Wanna-b-speedy (part 2)

[Flexmoney]

...or, shooting brown

...or, "I don't have time to look for the A-zone"

...or, shooting a cadence

OK, this one is for everybody that is seeing the sights and calling each and every shot...but still can't hit the freakin' Alphas!!!

Basically...what are we looking at?

I have found that...in search of speedy transitions...my vision is often somewhere other than leading the sights/dot to an exact spot on the (next) target.

I am rolling across targets...or breaking the shot as the gun comes onto brown...any vague brown, not the Alpha (certainly not the center of the Alpha).

This is bad on soooo many levels.

- Even if we assume a perfect shot (meaning trigger press and such)...we are still accepting less than the five points that the shot is worth because we are breaking the shot "on brown".

- What if the unthinkable happens? What if...we don't shoot a perfect shot each and every time we pull the trigger? Our "margin of Alpha" has decreased...simply because we aren't in the center of the target (or maximum scoring area).

Lets assume (for comparison) we can shoot a 4 inch group while running around freestyle...

[edit to add: the circles in the pictures on in THIS post represent a 4 inch group/wobble zone, with the dot in the middle of them being where the gun was pointed when the shot broke]

In the picture below, the shot on T1 has a 50% chance of hitting Alpha. The same shot, if centered as in T2 has 100% chance of hitting Alpha.

on the 8 inch plate in P1, there is less than a 50% chance of hitting Alpha (sorry for the crude drawing). Where P2 is sure of the Alpha hit. (With the same 4 inch wobble zone.)

[Flexmoney]

Actually, if we center [our aiming point onto] each and every Alpha, then we can be a bit less accurate...we can increase our "wobble zone".

On paper, the alpha zone is nearly 6 inches wide, if we are aiming at the dead-center of the Alpha, we can shoot the accuracy equivilent of a 6 inch group and still be assured of an alpha hit.

In fact, we can increase our wobble zone to 8 inches and still have a very high chance of hitting an Alpha if we are centered...as in T4. The same 8 inch wobble could land you in the Delta if you are off center...as in T3.

[edit to add: the circles in the pictures on in THIS post represent a 8 inch group/wobble zone]

That 8 inch wobble still gets you a 100% chance of Alpha on P4 (centered)...not so good of a chance on P3 with the edge hit.

[Bear1142]

Flex,

I'm not sure if you already do this, but bear with me. Try shooting Production for about two weeks in the middle of the season or when you have your largest time gap between majors. I found that shooting minor and having to score a very high percentage of "A"'s forced me to shoot the way you described above. I didn't notice any change on targets from about 12 yards and farther, it was the closer ones. I knew I had to get the maximum number of A's inside 12 yards and I found myself taking the time to firm up that sight picture/alignment before I broke the shot. It might have only taken an extra tenth or two, but this is what I needed to see to know I had the A. This doesn't work if you just try to shoot A's with your hi-cap gun. You know you have extra rounds if you make a bad shot and you don't quit get the effect. Those 10 rd. mags really force you to take good shots. Try shooting production and keep up with the Limited class guys. If you can make the same hit factor as the limited guys while shooting in production, you'll really be shooting well. Take your G-35 and shoot production. It really help me with my visual patience in what I normally considered my hosing distance (less than 7 yds.). I had some of my best matches (locally) for the next two months after shooting in Production at the FGN last year. I intend on doing it again this year to really evaluate the benefits.

Erik

[Flexmoney]

Bear,

I think your advice is dead-on. I see the same thing when shooting Production, and when shooting a local non-affiliated match in Limited-8 (where Charlies cost a full +1 second).

Here is the dilemma...

- Why do we accept anything other than the center of the target (or maximum scoring area)...

- and why does it take longer?

[Steve Anderson]

Are you being rhetorical?

You know the answer....I think you're leading the witnesses, counselor.

I have just completed the circle (again) and am back to a natural state of calling the shot. I proved to myself (again) last Sunday that calling the shot is indeed faster. I hope to stay enlightened a little longer this time.

