Stages from My Last Match

[anonymouscuban]

Hey guys. Thanks for the continued help. Lots to unpack and digest. That said, the last few days I've been focused on simply transitioning the gun fast as suggested. Pushing myself beyond my comfort level. This has been in dry fire. I finish up each session with doing a few draws to 2-shots on target then move to doing the Blake drill from the draw. I've done this daily. Typically about 30-45 minutes each session. Sometimes 2-a-day... in the morning before work and then in the afternoon. For the Blake drill, I simply set the par time to 2 seconds, pretty aggressive for me, and then try to complete the drill in that time. I'm ignoring accuracy. Although I am paying attention to my sight picture (calling shots).

 

At first, this was really tough. Hard to get that gun to move quickly. But by the end of my 1st session, I was getting it across the targets within time. My accuracy was not great but I didn't focus on this. THIS WORKS!!!. Just about 3-4 days into this, I am now getting through the drill in 2 seconds from the draw with pretty good accuracy. And this morning, I didn't really feel rushed as I was doing it. I'm hitting the range tomorrow to confirm in live fire. Gonna push myself the same. Keep the par time at 2 seconds and push myself. Let the rounds land where they may. Goal is just the transitions. Speed mode.

 

I will update you guys tomorrow afternoon on how it goes.

[IVC]

On 2/1/2020 at 3:30 PM, anonymouscuban said:

My best time with alphas across the board was 2.54 sec.

You need to look at your consistent time, not your best time. It's the same as if you're looking at your draw or reload time. Concentrate on your best time and you are not only missing the most important information from the training session, but you're getting completely wrong impression of your performance. 

 

Separately, you shouldn't be in D class. Time to get those classifiers going much like you are working on your field course skills. D class is for beginners...

Edited February 7, 2020 by IVC

[anonymouscuban]

You need to look at your consistent time, not your best time. It's the same as if you're looking at your draw or reload time. Concentrate on your best time and you are not only missing the most important information from the training session, but you're getting completely wrong impression of your performance. 
 
Separately, you shouldn't be in D class. Time to get those classifiers going much like you are working on your field course skills. D class is for beginners...

Valid points all around. Especially about my classification. I out shoot almost all C class shooters at the matches and am often middle or low in the B class. My classifier scores are dismal.

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[anonymouscuban]

Was able to work on transitions at the range. I worked on Blake Drill at about 7 yards. First I worked on just the transitions without the draw. I pushed at the same speed as in dry fire. I was averaging about 1.2 seconds. Accuracy was not great but I was able to call my misses. The interesting part is I was making my hits on the last target. Most of my misses were on the middle one. I was starting the transition to 3rd target too soon.

I observed the same as above when I added the draw. Alphas on target 1 and 3 (most strings) but alpha-charlie for target 2. Need to work on this.

I also set up an array of 2 paper and 4 steel targets at varying distances and lateral spaces. Worked on that for a bit. I found that I was definitely moving between targets much faster. One thing I did notice is that my grip on the draw was slop when doing this drill but not prior when I was doing the Blake drill. Odd.

Slop only when drawing on open paper at 5 yards. First shot good but quick follow up, muzzle was flying. But then when I transitioned to steel or other paper, grip was good. I think I was just really pushing myself and not maintaining good grip.

I plan on running these drills over the next few weeks both in dry and live fire as I already see tremendous value in them.

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[waktasz]

Nice!

[BJB]

9 hours ago, anonymouscuban said:

..........I think I was just really pushing myself........

Good, push yourself till you're about out of control.  Then tone it back just a bit to stay in control.  The only way to learn to go fast is to freaking go fast. Those that practice within their comfort zone in practice won't be able to go as fast or reach their potential.  You push yourself fast and out of your comfort zone in practice then before long you'll realize that you're seeing your sights better/quicker, transitioning quicker, etc. When you go to a match you'll realize that your match speed has improved because you pushed your practice speed.

