Bill drills are my go to for testing progress so I ran some Bill drills again with the new hand posistion. 1.6sec seems to be where I was settling in on but I know that once I have a bit more practice with this position I should be able to shave a tenth or two off.

Blake drill was up next, I wanted to combine some transitions into this session. I was pushing for the 1.6sec par but came in around 1.7.

Continuing the transition drills, I performed some 90 degree transitions. I performed them going both directions and different start positions. I really focused on snapping my head/eyes from target to target, I need to continually work on moving my head/eyes immediately after the second trigger is pulled.

180 drill was performed in the same manner as the 90 degree except the par time I was hitting was 2.1, but I know I can shave some time off.

[ecolyer325]

2/3/16

5:45am-6:30am - Reloads were my main focus for this morning session.

Standing reloads at 1sec par time, I am getting very consistent while hitting this par time. I am really focusing in on looking at the magwell during the relaod.

6 reload 6 reload 6: 5sec par time. My reload portion of this drill is solid as is the 6 shots (trigger pulls), my sights are getting on target and are nice and steady during the trigger pulls. What I need to do for this drill is to learn to start my reload immediately following my last shot, I am noiticing I have a delay between the last shot and the start of my reload. Once that gets ironed out I should be hitting par times all day.

The quick step drill from Ben Stoeger's book was my final drill of the morning. I added a reload into the movement section of the drill as outlined in the book. I started out performed 2 shots on 3 targets, moving, reloading and then engaging one target twice. I went in multiple directions and both starting posisitons. After a bunch of reps I switched up the sequence and performed the 2 shots first and then movement followed by 3 targets. I was a few reps into this drill and started to come apart a bit and times were slowing down. After a few more reps that I was happy with I decided to call it quits for the morning.

6:40pm-7:40pm - I started off with the same quick step drill I ended the morning session with. This time I told myself to relax, really thought about my foot work on how to move and just performed the drill. This method seemed to work well, all my reps seemed much more fluid and time was coming down.

Movement was up for today's session. First movement drill was my clock drill: 1sec par, draw while stepping and one shot on target. I went around the circle twice while rotating start positions.

Next drill was a combination clock drill and blake drill. I performed the blake drill while taking a step in all directions. 1.8sec par time was hit as when I had solid foot work and a solid shooting base.

Another variation of the blake drill: 2sec par but I had to keep moving. I performed this drill all from surrender and moving in one direction for multiple reps and then going a different direction.

Position entry (easy and hard targets): 1.8sec easy and 2sec hard. I did the same thing as the drill mentioned above when it came to execution. I really moving along and having the gun up and in the ready position right when I entered the shooting box.

Just to change things up a bit I performed a few barricade drills. I shot 3 targets from around a barricade, I engaged them from both sides of the barricade and in different order.

[ecolyer325]

2/5/16

5:45am-6:30am - White wall drills at 1.2sec par, focused heavily on sight alignment. Ran this drill from surrender and hands at side.

Speed draw: 0.6sec par, sight picture at 7yd. I just keep drilling this just to ingrain a consistent grip.

Static reloads at 1sec par. I was able to hit 12 in a row and then call it quits while I was ahead on that drill.

Blake drill, 1.6sec par, really focused on getting on target and getting the first shot off, my target transition is consistently getting better.

Clock drill, 1sec par, draw to first shot. I performed one complete revolution in surrender and one hands at side. This is really helping me with my movement and getting started for movement.

Bake drill while going around the clock, 1.7sec par. Par time was pushing it for me, it came down to a solid quick draw.

Next up were long distance draws, 1sec for 25yd, 1.2sec for 50yd and then performed SHO and WHO 25yd draws.

This is just a quick and basic post, I wanted to get it posted today before I forget it all. I really need to write everything down while I am actually dry firing.

[ecolyer325]

I haven't posted since Friday, I had a rather busy weekend. I had to work on Saturday but I was able to get a morning training session in. I was the first few drill in my dry fire practice book. I wont go into that session to much just because I don't want this post overly long.

On Sunday I was not able to train at all, I was up early doing house stuff but then I had an orientation at a Rod and Gun club I am joining. I am joining Ontenlaunee Rod and Gun club, I am very excited about it and can't wait to get up there and get some good live fire training done.

Today 2/8/16

5:45am-6:45am - It has been a couple day since I had a good training day, so this morning I decided that I needed to run through a lot of basic drills. I opened the dry fire book and start with the first drill and work my way through until I had to go to work.

