Indoor Practice Video 12-20-08

[CHA-LEE]

I would like some feed back on the below Indoor Practice Video. This is a simple stage that my shooting buddy and I put together at a local indoor range. We can’t draw from the holster at this range so we start the stage with a loaded pistol on one of the shooting benches and go pick it up after the buzzer goes off. We also have to keep the rounds down range at all times so we setup shooting boxes to keep the lead going where it should when engaging the targets. The break down of the stage is this. Start sitting in a surrender position with gun loaded on the bench. At start signal retrieve pistol and engage targets from shooting boxes. Targets 1 & 2 can be engaged from box 1. Target 3 can be engaged from box 2. Targets 4 & 5 can be engaged from box 3. Targets 6, 7 & 8 can be engaged from box 4. Targets 1, 2, and 3 had their bottom half covered with a no shoot and targets 6 & 8 had a diagonal hard cover line through them.

When I first ran through this stage had a time of 16.5 seconds. I was stopping in the shooting boxes and breaking my grip apart when I moved from each shooting box. These two things cost quite a bit of time. I focused on moving through the boxes as I engaged the targets and kept my grip locked in between boxes and was able to end up with a consistent 11.75 stage time with no “D” hits. I tried hard to get through the stage with a sub 11 sec run but the more I pushed it the worse my hits would get (misses, no-shoots, and “D” hits) and my time would only be slightly faster. The 11.75 time was the limit of my ability while still feeling in control of every shot and maintaining a smooth flow.

For me, I feel that I shot the stage pretty well and the only time loss that I can find are in two areas. First. the transition from box 1 and 2 I kept looking down for the shooting box edge to make sure I was stepping into it. We were using broom handles as box boarders so I was really leery of tripping on one and could never get over looking for it. I guess that is the price to pay for using such a ghetto stage setup. Second, entering the last shooting box I was waiting for both feet to become planted in the box before I started to engage the targets. I didn’t even realize that I was doing that until I was reviewing the video footage afterwards. I also don’t know why my shooting index was facing the last target. I ended up with that strange shooting index almost every time, for some unknown reason. Even if I optimized those two things I don’t think I could have shaved off another .75 second to get into the sub 11 second runs. Is a 10 second run asking too much for this stage?

Here is the video

Please let me know what you think I can do differently or better to maintain accuracy but speed up the stage time.

[Rocket35]

You can speed up your movement by talking your support hand off the gun in the long movement areas between the target arrays.

[CHA-LEE]

Rocket35> Thanks for the feedback!!! I did try both keeping my grip intact and breaking my grip apart then rebuilding it before the next shooting box but my times were usually about a second slower when I broke my grip down to run. Maybe I was waiting to rebuild my grip after I got into the shooting box? I can see that taking more time if I was doing that. What I found with this stage is if I kept my grip intact and just pulled the gun back to my chest, I could then just punch the gun out at the target and engage it right away when I got to the shooting box. Thus a better time for me. I also want to add that the floor at this range was not to grippy and traction was low. There is very little regular foot traffic in the middle of this range so it is fairly dusty and slick. I really couldn’t dig in and run as fast as I wanted because there wasn’t enough traction.

What I think I will try though is breaking my grip for the initial part of the sprint to get going as fast as possible then start rebuilding it as I get close to the shooting box so its up an on target, grip established, and ready to engage right as I enter the shooting box. It sounds easy on paper but I am sure it will be a lot harder to do in person. I worry about grip consistency on doing this though.

[HoMiE]

I would suggest keeping the gun and your hands out from position 1 to 2. You also looked down from that position and given the short distance, I don't think that was necessary. What Rocket said about breaking you grip going from 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 positions. Get you hands back on the gun 1.5 to 2 steps before you get to the next box and have gun up ready to go. Definately doable in in under 10 seconds.

Edited December 24, 2008 by HoMiE

[Sean Gaines]

Yeah what they said above

I did like the way you kept your feet moving in the first postion, most people would shoot that static

good job, keep it up

[CHA-LEE]

HoMiE> Yeah, lowering the gun while moving is a hard habit to break for me. I think that if I didn't look down I would have been able to keep the gun up and on target. Like I said before, those make shift boxes made by using broom stick handles always had me concerned. We also had them setup at uneven distances. For example, box 1 was about 1.5 times wider than box 2. So it was really hard to know how many steps you need to take to get out of box 1 and into box 2. This part of the stage setup was very un-USPSA stage like. Most of the time at a USPSA match the shooting boxes are a consistent size and not right next to one another like that. We have to do this at this indoor range to force the shooter to engage the targets for very specific locations in order to keep the rounds going into the back stop.

[CHA-LEE]

Anyone have any thoughts as to why my shooting index ends up pointing towards the right hand target on the last three targets even though I engage the left most target first? I am baffled as to why that keeps happening.

[HoMiE]

Anyone have any thoughts as to why my shooting index ends up pointing towards the right hand target on the last three targets even though I engage the left most target first? I am baffled as to why that keeps happening.

That's happening becasue you are coming in hard on your left foot. It looks like you are sliding a little bit when you stop and you are throwing your right leg out/back probably for balance. Smooth it out that last step or step-half before you get into box, gun/hands up ready to shoot.

[rupie]

What is involved in rebuilding your grip? I have returned this summer after a 15 year layoff, in 93 when I quit shooting IPSC it was rare to see anyone move and shoot at the same time. I purposely built stages designed to reward people who would shoot while moving. Most still stopped to shoot. Now everyone except newbies shoot while moving. So I am learning new things that have developed over the years but my Grip seems solid and I don't have a issue in one step to re-grasp the support hand. What am I missing? My draw is more critical and easier to miss my grip with my strong hand than doing anything with my support hand.

[CHA-LEE]

rupie> I think for me, its not so much about rebuilding the grip that takes time, but more so having lowered the gun in my strong hand to use it for running then having to bring the gun back up as I get my grip rebuilt. I know I am probably just waiting too long before I start bringing the gun back up to rebuild the grip and that is why my times were slower with it. That is why I am going to focus on initiating the rebuilding of the grip a few steps sooner to see how that works out compared to keeping the grip locked in and pulling it back to my chest.

Testing and Practice, Testing and Practice, over and over and over. This is what I really like about this sport, striving to always do it better.

[rupie]

I catch my self lowering the gun to run also, another thing I do is reload to low, its not natural to run or reload with your gun up that high. I rarely practice I just shoot in matches every weekend. I do get some dry fire and reload practice during the week.

[CHA-LEE]

Thanks for the feed back from all!!! It is much appreciated!!!