perttime Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 For our weekly club training sessions, an assigned guy thinks up some stages to shoot. If there aren't too many of us, we may have time to do the stages a couple of times. Do you shoot it as a contest stage: always your "best way", or try things that might not be the best as the stage is, but might be useful in general? Yesterday, one of the stages was a U shaped "advance - sideways - retreat" thing with close targets. I first did it the way that made sense as the stage was set, and my second go was the other way, which was harder - but I wanted to see how I'd cope with the retreat with targets on the "wrong side". One of the guys kept arguing that going in the harder direction was not a smart way to shoot that stage. Just different ways of looking at what we were trying to accomplish, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gino_aki Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Going in the "easy" direction might not always be available. A fairly well accepted training adage is to "practice what you're not good at." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hi-Power Jack Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Sounds like a great opportunity to "try new things". I seem to recall some unknown guy name Rob Leatham, about 30 years ago, innovated quite a few things that defied logic and SOP, and ended up The Best of The Best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted June 23, 2016 Author Share Posted June 23, 2016 I certainly didn't innovate much - but it was interesting to note how hard it was to shoot to my strong hand side while needing to move too, and doubly so when retreating. One of the guys tried using just the strong hand for the retreat part, but that wasn't all that successful either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishsticks Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 I'm certainly no expert, but in my opinion one objective of training is to determine what's truly the fastest. As an example I used to shoot arrays left to right unless it was clearly stupid. I actually shoot faster right to left. So, I've made an adjustment. It's been said lots of different ways but the timer doesn't lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 I'm certainly no expert, but in my opinion one objective of training is to determine what's truly the fastest. As an example I used to shoot arrays left to right unless it was clearly stupid. I actually shoot faster right to left. So, I've made an adjustment. It's been said lots of different ways but the timer doesn't lie. +1 Often there are multiple good ways to shoot a stage, and it is worth it to try them. It is imho even worth to shoot the stage a bad way and see just how bad it really is. Might not be as slow as you think, and you might have to do something similar in a match at some point in order to do something else you want to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointerman1967 Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 If it is training then seeing that one particular skill is a weakness (strong side retreat) then you should practice that when it is available. Don't let the stage force you to shoot it a certain way because you have a skill you need to improve. I got chewed out by a certain Production champion this last weekend at a class because I planned a stage around avoiding a retreating reload. His comments were something like "don't shoot the stage stupid because you have a weakness. Train away the weakness." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted June 23, 2016 Author Share Posted June 23, 2016 I certainly have weaknesses... ... Any suggestions on how to cope with shooting to the strong hand side while retreating? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I certainly have weaknesses... ... Any suggestions on how to cope with shooting to the strong hand side while retreating? practice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted June 24, 2016 Author Share Posted June 24, 2016 I certainly have weaknesses... ... Any suggestions on how to cope with shooting to the strong hand side while retreating? practice? Practice what? Running backwards, running sideways, running forward but twisted at the hips and waist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishsticks Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 I certainly have weaknesses... ... Any suggestions on how to cope with shooting to the strong hand side while retreating? Strong hand retreat is easier for me that retreating to the weak side. Keep the gun up, turn into it and you can watch it making sure it stays pointed down range while not sweeping yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share Posted June 25, 2016 Weird. Shooting right handed, and moving uprange as fast as I could, I had no big issues pointing my right arm across my chest and twisting a bit to shoot to my left ("right" side of the range). It was much more awkward to twist to my right (range left), going in the other direction. It was like I needed to turn my body much more to be able to shoot to my right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishsticks Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Weird. Shooting right handed, and moving uprange as fast as I could, I had no big issues pointing my right arm across my chest and twisting a bit to shoot to my left ("right" side of the range). It was much more awkward to twist to my right (range left), going in the other direction. It was like I needed to turn my body much more to be able to shoot to my right. Ok that makes sense and I agree with you as that's been my experience. Thanks for clarifying range right and left. I was initially confused, which is not unusual! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 I certainly have weaknesses... ... Any suggestions on how to cope with shooting to the strong hand side while retreating? practice? Practice what? Running backwards, running sideways, running forward but twisted at the hips and waist? practice all of the above, with a timer. figure out what is fastest and works best for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted June 28, 2016 Author Share Posted June 28, 2016 Thinking back to that retreating exercise, I think I should have applied more patience to getting good hits on the awkward shots. The way the targets were placed, it still wouldn't mean stopping: just turning more and taking some cross steps to face slightly downrange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointerman1967 Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 The stage I got chewed out on involved a shooting position down range where after completing you needed to reload while retreating about 15 feet up range. As a left handed shooter the direction of travel was pretty risky as far as the 180 went. The recommended strategy was drop the used mag, point the gun down range while running like a mad man, extract the next mag while running and then while bringing the pistol up to acquire the target finish the reload while stabilizing into the shooting position. Sounds like a lot when I type it, but when shown what I should have done it really was not big deal and I felt a bit stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Mitch Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 I am surprised at the elaborate sounding set up for practice. I would think you'd be doing small simple drills in order to maximize skill-building. If I were committed to that scenario for some reason, I would shoot the stage as many different ways as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted July 6, 2016 Author Share Posted July 6, 2016 I suppose the idea at this club is that people can practice individual skills any time they can make it to the range. The "official" weekly session is for applying skills to stages. Depending on how devious the guy in charge that day is, you get to discover your weaknesses AND to make, discuss and implement plans for shooting a real stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbecker Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 Training on a stage is the best time to try different ways of shooting a stage and see what works best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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