Footwork & transitions

[chgofirefighter]

After being in law enforcement and in the military and being used to shoot "differently" tactical, etc I've come to love USPSA competitive shooting sports.  I video recorded my journey from when I started to now and I've improved a lot and at times watching my old vidoes is somewhat painful to watch but then again there's no progress without pain, correct?

 

Anyway, I am having issues with my footwork and at times with transitions.  I'm physically fit, etc so I have no issues bolting and running around the stages I do however, encounter issues with not being "smooth" during my footwork, easing into a stop, sloppy and too aggressive footwork, at least judging from my own videos I noticed many deficiencies with my footwork.  Also, I tend to be somewhat cautious when I do transitions instead of just "driving" into the targer hard! While I've been improving in these areas I still need much work.  Any good online coaches, books, or YouTube videos that can help me guide me in my process of improving my footwork and transistions would be great! 

 

Just recently I attended a Ben Stoeger class, which help tremendously, also, I've attended other competitive shooting classes as well.  Unfortunatley, living in Chicago does not allow me access to a local range or outside venue where I can setup stages and practice footwork but I still manage to do dry fire practice at home on a daily basis.  After Ben saw me doing a stage that he had setup he came to me and asked me if I was a Class A or higher and I said no, I'm just a class C. Which to my surprise I took his inquiry as a compliment! 

 

Looking at some shooters at various shooting venues, I've noticed that some appear to look slow but that's hardly the case, their footwork is smooth and they don't stay stationary.  They are constantly moving, smooth and methodically.  There's a fine line between speed and accuracy, you can't be too fast and be sloppy causing you to drop some points hitting Deltas/Mikes, etc and also you can't be too slow and overly cautious which can contribute to having a low Hit Factor/HF. Hit Factor is EVERYTHING in USPSA and my main focus is to become better.  Any assistance, suggestions or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!  I don't worry too much about Classifications, I've seen many shooters worry too much about being classified, only to get dissapointed by a lower classified shooter that may not do so well in a "classifier" stage but does extremely well at running the stages effectively and efficiently is where the game really shines at! Nobody remembers a shooters classification, but they do however, remember the shooter that wins matches!

 

Thanks in advance for all of those that wish to contribute a positive advice~  

[CClassForLife]

Care to post a few videos of your movement and transitions?

 

You could sign up for a silver monthly subscription on PSTG and get feedback directly from Ben, Hwansik, and Joel. Personally, I don't think the bronze level is worth it as it's a passive level of involvement.

 

I was in a similar position to you back in March (attended Ben's class as a C class production shooter), so I can tell you what I did in the last 5 months to get to M.

• Standard dry fire gun manipulations - reloads, draws, target transitions on a small target (1 inch square @ 7 yards)
• Matches spent experimenting on raw speed or pure accuracy with no regard to match performance
• Keeping an attitude that I'll be the best shooter I can possibly be. If I miss, then it's not a moment of frustration but an opportunity to learn and improve.

I'm of the opinion that if you shoot your next few matches going from spot to spot as fast as you can (yes, this will mean a match with 10+ Mikes), you'll naturally adapt to more efficient movement. Your footwork will resolve itself without your conscious effort. You don't think where to place your feet during a sprint right? Then you're not going to think about how to run from position to position, you'll just end up doing it. As long as you stay aware and observe what's happening with your sight picture as you enter and leave positions, then you can correct any mistakes that you might feel. Be honest with yourself, don't get frustrated, and know that you're not even close to your potential.

[Russty]

16 minutes ago, CClassForLife said:

shoot your next few matches going from spot to spot as fast as you can

I plan on doing this! Just came to the same conclusion myself.

[chgofirefighter]

On 8/30/2020 at 3:27 PM, CClassForLife said:

Care to post a few videos of your movement and transitions?

 

You could sign up for a silver monthly subscription on PSTG and get feedback directly from Ben, Hwansik, and Joel. Personally, I don't think the bronze level is worth it as it's a passive level of involvement.

 

I was in a similar position to you back in March (attended Ben's class as a C class production shooter), so I can tell you what I did in the last 5 months to get to M.

• Standard dry fire gun manipulations - reloads, draws, target transitions on a small target (1 inch square @ 7 yards)
• Matches spent experimenting on raw speed or pure accuracy with no regard to match performance
• Keeping an attitude that I'll be the best shooter I can possibly be. If I miss, then it's not a moment of frustration but an opportunity to learn and improve.

I'm of the opinion that if you shoot your next few matches going from spot to spot as fast as you can (yes, this will mean a match with 10+ Mikes), you'll naturally adapt to more efficient movement. Your footwork will resolve itself without your conscious effort. You don't think where to place your feet during a sprint right? Then you're not going to think about how to run from position to position, you'll just end up doing it. As long as you stay aware and observe what's happening with your sight picture as you enter and leave positions, then you can correct any mistakes that you might feel. Be honest with yourself, don't get frustrated, and know that you're not even close to your potential.

