USPSA experienced CG'rs. Any tips or secret tricks ?

[Divehobo]

Hey All, looking for some help with competition shooting. Basic shooting a match skill set learned, gear in place to run correctly but still shooting way too low in match results. Having trouble putting all the pieces in place and I'm sure I am not the only one struggling with this.

I'd like to see competition shooters post tips and tricks they use to help push results. Simple stuff that might help others improve and cement in your own decisions.

Lately I've been watching people, when shooting plate rack call the shot and ride the recoil to advance to next plate before shot even hits plate they were shooting. Pretty cool watching plates drop like dominos falling.

What tips can you provide?

[baranski]

Have someone record you, watch videos until you see the mistakes.

[anonymouscuban]

Hard to say what you specifically need to work on without seeing you shoot a stage or two or knowing more about your shooting.

Are your fundamentals solid?
Are you dropping points?
Are you taking way too long on stages?
Are you forgetting to engage targets because of poor stage planning?

Need to know a little more to give advice. Best thing is post up a couple of videos of you shooting a stage or match. That will help us see what you're doing and give you specific advice.

[RugerNo1]

Dry fire. Properly. Watch videos on it. Maybe buy a book.

Just do it properly! Practice makes permanent, not perfect.

[WoodrowShootist]

This is where the hat cams are helpful. There are a lot of folk that use them for their Youtube and IG posts and stuff. But the reason behind them is so you can view how your stage planning worked, your shooting positions, posture, recoil behavior, transitions, and and any weird things you may be doing. Also as said earlier getting a third person view helps too.

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[Divehobo]

While I am going to try to incorporate a lot of info given, I was looking for more generalized tips and tricks, stuff anyone could use to gain an advantage. What kind of books and video's helped, what have you benefited from?

Stuff like shooting the bottom target on a stacked pair first so recoil from second shot could move you up and allow both target and sights to remain in focus as your moving.

[Rez805]

Hey All, looking for some help with competition shooting. Basic shooting a match skill set learned, gear in place to run correctly but still shooting way too low in match results. Having trouble putting all the pieces in place and I'm sure I am not the only one struggling with this.

I'd like to see competition shooters post tips and tricks they use to help push results. Simple stuff that might help others improve and cement in your own decisions.

Lately I've been watching people, when shooting plate rack call the shot and ride the recoil to advance to next plate before shot even hits plate they were shooting. Pretty cool watching plates drop like dominos falling.

What tips can you provide?

Record yourself and review everything you're doing (we're also happy to help review)--even a camera phone is good enough. Strong emphasis on 3rd person view. You can learn a lot about movement-related things (missteps, shooting into/out-of position, positioning and setup, etc.). 1st person can be helpful as well (especially if the person running the 3rd person camera doesn't get the best angle on you)

Can you tell us more about "way too low in the match results"?
On the plus side . . . you can probably make improvements on all aspects of your performance. There's a "loud part" (actual shooting) and a "not so loud part" (moving, reloading). Both should be worked on--independently and combined. For a lot of people, the "not so loud part" is a place where BIG gains can be realized.

Here are some general things that come to mind

Be immediate. Be decisive. Be prepared.
Classic example: Get your gun up and on target so you can take the shot(s) the moment you clear the wall/barrels.
Another example: don't linger on targets that you've called "good".

Set yourself up for where you're going next. You'll probably come to recognize different "setups" for positions at matches. A "hard lean" for example is something that you can practice. Another is a lateral shuffle of a few feet into a port. Depending on your division you could also work in a reload.

Cut out the excess. When you have to re-position, take a make-up shot, grab another mag because you fumbled one . . . you're eating up time. Those mistakes stack up. This is where video and match reviews can be very helpful: the footage can be used to help guide your priorities for practice.

There's a lot more. Those are just things I've been thinking about lately.

[Divehobo]

While striving for speed and accuracy on all stages, is it true that you should focus on speed with short stages and more toward accuracy on longer stages?

[anonymouscuban]

While I am going to try to incorporate a lot of info given, I was looking for more generalized tips and tricks, stuff anyone could use to gain an advantage. What kind of books and video's helped, what have you benefited from?

Stuff like shooting the bottom target on a stacked pair first so recoil from second shot could move you up and allow both target and sights to remain in focus as your moving.

You'll hate hearing this but there are not tricks. This is a sport, like most, that you get as much as you give. Unless you're one of the lucky 1% that just have a natural talent for practicalshooting, your level of participation is going to dictate the level of shooting you'll reach.

You need to decide what you want to get out of this sport.

Do you just want to go shoot a club match once a month and fun?

Do you want to win your division at local matches?

Do you want to shoot and be competitive at level 2 matches?

Do you want to shoot Nationals?

All are to require a certain level of commitment. Which guy are you. The first guy just needs to show to the match and shoot. He shouldn't care where he places. He shouldn't care about his classification. I find that most of the guys that say they just shoot for fun are BSing themselves. They care but they don't want to put in the work to get better.

This post indicates you're somewhere in one if the other groups. You want to get better?

Follow a dry fire program consistently. Daily dry fire is ideal. Dry fire should be focus on specific movements or fundamentals skills you're trying to improve. For example, if you're trying to improve your reloads. Focus on the reload. Don't compound that movement with a draw and transitions.

Confirm your dry fire in live fire practice. Once a week is a good start. But don't just go burn ammo. Your live fire should be training. You should have a plan of what you're gonna work on before you get to the range. Focus on a couple things that you want to improve. Maybe its drawing on a head box or mini popper. Maybe you want to work on shooting out of position. Again, know what you're going to train on before getting to the range.

