Visual Acuity Exercises?

[jkrispies]

In Brian's book, he gives an example of visual acuity as the ability to look at a ceiling fan blade and follow it with the eyes to the point that the blades can be seen individually. I suppose this could be used as an exercise to build visual acuity if you don't mind walking around dizzy for the rest of the day! I've heard that there are some doctors and sports trainers out there who have had success in training atheletes (quarterbacks, etc.) with these types of visual exercises.

Does anybody have an exercise or drill ( which doesn't necessarily have to involve a gun ) that a competitive shooter could use to help get on the sights more precisely and/or quickly?

Thanks,

J

[Jake Di Vita]

At the height of my obsession, I made a small sight picture (front post and rear notch) out of paster in my rear view mirrors on my truck. That way, whenever driving, I could always practice changing focal distances between the sight and "target." Isn't the exact same since technically the focus distance is the same, but I still saw benefit from it.

After all, in terms of vision, I'd say the ability to rapidly change your focal point is one of the biggest factors to success in shooting at a high level.

Great question.

[p99shooter]

At the height of my obsession, I made a small sight picture (front post and rear notch) out of paster in my rear view mirrors on my truck. That way, whenever driving, I could always practice changing focal distances between the sight and "target." Isn't the exact same since technically the focus distance is the same, but I still saw benefit from it.

I'm pretty sure switching between focusing on a paster on a mirror and a reflection in the mirror does require a physical change in focus distance for your eyes, so I think this is a great way to practice changing you focus.

[Stuck in C]

I wonder about certain video games to improve visual transitions. My son's have a first person shooter video game which has a "practice" mode where a scene is presented and targets appear for a few seconds and then disappear. Sometimes as many as five appear at once. As you improve and advance in level, the appearance times get shorter. With a large LCD TV and standing far back from it, you really have to snap your eyes from one target to the next to move the cursor over and shoot before they disappear. The cursor is shaped like a scope reticle and they have a controller with a pistol grip. Good visual training or not?

[Bill Schwab]

TT had a great exercise posted years ago somewhere on this site with his bead drill, you may want to see if it'll come up through a search.

[benos]

Does anybody have an exercise or drill ( which doesn't necessarily have to involve a gun ) that a competitive shooter could use to help get on the sights more precisely and/or quickly?

Pick out 5 or 6 different "spots" on the wall. (Like a light switch, the corner of a window, etc. Or you could tape little targets on the wall.) Then just by pointing your finger - focus on the first target, point your finger at it, then focus on your finger nail, and repeat for the rest of the targets.

I remember at the first Steel Challenge (1981), stopping buy Nick Pruitt's hotel room, the night before the man on man shootoff. He had made scaled down paper targets and taped them on the wall, positioned similar to how they would really appear in the shootoff.

I just stopped by to visit with him, but he didn't have time to socialize, he was in hard training. I thought, "man this dude is serious." And I also remember doubting the value his dry-training technique.

Well, the next day he absolutely smoked everyone! He won every bout of every round. I can still hear John Shaw saying, as he walked off the line - "I felt like a fart in a whirlwind out there."

be