Help me develope a dry fire routine

[HowardM]

I actually enjoy dry firing however I do not know where to start when it comes to putting together a routine and exactly would drills I should do I don’t have a ton of time to practice so what to make my time count any input to help develope a for focused routine would be greatly appreciated 

Edited July 14, 2018 by HowardM

[George16]

Get Ben Stoeger or Anderson’s book on dry fire and learn from it. It’s a lot better to start learning the processes correctly to maximize your  benefits. I got Ben’s dry fire and skills and drills book and I had been using it for my dry fire and Live Fire routine.

[stick]

Read Ben Stoeger's book Dry fire reloaded.  He has it all in his book with sample plans to follow.

[HowardM]

Thanks I will check it out 

[m-cz-shadow-2]

On 7/14/2018 at 1:06 AM, stick said:

Read Ben Stoeger's book Dry fire reloaded

 

Seconding this, I have been following it and improvements during live fire have been substantial

[limitedgun]

Thirds, very organized and sensible.

Edited September 1, 2018 by limitedgun

[Dr Mitch]

Do everything every session.  Drawing static, drawing on the move, SH/WH, short transitions, wide transitions, shooting on the move, static reloads, one-step reloads, running reloads, uprange movement.  All dry fire.  At least 15 minutes.  Maybe ONLY 15 minutes per day, but never less.

 

As a new person to training, it will be helpful to focus more on draws and reloads for a few weeks.

[Furrly]

Big fan of Steve Andersons books 

[Stuey]

Get Steve Anderson and Ben Stoeger’s Dry Fire books. All of them will have enough dry fire routines to last you a while. That is what I have done.


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[wav3rhythm]

When I had time to dry fire I used the Stoeger book. I usually did 30 minutes a day and spent 10 minutes per drill. Cycle through the drills to address weaknesses and something specific to an upcoming match, but try to hit each major skill at least weekly.

The key for me was to make each rep productive. Pay attention to par times and push yourself each time. I would usually warm up with 4 aces every day for a few minutes to replicate gun handling before warming up.

One thing that I discovered last year was the slow motion feature on my phone. If there was a specific skill that I struggled with, I’d do it a few times recording myself in slow motion then watching and working out the issues.

Lastly, going through the motions doesn’t help you get better. If you’re not 100% mentally dedicated to each rep, it might be a good idea to stop and come back later. USPSA is mostly mental.


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[Flatland Shooter]

52 minutes ago, wav3rhythm said:

Lastly, going through the motions doesn’t help you get better. If you’re not 100% mentally dedicated to each rep, it might be a good idea to stop and come back later. USPSA is mostly mental.

 

Excellent point.

 

Now I'm off to see if I can find that slow-mo feature on my cell phone.

 

Thanks.

[highhope]

I don't like dry fire routine, I just put many 1/3 targets(~50) on the wall, and set a dry fire stage each day. Then do a walk through, just like a real stage. Normally I will run several times for that stage and use a timer to push myself. I want to practice as close as a match, not a particular part of shooting . 

Edited September 4, 2018 by highhope

[tanks]

1 hour ago, highhope said:

I don't like dry fire routine, I just put many 1/3 targets(~50) on the wall, and set a dry fire stage each day. Then do a walk through, just like a real stage. Normally I will run several times for that stage and use a timer to push myself. I want to practice as close as a match, not a particular part of shooting . 

 

Making stages are fine. However, I don't see how one can work on fundamentals without working on those fundamentals in isolation. Heck, people even break down something like a reload into pieces and practice each piece before putting it together. Not to mention it is hard to quantify "pushing oneself". Also, the idea of working on "particular part of shooting" is that come match time one is not thinking about the "particular part of shooting" as that has been practiced and ingrained but the stage plan.

[highhope]

14 minutes ago, tanks said:

 

Making stages are fine. However, I don't see how one can work on fundamentals without working on those fundamentals in isolation. Heck, people even break down something like a reload into pieces and practice each piece before putting it together. Not to mention it is hard to quantify "pushing oneself". Also, the idea of working on "particular part of shooting" is that come match time one is not thinking about the "particular part of shooting" as that has been practiced and ingrained but the stage plan.

You can practice fundamentals in the dry fire stage too, one draw, several transitions, trigger pulls, call shots, movement, same ratio just like a real match. About push myself, I will set the timer at a estimated time firstly like 13s, then shoot the stage at full speed, and found out I shot maybe 15s, then I know what is the proper time to set to push myself.  

