Practicing Going Faster

[shooterbenedetto]

For me going faster is MASTERING skills in shooting.

To master or learn something, you have to PRACTICE TO PERFECTION!

How many shooters out there train like an Olympian? Train like as if you are going to the Olympics!

every match..

1) EFFICIENT MOVEMENT- without the gun how can you efficiently move thru a stage?

2) SHOOTING- Knowing youR CONSISTENCY TIME ON splits, transitions, shooting accuracy on different distances shooting on a move and reloads. Perform where you are CONSISTENT with proper technique.

3) STAGE BREAKDOWN- techniques and how to shoot it efficiently( cutting down shooting positions) or in most cases use the KISS method.

4) MENTAL- Calming down before shooting is the key! if you think fast before the buzzer, YOU ARE TOAST! and bound something will go wrong(at least at my level) Shoot an average movement and you will eventually shoot faster with the rest of the stages.

5) EQUIPTMENT- make sure your are tuned to run close to 100% so you can focus on SHOOTING SKILLS.

Edited July 11, 2009 by shooterbenedetto

[benos]

For me going faster is MASTERING skills in shooting.

To master or learn something, you have to PRACTICE TO PERFECTION!

How many shooters out there train like an Olympian? Train like as if you are going to the Olympics!

every match..

1) EFFICIENT MOVEMENT- without the gun how can you efficiently move thru a stage?

2) SHOOTING- Knowing youR CONSISTENCY TIME ON splits, transitions, shooting accuracy on different distances shooting on a move and reloads. Perform where you are CONSISTENT with proper technique.

3) STAGE BREAKDOWN- techniques and how to shoot it efficiently( cutting down shooting positions) or in most cases use the KISS method.

4) MENTAL- Calming down before shooting is the key! if you think fast before the buzzer, YOU ARE TOAST! and bound something will go wrong(at least at my level) Shoot an average movement and you will eventually shoot faster with the rest of the stages.

5) EQUIPTMENT- make sure your are tuned to run close to 100% so you can focus on SHOOTING SKILLS.

Nice post.

I especially liked the opening paragraph... Robbie and I had this thing, we summoned it with the phrase - "shoot like Russian." It was from back in the day when it seemed like the Russians won all the gold medals at the Olympics. They had trained, trained, and trained until whatever they did, they did like machines. Compared to that, it made us feel sloppy with our approach, training, and competitive shooting.

be

[AR Gunner]

I thought this quote apt: "The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible." Arthur C. Clarke

[Gary Faulkner]

Just finished reading the thread. I copied and pasted to a word document, everything that jumped out at me. So I can go back and read and re-read it all again.

I, like most want to improve.

Keep it coming please!

And thanks

[mountaincoulee]

Thanks for bringing this up... I had a revelation along this line this past weekend.

I think you have to practice to the point of destruction to know where the point is, but you need to be careful not to make to much of your practice that way. Otherwise, in a match you will revert to that speed... it's how you trained after all.

The revelation was this: The key isn't knowing just where and when to use what speed or vision. The problem is you need to make that decision in tenths of seconds. You are slightly off balance getting in, what could have been a 95 speed shot now becomes a 70% shot and if you take it at 80 or more you're going to hose it. It's those decisions on the fly that can not be programmed that make the biggest difference.

.....

I dunno if this made any sense... it was free writing for losing the thought....

Totally makes sense after the two matches I shot this W.E.

For the first time ever (in this sport), I was not entirely concentrated in the immediate moment (i.e. aiming & getting hits) and had a bit of brain power left to be conscious of what was going on tempo wise, and where I'd be next in terms of reload, movement. I even managed to restrain myself a couple times from shooting a 3rd shot to turn a C into an A.

I believe that, having for the first time gained these shreds of awareness, I can now push the *thumb rest [generic]* a bit and will learn from the mistakes that will result.

[CocoBolo]

I was shooting along with the hope one day I would just wake up and be fast, shooting in my comfort zone hitting mostly A's with an occasional C. Then one day I decided that the GM and many time world champ legend in my sqaud was just human like me and if he could do it I could do it. So I set my self up to shoot just after him in each stage, I pushed my self to run the stage exactly the same way and to get as close to his time as possible.