Thanks for your recommendation, I'm a B Class in CO and lately in my local matches I've been pushing myself hard to get to point A to point B as quickly as possible, gun ready to shoot at the next array of targets.  I've also increased the cadence of my shots, and been focusing more on shot calling.  At home I try fire and concentrate on draws, reloads, transitions, movement and proper trigger prep/reset, amongst other things.  I took Ben class a few months ago, Ben is a genius and a class act.  Funny guy too!  He asked me if I was a Class A, but I wasn't and he paid me a lot of compliments with no sugar coating on top.  If I had the funds I would strictly hire Ben for private classes, and take advantage of his knowledge.  

 

I video record just about every shoot, and self critigue my movements and footwork and analyze the entire scenario and point out where I made mistakes, etc.  I'm still evolving and that's the goal.  Personally, I don't worry much about classifications.  Way too many of us get overly concerned with them.  Some shooters perform well in classifiers but suck at competitive shooting and stage planning and vice versa.  For me it's better to be well rounded, not only in Classifier but the main sport itself.  But there's a lot of work, but I've seen some progresss and that's the goal... PROGRESS! 

[bimmer1980]

9 hours ago, chgofirefighter said:

Thanks for your recommendation, I'm a B Class in CO and lately in my local matches I've been pushing myself hard to get to point A to point B as quickly as possible, gun ready to shoot at the next array of targets.  I've also increased the cadence of my shots, and been focusing more on shot calling.  At home I try fire and concentrate on draws, reloads, transitions, movement and proper trigger prep/reset, amongst other things.  I took Ben class a few months ago, Ben is a genius and a class act.  Funny guy too!  He asked me if I was a Class A, but I wasn't and he paid me a lot of compliments with no sugar coating on top.  If I had the funds I would strictly hire Ben for private classes, and take advantage of his knowledge.  

 

I video record just about every shoot, and self critigue my movements and footwork and analyze the entire scenario and point out where I made mistakes, etc.  I'm still evolving and that's the goal.  Personally, I don't worry much about classifications.  Way too many of us get overly concerned with them.  Some shooters perform well in classifiers but suck at competitive shooting and stage planning and vice versa.  For me it's better to be well rounded, not only in Classifier but the main sport itself.  But there's a lot of work, but I've seen some progresss and that's the goal... PROGRESS! 

 

When you do your movement training, concentrate on coming to a smooth stop with your sights early up and as steady as possible on the target. Over time that will somehow solve your problem by itself. Look at your stance when you entered your new position. Relaxed shoulders is key. Don´t tense up.   

[chgofirefighter]

On 10/23/2020 at 5:30 AM, bimmer1980 said:

 

When you do your movement training, concentrate on coming to a smooth stop with your sights early up and as steady as possible on the target. Over time that will somehow solve your problem by itself. Look at your stance when you entered your new position. Relaxed shoulders is key. Don´t tense up.   

Thanks!  

[tdp88]

If you like Ben and his style of instructing, I would highly recommend joining training group. He and Kim have a ton of videos that go very detailed into movement and transitions. I personally think it's very helpful to see them running the drills from multiple views and listening to them talk through what they see and what adjustments they make during practice. Joining really helped me learn how to practice better and break down my own shooting. 

[Bigdeal929]

On 11/2/2020 at 11:49 AM, tdp88 said:

If you like Ben and his style of instructing, I would highly recommend joining training group. He and Kim have a ton of videos that go very detailed into movement and transitions. I personally think it's very helpful to see them running the drills from multiple views and listening to them talk through what they see and what adjustments they make during practice. Joining really helped me learn how to practice better and break down my own shooting. 

Why do you think the training group is worth it?  What do they do?

[tdp88]

On 11/17/2020 at 8:54 PM, Bigdeal929 said:

Why do you think the training group is worth it?  What do they do?

I'm a visual learner, so it really helps me seeing video of the drills. They talk through a lot of common mistakes and give demos of the correct and the wrong way to do drills. They are also able to go more in depth of the purposes of specific drills and show you what it should look like. The match talk through videos are also extremely helpful. It's one thing to watch a match video of a top guy but to have them break it down in slow motion from various camera views while talking about what they were seeing and what they did right or wrong is invaluable in my opinion. I've also watched a lot of training video reviews from other users on there and seeing common problems diagnosed over and over helped me pick out a lot of issues in my own shooting.

[Bigdeal929]

7 hours ago, tdp88 said:

I'm a visual learner, so it really helps me seeing video of the drills. They talk through a lot of common mistakes and give demos of the correct and the wrong way to do drills. They are also able to go more in depth of the purposes of specific drills and show you what it should look like. The match talk through videos are also extremely helpful. It's one thing to watch a match video of a top guy but to have them break it down in slow motion from various camera views while talking about what they were seeing and what they did right or wrong is invaluable in my opinion. I've also watched a lot of training video reviews from other users on there and seeing common problems diagnosed over and over helped me pick out a lot of issues in my own shooting.

Thanks!  I’ll check it out

[pjb45]

Mike Seeklander is another great coach. 
 

TGO once said, “it is not who gets there first but who’s there ready to shoot.”

 

Gun up, sights on target, ready to break the shot. 
 

TGO won another SS championship by being ready and shooting. Mike was second.