[Pistolpete9]

On 2/8/2020 at 8:49 PM, BJB said:

Good, push yourself till you're about out of control.  Then tone it back just a bit to stay in control.  The only way to learn to go fast is to freaking go fast. Those that practice within their comfort zone in practice won't be able to go as fast or reach their potential.  You push yourself fast and out of your comfort zone in practice then before long you'll realize that you're seeing your sights better/quicker, transitioning quicker, etc. When you go to a match you'll realize that your match speed has improved because you pushed your practice speed.

 

Man, that's exactly right.  The best thing I ever did was copy down some amazing thing that one of the super stud's accomplished (Jerry Miculek, Max Michel, Bob Vogel, etc.) and try to do the same thing.  Obviously I didn't make those things happen, but I'd rather fail at trying to be as good as those guys, than succeed at being the hotshot and some rinkydink local range.  It's just like when we used to all watch MJ/Kobe/whoever and then try to emulate that while practicing ball.

[IVC]

On 2/8/2020 at 9:49 AM, anonymouscuban said:

One thing I did notice is that my grip on the draw was slop when doing this drill but not prior when I was doing the Blake drill.

Patience - drawing with sloppy grip is like shooting steel before you can see the sights. It appears fast(er) and it is faster on occasion when you get lucky, but it's neither the correct speed to perform at, nor does it ingrain the correct cues. For your draw, getting the good grip in the holster is the cue you're looking for. If you miss it, you have to slow down and correct it...

[anonymouscuban]

Wanted to share a quick update of my progress.

 

Shot another match last Sunday. My best one yet. Stage times were faster and so were my hits. Still had some hiccups but definitely an improvement overall. Cool thing is had my first ever Production stage win and came in 3rd in Production. The stage win was on one of the bigger stages that had a lot of steel. Steel has always been my nemesis so it was nice to finally conquer it. I also had my best classifier performance which bumped me to C-class. Feels good to be out of D finally. Now to get to B class. 

 

A couple morning meetings were canceled today so I decided to hit the range unexpectedly. I setup El Prez classifier and focused on it. Very interesting results. So the first half, I didn't push myself. Just shot at my normal match mode. My average time was 7.1 and HF of 6.7. The second half I pushed myself just to the edge of control. Pushed my draw but more so, my transitions. My average time was 5.6 and HF was 8.47. The interesting thing is that my hits got better. Not sure how to process that. But I'll take it. 

 

I am definitely seeing the results of focusing my training on speeding up transitions. It really resonates when you see how fast transitions impact HF. I'm not shooting any faster. I'm just reducing the time between targets. And this is just from a few weeks of training. Very motivating. 

 

[waktasz]

5.6 is pretty darn good. Seems like your hits are a little rough at that pace though if your HF is only around 8.5. I'd look to only drop 3 or 4 charlies at the most when shooting minor. A 5.6 second run with 3 charlies gets your HF over 9.6

[anonymouscuban]

22 minutes ago, waktasz said:

5.6 is pretty darn good. Seems like your hits are a little rough at that pace though if your HF is only around 8.5. I'd look to only drop 3 or 4 charlies at the most when shooting minor. A 5.6 second run with 3 charlies gets your HF over 9.6

 

I had some good runs and some bad, bringing my average down. The interesting thing is my first few runs pushing my time were my best. Then I started throwing more charlies and a couple runs I had some deltas. So I know I have it in me to shoot in the 9 HF range. 

 

For example... my first 3 runs pushing time were HF of 9.14, 9.45 and 9.08. All 3 of these runs I had 9 alphas. Then the suck started and I was shooting half alphas and the rest some combo of charlies and deltas. 

 

Did some analyzing of close up video of these runs in slow-mo. My grip is good: Gun isn't flopping around. Joints are solid. Hands are moving together in recoil. Trigger guard remains in contact with my hands. However, my trigger work got sloppy. Really slapping it. My finger comes completely off the trigger between shots. I can see that the muzzle move as I slap it. Not a lot but enough. 

 

I'm going to work on doubles drill next trip to the range and drill my trigger technique. Any other suggestions that will help work on this?