Posted by duffy on July 28, 1999 at 08:45:30:
All suggestions welcome. I've developed a problem where the longer I practice, the longer it takes me to execute a shot.
Consequently, my scores drop. This is not fatigue, as I begin to notice the problem rather quickly. It's as though I can't squeeze
the trigger unless I have the "perfect shot". Of course that's impossible. Help wanted!
Posted by RodM on July 29, 1999 at 08:42:09:
In Reply to: shooting psychology posted by duffy on July 28, 1999 at 08:45:30:
Two things here or maybe three. There are two important facts of shooting that are involved here, area of hold and time of
minimum movement.
Area of hold - This is the area each of us is capable of holding the gun in. Some can hold in an area of the 7 ring, others 8 and
some few within the 9 ring or less. No one can hold a 10.9. With training and practice we can reduce our area of hold.
Time of minimum movement - When the sights first comes into the shooters area of aim it takes about 3 seconds for the body to
bring the arc of movement down to a minimum. After about 10 seconds (7 after the 3) fatigue starts to increase this movement
and our arc of movement increases.
I know you knew all of this but it is background. The trick is to get the hammer to fall in time of minimum arc of movement
without disturbing the sights and without .
Suggestions:
1 - Set your goal to have the shot be better than a 7 (or a 5 or an 8 depending on your ability) instead of trying to get a 10.9.
2 - When you have exceeded your time of minimum movement PUT THE GUN DOWN. You know the shot will be bad so
start over.
3 - Concentrate on the sight alignment (relation of front and rear sights) and let the sight picture (relation of front sight to the
target) take care of itself.
4 - When the sight alignment is correct and you are in your area of hold concentrate on squeezing the trigger and let the shot go
where it may. See if your scores don't improve.
5 - Use weights to strengthen your arm.
If you are having trouble in practice getting the shot of, stop and rest for a while.
You may also determine when you start to have trouble getting the shot off. If it is after x number of shots you might stop after
that and switch to dry fire concentrating on trigger control for the rest of the practice and after a week or so try to add another 5
shot series and so on until you can continue through a whole practice.
Last recommendation, look at links and find one to the Army Marksmanship Unit Pistol Training Guide, in particular read
chapters 1, 2, and 3.
Posted by Bill B on July 29, 1999 at 14:50:17:
In Reply to: shooting psychology posted by duffy on July 28, 1999 at 08:45:30:
Here are a couple of training exercises that I use that might help.
1) Dry fire awhile aiming at a white wall or a blank piece of paper. This will get you in the habit of concentrating on front sight,
sight alignment, and trigger squeeze, without any thought of score. The object, of course, is to get the trigger to break without
disturbing the sight alignment. If your gun doesn't have dry fire capability, then you can shoot at a blank paper. Just remember to
change it when you start to really notice the holes in it.
2) Use a target for dry fire practise. This is a continuation of the previous exercise. Again it takes the emphasis off of score.
Here the object is the same as 1), with the addition working on the position of the sights on the target. I find that if I'm focused
on the front sight the way I should be, the position of the sights on the target almost takes care of itself. The thing to work on in
your case would be getting the shot off cleanly during the time of minimal arc of movement. This is the time period from 3 to 10
seconds in the shot process that Rod mentioned.
3) Practice shooting using a target with no scoring rings. This is basically just the black bull. You could also use this in place of
2) if your gun doesn't have dry fire capability. This helps hone technique while again demphasizing score. I do almost all of my
live fire shooting like this, unless I'm shooting for record to check my progress.
I've had a similar problem myself, and these exercises really seemed to help.
HTH, Bill
Posted by Tom B on August 03, 1999 at 07:39:29:
It's called target panic i have the same prob with competitive archery in other words dont over do it there are lots of "cures" out
there but the one that works for me is to practice and when it gets bad just walk away for a week or so then try again a friend
of mine has it so bad that he quit shooting for a 6 month stint this helped him a lot and is shooting better than ever.
Let me know what works for you and
good shooting to ya
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