Steve

[bountyhunter]

Interesting. I recall reading something by Plaxo (Shooting From Within) that said one of the key mistakes people make that slows them down is trying to align on dead center and get that "perfect" sight picture.... when what gives best times is knowing when the sights are good enough to hit in the "A" zone and taking the shot. I'm not qualified to give an expert opinion. I can still time my speed runs with a sun dial.

[Steve Anderson]

If I think about my best runs, one thing stands out.

Time seemed to stand still, and my time was better than i expected it to be.

Calling the shot causes my perception of time to slow down, and gives me more mental time to make the shot.

"use that time to relax, it's well spent"

...paraphrased from the book.

[Flexmoney]

Steve,

What I am talking of is beyond calling the shot (that sounds cool, anyway).

In fact, if the shooter isn't already calling the shot, then this thread will likely be useless to them. Calling the shot is more fundamental than this.

This is more along the lines of visual patience, but not exactly. The difference being that I think we can likely find the center of the scoring area just as fast as we can find brown.

If that is true...and Brain has said it is, so has The Burner (on his tapes)...the question then becomes...

...why don't we?

Perhaps one answer is that, when we snap our eyes to the next target* to lead the gun, we are simply snapping to brown, or to the whole plate. We aren't snapping to the center of the Alpha, or the center of the plate. We are letting our eyes get lazy. Thus, we drive the sights onto a vague area, as opposed to driving the gun to the center of the scoring area.

That idea might explain swith a big swing of the gun from target to target. For the Melody Line, Speed-E, and plate rack type stages...with the quick transitions...we are likely zoned in on the bouncing front sight or red-dot. We never look to bring the gun to the center of the target.

* This also assumes that the shooter is already snapping the eyes to the next target after calling the shot on the previous target.

[Flexmoney]

Interesting. I recall reading something by Plaxo (Shooting From Within) that said one of the key mistakes people make that slows them down is trying to align on dead center and get that "perfect" sight picture.... when what gives best times is knowing when the sights are good enough to hit in the "A" zone and taking the shot. I'm not qualified to give an expert opinion. I can still time my speed runs with a sun dial.

Bounty,

I think that is true. And, it is the situation we often find ourselves in.

What I think we might be able to do is to bring the gun to the center of the scoring zone right from the start. If we do that, we can have a sight picture and/or trigger pull that isn't perfect...because we have more "wobble zone" to play with.

(wobble zone is the wrong term, sorry)

[Ron Ankeny]

In my case, I fail to pick the exact spot that I want to hit. I came into USPSA from a precision shooting background. In order to pick up time I sacrificed accuracy by turning my vision down and accepting a less than perfect sight picture. When I shoot major I readily accept a Charlie if I feel like the shot is good enough. I know it's a bad habit and I can attribute it to hose mode. Going fast with an A-C mentality will erode fundamentals very quickly. I have been shooting production for several months and I can see where the habit of turning my vision down is a bad thing.

Last weekend we shot Speed-E-Standards. I shot the classifier in warp drive with my open blaster and tanked it bad. I didn't see crap and I had two misses and several D hits in 10.6 seconds. After the match I strapped on my Production gun and shot the classifer so I could move up and get that out of the way. You guessed it, I called every shot and did it faster and more accurately. Thing is, the Open run felt much, much, faster. Who would of thought a simple change in mental and visual preparation would allow a guy to shoot a CZ faster and straighter than a high zoot Open blaster? Don't answer that one.

[steve223]

This is exactly what i do,I dont pick a spot on the target i just see brown and let it rip.Im really bad if there is hard cover or noshoots on one side of the target even if there is plentyof A zone to shoot at i end up with outside Cs or Ds. Ive been tryin to fix this for a couple of mounths so far not much change.