 

Edited September 4, 2018 by highhope

[tanks]

1 minute ago, highhope said:

You can practice fundamentals in the dry fire stage too, one draw, several transitions, trigger pulls, call shots, movement, same ratio just like a real match. 

 

How do you fix or even notice something that is wrong with any of your fundamentals when you are doing all of the above at one time? Also, your time is cumulative, so you could improve in one area in one run and do worse in another area and not be able to see where the improvements or issues are.

 

 

[Flatland Shooter]

25 minutes ago, tanks said:

 

How do you fix or even notice something that is wrong with any of your fundamentals when you are doing all of the above at one time? Also, your time is cumulative, so you could improve in one area in one run and do worse in another area and not be able to see where the improvements or issues are.

 

 

 

If you are really pushing yourself in dry fire, there just may be something wrong with your fundamentals that you don't notice.  That's where you try to follow up some of the same exercises in  live fire on the range.

 

Setup targets and dryfire an "El Presidente".  You might be able to do a stupid fast 3-1/2 second run.  Follow it up at the range .  See how you fare and analyze what is different between dry fire and live fire.

 

Your draw and reload should be about the same so the main differences will tend to be in the accuracy, splits and transitions.  Keep going as fast as you can in dry fire but do it honestly.  This way you know just how it feels.  Then work to match those times in live fire.

 

Depending on how much room you have, you should be able to practice almost anything that is giving you problems at the range.  Setup a few classifiers.  Setup a stage or two that includes some movement.  If space is very limited, use targets of different sizes to simulate distance.

 

Its fun to practice your strengths but you need to work on your weaknesses to improve.

[highhope]

1 hour ago, tanks said:

 

How do you fix or even notice something that is wrong with any of your fundamentals when you are doing all of the above at one time? Also, your time is cumulative, so you could improve in one area in one run and do worse in another area and not be able to see where the improvements or issues are.

 

 

Yes you are right, sometimes I do isolation dryfire, especially for some apparent wrong fundamentals or weakness, like draw or reload, but not as a routine.

When I shot dryfire stage, I use timer as a reminder for " Do everything at full speed ", not to time anything. In that way I could improve every part of shooting as same ratio as real match, that's only for me a A/B class shooter. And I check the improvements and find out weaknesses in matches. 

Edited September 4, 2018 by highhope

[johnsonian85]

I will second the Stoeger and Anderson books.  I have both, they go about thing slightly differently with the same objective.  I think it is worth buying both, reading them and seeing which method you like.  I use drills from both.

[GunBugBit]

The Anderson and Stoeger books are great.  Drawing from these, I tailored a time-efficient dry fire routine that makes sense to me.  It covers the core skills with a minimal set of drills.  But I'm sure you could use the Anderson book from front to back, just as written, and keep progressing.  It's a terrific book.

 

Whatever routine you establish for yourself, it helps to be able to vividly imagine yourself live firing as you dry fire.  If you shoot a steady schedule of matches or otherwise shoot often, this will be easy.

[Balakay]

16 hours ago, highhope said:

I don't like dry fire routine, I just put many 1/3 targets(~50) on the wall, and set a dry fire stage each day. Then do a walk through, just like a real stage. Normally I will run several times for that stage and use a timer to push myself. I want to practice as close as a match, not a particular part of shooting . 

There is a reason that none of the dryfire books recommend this strategy as the primary practice mode.... Just sayin'

[highhope]

17 hours ago, Balakay said:

There is a reason that none of the dryfire books recommend this strategy as the primary practice mode.... Just sayin'

yes sir, that's my way of dry fire....Just sayin'

[36873687]

Have all the top books. Big fan of Steve Anderson books

[quliming]

Buy Ben's books? At the end of the book, there is a dry fire and even live fire routine you can follow, and it's broken to fit for different levels of shooters. 

[rritchie82]

On 8/31/2018 at 8:05 PM, Dr Mitch said:

Do everything every session.  Drawing static, drawing on the move, SH/WH, short transitions, wide transitions, shooting on the move, static reloads, one-step reloads, running reloads, uprange movement.  All dry fire.  At least 15 minutes.  Maybe ONLY 15 minutes per day, but never less.

 

As a new person to training, it will be helpful to focus more on draws and reloads for a few weeks.

Great advice! Just keep it simple, the idea is to build muscle memory and that is done with constant repetition.

[Kilrb]

Got three of Bens books all are good