Results well I could get very close to the same time but my points were definately down a bunch until 1 18 round stage. His time 10.86 mine 11.28 points both max. What happened is I shot the stage with no concious thought what so ever no thinking to pull the trigger nada just the vision of the sight picture over targets, no actual recall of the reload or moving into and out of boxes shooting in between but there on the gound the mag. It was like auto pilot, everyone in the squad was like wow, and the GM turns to me and says, you looked like you knew what you were doing. Second over all in the match.

The problem cannot duplicate this level of shooting when desired. I've been working on speed and gotten a bunch faster, now the problem is slowing down on those difficult shots, a fast time with negative points doesn't cut it.

So put me down on the side of letting the inner speed deamon out once in a while to make the rest of the shooting time feel slow.

[benos]

I think you have to practice to the point of destruction to know where the point is, but you need to be careful not to make to much of your practice that way. Otherwise, in a match you will revert to that speed... it's how you trained after all.

Yes. You find your speed limit by pushing in practice. Bit if you shoot at the edge of your speed limit too much you won't have anything left to shoot a match with.

I was thinking about that yesterday... trying to define "pushing," to improve. If you just "shoot faster," but don't see enough or remember enough of what you did or didn't see to know you had hits or misses before you score the targets - you didn't learn anything.

So you gotta turn up the vision with the speed. Shoot each shot at the earliest possible visual opportunity.

be

[bigstick0000]

I just recently started shooting open and the appeal was definately the speed factor. Glenn higdon was interviewed in a recent front sight and said something interesting. Shoot below your skill level, slow and deliberate at your targets, while practicing. But breakaway from that mode once in a while and go as fast as you can, pushed to the physical limits for speed only. I have recently tried that with the plate rack and it does, by numbers anyway, work for me. I do find myself with the accurancy first-speed later mentality at times and it really does slow me down. On our weekly steel matches I go all out and don't worry about hits, speed only, and I have found this works best for me, the numbers don't lie.

[benos]

I pretty much practiced and shot matches with the same goal all the time - shoot as fast as know I am getting good hits.

Of course at times in practice I'd pull out all the stops and shoot as fast as I could pull the trigger. Sometimes the results from that were startling. I know I've told this before but I could probably type it faster than I could find it by searching.

One day long ago Robbie and I were practicing 7 yd. Bill Drills only. We had a bunch of not-good-quality reloads were trying to burn up. We'd shot so many Bill Drills there wasn't much chance of either us beating our personal best. We had 12 rounds left; we each took 6 and decided we'd end with some fun. Instead of going for a high factor - the game was to get 6 hits on paper in the fastest possible time. I went first. I knew, to pull this off without trigger freezing - I had to get really loose and relaxed. I had no goal other than to relax and let 'em rip. The result stopped both of us in our tracks. It was the fastest Bill Drill either of us had ever shot - and all A's!!! (A 1.48, which at that time was pretty much impossible for me.) We both looked back and forth at each other and the target with huge WTF! looks on our faces.

And they weren't just "lucky A's," I saw the sight rise and return like I'd never seen before in my life. I can still remember it. It was truly a mind blowing experience.

But to put the day over the top... Once we'd settled down, Robbie goes "I'm going to do that." And he shoots a 1.52, clean! His new world record, as well.

What a way to end a practice session.

be

[kaiserb]

In practice, push as hard and as fast as you can, but working your way up to it trying not to sacrifice results for speed. It will happen, but then you just back it down a bit. Later, during the SAME, practice session, push it back up again until you start getting sloppy or compromising results. Basically, you're trying to re-establish YOUR 100% speed/performance.

Then...at a match, go 85-90% so that you know you're not compromising results, but YOUR speed will be faster than it once was. Trust your speed and you will be fast.

Rich

This is a very similar process to another sport "bicycling" When you want to get faster you train at or near your VO2max using a heart rate monitor, power meter or other device. While your Vmax peaks and never really increases, you ability to operate for extended periods of time at 90-95% Vmax rather than the typical 50-65% Vmax give you the advantage.

When practicing (shooting) I try to push my limits in speed and accuracy, thus improving each a little bit at a time. When shooting matches (local or otherwise) I practice in "Match Mode" working on things such as stress management, seeing everything, shooting routines, etc. This helps me to be relaxed at major matches.