Steve

[3quartertime]

[input from an un-worthy mode on]

Rhino devised an evil stage once that had all parts of the target hardcover except the lower A zone. This would seem to solve the problem of ' hoser focus ' But everyone hated the stage and out of 30 or so shooters I think there were only a couple that shot it clean. The targets were at about 10 yards I think in a straight line. One of the runs was comstock but few shooters took the time to make up shots.

It seems that even when the eye is forced to go to only the A zone the 'wanna-be-speedy' impulse is too strong.

[input from an un-worthy mode off\ ]

[benos]

Perhaps one answer is that, when we snap our eyes to the next target* to lead the gun, we are simply snapping to brown, or to the whole plate. We aren't snapping to the center of the Alpha, or the center of the plate. We are letting our eyes get lazy. Thus, we drive the sights onto a vague area, as opposed to driving the gun to the center of the scoring area.

That's what most do, and it's a big fat huge loser. Not only will your gun not move decisively to the next target's maximum scoring area, you'll waste time finding it when you both finally commune there.

We seldom see what we need to see because we're always in a hurry. And if you didn't enjoy hurrying you be shooting Bullseye. So as is often true, what's most innate is a source of problems. Because of this, the real challenge is often more akin to interrupting a compulsive response. Looking like this may help unravel a problem without even looking at the specifics of the problem itself. Examine specific scenarios with the filter - In this situation, what do I typically do, and is it the most appropriate or effective response. It's a big topic.

Calling and transitioning quickly is determined by how you apply your vision.

Your focus must be flexible and constantly in motion, not stuck on any one thing.

You must see just enough of what must be seen for you to know that what you want to happen is happening as it is happening. (Holy crap, that sentence is cracking me up.)

Let go of the speedy transitions idea and experiment with how you find targets.

Find and see a plate as a clearly recognized round object - before your gun gets there – every single time.

Find the A box as clearly recognized rectangle (if you can see the scoring lines) - before the gun gets there. (For every target.)

Even when finding targets as above, keep your vision "soft," so you never lose track of the sights. (That's a tricky one.)

Learn how you need to see each upcoming target to hit the maximum scoring area as quickly as possible.

If you can see the A box – then see it. But as soon as you have "bring in the sights." You’ll find they’ll go right to the middle of what you found, if you took the time to find it.

If the targets is at 50 yards, look right at the dead center of it until your gun breaks into your peripheral vision.

Think of how the principle of calling extends beyond just the shot.

Stick with it,

be

[Jake Di Vita]

Jeez, if any of you smell smoke it's because my head just blew up.

This thread is awesome.

[mcoliver]

Talking about that wobble zone and a less than perfect sight picture with the sights "on" the a-zone. Personally when I'm shooting "real fast" I break some shots (well...okay, most shots) with the front sight not really centered in the rear notch. Sometimes I catch it already one side of the notch (and surprisingly adjust the end part of the gun to center it...but this is for another thread I'd like to open soon).

Now, depending on the target distance this mis-alignment could mean an a or c-zone hit. However, I could swear "I saw the sights in the a-zone." How many of us shooters have really figured out at which distance an FS to one side of the notch can still make an a-hit? Probably not too many. Throw in several targets at diferent distance and shoot it under time pressure, heck, I wonder who processes target distance relative to the kind of sight picture needed to make the hit. Could it be that "extra" time looking for the actual point we want to hit is enough to tell us to "keep the FS centered"?

Jeez, did I just sound like somebody who can really call his shots?

[Jake Di Vita]

My interpretation is that is what calling the shot is all about. If the FS is to the left side in the notch, and you aren't sure it's a good shot...cap off another round that you ARE sure of.

[benos]

How many of us shooters have really figured out at which distance an FS to one side of the notch can still make an a-hit?

That's an excellent observation. The ability to instantly know pretty darned close to where the shot will land compared to what the misaligned picture looked like at the instant the gun fired comes from three factors:

a. Experience

b. Experience

c. Paying attention during the above.

