The Most Important Factor...

[Micah]

There's been some discussion on the forums about expensive training classes, triggers, gear, books, etc...all of it trying to decode what it is that is needed to succeed in shooting sports. It has been eye opening for me and has made me look inwardly at all of the tools that I have been using the past two years to win.

The options that I listed are sort of a trick...as I believe that each one is exceptionally valuable and a resource that I have utilized over the years. I am further biased, however: Before I made the decision to move up the ranks and take control of my competitive drive, I was barely scraping by as a C class shooter. Once I began reading, goal setting, and PRACTICING daily, I shot straight to M.

Vote, discuss, and be merry! This is the time of the shooting season to look inwardly and make the decision of getting better or staying the same.

[AlamoShooter]

Winning is getting more out of something than you put in. Or not . .... I can place 20th and feel like I won as long as I shot close to my potential. I think every thing on you list is a good tool.

But I'm a slow learner

Edited December 7, 2007 by AlamoShooter

[Jake Di Vita]

I went off my own experience so I said getting information from the forum is most important because all the info is here if you are willing to take the time and look, dry firing in your garage freezing your ass off because that means you have the fire which is a pre-requisite to becoming a good shooter, and you just need gear that works....which has also been my problem.

[zhunter]

I like cool but, voted gear that works!!!

You CAN'T be good at this sport if you have equipment issues. You don't need a pretty gun, just one that runs ALL the time.

Passion is the only other thing that is mandatory to good equipment in my opinion. If you have the passion, you automatically are searching the forum and doing the requisite live and dry-fire practice.

[boz1911]

I like cool but, voted gear that works!!!

You CAN'T be good at this sport if you have equipment issues. You don't need a pretty gun, just one that runs ALL the time.

Passion is the only other thing that is mandatory to good equipment in my opinion. If you have the passion, you automatically are searching the forum and doing the requisite live and dry-fire practice.

+1 on the gear. Never let equipment hold you back or use it for an excuse.

[Micah]

I'm really enjoying the feedback from you guys! I also want to say this as I encourage more people to post their thoughts:

There is NOTHING wrong with staying at the level that you are at! If you are happy going out once a month to your local club, or driving to a major match sevaral times a year to shoot, shoot the bs, and hang out with friends that you havent seen for some time...and you shoot just for the hell of it, that's great!

I am in this sport for all of the above, as well as fueling my own fierce desire to be a better shooter. Plaques and trophys are only wood and metal that burn up quickly in the fire. They may increase the flame for a short while, but certainly do not provide enough fuel to keep you going. The fuel must come from within.

[SA Friday]

I chose both dry firing and getting help from better shooters. I think they both have contributed significantly to my advancement in different ways. There are some things that dry firing just cannot teach. Why taking one target first vs another is knowledge that leads into better hits in less time. Dry firing will get the shooting basics to an advanced speed, but screw the pooch in your stage planning and the C class shooter beats ya.

Gear failure is doom. I'll take the nastly looking but solid shooting iron every time.

[Chris Keen]

Nobody told you to build a "Dry-Fire Dojo" in your new garage ....... you have a huge house in which to work on movement drills.

[Gameplayer]

I'm a beginner hoping to participate this coming year. So at this point everything in the poll will be valuable to me.

Right now I'm still searching for the "right" gear so as to take that out of the equation so no dryfire for me.

I have most of the books listed and some that are not.

I have gone through reams of paper printing out all the information here that I think I will need, including range diaries.

I have not made any goals at this point. I have shot guns all my life but I want to start like I have never picked one up.

I will seek instruction so as to not start off with bad habits. (Anyone interested in teaching a novice?)

[frenchwrench]

Where are the buttons for Unconscious-Conscious and Subconscious?

[JFD]

With careful reading, you can get the content of every shooting book right here + the personal experience of a ton more shooters who are just as qualified to give advice.

At every club there's usually several shooters who are very good teachers. They just don't advertise the fact and probably don't realize it themselves. They will be the ones giving smart advice to newbies(who ask) on how to shoot a stage or deal with props. Just like golf, those who give unsolicited advice are not the ones you want to listen to.

Carefully selecting a willing Master class shooter to train with can be really helpful. Realizing that the thinking behind the shooting is more imortant than technique or raw speed is also useful.

[LPatterson]

I could/would like to check every item in books and traing but it won't let me and at my skill level, I have no idea which is more important. I am not really shooting to win but to have fun. Don't get me wrong if I win I am happy but that is not the prime reason for being there. For the next 3-4 months I might not even handle a gun more than a couple times a month, I have both of Steve Anderson's books but I don't have the attention span to spend more than a few minutes at a time at it. For me it is more about using shooting as a reason to buy a new toy and I get shakes if I don't buy at least one new gun every 6 months. I usually look at the stages to determine which gun would be the most fun to shoot at that match.