White wall drill: no time, just pure focus on grip and sight picture, then performed same thing with a 1.2sec par, I do not know how many reps I performed of each drill I just did the drill until I felt comfortable enough to move on.

Draw for pure speed to sight picture: 0.6sec par, I am on the verge of hitting this par time for every rep.

Static reloads: 1sec par, ran through the complete belt about a half dozen times. I am getting way more consistent with my static reloads.

Transition drill: 3 targets 2 shots each, 1.6sec par. I have been really trying to push the speed and significantly beat this par time

Transition while moving: 1.8sec par, I would step in multiple directions, similar to my clock drill.

Marksmanship drill- 25yd sight index, 1sec par time, performed from surrender and hands at sides.

25yd sight index SHO 1.2sec par and WHO 1.8sec par.

50yd sight index: 1.3sec par time: this par time is difficult for me to hit, I need to work on focus transition.

Bill drills: 1.6sec par

6 reload 6 reload 6: par time of 5sec, this par time is very tight for me and all must go well for me to hit the time. I had a few good reps in the beginning and then my hands started to cramp and the drill started to fall apart, I tried to push through it and try to make the most of it but it just kept getting worse. This is where I decided to stop for the morning.

4:30pm-5:40pm - This afternoon I picked up where I left off in the morning. I started off with the 6 reload 6 reload 6, I ran this drill a few times. I did OK with the drill, I felt a bit stiff and my hands just were not moving quickly at first. After this I just continued going through the dry fire book..

El Prez: 4sec par time is where I am at with this drill, still need to focus on starting my reload immediately after my last shot.

90 degree transitions: 1.6sec par time, ran this drill from multiple start positions and going from both directions, I tried to really focus on snapping my head to the next target.

90 degree transition with hard targets, 1.8sec par, drill was performed same as above.

180 degree transition: 2sec par time, this drill was also performed same as above, one thing with this drill is that I noticed if I draw while standing up range and as the gun is coming up I am turning and going into position.

Widening transitions: 1.6sec par, ran each part 5 times and in each direction then I would widen it. I noticed that the very close targets are actual very difficult for me to hit, I will work on close transitions during my next live fire session.

Next and last drill was shooting while moving: 2sec par, I was only able to get about a dozen reps in until my hands started to hurt and fingers started to cramp up a bit.

[ecolyer325]

2/9/16

Morning and afternoon dry fire practice were all focused on movement and shooting while moving. I will not be describing each individual drill in this post. I was just doing a lot of shooting while moving, moving into position and shooting and shooting then changing positions.

Grip is a big key to all the movement drill for me, I noticed that if I'm lax with my grip movement drills are no where near as stable. Knowing this I really tried to get a consistent and hard grip for each rep.

The movement performed during the drills was in every direction that I could think of, straight, left, right, diagonal, and backwards. The move into a shooting position then shoot was performed with a barricade, without a barricade and with a port. I was getting some practice with port and barricade entry.

So far all is going very well with my training. I feel as if I am progressing and learning. During the drills I sometimes get lost within the drill and it just happens over and over, I'm in the 'zone' then. I also take notice of when I screw things up, I take a minute and figure out what I am doing wrong and fix it even though I am not at the point where I know exactly what I'm messing up each and every time.

As far as my diet and exercise plan are going, the diet is going very well, weight is still coming off at a steady rate and I'm feeling better and better each day. Now the exercise plan hasn't been happening, one reason for this is that I still feel I am burnt out from lifting, 14 straight years will do that to you, and the other reason is that I have been putting a lot of time in USPSA training. As of now I'm averaging about 2 hours worth of dry fire a day, I don't think that will really increase. Live fire is about 3-500 rounds a week, and I am hoping that will increase a bit with joining my new gun club. Also USPSA season is going to kick off soon and I will be trying to get one or two matches in a month.

[ecolyer325]

So I haven't posted here in a few days, Ive been busy doing stuff around the house and work things just got in the way of being able to sit down and post.

First I want to start out by saying that dry fire and live fire over the weekend were horrible, I am still not sure the reasoning behind it but I just felt very off and it showed. I had two dry fire training sessions each day this weekend, each session just seemed to be very rough. I really had to work and fight myself to get any good reps in. Again I'm not sure what my issue was but it just wasn't a good training weekend. I did do some live fire training at the local indoor range, I was attempting to work on accuracy but like my dry fire I just felt off and the results showed. It was getting to the point where I felt as if I were just wasting the ammo. When I was done with live and dry fire this weekend, I was done with it, I tried not to thing about it and just clear my head of the poor performance.

