Training; The Standard Model

[saibot]

After recently being infected with the competitive shooting virus I decided that I wanted to really focus on training to see what I was capable of achieving. I’ve been sifting through all of the great content on this site and reading Brian’s book to get a better understanding of what I need to do. But the problem I’m having is that all of the training and great advice is without cohesion to a timeline (or more accurately, a point in a person’s development). It doesn’t have any reference to where I am on the scale of experience.

Since my resources (time and money) are extremely limited I want to be sure I’m effectively training to get the most bang for my buck. I was trying to envision a training program that would span the entire gamut; Never touched a gun before all the way to pushing from Master to Grand Master and beyond.

Then I hit the wall. I couldn’t just have drills thrown at me because they assume a certain level of understanding and typically build upon fundamentals that are assumed mastered. Then add to the equation that no two people learn the same way and at the same rate. One skill may be the easiest for one person but take a significant amount of practice to master for the next , as learning isn’t linear across multiple people. And forget about a timeline in the traditional sense. You can’t pin a skill to n amount of time spent performing x training exercise.

So all of this is bouncing around in my head and I’m trying to create a program for myself with knowing enough to know what I don’t know when it occurs to me this is similar to the problem of studying particle physics. There is just too much unknown to even start to quantify a “model”. So they came up with the “Standard Model” which aims to be a benchmark of sorts by which to compare everything else.

So if a Standard Model were to exist you could easily look down the line to see what skills you have, or lack, and in which order most people acquire them and work on the appropriate drills/training. You would then be able to move down the line at your own pace ensuring you had enough of a foundation to quickly develop the next skill. That’s the theory at least. I know I’m probably overthinking this, but I thought I’d throw this out there and see what you all thought.

So, what would it look like? Of course it would start out with nomenclature and safe handling practices and the proper mindset. Then perhaps work on the fundamentals of grip, stance, and trigger control?

Anyone care to take a stab at it?

[Jake Di Vita]

Everything you do stems back to the Fundamentals.

Calling your shot is also the most important thing to learn how to do. Do nothing else until you have developed this skill.

[AWLAZS]

Where are you at now? Can you shoot a group? Do ypu know when you missed or do you have to walk up to the targets to check? If not you need to work on the basics of stand and shoot.

Once you can answer yes to the above you can start to work on the other skills involved in the sport.

Evey one has their own base line. With the use of a friend and a timer you can set your own to set your own.

It is easy to understand what needs to be done. It takes time and quality practice to get better. That is where the friend and the timer come in. I had a non shooting friend how would eat lunch while I did my dry fire. I explained what I was trying to do and he would coach me along the way. It was a big help. It took me up to the next level. He is now a shooter to.

[XRe]

Good stuff above... but I think I get the gist of your question.... Let me take a little different tack...

No, there's not really a "standard model", like a prescription of steps to follow that will get you from A to B - obviously, different people have different skills and temperaments, and a "standard model" can't really take those things into account. Also, most of us have experienced that your internal understandings of these skills - even the very basic basics - change over time as you gain skills.

That said - there are some very general, basic skills that are pretty well recognized as being required in order to progress well in this game, and then there are a bunch of discrete, smaller skills that combine together to further enhance your game. It helps greatly to seek skilled instruction for many of these things - if you find a good instructor, and follow their direction, you may likely find that you'll progress far more quickly than the "try it on my own" method (which usually requires reworking skills you already "know" - in a more inefficient or ineffective way - which is a frustrating and time consuming progress, during which you may actually regress...).

A list of fundamentals might include:

- shot calling

- trigger control and manipulation

- basic draw

- basic reload

- basic target transitions

- reaction times

An exhaustive list of the other discrete skills is tough, but in broad categories include:

- movement skills (position entry/exit, shoot on the move, etc)

- position work (barricades, prone, kneeling, etc)

- course strategy

- mental game

- equipment selection, preparation, and maintenance

A good way to consider what to work on is to perform a self evaluation to determine the weakest skills you have that are most important to the game. One way is outlined here: http://re-gun.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-do...o-practice.html - there are obviously others If you don't know where your skills are at, pick the most basic skills and start there (if you use the method in the blog post, the stuff with the highest numbers in Column C would be a good place to start).

We know this - you can't make GM and be competitive without being able to call your shots, or shoot accurately on demand. You will also need a certain level of skill in terms of drawing the gun from various positions, reloading the gun, getting into and out of (and shooting from) common and odd positions smoothly, moving efficiently through a course of fire, and executing a plan without hesitation (among various other things, of course). If you work those skills, and learn efficient methods for each, you will advance To GM? I don't know... That depends a lot on you, in the end...

[shred]

Ten Thousand Hours.

Actually, for IPSC, I suspect it's less than 1000 to hit Master. A GM I know says "500,000 rounds; by then you can't help but make GM"

[saibot]

Thanks all for your responses. I will add them to my training program.

[Jaxshooter]

Buy a copy of Brian's book Practical Shooting Beyond Fundamentals. Read it and then reread it. It will answer alot of questions and is an excellent referrence guide.