Translating dryfire and range drills to matches?

[lroy]

I've been going through several books and following shooters a lot better than me on youtube to try and get my fundamentals down. I seem to do okay by myself at home and at the range with the par times they recommend. I'm limited to an indoor range so I can't practice stages with live ammo. I've been doing mock ones at home with scaled targets, but there seems to be a disconnect. 

 

Every time I hear the buzzer go off, I'm either going over fault lines or fumbling my fundamentals. I know it's something that just takes more practice, but I was interested if anyone had suggestions that would work more efficiently than just throwing time at the problem. I'd like to try to systematically work on my issues, if I can. One of my biggest problem is when movement and speed are introduced to live fire.  My sights bounce around which I plan to work on at home, but it's difficult for me to know what an acceptable sight picture is as dryfire gives you no way to confirm. 

 

I apologize if I sound dumb, I'm just confused. I feel fairly confident in a bay running through drills, but my performance in a match makes it seem like I've never handled a pistol in my life. If I left any information out that would be useful in diagnosing my issues please let me know. Ideally I'd like to work out a program to address them correctly. 

 

I assume this is something all beginners go through? How have you guys managed to get through that barrier? 

 

Thanks!

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by lroy

[Blackstone45]

Addressing your question about sights and acceptable sight picture, next time you're at the range, shoot at targets with intentionally slightly misaligned sights and see where the shot ends up. Do this with targets at different distances. Because calling the shot is more than saying "oh that went high, that shot went right". You need to know for a given distance of target, how far it went high or to the right, so you know if that was a charlie, delta or even a mike.

[Hi-Power Jack]

1 hour ago, Blackstone45 said:

 shoot at targets with intentionally slightly misaligned sights and see where the shot ends up 

 

You have to do some live fire to confirm your dry fire exercises, a Blackstone suggested.

[GOF]

Holes in the target count in a match. Dry fire "clicks" may help... but you really need to see holes in a target.

As for the buzzer causing some level of decrease in your performance due to foot faults/fumbling....  I would humbly suggest you start in a match by not worrying about your speed... forget speed...just concentrate on "slow & smooth" execution. Repetition will build speed if you focus on smooth actions. It takes time. But focus is a key. Don't go faster than you can. It seldom works.

But after going slow for awhile you will find yourself automatically going faster and smoother. Repetition, with the proper repetitions, does help make things smooth & quicker. 

[DKorn]

You need to develop your “match mode”. The best description of it for me comes from @Steve Anderson.  I recommend reading his book, Get to Work, as well as listening to his podcast, That Shooting Show.

[stick]

23 hours ago, lroy said:

 

 

Every time I hear the buzzer go off, I'm either going over fault lines or fumbling my fundamentals. I know it's something that just takes more practice, but I was interested if anyone had suggestions that would work more efficiently than just throwing time at the problem. I'd like to try to systematically work on my issues, if I can. One of my biggest problem is when movement and speed are introduced to live fire.  My sights bounce around which I plan to work on at home, but it's difficult for me to know what an acceptable sight picture is as dryfire gives you no way to confirm. 

 

I

I would take a step back to make sure your fundamentals are sound.  Dryfire is not just about running around doing mock stages.  Dryfire is all about fundamentals.  live fire and matches are the confirmation that dryfire is working correctly.  

I would work on specific drills in dryfire to ensure your fundamentals don't suffer.  Speed comes with time.  Don't try to go faster than you actually can.  If I were you, I would work on:

1) The Wall Drill for the sights bouncing around.

2) Use a door threshold for a fault line to ensure you stay within the shooting area.

3) manipulation skills (Draws, reloads, gun presentation etc) both at 1/4 speed, 1/2 speed and full speed to see where the disconnect is happening.

 

Unfortunately Time is what it takes to fix the problems you are suffering from!  If you fumble your fundamentals now, it will be worse later.  Fix your fundamentals FIRST!  Dryfiring is not really fun, you need to embrace the suck!

[BoyGlock]

Every person learns differently. Slow and smooth didnt do it for me. Once what is proper is proficient force speed until proficiency returns on the newfound speed. Be comfortable in it then crank it faster again. And so on. 

Timer stress is psychological. Practice w/ a timer and time everything. Eventually timer buzzer is just a part of any regimen including match runs. 

[bimmer1980]

I think this is pretty normal. Moving on the range with a loaded gun will become more and more normal over time. It´s real stress at the beginning.

 

What you realy have to do with dryfire is confirming it in live fire.

 

For example with a simple draw. You need to remember in dryfire what kind of grip, grip force, feeling, trigger pull, shoulder relaxation, stance etc. etc. you need to fire good and fast shots. You have to finetune your dryfire all the time to make it as real as possible. So you will become much better at dryfire. This issn´t done by 5-10 live fire trainings.   

It´s the same with every fundamental. Transitions, movements, Shooting on the move etc. etc.  

[GOF]

Dry fire is an excellent way to establish draw stroke, grip, foot position, sight alignment and trigger press. It's valuable. But it doesn't take into account recoil control, reacquiring

sights, or where the heck the rounds actually hit. Holes in the target are what counts in a match. Don't abandon dry fire. But, don't neglect live fire. They work together.

[lroy]

Great advice guys. After reading these responses I definitely need to adjust how I train. Being more conscious of what the sights look like vs where the round goes in love fire is something I haven't paid all that much attention to. Knowing what sights equal what result is something I'll try to focus on going forward. 

 

Thinking about it some more, I also don't train in dryfire how I would shoot a match. It's a lot more relaxed, not gripping or pressing trigger as hard, etc. Ill try to bring them more in line with one another.

[Blackstone45]

Yep you absolutely should be dry firing with the same grip as you would in live fire, because you'll get a nasty surprise when that recoil happens and the gun starts bouncing around in your hand. 

[B21]

On 9/27/2019 at 6:56 AM, lroy said:

 

 

Every time I hear the buzzer go off, I'm either going over fault lines or fumbling my fundamentals. 

 

I'm  willing to bet this is a visualization problem as much as a "shooting" problem.  You need to REALLY burn every detail of the stage into your mind before you shoot.  It's very hard to try and "think" about where all the targets are, while trying to "think" about fundamentals of shooting.  Your brain can't do both at the same time, or at least not very effectively.  In fact, after reading your post over again, it seems like a lot of your problems are mental.  If you can do the stuff in practice, you should be able to do it at a match more or less.  I'd put in some practice time REALLY shooting at the speed of your sights.  No faster, no slower.