Live fire practice drills what’s good for beginners?

[Twilk73]

In the Sea of drills what do you guess recommend a beginner work on. 
 

I just started shooting idpa and the things I need to work in the most from my own diagnoses are longer range accuracy at speed and transitions. What are some good drills to incorporate in my live fire practice. 
 

Also I believe I’m driving the gun down during live fire anticipating recoil or the bang. I don’t do it dry. But I feel as though I do it live. I need to record myself to properly tell off this is true. If so any drills to work on that?

[HesedTech]

10 hours ago, Twilk73 said:

In the Sea of drills what do you guess recommend a beginner work on. 

Pick one instructor to start with and follow their advice. There is far too much noise out there and it's easy to get overwhelmed. I suggest start with Ben Stoeger and Joel Park's book - 'Practical Shooting Training.' They have broken down the training into different levels and what is required to advance.

 

One thing all the experts say is you have to be able to shoot an accurate shot on demand because all the dry-fire in the world won't help if we miss the targets.

 

The one major difference between IDPA and USPSA is the penalty for not shooting an accurate shot and it has to be done fast. Transitions, target focus, draws, reloads, leaning, support, weak and freestyle grips, and stage planning is all basically the same between the the disciplines.

[Twilk73]

1 hour ago, HesedTech said:

Pick one instructor to start with and follow their advice. There is far too much noise out there and it's easy to get overwhelmed. I suggest start with Ben Stoeger and Joel Park's book - 'Practical Shooting Training.' They have broken down the training into different levels and what is required to advance.

 

One thing all the experts say is you have to be able to shoot an accurate shot on demand because all the dry-fire in the world won't help if we miss the targets.

 

The one major difference between IDPA and USPSA is the penalty for not shooting an accurate shot and it has to be done fast. Transitions, target focus, draws, reloads, leaning, support, weak and freestyle grips, and stage planning is all basically the same between the the disciplines.

I’ve been following Ben Stoeger and crew. I am working on quick trigger press, transitions, draws and reloads in dry practice. I agree there is a sea of information and a lot of people seem to do it differently. I’m trying to boil it all down to my biggest weakness and what’s going to gain me to most time. My biggest problems right now are down points because my accuracy sucks, it’s a bit of crappy trigger pull I think and definitely I’m driving the gun thinking about the bang. Transitions are easy, I’m just working on smoothing it out and going faster. 
 

So I found an excellent video done by one of the instructors that work with Ben on how to learn to pull the trigger fast and accurate. I guess I’m just wondering if there is a live drill to accommodate that. Truthfully I guess the dry drill can be the live drill to. 
 

I need an instructor or I need to video myself to hit my next level of shooting I guess. 
 

Excellent talk, thanks. 

[ShredderTactical]

Wow...so many things.  As has already been said, finding a quality instructor or class will save you time and money in the long run.  I took a Practical Shooting Fundamentals class with Ben Stoeger a few years ago.  While that class didn't immediately make me a better shooter, it did open my eyes to how important it is to focus on the fundamentals when training and it showed me what I needed to work on and how to build my own effective training program.  Best money I ever spent and I'm sure it has more than returned what I spent on the class by greatly reducing my time and ammo spent on training.

Ben Stoeger has many drills he uses and suggests for others that are great training and practice for all levels.  Suggest you get some of his books, most recent is probably better, and you will have access to many of the drills and materials that he uses in his classes.  Here's a link to some drills he has posted on his website... https://www.benstoeger.com/livefire-drills .  The first three there; The Accelerator, Bill Drill, and Blake Drill, are three good standard training drills for any level shooter to increase speed and accuracy at various distances.

Good luck in your journey!

[Twilk73]

5 hours ago, ShredderTactical said:

Wow...so many things.  As has already been said, finding a quality instructor or class will save you time and money in the long run.  I took a Practical Shooting Fundamentals class with Ben Stoeger a few years ago.  While that class didn't immediately make me a better shooter, it did open my eyes to how important it is to focus on the fundamentals when training and it showed me what I needed to work on and how to build my own effective training program.  Best money I ever spent and I'm sure it has more than returned what I spent on the class by greatly reducing my time and ammo spent on training.

Ben Stoeger has many drills he uses and suggests for others that are great training and practice for all levels.  Suggest you get some of his books, most recent is probably better, and you will have access to many of the drills and materials that he uses in his classes.  Here's a link to some drills he has posted on his website... https://www.benstoeger.com/livefire-drills .  The first three there; The Accelerator, Bill Drill, and Blake Drill, are three good standard training drills for any level shooter to increase speed and accuracy at various distances.

