Finish the draw

[rrruuunnn]

i read in mossad ayoobs book that a cop died when he did a double tap and lowered his weapon. he trained to lower his weapon after a double tap. the bad guy returned fire before he could continue firing. there is a saying that you fight like you train.

in tennis, we were taught to always try every shot regardless of how far the ball is. it becomes a reflex.

i believe the original poster has some value.

anyways one should practice the draw slow as well as fast almost guaranteeing a smooth draw. the slow draw will give better muscles memory and a smoother draw.

 

[Lurper]

Ze: np, after all this is the internet

OK, perhaps "muscle memory" is an imperfect or inaccurate term/concept...maybe "habituation" is a more accurate term for what we're discussing here.

Kor you make some good points. I think the big difference and what most people miss is that it is really a question of mental conditioning, not physical. Shooting itself is 99% mental. If you train your mind, it will know when you should and should not finish the draw. I have never (in the countless matches I have shot over the years) quit, reholstered and drawn again because I had a bad grip. Even though when I practice I never complete a bad draw. I attribute that to mental training which I believe is the crux of the issue. If you believe in "muscle memory" then you are training yourself to complete a set of tasks in a given order regardless of the setting/situation. It's sort of like shooting in cadence, you train yourself to shoot in that rythm regardless of the difficulty of the shot. Hence you are almost always either too fast or too slow. It sounds overly simplistic, but it isn't: if you believe that your mind can't/won't be able to determine when you should and shouldn't complete the draw, then it won't. Conversely if you allow it to, it will. The purpose of practice is to perfect technique, not just burn brass. You don't perfect technique by practicing bad technique. If you have a bad grip for example, you are far better off to stop and analyze what happened and why. Then try it again being aware of what happened, adjust and correct as necessary. Always being aware of what your objective is. If you think your mind is a slave to your draw, then complete the draw - if you think your draw is a slave to your mind then don't.

 

[rrruuunnn]

a few of us has questioned the existence of muscle memory. i took the words out of mossad ayoobs book. when i took martial arts i kicked in my sleep. when i bicycled i pedaled in my sleep. my instructor would reflexively punch people behind him because of his training. if muscle memory didn't exist, why does reflex require 4 thousand repitions.

 

[Lurper]

if muscle memory didn't exist, why does reflex require 4 thousand repitions.

Funny, I would draw and fire or dry fire literally 600 -700 times a day evey day and I have never drawn in my sleep or reflexively shot someone behind me because of my training.

I think most people will acknowledge that "muscle memory" is a misnomer. Common sense will tell you that it doesn't exist for two reasons: nothing in your body happens without a signal from your brain and if it existed, your muscles could operate independently of the brain which would mean that I could read or talk on the phone while shooting and see no degradation in score. Try that and let me know how it works for ya!

Call it what it is: relationship training. Training your mind to know the relationship between a certain muscular arrangement and the result.
As Kor mentioned, it's when something becomes a habit that it gets dangerous. A habit is doing something to the point that it becomes almost involuntary which is totally opposite from doing something until it doesn't require conscious thought. You should train accordingly. It is a hard concept for some to grasp.
When you are perfecting the draw or any technique, it is far more beneficial to stop, analyze and correct than it is to continue.

 

[Chris Rhines]

An interesting, possibly related side note, that I was thinking about today.

I rarely practice malfunction clearance drills, never during live practice. When I have a malfunction during practice, I stop, clear my gun, and figure out what happened - do I need to clean the gun or magazine? Bad reload? Worn or broken part?

According to some schools of thought, I should do the same thing in competition that I do in practice. Nope. Never happened, not even once. When I suffer a malfunction during a match, I clear it and keep going.

I think that we should give ourselves more credit for the ability to think flexibly under pressure.

- Chris