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Thoughts on Steve Anderson Products/ Training


Skeeter44

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Im fairly new to the USPSA side of comp shooting (making the transition from PRS) and have come across a few of his books. I would love to go to a class but there arent any that are reasonably close.

Has anyone here purchased his books or taken any of his classes? He seems like an awesome guy and was just curious as to what y'alls thoughts were...

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can't speak on the class, although I have had classes from ben stoeger, tim herron and charlie perez that were all EXTREMELY valuable in my learning curve.

 

I think steve's books are good (his 3rd one is *really* good), but I think for me personally his focus on always trying to be faster faster faster led to some sloppiness and unrealistic practice for me. I made a big step up in match performance when I stopped doing his drills by rote and started using my own brain to adapt them to my situation. That probably just means I was doing his drills wrong, lol.

 

IMHO, if you are just getting started, you could probably get a big jump by seeing if there's an M or GM near you that shoots the same division, and offering to pay that gay for a couple 2-hr range sessions. All the more better if it's someone you occasionally squad with at local matches who may already have an idea of your strengths and weaknesses.

Edited by motosapiens
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On 9/17/2021 at 6:16 PM, motosapiens said:

can't speak on the class, although I have had classes from ben stoeger, tim herron and charlie perez that were all EXTREMELY valuable in my learning curve.

 

I think steve's books are good (his 3rd one is *really* good), but I think for me personally his focus on always trying to be faster faster faster led to some sloppiness and unrealistic practice for me. I made a big step up in match performance when I stopped doing his drills by rote and started using my own brain to adapt them to my situation. That probably just means I was doing his drills wrong, lol.

 

IMHO, if you are just getting started, you could probably get a big jump by seeing if there's an M or GM near you that shoots the same division, and offering to pay that gay for a couple 2-hr range sessions. All the more better if it's someone you occasionally squad with at local matches who may already have an idea of your strengths and weaknesses.


agree here. Use the “first 12” drills in Refinement and Repetition to get decent speed but there is a universe of other skills that need reps and attention. Entries and exits, wide transitions, throttle control, footwork, etc. 

 

Also, grip and vision are elements that are boring (to many) but require upkeep and respect. Ben talks about this at length whenever he discusses “doubles” or “practical accuracy” drills. 

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Wife and I did a 2 day private course and loved it.

 

Went back last year and did a 3 day private course and loved it.  We could fly into the USA, just not drive.


Now with the new restrictions and ammo issues down your way we won’t be making it down any time soon. (bummer)

 

downtown Newark OH is beautiful and a private 2 or 3 person only class is money WELL spent 

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19 hours ago, MikeyScuba said:

Wife and I did a 2 day private course and loved it.

 

Went back last year and did a 3 day private course and loved it.  We could fly into the USA, just not drive.


Now with the new restrictions and ammo issues down your way we won’t be making it down any time soon. (bummer)

 

downtown Newark OH is beautiful and a private 2 or 3 person only class is money WELL spent 

Would love to get some private classes but since my wife isn't interested in USPSA it's a hard sell on taking vacation to go there.

 

That being said, I am looking at the insider program he has as it seems like a good deal since it comes with a free monthly call. I've been trying to find someone who is in it but can't so I'm probably just going to sign up.

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I believe I wrote the foreword to Steve's first book.  

 

What you should get out of it:

 

1.  Decide to do a thing.

2.  Understand what that thing is. (clearly picture)

3.  Practice that thing.  

 

 

Just my take on it.  I'm pretty sure the price of a book or three will pay for itself in ammo not wasted.

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/24/2021 at 8:55 AM, Flexmoney said:

I believe I wrote the foreword to Steve's first book.  

 

What you should get out of it:

 

1.  Decide to do a thing.

2.  Understand what that thing is. (clearly picture)

3.  Practice that thing.  

 

 

Just my take on it.  I'm pretty sure the price of a book or three will pay for itself in ammo not wasted.

 

 

 

So I decided to buy Steve's 1st book, and I also got Ben's Dryfire Reloaded. Its kinda wild to compare the two lol. I really enjoy Steve's humor and im trying to get a class together at my local range. I just dont want to waste years trying to figure it out on my own lol.

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On 9/20/2021 at 9:39 AM, Covfefe said:


agree here. Use the “first 12” drills in Refinement and Repetition to get decent speed but there is a universe of other skills that need reps and attention. Entries and exits, wide transitions, throttle control, footwork, etc. 

 

Also, grip and vision are elements that are boring (to many) but require upkeep and respect. Ben talks about this at length whenever he discusses “doubles” or “practical accuracy” drills. 

I agree, I am constantly trying to improve my grip. Thank you for the insight.

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Anderson's Podcast and books are great.  I've been listening to the Podcasts for the last couple of months.  Also purchased the 3rd book, read it and following the dry fire routine for the last couple of months and have seen steady improvement not just in the active part of shooting but more so on the mental side of shooting.  Give it a chance and see what happens.  Also, Enos's blog here on the forum is full of great info.

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'Refinement & Repetition' is an awesome way to get started, but as others have said if you don't train other skills you will be pretty deficient outside of classifier-type stages.

 

His discussions on visualization, mental preparation, and vision have all helped me tremendously in the last year.  Most of that stuff is discussed in his podcast, although he touches on it a little in 'Principles of Performance' and 'Get to Work'.  If you take one of his classes (as I did this year) you'll hear a lot more about the mental aspect of shooting, which I think is really underappreciated.  I will say that if you've consumed all of his other material, such as the books and his podcast, his class will feel like very well-trodden ground and perhaps a little repetitive.  However, it is awesome for building confidence in your skills and gaining a few practice techniques.  

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I like Steve's stuff and it's helped me a lot along the way.

 

The biggest thing I think, especially if you're doing speed mode like Steve suggests is you have to make sure you don't cheat. You can cheat your grip and cheat sight pictures to hit par times but it'll translate into terrible performance in live fire. You can usually see it in peoples dry fire videos. And even though they hit crazy GM times on drills in dry fire they'll be struggling in C class because their dry fire isn't realistic at all.

 

Like @motosapiensmentioned I can get sloppy chasing par times too. I cut back on how much I even use par times and I just make up drills based on the thing I think need work and will yield me the biggest benefit.

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