[j1b]

I checked Brian's book because it is a good foundation - and in a logical order. These forums probably have all the same info - but BE's book flows well as a foundation.

I checked all the practice stuff. Other shooters give insights. You learn what you need to practice at club matches. You dry fire and live fire the things you learned. And you goal set to know if you're making progress. Those all fit in my book.

And then gear. Fundamentally yeah, it just has to work. But to me, it's flat out important. I'm not talking about looks good. I'm saying it needs to be reliable, it needs to be accurate, it needs to be consistent, it needs to fit me. Sights gotta stay on and dot's have to work.

So I said it's important.

J

[HoMiE]

Books - I read whatever I can get my hands on and have bought SBF, WWIM and SA dryfire books. The first time you read them, your just trying to understand what each author is talking about. But read them again and again. Then with practice and more experience, I seem to get more out of the books the next time I read them or from a different view.

Training - I voted for getting help from better shooters. I started to practice with someone who was better than I was. It helps to shoot with people who are better and I also was try to squad with better shooters at matches. A lot of times you don't know what your limits are until you see someone else do it first. I also think it it is good to take lessons or a class. I jumped big time in my shooting ability after taking a class. I think the biggest thing was learning how a GM trains or what they work on when at the range and put that into my practice routine.

Gear - I shoot a glock so I don't worry about it. J/K Seriously though, leave well enough alone. I've seen too many problems once you try to "trick" out your gear.

[dcarter]

Like a lot of you I have all of these books. I started with BE's book and I still like it best. It was well thought out (flowed) and covered a lot of different areas. For training I voted for club matches. If you go to club matches and pay close attention you can learn from those better shooters just from watching them not to mention you get practice shooting stages as well. As for equipment....IT MUST WORK!

[shooterbenedetto]

I do it because of the adrenalin RUSH!! and because my friends gives me compliments.

I think we will never be rich on being good at this sport except to win a fairly good gun

at a major championships.

[XRe]

You left out: experience at big matches, gear that works and works for you (sometimes different things). And, I would say an "appropriate goal setting program", not just "goal setting". Anyone can set goals. It takes someone with a good mental program to set appropriate goals, and knock them down consistently, assuring progress. It doesn't do any good to set goals and never make them...

You don't have to freeze your butt off in your garage, but whatever floats your boat...

[Jim Norman]

I think that Brians book is the foundation, at least in the sense that it puts things in order. There is a lot going on to do the type of shooting we do. Brian places things in a light that allows us to see how it can and should be.

Training comes in may forms and not all are right for everyone, nor are all necessary for any particular shooter.

Dry fire for the basics, on the range training with a timer and a set program of actual goals or at the very least a plan of practice, just showing up and firing 500 rounds is not practice, it is shooting.

Exprerianced shooters can help, but if they are really really good, but have no idea of how they got there, or of exactly what it is that they are doing, or they are lousy teachers, won't help. A good tacher can actually teach you to do things he cannot do. There are physical limitations that cannot be overcome.

Club matches only really count for local bragging rights, so they are a good place to test out yournew found skills. They don't have the preasure that a large match has, and that is something that you also need to learn to deal with, but a club match will allow you to push beyond what yo might try at an a Area or nationals simply because it is cheap and has little meaning.

Gear is probably the least important item, lets all be honest, Dave, Todd, Robbie, and the rest can beat most of us with a muzzle loader. If the gear works, i.e., the holster holds the gun and the gun goes bang every time, no failures to feed or cycle and the mags go in and drop free, you really don't need anything more.

Jim

[J-Ho]

I started shooting IDPA in about 2001-2002. I had a very fast learning learning curve. Then I plateaued got busy at work and with family a just kind of stayed at the same level. About 6 months ago I decided to start shooting a little more seriously. The simple act of writing down everything I do at a club match has made a HUGE improvement. I write down what I do well and what I do bad. I write down the areas I felt I was pushing myself and where I need to speed up. I write down how well I call my shots. I write down what I feel I need to practice. This simple method has made a tremendous improvement, not just in IDPA but 3 gun and the little bit of USPSA I shoot as well.

My $.025

Jason

[kurtm]

Gear that works everytime WILL WIN MATCHES!!

Your poll forced me to pick a "book", I had never read any type of shooting book untill 2005 and that one was Brian's, haven't even seen the others, are they good?

