? for Steve

[G-ManBart]

Hi Steve,

As I've been working through your drills I noticed something that I've been doing and want to make sure it's not counter-productive.

I find this with all of the drills but for an easy example, say I'm working on my 10yd draw and I get to the last step where it's supposed to do 5 reps .1 faster than my baseline, but I don't stop at 5 reps. I find that frequently I'll get to a point like that instead of 5 reps I do 10 minutes worth or more. There are also times that I get to the baseline phase and I'm just not happy with what I'm seeing so I spend 5, 10, 20 minutes working on that until I'm ready to go any faster. Am I overly training myself to work at a particular speed when I do this? I'm thinking that I'm just working at being able to do it right regardless of the speed and moving on from there, but thought you could shed a little light on it for me. Thanks!

[Jake Di Vita]

I'm not Steve, but I'll try and answer as best as I can anyway.

For me personally, I improve the fastest when I push myself faster than my baseline. Most of my dry fire work is done where I can barely hit the par time at maximum speed. The reason for this is I think every time I do that it stretches my limitations a bit more. Eventually after a week, month, or longer, that par time will be easier and easier to hit - then I start the process all over again.

Doing this it is very easy to fall into the trap of "blasting at brown." A big key to performing drills like this is seeing what you need to see - even if the par time has already gone by. If you aren't careful you can get bad habits by doing this. I've always been fortunate enough that I could usually pretty much control what did and did not bleed over into my shooting.

So the short answer is do what your body is most apt to learn from, just be careful while doing it.

[mjbine]

I'm not Steve, but I'll try and answer as best as I can anyway.

For me personally, I improve the fastest when I push myself faster than my baseline. Most of my dry fire work is done where I can barely hit the par time at maximum speed. The reason for this is I think every time I do that it stretches my limitations a bit more. Eventually after a week, month, or longer, that par time will be easier and easier to hit - then I start the process all over again.

Doing this it is very easy to fall into the trap of "blasting at brown." A big key to performing drills like this is seeing what you need to see - even if the par time has already gone by. If you aren't careful you can get bad habits by doing this. I've always been fortunate enough that I could usually pretty much control what did and did not bleed over into my shooting.

So the short answer is do what your body is most apt to learn from, just be careful while doing it.

Jake

Good Post. I am still trying not to blast at brown.

[Chris Keen]

It's been said that we should practice at 110% of our abilities ..... and shoot matches at 90% of our abilities.

This seems to coincide with what Jake is saying here.

PS you might want to actually send Steve a PM so that he is notified that you have a question for his greatness.

[G-ManBart]

It's been said that we should practice at 110% of our abilities ..... and shoot matches at 90% of our abilities.

This seems to coincide with what Jake is saying here.

PS you might want to actually send Steve a PM so that he is notified that you have a question for his greatness.

Thanks....that makes sense to me and fits with what I'm trying to do. I'll PM Steve as well. R,

[Steve Anderson]

OK, I'll tell you a secret.

The par time reps are there for people who need a regimented program. Some people need a recipe...some don't.

What you describe will not harm your shooting...when I was really improving rapidly, I would work down the times as a warm up, then try to beat my best. Sheer speed. if I achieved a new best time, I would then turn up the vision to see what I need to see.

Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to go faster by giving the eyes a break from the action.

But we must invite them back to the party once speed shows up and gets comfy.

The only way for dry fire to hurt is to stop paying attention.

Good job!

SA

[G-ManBart]

Thanks Steve!