Ideas for training drills?

[blockfort]

My experience as a shooter:

I am a new shooter; I shot for the first time a month ago at LAX range. Since then, I've been back about six times. I've shot every 9mm they have and a few 40's and 45's. Probably 1500 rounds in all of those calibers combined, mostly through an XD9 and P226. A few days ago I took delivery of my very own P22 and have already shot 1000 rounds through it in two sessions total. I plan on training with the 22 a lot since the ammo is so cheap. I know that it can't give me the full experience of shooting a full size weapon, but I think 80%(?) will be the same. The biggest difference will be recovering quickly from the recoil of the larger weapons. I will use them some in training, but for now, I need trigger time, and at $34 per 1000 rounds of .22lr, that is the way I will go.

My intended use:

I am not planning on hunting, nor have I ever thought about or felt the need to get a gun for protection. I would like to shoot for sport, marksmanship, bullseye shooting, plinking in the desert (I travel to the desert a lot to rock climb), and I am very excited about shooting in IDPA. I've been to a match and I really liked it.

My question:

How do I train for IDPA? It requires accuracy, but also speed, movement, drawing, single hand shooting, reloads, etc. I am very close to LAX and would probably be doing the bulk of my training there. What kind of drills should I do? What's my "workout" plan?

My current drills, all done at increasing distance (7, 10, 15 yds) and speed throughout the session:

1. bullseye targets
2. shoot at 8 small 3" circles on the paper and shoot each circle once, moving to the next, next, next in different patterns.
3. shoot at two 8" circles next to each other, alternating with each shot, various speeds, doing one shot at each and then pausing to lower the gun.
4. doubletaps on the 8 small circles with pauses to lower the gun after each pair.

What else do people do? Ideas?

[SuperSet]

Trigger time is always good but IME, you get most of your improvement through dry fire. I like Ben Stoeger's program since he tests everything in dry practice, outside of actual live fire.

http://benstoeger.myonlineplace.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=46&Itemid=64

[blockfort]

I've been told never to dry fire a 22 rimfire. Is that correct?

[SuperSet]

Can you not engage the safety before doing so?

[NeenachGuy]

You can pick up some .22lr dummy rounds to dry practice without damaging your firearm.

[Anchors]

Many modern .22lr firearms are okay to dry fire as well, even without dummy rounds.
But I have no information on your firearm in particular.

[huckberry668]

I cut part of the rim off of 22lr empty cases so the extractor won't work and do my dry firing with them. I swap out the badly peened empty case with a new one every couple of hundred dry firings.

For IDPA you can also go thru the actual competition relays/drills at home from stance, holster draw, hold, sight alignment/picture, trigger control and magazine change.

For a new shooter it's important to learn to shoot accurately correctly. Go thru the drills repeatedly to get the fundamentals down - stance, hold, sight picture and trigger control. you can do that easily at home with any pistol. Learn the correct way and practice religiously. Over the years, I found the hardest people to teach to shoot well are the ones with years of bad habits.

There are a lot of good youtube videos on how to shoot fast and accurate. Search for Rob Latham, Todd Jarrett just to name a couple. I think you'll have more than you need to get started.

[echang86]

ToddG's website is a great resource for drills:

http://pistol-training.com/drills

Not all of them are directly IDPA related though, but the skills can easily be translated into it.

[Kempfer]

I don't know how good your fundamentals are but mine are fairly shotty at the moment.

So I put a NRA B-16 target (5.5" bullseye) at 25 yards and slow fire into that. I slow fire into it and try for 10/10 in the 5.5" circle. This is probably the minimum standard of accuracy with a pistol. I know for sure that any accuracy drill < 25yards is not an accuracy test.

If you can do that w/o any problems what so ever then try for 10/10 @ 25 in less than 5min as a challenge.

I find doing this drill at 25 yds is really good because I do everything slow but perfect. I concentrate on draw, sight picture, trigger control, follow through and reloading at a slow speed to get them perfectly smooth.

As for IDPA competition type drills I can’t suggest to you what drills will make you better. But I know that whatever you want to do you need:

a) A set of drills that improves skill sets.
b) A test that measures how well those skill sets do.

So some things to note is that w/o a shot timer you have no way of measuring your speed. Also don’t do the test repeatedly to improve your score but focus on drills and use the test to measure how well you do.

So go look at some blogs of professional shooters in your area of interest and look for tests and skill builders.

[Voo]

I will say that first and foremost, you should have the ability to shoot accurately.. You can be as 'fast' as you want, but if you can't hit something on demand, then it's all a wash.. For now I would recommend you work on your accuracy at various distances. Know what kind of groups you can get at 7, 10, 15 and 25 yards.. It's a good baseline for when you're faced with targets that have hostages or hardcover nearby.. It's good to know you can hit at a given distance...

