What to work on

[38supPat]

Pat, what would you suggest to a production C shooter like me?

Those 6 areas I believe are overwhelming to work on at the same time.

Would it be advisable if say I focus on accuracy and transition first.

I dont know how to go about it.

Thank you.

I always include some accuracy drills in every practice session, I vary it up a bit by doing different things like 50m standards or just group shooting, some off the bench, dot drills or anything that works on shooting very accurately.

After that I try to focus drills to work on specific things. Transitions is high on the list and should Ve for anybody, Brian's transition drills, X drill, and plate racks are food for this. Draws and reloads I pretty much only work in dry fire and might just do a couple at the range to check my times...maybe throw a Double Draw master drill in every now and then, and the only drills I do to work on Splits is at or past 15m now a days (usually in partials at 15m or more)

But don't think you have to include everything in one drill or practice session.

To answer your question I would say always work on accuracy and then yeah I would focus on building your transition as the will probably make the biggest difference in your time. Movement including shooting on the move would probably be next on the list for a new shooter.

I just got home from running and tearing down a level I match and still have scores to do so when I get to a proper keyboard I'll try to make a better post...lol and some stuff I want to add (maybe I should make a new article/post) and cover some stuff I see that wasn't in this one (I really tried to list the most basic things.

[jun_1911]

Thank you so much Pat.

[mahamoti]

Just wanted to add my thanks to this thread... I was watching a match vid from last weekend, picking out the things *I* could tell needed work, and wondering, "Even if I fix those, what am I missing? I'm still nowhere near the fast guys."

This not only gave me a few more things to look for, but also helped me understand how important each one is!

Thanks again.

[Pensfan]

Thanks for putting this together!

I just started shooting and have two matches under my belt now. I have a 56% C classification in Production and am shooting approximately 90% of my points available... I need to work on speed now and where to pick it up. Thanks for writing this up!!

[KyroWebs]

Awesome post. I'll add one thing (for very new shooters). Reload before you run the gun dry! If you have to move from one port to the other, reload if you need to. A while back there was a discussion of what separates each division and the biggest thing I have seen to separate D from C (and sometimes B ) shooters was just planning reloads (as long as the shooter had the basic fundamentals down).

Edited May 2, 2012 by KyroWebs

[38supPat]

Yeah, that's a good observation. When I typed this up though I was really trying to keep to the real core skills and not delve into tactics or planning. There are soooo many other small tips that could be added that a book could be filled with do's and don'ts of stage planning.

Many times for newer shooters, and I think I made this comment somewhere else too, there is so much going on in a stage that they can't cope with all the details. Because they are new or not very experienced, they have to think their way through a whole stage and that's not easy. To add keeping track of rounds and planning reloads is just beyond their capability at that level.

[tackdr1ver]

Sweet post man! Bookmarking this one.

Thank you!

[theycallmeingot]

great post. as a B class shooter, this is right up my alley. Movement and transitions it is!

[Onagoth]

Thanks Pat!

It's funny the ordering of things, since typically I see guys practicing the hell out of their draws, but not necessarily practicing transitions.

We shot Karl's new plate rack at EESA the other day and one of the things we practiced that night was transitions.....went something like

plate....paper....plate...paper....plate....paper, until the whole rack was down. There was about 2-3 yards between paper targets on either side of the rack.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Onagoth

[Not-So-Mad Matt]

Put yourself on a timer through some drills that test your movement, splits, transitions, draw and reloads. Track your numbers and ask a GM what his are.

Perhaps we could list some benchmark numbers here?

[38supPat]

Might be worth a new thread, maybe in " Skills"

Remember to post your average or predictable times, not your "best ever" they have to be what you can do on match day every time.