Mundane practice sessions...

[Ron Ankeny]

I was at the range this morning running some loads through the chrono and practicing box to box movement and shooting on the move.

I had a box to step into with two small poppers down range in front of it, another box to the right on a diagonal with two paper targets in front of it, and a third box to the left and down range from the second with two small poppers and a paper target. You know the drill, gun in front of face when you get there, shooting as you leave, etc.

I shot several runs with my open gun and they were in the 11 to 12 second range. I had my G-19 in the truck so I retrieved it and ran three runs with it and I'll be darned if my times weren't in the 12 second range. I then realized that I was conducting the practice session well within my "comfort" zone.

I got the open gun back out, raised the intensity level in my mind a couple of clicks, and went for it like I was in a match. All A zone hits, all steel down in 9.2 seconds. This served as a reminder to pratice like we play... to win.

[Team Amish 1]

That's an interesting post, Ron.

I have not noticed this in live fire but something similar in dry fire drills.

Every now and then, when I lose focus on thew drill at hand and the par time seems hard to reach, I "tense up" on purpose, get a sharp picture of where I want to the gun to be on the target and easily beat the par time. Not sure who said it but I read someone's advice on the forum, to "practice like your live depended on it" or something to that effect. Your "play to win" analogy describes it well.

[jacks2028]

it's amazing post. when I lose focus on threw at hand and the par time seems hard to reach, I "tense up" on purpose, get a sharp picture of where I want to the gun to be on the target and easily beat the par time. It's quite interesting to do adventure like this.

[billfer]

I noticed the same thing Rons talking about while practicing Smoke and Hope the other day. I could shoot it all day long (.22 from low draw) with times like 2.28 . Once I decided to "go for it" my times were 2.11 to 2.17 . If I pulled all the stops I recorded 1.96 and 1.99 but both runs had a miss so the score was not recorded in my diary. With practice I should be able to improve the times without missing.

[Corey]

i like the idea of really pushing in practice. if you dont push you wont know what can/can't do. push it til the wheels fall off, then put them back on and keep going. with pushing comes the warning as well. never push too hard to be unsafe.