Good luck in your journey!

Thanks for the link. I did inquire about one of Ben’s classes coming near me but I haven’t received a response yet. That was weeks ago I guess I should send another email or call. 
 

I agree, the benefits of a class are like a stepping stone to a higher skill level. My first class was with modern samurai project and I was in the bottom 1/3rd. Went in thinking differently but I came out with a wealth of knowledge on how to make myself better. 
 

What do you guys think of The Tim Herron practical performance class. He comes to my local range once a year for a two day class. 

Edited July 23, 2022 by Twilk73

[rowdyb]

I've taken a Tim class and know him in person. You'll definitely learn things. I recommend

[TheChewycookie]

Here's my video of the 1 on 1 section of Tim's Practical Pistol class. Very beginner friendly but you need to be safe and willing to try what Tim is asking you to do. There's also a lot of time to try the drills dry and transfer to live fire. 

 

For drills, i recommend doubles/triples, practical accuracy, accelerator, and MXAD

 

https://youtu.be/e-okwN7wC2A

[HesedTech]

21 hours ago, Twilk73 said:

I need an instructor or I need to video myself to hit my next level of shooting I guess. 

I've taken classes from several top shooters and they each have a particular skill they like to emphasize. However, based on this comment you might find the Practical Training Shooting Group worthwhile. Depending on the level you join you can send match and training videos to them for analysis. https://www.practicalshootingtraininggroup.com

 

As far as accuracy goes the "confirmation drill" from Hwansik Kim is something you can look at. https://www.practicalshootingtraininggroup.com/forums/topic/6585-proper-confirmation-1-and-predictive-shooting/#comment-30641

 

Remember practice is really what makes one move up to the next level, but we need metrics of what to practice and achieve. For instance, transitions aren't just how quickly one can move from target to target and fire a shot they include where the shot goes. For instance, am I dragging the shots, are they scattered across the target or As (down 0 IDPA), or maybe I always hit upper left? What I am saying is the top shooters actually pay close attention to the details and can perform on demand at a high level, both in practice and at a match.

 

They all get there on the same road, commitment, practice and attention to detail. 

 

I hope this helps and I didn't ramble on too much. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by HesedTech

[Twilk73]

Thanks for all the help everyone. Lots of links and information to check out I appreciate it. 

[cwt]

On 7/22/2022 at 11:05 AM, Twilk73 said:

I’ve been following Ben Stoeger and crew. I am working on quick trigger press, transitions, draws and reloads in dry practice. I agree there is a sea of information and a lot of people seem to do it differently. I’m trying to boil it all down to my biggest weakness and what’s going to gain me to most time. My biggest problems right now are down points because my accuracy sucks, it’s a bit of crappy trigger pull I think and definitely I’m driving the gun thinking about the bang. Transitions are easy, I’m just working on smoothing it out and going faster. 
 

So I found an excellent video done by one of the instructors that work with Ben on how to learn to pull the trigger fast and accurate. I guess I’m just wondering if there is a live drill to accommodate that. Truthfully I guess the dry drill can be the live drill to. 
 

I need an instructor or I need to video myself to hit my next level of shooting I guess. 
 

Excellent talk, thanks. 

An instructor really really helps take the content that you know and have practiced and allows you to extract additional nuggets of information that you may not have initially registered or understood. This goes for rewatching class videos from instructors when you are a more advanced shooter as the takeaways are different based on your skill level and you get that light bulb aha moment. 

I think in terms of drills to do live, the same fundamental drills you do dry should be done live to affirm what you've been practicing dry. Push them at speed and make mistakes so you can continue to tune and improve. 

[Twilk73]

19 hours ago, cwt said:

An instructor really really helps take the content that you know and have practiced and allows you to extract additional nuggets of information that you may not have initially registered or understood. This goes for rewatching class videos from instructors when you are a more advanced shooter as the takeaways are different based on your skill level and you get that light bulb aha moment. 

I think in terms of drills to do live, the same fundamental drills you do dry should be done live to affirm what you've been practicing dry. Push them at speed and make mistakes so you can continue to tune and improve. 

Absolutely agree, I will definitely be taking another class soon. 
 

I’ve had that aha moment. Another time where I felt stuck on my draw being faster, I went back and watched the instructor video and gleaned another nugget. It’s just as you said I was at a different level and was able to pick up a little more. 
 

Thanks, I’ll take all the info I can get. My dry practice is not the same as my live practice. My excuse is limited space. Maybe I’ll try to figure out how to make them more similar.