What are you doing to improve and is it working?

Are you going through the motions, or are you taking steps to improve your shooting? 

If your taking steps to improve and have had success, what did you do and how are you measuring your success?

1) improved scores?
2) tighter groups?
3) more consistent?
4) improving with the 45?
5) improved performance?

Not all improvements have direct score improvements immediately. Your groups could be improving but you're still trying to figure out how to get that group into the 10 ring, etc. Learning how to grip more consistently. Learning to finesse the trigger..........................

Share your POSITIVE improvements!

Jon,

A wonderful topic, thanks for starting the conversation!

I am mostly focused on improving the mental part of the game, which for me, boils down to maintaining an absolute focus on executing my shot process. Last Fall I started shooting International (Air and Free Pistol) in addition to Bullseye, and I like it so much that I switched fully to iron sights, Bullseye included.

Below is an excerpt of my recent post-match report to my coach, which illustrates the struggles and successes in achieving the inner mental stability. This report is about the International matches, but the mental efforts fully translate to Bullseye. After the match, described in this report I shot my personal best (for iron sights) Indoor 2700.


"Last Saturday I shot a friendly (non-official) Free Pistol Match. The outcome was similar to one of the recent Air Pistol matches, where I started shooting rather sloppily but in the second half of the match was able to pull myself together and finish well. 


The same exact scenario occurred during this Free Pistol match. My first three targets were rather poor because I was busy "chasing a ten" rather than following my process. I took a pause between the third and fourth targets and reminded myself of what happened when I was excitedly chasing a ten during an Air Pistol match (hint: nothing good). After this pause, I was able to bring myself back into the mental balance by using breathing exercises, visualization and a bit of meditation. This allowed me to refocus and finish the match rather well: 92, 86 and 88 on the last three targets of the match. Overall result was 506, which is slightly higher than my last two results at Free Pistol Matches. The main outcome of the match for me was the repeat of what I have done with the Air Pistol (take a pause, refocus and follow the process to the exclusion of everything else): I now know how to shoot 9s and 10s with the Free Pistol! Now just to focus on recreating the same internal conditions within myself to make it happen.


Yesterday I also shot my regular Air Pistol league and I had my first ever "clean" target - 50! I know exactly what I have done to shoot that 50: follow my process and intently watch the top of the front sight."

Best Regards,
Oleg.

My recent focus is on trigger speed. I find I've been pulling too slow in slow fire and too fast in rapid. My goal is to be able to call every shot, including rapid fire. If I can call the shot I didn't jerk the trigger.

When I execute that, it works but I am not yet able to execute it with every slow fire shot or every rapid fire string.

Summary: "Call every shot, non-stop trigger".

Visualize tens AT the gun.  Builds confidence.

When I can't work on anything else, I can always re-read the rules.

-Knowing how to handle problems like alibis, cross fires, and challenges helps everyone.
-Reading through the range commands (cmp rules annex A) is a good way to visualize a match.

dry firing and working on hold

In utilizing Jon's previous advice on breaking your training down to one thing at a time, my current focus is on wrist position, consistent grip pressure, and follow through. I know, that's three, but I consider them all to be in the "grip" group. The three areas I try to isolate and work on are grip as previously defined, sight alignment and picture (sight group) and trigger control.

Doing this one day a week with both .22 and .45. Only shooting 50 rounds of each and making sure each round counts. Not just standing there blasting away at a piece of paper.

This being done using a turning target system and mainly working on sustained fire.

Success is being measured by all five on Jon's list above.

Dry firing on a blank wall!  I drastically undervalued this drill for a long time.  But it's so simple, I can quickly unlock the cabinet where I keep a few of my guns, dry fire for a few minutes, and put them away.  

During the little time I train live fire, I focus on keeping the trigger moving and learning to trust my hold will be there.  Very counter intuitive for a smallbore rifle shooter!

Since reading about it here, I've been working on my "grip" (grip panel, thickness, finger position, trigger width, position in the hand, etc.) such that increasing/decreasing grip pressure slightly, and then adding trigger pull, in a collective sense, moves the sights as little as possible when firing. This has been frustrating since there are few published guidelines to follow. Then, varying the speed of my trigger pull and calling shots. Dry firing has also been helpful, but one of the best things has been to turn the target around and area aim. So embarrassing (nice groups on a blank target face)...make me want to go back to golfing. Another is practicing rapid fire at 50 yds. (on the 50 yd target). Seems to make 25 yds easier.