Time at the range CAN NOT BE substituted! Dry fire is very good and can build good basics, but you have to get rounds down range!

BASICS BASICS BASICS!!! I may screw up a stage here and there, but it WON'T be due to bad shooting!

The ability to "let it go" if you feel adrenalin, pressure, nerves, you are not going to do as well as focused calm! The minute I quit going to matches "to win them" I started winning them.

The most important factor is "skill on demand"!

I go to big matches to B.S. and drink with friends I only get to see 3-4 times a year. I like to do well, but if I don't It is still a win because I got to see all the folkes..no pressure! Did I mention your gear has to work everytime?? Kurt Miller

[ChrisStock]

At this young stage in my shooting career, I have come to realize that reliable gear is important. I have a great pistol I am driving these days, but the magazine issues have caused me to dump a lot of points the last 2 outings. I realize that having a great piece of functional gear doesn't make me a better shooter, but it sure as hell helps eliminate issues that prevent me from reaching my potential.

Forum knowledge here has been very valuable, as I absorb a lot of information, and often find answers to questions that I have. Club matches and advice from better shooters go hand in hand for me, as I have a couple of better shooters that often give me pointers during the course of the match, and give me things to ponder between stages and for practice during the week.

Great topic, lots more brain food here.

[raz-0]

I didn't respond to the poll because a lot of the stuff on there made a huge difference to my shooting at one point or another. Picking one would be hard.

GEAR

Gear can make a huge difference. Go shoot a course of fire with a floppy belt, a poor choice in holsters, and bad mag pouches, and see how mich time you are down compared to your usual. If your out of the box 1911 is being finiky rather than just running like it should, you are down even more. You can't buy an excellent performance, but you CAN cheap your way into performance killing problems. Some gear does have really high return for the money spent hough. Owning your own timer is a very good example of this.

Books

Brian's book laid out a framework of what you need to shoot well and shoot fast. Various other sources provided info for critiquing my technique. Steve anderson's dryfire books gave me a huge boost without me having to really understand what I was actually doing (more understanding came with time), but with wining in mind actuallly made a big difference in my ability to bring what skills I had developed to the line more consistantly and reliably. There's definitely training material out there that is clearly a very good value, but what will make the biggest impact on you depends on what you need to improve at the time. A D shooter isn't going to get much benefit from improving their mental game if they don't ahve the basic gun handling skills down. Someone trying to break into A needs to make sure they get a good grip on every draw now, but what is a better and worse grip isn't a mystery needing lots of explanation. Just a couple of examples.

Training

This is probably where I can come closes to picking something as the most important. Hour per hour, live fire practice is the best improver of skill, money and time being no object. However, it is much easier to get some good dryfire practice under your belt, and realistcly is probably the most beneficial training aid.

Club matches are probably the least important of the list, as they mostly provide feedback on how your training is paying off. If I'm only getting to matches, and not getting enough practice time, I can tread water, but making headway is REALLY hard. Without it though, I couldn't really tell you if I've honestly improved when asked to integrate all the trained skills. It is a decent place to get tips from better shooters easily.

Goal setting is a critically important tool, but it is largely about setting goals based on the other important areas. In a vaccume , it wouldn't do much.

Getting help from better shooters can really shorten the time it takes to get your head around the next obstical in getting better. I suppose if one is talking about getting focused training from a really good shooter, they can be a source of all the knowledge you pick up from most of the other choices, but I have yet to have the time or funds to take advantage of something like that.

[P.E. Kelley]

+1 to every item on Kurt's list.

BASICS. We talk here an awful lot about mind set and mental management. That is great and a factor for sure.

But gear that works is #1. Knowing THAT gear through live fire practice is #2.

After that you gotta show up and shoot!

Simple mind / simple process.

Shooting well takes less gray matter then driving a car.

Patrick

[ima45dv8]

There's been some discussion on the forums about expensive training classes, triggers, gear, books, etc...all of it trying to decode what it is that is needed to succeed in shooting sports. It has been eye opening for me and has made me look inwardly at all of the tools that I have been using the past two years to win.

The options that I listed are sort of a trick...as I believe that each one is exceptionally valuable and a resource that I have utilized over the years. I am further biased, however: Before I made the decision to move up the ranks and take control of my competitive drive, I was barely scraping by as a C class shooter. Once I began reading, goal setting, and PRACTICING daily, I shot straight to M.

Vote, discuss, and be merry! This is the time of the shooting season to look inwardly and make the decision of getting better or staying the same.

"Before I made the decision....."