Air Gunning A Cadence

[iweiny]

I was reading another thread on mental cadence and it dawned on me. When I air gun and visualize a stage I do it with a cadence. Not the same cadence for every target or array but a cadence for how long I feel the shot should take. For example I will take some time for steel, but very quickly shoot 2 to the paper right in front of me...

Do other people do this?

As I have been getting faster I find myself not seeing the sights as much as I used to. I wonder if I have started to shoot with a cadence and a feel rather than letting my sight dictate everything.

On the other hand perhaps I am just recognizing the different types of sight picture required for each shot and programming that in.

I have really thought a lot about this "throttle control" and I have see in my videos where I am getting better. Perhaps part of this is the pre-stage programming...

Just some more random thoughts, from a lowly learning shooter...

Ira

[Jake Di Vita]

A big problem I notice with air-gunning is when they do it, they do it like they want it to be over. If I time myself air-gunning a stage (to see which way is faster) I am always faster in live fire. In air-gunning I almost exaggerate the time needed to take each shot so my sub-conscious doesn't get a cadence worked into it.

The last thing I want is to shoot an array at a cadence that doesn't follow what my sights are doing.

[AWLAZS]

When I air gun a stage I look at the targets just like I would if I was shooting them. At the place I would pot the dot. I speed up and slow down depending on the difficulty of the shots required. I dont think I rush it at all.

[kamakiri]

I air gun with a real-time cadence when I can (it's not always easy on a crowded walk through). Another thing I also make a point of doing in watching how my shooting cadence interacts with the pacing of any footwork or other movement on the stage, so as to be aware of any point where the movement seems likely to speed up or slow down the shooting away from its optimal speed; I've found that using these "precision points" (places in the stage where I need to be especially careful to do precisely what I need to) as a way of organizing my visualization of my run on the stage can be really helpful.

[iweiny]

A big problem I notice with air-gunning is when they do it, they do it like they want it to be over. If I time myself air-gunning a stage (to see which way is faster) I am always faster in live fire. In air-gunning I almost exaggerate the time needed to take each shot so my sub-conscious doesn't get a cadence worked into it.

The last thing I want is to shoot an array at a cadence that doesn't follow what my sights are doing.

Well, here I am 8 months later and I think I have finally learned... At the Bay Bridge Charity match I, along with the other RO's, were just trying to get the whole match done after working in the morning. As a result my walk through really just focused on seeing the sights on every shot. I did not even think about cadence or anything...

I shot a pretty good match all told. One stage in particular I just saw everything for a couple of the arrays. Man that was a great feeling. Reviewing the video, I noticed that my transitions were way better. I was letting the sights dictate the speed and, in the end it was faster. It seemed slow, but the results do not lie.

I think I am really going to focus on what I need to see, rather than anything else. I think I did this better when I started out and recently I have been "pushing" which, for me at least, translates into not seeing.

We will see how it works out.

Thanks again guys,

Ira

[bgary]

When I air gun a stage I look at the targets just like I would if I was shooting them.

One of the most impressive things I've seen was with Eric Grauffel at the Nationals in Bend.

I took some video of him as he was airgunning during the 5-minute walkthru. And then, by happy coincidence, I took some video of him on his actual run on the same stage.

If you play those two videos side-by-side, they are dead-nuts identical. Same cadence. Same foot placements. Same indexing. Same everything.

Something to be said for "practicing your plan".

B

[Steve Moneypenny]

I really had a lot of experience playing with this conundrum this season. It is really hard to not get yourself into a rythm. I think to be truely great you have to be able to shoot like you are in a rythm, but not actually have the rythm. if that makes sence?

It seems like the human body wants to fall into a rythm on everything we do, dancing, walking jogging, rythm seems to make things eaiser.

I have noticed with Max Michel shooting with him and being in classes with him is very deliberate in his walk throughs and executes them with the same proficiency when he is shooting. I think that is very important to your final performance. Your mind barely being able to tell the difference.