Line drill, dry fire trigger training, also walking and stretch band workouts. I also live fire practice in the basement with an air pistol, and at range with the 22.
 I'll start outdoor training with a 45 when the weather warms up some. I practice for 10s and Xs, when that fades I'll stop for the day. My goal is to increase my stamina and mental concentration so I won't tire or wander during the match. The process is important, for me repeatability is the word here.
 Yes, it has helped on this year's B-40 targets and I've increased on the slow fire targets B-2.
 Stan

Tight grip, up high, without interfering with finger dexterity, then not rushing the trigger. I'm usually too rough.

Need to avoid errors due to fatigue. I tend to lose focus then.

Jon I’m just trying to buy points with a new trigger job on my RO and having my old man’s Gold Cup worked over.  The gunsmith says I’ll make master in no time.  Dry fire training is for the birds.

RodJ wrote:"............ Dry fire training is for the birds."

Get ready for download!!!         

I'm learning to pull trigger without finger getting frozen.  SCATT at 50Y with 22.

AP

All of my live fire training is at an indoor range, max distance of the range is 45 feet.  I have been working a lot on my 45, specifically improving sustained fire.

I do a lot of shooting on blank paper targets.  I use the back side of discarded 8-1/2 x 11 white copy paper.  Shooting at a blank target helps me to better focus on the specific item I am working on, i.e. trigger, grip, shot recovery.  It is amazing how your eye will naturally find the center of a blank page without trying to aim.

When I shoot at a target in practice or at a match, I try to visualize my shot process and execute it exactly like I am looking at a blank paper.   

Notice I didn't talk about aiming (I use red dot sights), I haven't worked on that much yet.  Too much other stuff I need to work on.

Over the past several months I have been working on improving my trigger control during rapid fire. I can often cascade into a spastic jerking of the trigger during rapids. I am able to mitigate this by mentally rehearsing the quick but steady and straight back trigger control immediately prior to firing each rapid fire string. Then repeating the mental rehearsal during the string. I find this to be very mentally taxing but expect it to become easier over time.

When utilizing the above process I also find it helps to focus more on sight alignment than the whole sight picture in the rapids and let my brain subconsciously take over the holding center part of the process.

Limiting factor now is that I typically don’t have access to turning targets for practice so exercising these steps can be challenging outside of a match.

Lastly, I find that I have the greatest amount of points to gain in slowfire. My average score range at this time is in the upper 80’s. I am working on my upper body strength and conditioning to improve hold and endurance throughout a 2700. Other than dry firing and shooting slow fire strings I am not sure of any other training techniques for SF. If anyone has suggestions please let me know.

Great thread going here. Thanks for starting the conversation Jon.

-Trevor

Dry fire is bad, IF you're doing it wrong as you're only polishing bad habits. It's GOOD if you're doing it right. Sanderson, as an Olympic team Rapid Fire shooter was a big volume shooter as you would assume but, to get better, he quit shooting. He told me over the course of the year before the games he barely shot at all. It was intensive dryfire and the results show it. Wm Cary Slipper wrote about trigger only DF. I wrote about these and other training things in my book.

I'm working on applying continuous trigger pressure and not trying to "snatch" the shot when I see the front sight is on the "X".  When I don't apply continuous trigger pressure I end up low and left outside of the black.

I'm still learning to accept my wobble and not trying to force the shot.  I dry fire using the Mantis X system but it has its limitations so live fire with a .22 has been my focus.

My metric is 30 shots in the black.  I have good success doing this with SF and TF.  RF is a work in progress.

bruce martindale wrote:Sanderson... intensive dryfire 

He never mentioned it but I have to assume he had access to (among other things) an electronic trainer at some time. Conscientious practice is good,  conscientious practice with immediate feedback is better. 

That said, I would not be surprised if you could eventually quit checking the screen because you have built enough skill to know what it will show, and one day you don't even bother turning it on any more. Meanwhile I am not that good.

Merick wrote:He never mentioned it but I have to assume he had access to (among other things) an electronic trainer at some time. Conscientious practice is good,  conscientious practice with immediate feedback is better. 

That said, I would not be surprised if you could eventually quit checking the screen because you have built enough skill to know what it will show, and one day you don't even bother turning it on any more. Meanwhile I am not that good.

This is quite correct.  Very good catch.  If you watch your process unfold with enough understanding, you will see all the things that an electronic trainer records, except an aggregate of a full session.  This is what I found with my Rika.  After a while I could watch the shot unfold as I performed it, review it mentally and then watch the playback of it, and I was able to match the results.  But, my personal observation even went further than what the Rika showed, once I started paying attention to how I could pick up on trigger details via the sighting system. And, what could be more immediate than your own observation during the process?

