Jerry touched on a couple of real important things here.

1st, if you don't have one, get a timer. Improvements are going to
come in very small increments that you will not notice without one.

2nd, you can make some real good improvements without even sending s
round down range. Dryfire daily if you can. Double and Triple
check your gun to ensure it is unloaded. Practice your draw and
sight picture and practice your reloads. A lot of shooters are
giving up over 1/2 to 3/4 of a second on the draw. Over 8 stages
you are looking at 4-6 seconds behind just on the 1st shots. Throw
another 1/2 second per reload and now you are looking at almost 10
seconds you need to make up. When split times between shots are
down to .2 seconds, how much time can you really make up in the
shooting??

Oz and Jerry usually disagree with me on this but when I practice I
take a lot of the drills I shoot right out of the classifier
stages. I think the IDPA classifier has almost all the basics to
help someone become a better shooter. Once your basics are coming
around, add lateral movement and shooting from weird positions and
you should be good.

Lastly, while it is much more fun to practice what you are good at
(Especially when someone else is watching) you will not get much
better. Assess your shooting and work on your weaknesses. A while
back probably my biggest shooting weakness was accuracy, especially
at longer distances. I finally got tired of it and every time I
practiced I spent some time on longer ranges. It has definately
paid off.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Catch ya all later,

Neal


--- In FBIDPA@yahoogroups.com, "Jerry" <shootingbuff@y...> wrote:
> --- In FBIDPA@yahoogroups.com, "jorgedavaz" <jorgedavaz@y...>
wrote:
> > Jerry,
> > finally the "Practically Speaking" by Walt Rauch, came in. its
> great
> > yall majorly i recommend to us new starters like me. my question
is
> > this on the strategies that you put out for me, do i practice
with
> > them on cof, or some of the scenarios on the web. again
thanks,for
> > your time and much help. yall out there have suggestions for
this
> old
> > timer law enforc. shooting dude, its very much welcome and
> > appreciated. iknow, iknow, get a life, right? gracias amigos y
> amigas.
> > jorge
> ===================
> "I" believe in drills. A scenario is where one links a drill or
> various drills togather to complete a scenario. So my thought is
if
> one can not shoot drills well they wont do well overall. Also a
> drill can be repeated easier, faster, and it is easier to track
small
> improvements or figure out what might not be working for you.
Sorta
> like taking a big bite of fish and trying to find a bone vs
smaller
> bites. You can find the bone with the big bite, but it will show
> itself usaly faster with a small bite. There are better examples
but
> hey I just woke up.
>
> So I would and do start with a target at 3 yds. A couple of dry
warm
> up draws and sight pictures then go hot and punch the sucker 5
times
> COM tracking my times, then 5 times to the head. You can move
then
> to double taps or back to 5/7 and 10 yds and repeat etc. I do
this
> so I can do this 5-10 times in row not H-H-M-H-M but H-H-H-H-H
See
> what your avg time is on your next outing or run and try beating
it
> by .005/.10. Do this by breaking down what you were doing, trying
to
> take out any inwarrented movement and relax. If you feel like you
> are safe and smooth you can try to increase your speed slightly as
in
> a wee little bit. The idea is to maintain good solid hits though.
>
> For a single shot out to 7 yds I would say if you can make 1.5
from
> the holster you are doing well and 1.75 is OK. Remember don't
worry
> about the speed of the draw as much as being smooth. Being smooth
> again will result in a better placed first shot. You have to
relax,
> keep a log, and practice. There is no magik potion, gun, or load
> that is going to improve you like a good practice program. What
> works for one may not work for someone else.
>
> Sounds boring? OK, you asked and I typed ;-) Also I practice
> without a cover garment usally becasue I want to practice the
drill.
> You can work on clearing your over garment and your draw with and
> unloaded tripled check cleared wpn at home. Something else - just
> don't draw your wpn, take a sight picture. Some folks don't and
> though they are fast they have problems aquiring the front sight
> because the gun is bouncing. Again smooth is what we are looking
for.
>
> Practice for me is only fun if I see improvement or have someone
out
> to practice with. It is a requiredment though most don't like or
do
> it such as myself, though I know it is nessacceray to win these
> days. A great example of this is Niff who dedicated 6-7 months of
> hard work and is just kicking butt.
>
> knap___