But, a great exercise to rapidly accelerate this skill is to - and this will show you two things - bag the gun aimed in the middle of a target at 10 or 15 yards. Then close out the sight all the way to the left and fire a shot; then look and see where it went. Then stick it up out of the notch a little bit (about 1/16") and fire another shot, then look. The first thing you'll probably notice is just how difficult it is to do this. As soon as you misalign the sights you don't feel like you can aim at the center of anything. It feels awkward; you have to fight it to fire the shot. So just aim a perfectly aligned sight picture, then with kind of a mechanical feeling, swivel the gun to close out the sight to the left and immediately fire the shot. Experiment with different sized targets at various distances and you'll see some pretty cool stuff.

be

And one more thing I thought of I should have stuck in my last post -

Don't get sloppy and just shoot without seeing enough, and be wary of trying to see too much.

Make it as simple as possible. First you need to clearly locate the target you intend to hit; whether it's a nickel, a playing card, an A box, or an 18 x 24" steel rectangle at 7 yds. Then you need to see enough of the gun to KNOW you are hitting the target as the gun is firing. That's all there is to it.

[Bear1142]

Flex,

Regarding your thoughts on visual patience and "why" we don't find the center of the target instead of brown, I think there are two reasons and they are interrelated. One is physical and one is mental. I'll start with the physical. As much as we try, through all our technique and technology to get absolute consistancy from our guns, we don't and can't. It's impossible. I noticed a problem when I would practice my mid-range targets (13-20 yds.). I have always felt this distance is what separates the men from the boys, and appropriately, I expend a large part of my practice sessions to really mastering this distance with respect to engagement speed, splits, accuracy, and transitions, but I digress. I think there are many factors that influence this problem and not all happen on each incident. Did you ever notice an occasional anomaly in the cycling and tracking of your gun? I noticed in these mid-ranges that I would get an occasional "Where the hell did that come from" moment. Either the front sight tracked higher than normal, or it didn't return all the way back to its start point, or at the end of it's arc of recoil it settled back down to the far right in the rear notch instead of centered, or it just recoiled harder and disturbed my rhythem. Several things may have caused this; each it's own event, or combinations of events to produce the anomaly. Did I relax my grip just enough to change the rythem of the gun without perceiving the change in grip strength? Did I get the high side of the varience in a powder charge that changed the rythem? Was my balance slightly off? Did I cant the gun just enought to affect the tracking, but not enough to notice the cant? Did I breathe in instead of breathing out or vice versa. I don't know exactly what causes it or I could fix it. Maybe it's just the Chaos Theory working on a very micro scale, I don't know. I do know when you combine this with the second problem, the mental part, you end up with the observed results. I think the second problem is mindset. As much as we tell ourselves to shoot A's, either consciously of sub-consciously, we realize that a certain number of C hits are acceptable and to a degree even necessary to win. There is a balance between speed and accuracy. We have the ability to shoot all "A's" , but we recognize that a few faster C's are okay and even required to win. When this mindset is coupled with the occasional mechanical anomaly, we settle for the C and move on. Beware of being too dominant or micromanaging the gun. Although its a movie quote, I think it applies. "Let go of your feelings and use the Force." Sometimes you just have to take what the gun gives you and keep hammering away.

Erik

[Skywalker]

Some time ago I read what was passed to me as a training routine/method written by Frank Garcia, even if now I recognize similar exercises are inside THE Book (e.g. the dry-firing routine).

In this pamphlet, it was stated that most of the novice shooters shoot Cs or Ds because they don't know the exact location of the A zone. It was then suggested to train with specific targets that had the A zone black painted like the following:

(sorry here in Italy we use almost only classic targets, which are more difficult IMO).

by repeatedly shooting these targets, the beginner would have eventually learned to shoot the right spot on the target, without consciously thinking to it.

I thought it might have been useful to report this, even if I'm not able to confirm the source of the training method is really Mr. Garcia.