As bad as the weekend went, things seemed to turn right around for me starting yesterday morning. I felt great, I was on point with all my dry fire and I felt as if I made some good gains. Now when I say the everything was on point I don't actually mean that it all went perfectly, for example today I was working on standing reloads and was really trying to push my time and I missed a few reloads. I was OK with missing the reloads because I knew I was really pushing myself and only good results can come of it. When I did hit the reload everything was smooth and fast, it felt really good to have a training session like that, knowing that you are really getting some work done even though you screwed a few reps up, but that's part of learning.

I did come to a bit of a realization this weekend. I am my own training partner, coach, motivator, and need to be self critical. This is kind of weird to me as I come from a background in MMA. While training MMA I always had a support team around me, including coaches, training partners and just general support of friends and family. Now shooting is very different, I cannot afford to have a full time coach, I do not have any training partners, and only a small handful of people support this, well actually know what USPSA is. So it is weird to me not to have a support group and coaches, I find it challenging to be your own coach and your own support team and at the same time to be self critical enough to be able to develop a training plan. It is just weird to me but I am getting used to it and learning from it all, and enjoying the process of it. I also noticed I have way more inner monologue with myself wile training, mostly asking myself questions but some times patting myself on the back.

[ecolyer325]

I haven't posted in awhile now, my computer has not been cooperating nicely lately. I finally got it all squared away. While I wasn't able to post, other than with my phone, I have still been dry firing and usually live fire once a week. When it comes to improvements on my dry fire practice, I noticed I has slowed progress greatly. I had to take a step back and reevaluate my training and really break it down to see what is really happening. After a bit of self analysis I found that I really wasn't being 100% honest with what I was seeing. I was just trying to push myself to hit par times and not put as much emphasis on what calling and seeing every shot. I took a step back and really have been focusing on forcing myself to get the A zone hits and seeing all my shots. My par times have been harder to hit by doing this but I know it will pay off in the long run. I still am trying to push my speed, but while doing so I am pushing the speed with accuracy, and I know everyone says that is what you have to do and how you should have always been training, but I had to take a long hard honest look at my training and be true to myself about it. I believe that at some point you loose focus on what you need to do in training and you have to step back and analyze what you are doing.

[ecolyer325]

3/15/16

5:40am - 6:45am Training this morning was mostly fundamental work. I started off with just draw to first shot, first half of the reps were slow and controlled to make sure my technique was on point. 1.2sec par time for the remainder of the drill, while really pushing this drill I noticed that if my draw is perfect I can hit a par of 1sec or maybe 0.9. To try and make my draws consistently perfect I performed speed draws, with the par 0.6sec, I pushed to see my sights as quick as possible. Things are becoming more and more clear and clearer quicker with each passing week. Continuing with fundamentals, 1sec reloads were performed. I have been performing all my reload work from my first mag pouch, I am doing this to reinforce the technique and not have to worry about 4 or 5 different positions. Transitions and moving while transitioning drill was performed at a 1.8sec par time. I am really focusing on having visual patience and seeing all A zone hits. By doing this my par times are much harder to hit but that is the point of training. At the end of the morning training session I performed turning while drawing, 1sec par time and focused on really getting my head turned on the buzzer to get target sight as soon as possible.

Marksmanship and accuracy work: I have been performed a lot of long distance draws and group shooting. During live fire drills I have been working the DOT drill and just shooting groups while watching what my front sight is doing the whole time. I am not the most accurate shooter out there and don't know if I ever will be, but I have really been trying while live firing at the indoor range since there isn't a whole lot more I can do there.

8:15pm - 9pm Tonight I worked a lot on movement while shooting. This is something I really need to be honest with myself when it comes to training. It is too easy to say that you saw the sights and a good sight picture when you didn't. Moving and shooing is getting better and better, I am able to draw much more smoothly while staring to move and my sights are starting to stay pretty steady, the only times they are not steady is my last target and that is most likely due to rushing to try and hit par time. Not only was tonight for movement while shooting I worked a lot of position entry and exit. Position entry is going very well, I am getting my footwork down and feel good about getting into position. Position exit still needs some work. It really comes down to timing for me, I have been trying to get my timing down for when to start moving. Lately I have been too early and start moving to much on the last shot and cause a poor sight picture or calling misses. I just need to keep working at it and I know the timing will come.