Merick wrote:

bruce martindale wrote:Sanderson... intensive dryfire 

He never mentioned it but I have to assume he had access to (among other things) an electronic trainer at some time. Conscientious practice is good,  conscientious practice with immediate feedback is better. 

That said, I would not be surprised if you could eventually quit checking the screen because you have built enough skill to know what it will show, and one day you don't even bother turning it on any more. Meanwhile I am not that good.

Sanderson also developed a sports injury and had surgery to correct it. His ideas sound solid but all aspects should be considered.

Lovely question, Jon.  Thank you for asking it.

Dry firing

Even though I am inconsistent with doing this, I think I have benefited.

I have learned more about the trigger on my pistol: how much slack there is, where the reset is, how smooth (or not) it is.  The trigger feels a little gritty at times, which may be an actual thing or just my imagination, but being able to discern this is a win either way.  Shooting range guns also helps remind me of variances in triggers -- the Canik SFx Rival-S was a delight in this regard -- which lets me reevaluate my own trigger.

Training/blank targets

I've started using the blank and training targets from the USMC handbook rather than any kind of bullseye.

My groupings and my confidence have improved.  My process and my "scoring" is simpler, i.e., the shot is in the black or not.  Yes, there is still variance in my groupings depending on the yardage but it seems to be less.

One exercise I have tried is shooting 10-15 shots at 10 yards, then moving the target back another 3-5 yards and shooting another 10-15 shots, and repeating incrementally until I am at 25 yards.  I don't look at the target between distance adjustments and I change my stance as little as possible.  It's my way of training myself that all the distances are the same, hoping to overcome that weird mental breakdown when I move from 15 to 25 yards.

Two-handed

I am shooting two-handed at the range more.

For the longest time, I was only shooting one-handed at the range... which is good practice... but frustrating when I couldn't hit the broadside of the barn.  Now, I'll shoot two-handed at 25 yards for a bit then switch to one-handed and try not to think of the difference, but just let the shot come the same basic way.  Improvement?  Maybe.  More enjoyable?  Definitely.

More mental
I still think there is value in having lofty marks to aim for -- Clegg, Shue, Zurek, Miller, Traciack, etc. -- but I am working on comparing my results and my shooting less to others, especially out of my "class".  Metallic versus optic, stock versus custom, one year versus 20 years of shooting, and the list goes on.  It's me today versus me yesterday versus me three months ago.

RodJ wrote:Jon I’m just trying to buy points with a new trigger job on my RO and having my old man’s Gold Cup worked over.  The gunsmith says I’ll make master in no time.  Dry fire training is for the birds.

Y’all missed the satire here!

Once I reached the high end of the Expert and had somewhat decent (tongue in cheek) fundamental skills, I tried to pick out singular weak points that I had, and work on those for improvement. One of many was trying to "tighten my hold" and get better groups. I went a long time where I would have eight or nine shots in a pretty tight cluster and one or two outside the group (not necessarily following any pattern). I use the "Area Aiming" or "Shooting My Wobble" methodology, same as most do here. I had decent TF and RF scores (97+), but SF scores left a lot on the table. After trying a few things to help reduce wobble and hence reduce group size, I came up with a practical exercise that worked for me over an extended period of time.
I was training on a 50' range and using B-2 targets, which has a black that subtends the 7-ring. I made up some B-2 target centers where the black only extends through the 8-ring, and then used those during my training sessions, forcing me to hold my wobble in the black. After a period of time, I started to see a marked jump in my SF scores.....so then I made up some targets, where the black only extended through the 9-ring, which forced my wobble even smaller trying to hold the black. With some persistence and consistent focus the SF scores were in the high 90's.
I'll attach an example of the targets I used if anyone wants to try the exercise, but as usual YMMV. I think I printed these on the back of Air Pistol B-40 targets as they would easily fit and feed through my printer.

BTW, I tried using targets with a 10-ring black, but to hold a wobble that small was waaaaaay too mentally and physically challenging.

Have you tried reversed targets?

To be serious, I am recommitting to keeping my training log book current and complete: recording live fire, dry fire, and any other training, including health choices that might affect my improvement.

Because I realize that I am lost as to what I’ve done and where I’ve been. There’s no bread crumbs, blazes on trees, no sun, no stars, not even moss on the side of trees to tell which way is north.

That answers a lot of the questions posed by Jon.