I sent TxBob a PM, but I shot the same match Wednesday.
That’s a really cliquey group they’ve got going over there. It’s “Let me show you how good I am” and then try to trick-f*** the new shooters by putting one target 3 inches in front of another target.
“You got one procedural! Didn’t shoot the closer target first!”
It’s just a really negative group of about the 5-6 best guys who keep it from being fun.
If that is the case, find another group to shoot with. I have yet to shoot a USPSA match were experience shooters weren’t stumbling over each other to help a new shooter
Definitely not the case here.
Someone should let them know they are being jackasses and driving away new shooters
Its sounds like the learners needs to ban together and go bowling.
I think I’m gonna spread out and see some of the other local groups to see if there is a better setting. We do have the advantage of having a large local population of competetive shooters
I shoot with a 50-something year old who started competition shooting(and likely shooting in general) a couple of years ago. He was very new(read not profeccient). He had equipment/trainging issues(kept wraping both thumbs on 1911, and it hurt to watch all the pain). It was unlikely that he went a single stage without missing a target completely.
Fast forward to now and honestly I get a little down when he is not out there(real character, I look forward to talking with him). He is consistantly one of the most accurate shooters and places in the middle of the pack.
There are 2 types of people.
Those that fail are one of the above that gave up.
If you find that you are having trouble progressing then you really need to watch and listen as much as anything else. Hopefully someone will be willing to give you some pointers. I know that after matches I generally have my practice time. Alot of the time someone new will talk to me and shoot along side me. Most people dont see it as an inconvience, just dont be pushy.
As always dry fire. Trigger control is key and you shouldnt be thinking about trigger control when you shoot. It should just happen.
As the other posters have already mentioned:
slow down
focus on breath control.
Shoot accurately (and safely) first. Speed will come later.
And you may have to force your self to slow down toward the end of stages. Starting off slow is easy, but you may be rushing yourself as the confidence, the tick tock of the clock, or your own momentum gets a hold of you.
Now if I only took my own advice…I pretty much guarantee I could improve by at least 25%
I always start off slow and very accurate and then as the red mist gets a hold of me I rush and my aim suffers.
oh yeah and go to an appleseed:
This is the kind of shit that I want to get away from when I go shooting. Politics, Attitudes, Bureacracy, Schedules, Rules, etc.
When we hit the range, we leave all that shit behind and enjoy ourselves.
Someone should show them this thread, maybe they will get “a clue” about how new shooters feel about their club as it currently stands.
People at our clubs in GA go out of their way to help new shooters ( we really are spoiled here in GA, I realize this the more I read about other clubs in other states). Leave the attitudes at the door, help new shooters, bring your friends and encourage people to come back for a second match, its the only way to grow the sport.
It took me about 10 years before I was any good. (And I’m still working on it)
In a few weeks, I’m going to release a video with a few helpful drills that I use to this day during range practice sessions.
Until then, I’d suggest you go and buy a pack of paper plates (the ones that are about 8" in diameter) and practice shooting offhand slowly until you can reliably keep all of those shots on the plate at about 10 yards. The fundamentals are:
"Locate the target (visually, or with the force).
Aim or point the gun at the target.
Hold the gun there until the gun fires and the bullet has left the barrel. "
Also, buy Brian Enos’ book. I had to read it twice before it made any sense and a third time to actually learn something from it:
http://www.brianenos.com/index.html
Also, spend time dry firing and learning when your gun will fire.
Also, learn not to anticipate recoil which can be trained by dry firing your pistol and keeping it pointed at a target throughout the trigger pull and release.
After you get desensitized to the explosion in front of your face, your bullets will hit where your gun is pointing and at that point, it just becomes a matter of seeing what you can get away with as far as speed and accuracy goes.
That reminds me. There is absolutely no reason why someone who really desires to become a better shooter should not be a member of the brian enos forums.
'nuff said. Go, join, search, learn. Maby find some locals to shoot with.
Not taking anything away from this site, but honestly for people who are serious about the technique of shooting and the growth of shooters that site is king.
As much as I’m a fan of incorporating competition shooting into one’s training, it is still important to draw distinctions.
Personally I would simply slow down and really focus on your fundamentals. Forget the clock and work on making solid hits, reloads and presentation. Remember the old saying… There’s no such thing as advance shooting, only a perfect execution of the fundamentals…
Without proper fundamentals you will only continue to digress. Forget the times and focus on solid fundamentals and I think you will see that your times improve by focusing on the basics (grip, stance, sight pic and trigger control). Working on fundamentals isn’t a lot of fun sometimes but its what’s needed to elevate your level of skill. After you have spent some time working through your fundamentals start to work with yourself on the clock so that YOU can measure your performance instead of a scoring system. It will also gradually reintroduce you to some stress. Focus on hits. The more hits you make the more your confidence will grow and the faster your times will become.
As far as quitting that shouldn’t even be an option. Continue to fight through your training and you will be rewarded in the end because of it.
I agree with this. Get a perfect hit every time, regardless of the timer. Execute a perfect reload every time, regardless of the timer. Once you’re nailing the hole like John Holmes in slow-motion you’ll have the basis to be banging the mags in like a pro as you speed up.
“Slow is fast and safe is best”
Likje the others have said, its best to slow down and make sure you’re doing things right. Then when you see that you are shooting the stages clean with no misses you can pick up the pace. You will eventually realize exactly what pace you can be at to maintain a balance between speed and accuracy…while also remaining safe.
Have fun!
That site has given me the greatest info in the shooting community as a whole no doubt about it. I read more on Brianenos.com daily than I do elsewhere now, and for good reason, the quality of info there is by most accounts very very good.
That site is not just for USPSA competitor talk, while true that sport has a very strong presence there (and why wouldnt it, USPSA is a large shooting community/along with IPSC shooters from all over the WORLD who post there…), its not the only game discussed.
This is the competition discussion subforum on M4C. Lets not get into “where to draw the line between training and competition”. If your posting in this forum its about competition (hence the name of the forum).
If you want to start the “competition or training” discussion, by all means, have fun with that disaster, but lets keep it out of here.
That was not my intention. You seem to be looking for slights against competition where there are none intended.
Not at all, however if you frequent the ARF3gun section, this topic comes up and threads go down the tube. So much so that there is now a tacted thread stating what I just did. For reference, see here
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=9&f=13&t=230214
For the sake of it all it states
"This forum is for the discussion of technical matters regarding three gun competition, such as practicing skills, necessary equipment and for discussing three gun matches. It is not the place to discuss whether three gun competition is useful training for real world purposes or whether three gun competitions are not realistic. Those threads belong in General Discussion or General Firearms.
Thanks"
Just trying to stave off the “training vs competition” debate which, tends to come up when its brought up even in passing, thats all.
Since you brought up the matter (and from my reading in here, you seem to make mention of training in this competition forum often, maybe a coincidence, maybe not) I thought it best to make the competition forum side of things crystal, thats all.
So lets help the OP improve his game, thats the nature of this question, nothing more, nothing less.
Thanks.
As far as dry fire goes, I like the stuff Matt Burkett has posted on his site, some good interactive stuff if you get bored with doing it in front of a paper target in your room.
http://www.predatortactical.com/cart.php?m=knowledgebase_detail&id=5
I like the variable speed swinger myself, found here:
http://www.predatortactical.com/uploads/media/Flashfiles/swinger_varible_rate_070704.swf
You can adjust the speed to suit your level at the time and can move the barricade around. Really cool little link.
I will say this competition has made me a better shooter than just training alone did. Party because its more fun. When something is fun you want to do it more often.
Pat