[Ron Ankeny]

Erik:

Instead of me driving the gun, I sometimes let the gun drive me. That works if you are shooting major and there isn't a whole lot of stiff competion. When I switched to minor scoring (Production) I found out that the "Alpha-Charlie is good enough at warp drive" mentality won't cut it.

I am convinced there is another visual and mental plane beyond where I am at today. It's really simple, I just don't see what is right in front of my face.

[Flexmoney]

Skywalker,

Great point. Finding the Alpha was a problem I had early on. In the picture below, you can see the trick I use. The blacked out Alpha will pull a shooter to an "area". Bisecting the Alpha with tape will highlight a "point" within the Alpha.

(I usually use brown masking tape...a paster would do as well.)

[Flexmoney]

Bear,

Great stuff...I like this especially:

Beware of being too dominant or micromanaging the gun.

Your chaos theory (as applied here) is a reality. No matter what we do...something is going to cause the gun to show up outside of the center of the Alpha. We will have to deal with that fact with whatever experience we bring with us.

Our mindset...wow...what a can of worms we could get into here. We likely deem quite a bit of stuff as "acceptable", and perhaps we shouldn't. And, we probably think of a lot of things as being unacceptable...when they likey more than fine.

Your posts bring me back to what I think of as some of our fundamentals. We need to be...actively relaxed...behind the gun. We need to let our vision drive our shooting.

Instead of trying to make things happen...we need to be able to be in a state of mind that lets us see what is going on, and then...with our vision steering us...we let oursleves sort out what needs to be done.

..............

Of course...that brings me back full-circle. I can "will" myself to drive the gun so that it shoots pretty flat. I can drive it to shoot fast splits. I can drive the gun for speedy transitions. I can achieve those goals (well enough/relative to my level). But, with those goals in mind...with flatness or speed as the objective...to maximize those goals...I often give up something else. That something else could be any number of things...accuracy and/or absolute knowledge of where the bullet went come to mind. Of course...these goals produce tension. Which may limit the ability to achieve them.

If I switch my goal to bringing the gun to the center of the Alpha...I think I will get better results.

[Flexmoney]

Instead of me driving the gun, I sometimes let the gun drive me.

That may be a hugely important way of looking at it.

When I am shooting those fast splits and transitions, it seems I have to keep a lot of my vision dedicated to what the gun is doing. That leaves me less vision to find a specific point on the target. (hmmmm...I am going to have to think on that a while yet)

I know that I do get into following the bouncing dot/front sight...and shooting with something that might be considered a cadence (I want to call it a visual cadence?).

[Matthew_Mink]

Lately, when I am burning through a particularly good stage, I remember one thing that I saw. Usually only one thing. I only saw the targets. I am sure some part of my brain processed just enough of the sight picture to tell me that I needed to pull the trigger, but I don't remember seeing it. Much of it is akin to not remembering the reload either. I never remember reloading during the stage, even to the point of having to convince myself there is enough ammo in the gun. I think I use the sights the same way. I am using them, it just doesn't register.

Case in point: This stage stands out in my mind because I burned it down and it was fairly recent. Start heels on X's. Draw and move about 8 ft to a port with 6 small poppers. Reload while running to wide open port with barrels on the ground obscuring 4 targets leaned over. Reload while running to last port to shoot 4 targets with no-shoots. That is how I had to shoot it in Production. A respectable Limited run would be a lot of points in 14.xx. I ran it in 12.48 with 1 C hit. I got to the end and KNEW all my hits were in the A-zone except for one. I don't remember seeing the sights, don't remember making mag changes. All I remember was the start buzzer and moving while shooting. I think this is somewhat related to what Ron is saying about letting the gun drive you. When I can do it, which is more and more often recently, it works.

BTW, Bryant ran the above stage in 11.53 9 down in Limited. Hopefully he will chime in to this discussion and tell us what he saw.

[benos]

Flex,

Try your target taping trick by taping the outline of the A box instead of the cross thing and see if it produces a different visual feeling while locating and shooting the target. Not a good or bad thing, just an experiment. (I've done both that's why I said that.)

be