Mushki25 Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 The snow falling this morning leaves no room for error that the off season is upon me in northern Wisconsin. I have been trying to improve my transitions for a few months now with no real gain to my .25 sec. goal. I have read countless threads and tried many things in both dry and live fire but I am still basically stuck in the .45-.5 sec. range. I plan on working this to death this off season as next years goal of A class depends on it. I am interested in everyone’s aha moments to quicker transitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 (edited) Shoot with a metronome app on your phone. Live fire. (Or just force yourself to shoot a cadence at .25 manually) 7yds. 3 Targets. A yard apart. bang bang bang bang bang bang No exceptions for moving the gun between targets. Fire the second round at that pace anyway, even if it’s a miss. Make yourself snap the gun. Learn to look away from the sights on round #2 and snap them to the new target. Then bring the gun to your eyes. In slow transitions the shooter is always swinging a full sight picture to the new location. Edited November 11, 2017 by MemphisMechanic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushki25 Posted November 11, 2017 Author Share Posted November 11, 2017 1 hour ago, MemphisMechanic said: Shoot with a metronome app on your phone. Live fire. (Or just force yourself to shoot a cadence at .25 manually) 7yds. 3 Targets. A yard apart. bang bang bang bang bang bang No exceptions for moving the gun between targets. Fire the second round at that pace anyway, even if it’s a miss. Make yourself snap the gun. Learn to look away from the sights on round #2 and snap them to the new target. Then bring the gun to your eyes. In slow transitions the shooter is always swinging a full sight picture to the new location. After a quick dry fire test I can say this is excellent advise. Thanks. I would be happy to hear any other tips as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itlogo Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 I’ve always heard you shouldn’t shoot to a cadence—you should shoot to your sights (or how quickly your eyes can pickup the sights). Ive found this drill very useful It’s got two parts, so I won’t spoil what the second part is. My son and I did this and both of us shaved a tenth off our transition times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 3 hours ago, itlogo said: I’ve always heard you shouldn’t shoot to a cadence—you should shoot to your sights (or how quickly your eyes can pickup the sights). Cadence shooting is not a good habit to fall into in a match environment. It is good, however, for learning how quickly you can accomplish specific tasks - like transitions. You simply don’t give yourself permission to transition slower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boudreaux78 Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Use your legs for transitions. Everyone wants to transition with their upper body and arms. If you use your legs, it is much more stable and faster to get on target and stay there. It takes a wide and low stance to perform this quickly and well. You have to feel it in your quads, hams and butt. It works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enzo357 Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Can you do a sub 2 second bill drill? A lot easier doing .25 transitions when you can rip sub .18 splits. The Enos drill is a great way to cut time on transitions, but if you can not shoot fast....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushki25 Posted November 12, 2017 Author Share Posted November 12, 2017 9 hours ago, enzo357 said: Can you do a sub 2 second bill drill? A lot easier doing .25 transitions when you can rip sub .18 splits. The Enos drill is a great way to cut time on transitions, but if you can not shoot fast....... I want to tell you I can pull sub 2 sec bill drills but honestly while I can do them, I am more likely to go 2.3 all alpha or pull Charlie’s if I push it to beat 2 sec. All that said I still feel I need to speed up transitions in order to improve. Memphis Mechanic’s idea seems to have merit at least while dry firing. I get that the cadence firing will not be an option in competition, think it’s a great learning tool. Time will tell. I’m still open to any new ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 On 11/12/2017 at 6:42 AM, Mushki25 said: I get that the cadence firing will not be an option in competition, think it’s a great learning tool. Time will tell. You’re on the right track. In an el prez a novice will split too fast, and transition too slowly. Their second shot will go wild or low because they didn’t really see the sights on shot 2. Sounds like: “Bangbang! ...bangbang! ... bangbang!” Shooting a cadence will teach you to shoot the complete array in the same overall time with better points. You’ll drop your split times from .20ish to .30ish but you will more than make that up by snapping your eyes and driving the gun with your legs. Instead of what sounded like three double taps, a person in the next bay would hear a steady bang bang bang cadence and not be able to tell how many targets are shot. The trick is not to be a slave to that cadence: if the sights get a little wonky or you transition to a spot in the C Zone accidentally, you need to have the discipline to wait for enough sight picture to know you’re in the A zone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlmiller1 Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 35 minutes ago, MemphisMechanic said: The trick is not to be a slave to that cadence: if the sights get a little wonky or you transition to a spot in the C Zone accidentally, you need to have the discipline to wait for enough sight picture to know you’re in the A zone. What