LittlePistol Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I hunted through the topics, and haven't found this one yet (if I missed it please redirect me). When I'm shooting, in a match, but especially in practice, my buddy (and mentor) keeps pointing out that while I am shooting well, I am shooting too slow. Disclaimer: Keep in mind this is all asked-for corrective critism which I greatly appreciate. Does anyone else have this problem? I try to shoot fast in practice to push myself, but I can't seem to speed up. Every time I think I am shooting fast, I look at a timer, and see that I was acctually crawling. My accuracy is improving and my mechanics are getting better, but my speed isn't budging. Do I need to be more patient and "wait" for speed to come, or is there a mental block that I can't "see" that is causing me to be "over-cautious" when pulling the trigger? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Do Matt Burketts timing drills, they are on his website. They teach you to watch the frong sight and react to it visually, you are probably shooting conciously now. Shooting faster is only a very small part, and almost inconsequential until you get to M level IMO. Transition speed and correct fast movement make a WOLRD more difference for the less than M class shooters, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Most of us shoot plenty fast. It's everything else we do that is dreadfully slow comparativley speaking. Keep working on getting your hits, and work on making your movements efficient. Everyone's gotta walk before they run! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatland Shooter Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 (edited) After a 10 year hiatus, I came back to USPSA last year with the same problem. Accuracy was great but speed was terrible. The best thing I did was (1) practice dry firing every day and after several months of this, (2) buy Steve Anderson's book of dry firing exercises and then dry fire correctly every night. With such a long layoff, the skills are still coming back slowly, but #1 & #2 has helped me immensely. Bill p.s. The wife no longer complains about the field courses set up through the house. Edited February 19, 2007 by Flatland Shooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittlePistol Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 SNIP you are probably shooting conciously now. SNIP I think you are probably right there, but as far as shooting consciously, is it possible to do that without actually realizing it? I don't hear any conscoius "noise." Most of us shoot plenty fast. It's everything else we do that is dreadfully slow comparativley speaking.Keep working on getting your hits, and work on making your movements efficient. Everyone's gotta walk before they run! Good point, but when I am standing stationary, I feel like I should be able to physically squeeze the trigger faster than I do. That was basically what I was refering to when I was talking about shooting too slow. Paper targets at 3 yards, I should be able to just index and blast the crap out of them, but I don't. I am almost stalling in bewteen shots, so to speak. I have no idea what I am looking for, I see the sights on target, but I'm not engaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 (edited) Dryfire is the best way to program the mind where it isn't conciously involved in the shooting, do it well first and often second. The timing drills I referred to in the first post is a great step to shooting visually instead of conciously. Learn to shoot from what you see vs what you decide. Edited February 19, 2007 by HSMITH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Did Kevin show you how to prep the trigger? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittlePistol Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 (2) buy Steve Anderson's book of dry firing exercises and then dry fire correctly every night. With such a long layoff, the skills are still coming back slowly, but #1 & #2 has helped me immensely. Bill p.s. The wife no longer complains about the field courses set up through the house. Mental note: Buy Steve Anderson's book as next in collection. Thanks Learn to shoot from what you see vs what you decide. Oooh, good point...maybe I am trying to "decide" I see the target and just don't realize it? I will definately keep that in mind in dryfire practice tonight. Did Kevin show you how to prep the trigger? Maybe...he might have worded it differently...could you expand on that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 When you're dry firing, take note of how and where the trigger breaks. The "slop" or "slack" or whatever you want to call it prior to the trigger actually breaking is what I'm talking about here. Rather than just pull the trigger straight back from the front to the rear, take the slack out of the trigger while the gun is in recoil and/or you are in transition from one target (or shot) to the next. That way when the gun settles back down and you have the sight picture you want, you can break the shot *then* and not have to worry about prepping the trigger... It's a miniscule amount of time, but it all adds up. Add bill drills to your list of things to practice on too; but really - at this stage of the game you should be worrying about: 1. being safe 2. getting good hits 3. having FUN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittlePistol Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 When you're dry firing, take note of how and where the trigger breaks. The "slop" or "slack" or whatever you want to call it prior to the trigger actually breaking is what I'm talking about here. Rather than just pull the trigger straight back from the front to the rear, take the slack out of the trigger while the gun is in recoil and/or you are in transition from one target (or shot) to the next. That way when the gun settles back down and you have the sight picture you want, you can break the shot *then* and not have to worry about prepping the trigger... It's a miniscule amount of time, but it all adds up.Add bill drills to your list of things to practice on too; but really - at this stage of the game you should be worrying about: 1. being safe 2. getting good hits 3. having FUN! Okay, yeah, he taught me how to do that. I guess I am on the right track then because I have those 3 mostly covered (get my hits most of the time)! I'll be sure to incorperate the Bill Drills into Kevin and my next practice (hopefully this will be with my new blaster!). I'll have to see if I can set up a mock-up of the Bill Drills in my motel room? Hmmm.