In addition to this, shooting action sports is about mastering different fundamentals.. If you really want to go above and beyond, you build up each fundamental individually and then layer them once you're proficient... Don't mix in the draw, the double tap and the reload all into one action unless you can do each of those skills proficiently.. Mixing them up only muddles your training curve and impedes your progress.

Most people don't realize it, but in the shooting sports, there's very little time spent actually shooting.. What most of the time goes towards is moving around and setting up for the next shot..

Example:
How fast is your reload?
Depending on the stage, you'll do this maybe 2-4 times each stage.. Multiply this again by the number of stages you'll be shooting.. You'll quickly see that this adds up to a decent amount of points by the end of the match..

In this example, however, you're not even shooting your gun.. We were strictly talking about the magazine reloads.. But yet, if you and another shooter are equally skilled and he performs a slower reload.. At the end of the match, all other things being equal, you'll pull ahead in points.. Do you see what I mean by how a lot of points are lost/gained during the time you're not actually shooting?

In addition to pure gun handling skills, it really behooves you to understand how it's played.. Just like sports, not every play is a touchdown play, not every rally is a slamdunk or a homerun.. If you can do that, great.. but strategy and understanding how to maximize your scoring is equally important..

[Matt P]

Most shooters, new and old, seem to think that shooting is just like anything else one would do as a sport/distraction/interest/hobby. Meaning, if this was tennis or golf, would you take lessons?
Who needs lessons? I had this guy/gal with this or that background show me.
Formal instruction will allow for your most effective development as a shooter in the least amount of time.
Most firearm owners do not know what they do not know, so most see no reason to take formal instruction.

Just ask any person who has had formal instruction with a firearm if they would do it again.

I would be amazed to hear from one who has been to formal instruction beyond a Hunter Safety/CCW Permit, that felt formal instruction did not make a difference for them.

Get some yourself, and then be proud to be a very small segment of the gun owning population that went out and got trained.
Through participation in formal training, this will help direct you in your exploration of firearm goodness.

Believe it or not, how you stand, draw and present a firearm are just three small fundamentals you need technique to develop smoothness and speed. How do you practice just those three basic fundamentals properly without knowing a specific technique?
Can you describe your stance?
Can you break down your draw and presentation into steps?. How do you practice developing repitition and smoothness without knowing a formal way to do it?

[blockfort]

I looked into ITTS, but I won't be able to make any of the sessions until next year! I should look for a private instructor.

[heycorey]

Most shooters, new and old, seem to think that shooting is just like anything else one would do as a sport/distraction/interest/hobby. Meaning, if this was tennis or golf, would you take lessons?
Who needs lessons? I had this guy/gal with this or that background show me.
Formal instruction will allow for your most effective development as a shooter in the least amount of time.
Most firearm owners do not know what they do not know, so most see no reason to take formal instruction.

Just ask any person who has had formal instruction with a firearm if they would do it again.

I would be amazed to hear from one who has been to formal instruction beyond a Hunter Safety/CCW Permit, that felt formal instruction did not make a difference for them.

Get some yourself, and then be proud to be a very small segment of the gun owning population that went out and got trained.
Through participation in formal training, this will help direct you in your exploration of firearm goodness.

Believe it or not, how you stand, draw and present a firearm are just three small fundamentals you need technique to develop smoothness and speed. How do you practice just those three basic fundamentals properly without knowing a specific technique?
Can you describe your stance?
Can you break down your draw and presentation into steps?. How do you practice developing repitition and smoothness without knowing a formal way to do it?

+1 ...

A number of years ago, after buying my first bolt-action "tactical" rifle, I went down to Rifles Only for a week; attending what amounted to their PR-1 course. I learned more about the Fundamentals of Shooting in that week than I would have if I'd tried to do it on my own for several years. I've since been back there about a half dozen times and trained with several other outfits as well.

Getting some good training right off the bat will also help keep you from developing bad habits to begin with.

[zfields]

Get into your local clubs training / safety course, and start WALKING through stages if they have practice days. Then move on to walk and fire.

[taloft]

Learn the 7 fundamentals until you have them down cold.

Stance
Grip
Sight Alignment
Sight Picture
Breathing
Trigger Control
Follow through

Take a beginning handgun class. An instructor will catch mistakes you'd otherwise overlook. Dry fire, use snap caps if you're worried about damaging the firearm. Plenty of practice helps but, nothing works as well as attending a friendly match. Above all stay safe.