Drills to Improve

[Mistral404]

I wanted to say thanks to all that post on BE site.  

I just started shooting pistols in USPSA about 15 months ago.  I never had any formal training with pistols.  My first classification was 'C'.  

The great news, at least to me, was that I have been doing a lot of the drills mentioned here. And I shot my first 70% on  a classifier recently.

The things that have helped me the most are:

1) Using a timer draw and dry fire (par time- a gagillion times)

2) Using a timer draw and 1 shot on steel (50)

3) Using a timer draw and 2 shots on steel (25)

4) Draw two shots, drop mag, reload, two shots (25)

I use these four drills frequently to establish a decent foundation upon which to improve.

The last thing that has helped is using my left eye(dom.) while shooting right handed.  I changed the focus length on the left eye contact to match the pistol front sight.  So I am shooting with both eyes open.

Thanks again to all that post!

[Duane Thomas]

Keep up the great work!!

[kimel]

Great drill idea!  Thanks!  One question though...

On drill #1, what are you setting your par time at?  Or, more to the point, where did you start setting it at and how agressive were you with incrementing the par downward over weeks/months of practice?  

Also, do you use the same par time throughout a session or do you have a method of adjusting the par time?

Now if only Santa will bring me a Dillon so I can increase loading speed....this 100 rnds an hour off a single stage is killing me...load all day saturday to shoot half a day sunday...blech.

Cheers!

Kevin

[Mistral404]

I use a Pact timer.  I originally set the time at 1.6.  When I was beating that time pretty regularily I lowered it .1 seconds.

I can open the back door in my bedroom and look into the backyard.  I set up one of the small targets on a stick and used that to sight on.  I noticed that a slight mental pause/relaxation right before pressing the trigger would bring a faster time.  Additionally, for me, my faster times  came when I would totally relax my shoulders, they felt like they were totally limp.  Any tension in the muscles would produce slower times.  

As all these people recommend, I broke the entire process down into manageable segments.  

1. Relax shoulders

2. Hand placement on gun

3. Draw to the beginning of sight picture

4. Sight picture

5. Press the trigger with increasing pressure

6. Watch the front sight after the hammer falls

7. Stay steady on target.