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinUSA Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Excuse my 2 cents; But to me it sounds as if you are afraid of missing. It's an unconscious thing, a fear of failure. It's like hanging on too tight, and not letting yourself go and just shooting. Failure is not a bad word. Failure is a way to define you abilities. You can't improve until you fail, then you know what to work on... Just let go and allow yourself to fail... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittlePistol Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 No excuse needed for your 2 Cents Britin. All "cents" is welcome! You make a really good point. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vluc Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Excuse my 2 cents; But to me it sounds as if you are afraid of missing. It's an unconscious thing, a fear of failure. It's like hanging on too tight, and not letting yourself go and just shooting.Failure is not a bad word. Failure is a way to define you abilities. You can't improve until you fail, then you know what to work on... Just let go and allow yourself to fail... So true. Failure is just a learning experience, nothing more, nothing less. As you may find on other posts, there are times you have to push the envelope to see how fast you can go and hit, and how fast you can go and miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Moneypenny Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 The reason things seem fast is because your mind is closing. you are focusing your consciousness and telling it "speed" over and over ... kind of like a bad bevis and butthead rerun. Relax a bit, and just observer yourself shooting... that's your natural pace.. which can be increased ( cheapest and easiest b ut less fun in dry fire) Most of us narrow our minds going into a stage, we get nervous which creates tunnel vision to a minor extend and our conscious mind ignores what we should be observing so our subconscious can use it to make corrections. about failure... check my sig line and who said it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittlePistol Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 As you may find on other posts, there are times you have to push the envelope to see how fast you can go and hit, and how fast you can go and miss. A very good point that I have read (as you pointed out) in many other posts. I have many years of "never accepting failure" to undo. about failure... check my sig line and who said it Steve - I love the sig line! And so true... Personally, I think Britin hit it on the head...I am "afraid of missing." I am going to work on reprogramming my mind (conscious and unconscious) to accept failure as a tool to learn from and nothing more, nothing less. Thanks for the replies guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 i have come to realise that the pareto 80:20 rule applies even in shooting.. you only spend about 20% of your time shooting a course, the other 80%... even a straight up course like a bill drill has considerable time-wasting.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Every time I think I am shooting fast, I look at a timer, and see that I was acctually crawling. While you're shooting, if you're think or feel like you're shooting fast or slow - you're not paying attention to the right things. You should be so immersed in finding the targets and reading the sights that how fast you are doing it isn't even available to you consciously. Take a close look at your shooting with that in mind. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singlestack Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Have you ever tried to see how fast you can shoot? Next time you go to the range, point your gun at the berm and without aiming just shoot it as fast as you can. Then start trying to see the FS while you do this (still not aiming). Have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSeevers Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Have you ever tried to see how fast you can shoot? Next time you go to the range, point your gun at the berm and without aiming just shoot it as fast as you can. Then start trying to see the FS while you do this (still not aiming). Have fun. This is exactly what I would recommend. Try it at 5 feet from berm with your eyes closed too. Be safe and experience and experiment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosshooting Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Brian has said it very nice: Shoot as fast as you can see! The only thing that you can do to speed up is to practice and clear movements and focus speed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear23 Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Did Kevin show you how to prep the trigger? Kevin's definition of prepping the trigger is spitting levi garret on it. Next match i see her i'll watch her shoot and ask if i can give her some advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kspeer Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 She is pretty new at all of this. For the most part, I have been working on getting her into a platform that runs and is consistent and in all fairness, she didnt have her STI until the day before she left, so it was hard to really get past the basics when fighting the equipment issues. As for my trigger prepping, you must prep yours with my Crown Royal, because I went looking for that bottle after the RO class and havent seen it since! Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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