Watch videos of the top guys shooting matches. You'll be surprised how much you can learn by watching the way they attack a stage. Read some books on the topic. Ben Stoeger has a great series of books.

And as had been said, record yourself in 3rd person in dry fire, live fire practice and at matches. Post those videos here for others to give constructive feedback. As you get better, you will be able to analyze them yourself and pick out things that need improvement.

Those are all the "tricks" to shooting better.

[Rez805]

While striving for speed and accuracy on all stages, is it true that you should focus on speed with short stages and more toward accuracy on longer stages?

I feel that there's a bit more to it than that. "Speed" should always be as fast you can remain in control.

Determining stage Hit Factor can help guide your decisions. "Short" stages can be tricky. You might be tempted to go for speed, but consider the field as well. I shot a short course with a pretty fast time but my hits were garbage. What I failed to recognize is that everyone who was competitive was going to be under 7 seconds. In that case, points are going to make a huge difference.

The stage in question is around 1:44

[IVC]

While I am going to try to incorporate a lot of info given, I was looking for more generalized tips and tricks, stuff anyone could use to gain an advantage. What kind of books and video's helped, what have you benefited from?

Get Ben Stoeger books, "Skills and Drills Reloaded" for live fire and "Dry Fire Reloaded" for dry fire. There are NO ticks, but there is a ALL the information you are looking for.

Getting to shoot well is a journey. You get there by taking the first step. You don't dream about the destination, you enjoy the journey and you pay careful attention at every step. You WILL get better if you start organized practice. A LOT better.

Stuff like shooting the bottom target on a stacked pair first so recoil from second shot could move you up and allow both target and sights to remain in focus as your moving.

These are minor gimmicks that can help a bit, but that won't make you a better shooter at all. They are unlikely to change your course times too - saving a few hundredths of a second in a vertical transition pales in comparison to losing a few seconds coming into a shooting position with the un-ready gun.

Books above go into great detail with all of this.

[Rez805]

You'll hate hearing this but there are not tricks. This is a sport, like most, that you get as much as you give. Unless you're one of the lucky 1% that just have a natural talent for practicalshooting, your level of participation is going to dictate the level of shooting you'll reach.

You need to decide what you want to get out of this sport.

Do you just want to go shoot a club match once a month and fun?

Do you want to win your division at local matches?

Do you want to shoot and be competitive at level 2 matches?

Do you want to shoot Nationals?

All are to require a certain level of commitment. Which guy are you. The first guy just needs to show to the match and shoot. He shouldn't care where he places. He shouldn't care about his classification. I find that most of the guys that say they just shoot for fun are BSing themselves. They care but they don't want to put in the work to get better.

This post indicates you're somewhere in one if the other groups. You want to get better?

Follow a dry fire program consistently. Daily dry fire is ideal. Dry fire should be focus on specific movements or fundamentals skills you're trying to improve. For example, if you're trying to improve your reloads. Focus on the reload. Don't compound that movement with a draw and transitions.

Confirm your dry fire in live fire practice. Once a week is a good start. But don't just go burn ammo. Your live fire should be training. You should have a plan of what you're gonna work on before you get to the range. Focus on a couple things that you want to improve. Maybe its drawing on a head box or mini popper. Maybe you want to work on shooting out of position. Again, know what you're going to train on before getting to the range.

Watch videos of the top guys shooting matches. You'll be surprised how much you can learn by watching the way they attack a stage. Read some books on the topic. Ben Stoeger has a great series of books.

And as had been said, record yourself in 3rd person in dry fire, live fire practice and at matches. Post those videos here for others to give constructive feedback. As you get better, you will be able to analyze them yourself and pick out things that need improvement.

Those are all the "tricks" to shooting better.

^^This.

Also, you're at Richmond. That place is stacked with experienced competitors.

[scotty99]

[IVC]

While striving for speed and accuracy on all stages, is it true that you should focus on speed with short stages and more toward accuracy on longer stages?

Yes (with caveats), but don't go there yet...

Before I give you the math, here is why you don't get dragged into this: you need accuracy on BOTH and there is a specific speed at which you should go at the matches, no more and no less. What changes is the level or "pushing" you can do on certain stages, where you accept less A-hits. You still HAVE TO see each shot and know where it's landing, you just spend less time settling the gun. This is completely different from "going fast" as in "press the trigger faster, details be damned."

Here is how the math works (also for others reading this). You have your hit factor HF = P/T. Clearly P is points and T is time. If you drop "p" points, how much faster do you have to go to maintain the HF?

(P-p)/(T-t) = P/T = HF
(P-p)T = P(T-t)
PT - pT = PT - Pt
pT = Pt
p/t = P/T = HF

So, if you drop one point, p=1, 1/t = HF or t = 1/HF. A point is worth one over the hit factor. On a 5 HF stage, a point is worth 0.2s. On a 10 HF stage, a point is worth 0.1s. That's where the above "rule" comes from - it's not about short vs. long stages, it's about the expected HF on the stage. On a high HF stage, say 10, even a Delta (major) hurts you only 0.3 seconds...

Do NOT get into this yet...

[IVC]

Videos - unless you have an experienced competitor friend, you won't get much out of it because you won't know what to look for. That's unfortunate, but it is what it is. Video is an indispensable tool for *polishing*, once you know what you're doing and looking for.

There is a great app, Shot Coach by Max Mitchell, but last I've heard it was removed from the app store. You will need the ability to mark the timeline so you can measure elapsed time, not just between shots, but between various other elements of the stage.