he said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregJ Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 On 11/11/2017 at 10:42 AM, MemphisMechanic said: Shoot with a metronome app on your phone. Live fire. (Or just force yourself to shoot a cadence at .25 manually) 7yds. 3 Targets. A yard apart. bang bang bang bang bang bang No exceptions for moving the gun between targets. Fire the second round at that pace anyway, even if it’s a miss. Make yourself snap the gun. Learn to look away from the sights on round #2 and snap them to the new target. Then bring the gun to your eyes. In slow transitions the shooter is always swinging a full sight picture to the new location. There are a couple of drills in Steve Anderson's "Get to Work" book that use a metronome for this purpose. Highly recommend the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssanders224 Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 It's all in the eyes for me. Get your eyes to the next target faster, and your gun will be there too. Once the sights move on the second shot, that target is done. Get your eyes gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkadi Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Ben Stoeger's books discuss this in great detail, and many other things - one of the best investments. The movie is also energyzing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushki25 Posted November 14, 2017 Author Share Posted November 14, 2017 On 11/11/2017 at 9:42 AM, MemphisMechanic said: Shoot with a metronome app on your phone. Live fire. (Or just force yourself to shoot a cadence at .25 manually) 7yds. 3 Targets. A yard apart. bang bang bang bang bang bang No exceptions for moving the gun between targets. Fire the second round at that pace anyway, even if it’s a miss. Make yourself snap the gun. Learn to look away from the sights on round #2 and snap them to the new target. Then bring the gun to your eyes. In slow transitions the shooter is always swinging a full sight picture to the new location. This may very well be the best tip I have ever been given. The beats of the metronome forced me to keep up in dry fire practice. Live fire I saved a 1/2 second off my Blake drill with all good hits. I never would have pushed the pace fast enough to make that happen without first hearing the metronome. Thanks a ton Memphis Mechanic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casarez Posted November 14, 2017 Share Posted November 14, 2017 Just began using a metronome as well. It helps keep you on a fast time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James3Gunna Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 I always liked this video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumprun13k Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 I found that I hesitated a very small amount after firing the second shot on a target, wasn't really looking for the sights but I was waiting for them to settle before swinging. I knew there was some time to make up in there but wasn't sure where it was. Took a class with Ben Stoeger and he identified it immediately, and then helped me work on moving the gun the instant the 2nd shot broke (but not during the break, cause thats bad) and it was night and day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enzo357 Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Really trying to take that hesitation out myself. Bad habit that needs to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeattleDude Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 I have the same issue. This is great advice and I will have to try it out . Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHAVEGAS Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 "Somewhere around this point I start to press my trigger" From the video. It is a whole thing with me to attempt aiming while shooting instead of aiming then shooting, it sort of feels like it does when you are trying to go too fast and not requiring a good enough sight picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerkeejoe Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 (edited) I’ve been working on transitions lately by shooting Blake drills and keeping all splits under .25 including the transitions. At first I was dropping the 3rd and 5th shots to C or D regularly, but now regularly shoot pretty well all alphas with sub .25 splits. Ive found that forcing speed at first allows me to get the feel for driving the gun and then I can focus on accuracy. Edited January 7, 2018 by jerkeejoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaylanGivens Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 What Metronome app are you guys using? I tried the Android app "Metronome" and it works well, but won't let you set the repeat time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 On 11/20/2017 at 6:50 PM, Jumprun13k said: I found that I hesitated a very small amount after firing the second shot on a target, wasn't really looking for the sights but I was waiting for them to settle before swinging.... Call the shot as it breaks. ... then SEE the next target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 9 hours ago, perttime said: Call the shot as it breaks. ... then SEE the next target. Calling the last shot before the transition is KEY. Because if you don't, your eyes will not move decisively to the next target. Also see this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrhawk Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Calling he shot is def what helped me. I also spent some time working on how quickly I got off the target. If the front sight comes back down you are slow. Call the shot and start moving the the next target as the sight lifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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