How should I prepare for a pistol match?

[sharpshooter95]

I have a pistol match coming up in 1 week, It will be my first match and i am shooting with my glock 22, so i am alittle nervous about it. I was wondering how i should prepare, what do you guys do before a competition? My main shooting flaw is missing low and to the left with my glock becasue of shot anticipation and bad trigger control . Any drills or any info at all would be greatly appreciated.

 

[loop]

I'm probably at or pushing 1,000 pistol matches by now.

I prepare by making sure I bring everything I need. Don't forget ammo, ears and eyes, spare mags, belt, holster and pouches. And, oh yeah, the gun.

Then there is money, writing instrument, paper, etc.

Most importantly, don't worry about who is watching you or what they may think. Have fun hanging out with like-minded people and enjoy the opportunity to learn and try new things.

As to shooting low left, work on your grip. Hold the gun like a vise. Lock your wrist. More pistol problems can be attributed to failure to lock your wrist than any other single reason I can think of.

You can't jerk the trigger if your wrist is locked.

Front sight, locked wrist, ease the trigger back.

Do not think about the clock or the people watching you. They don't matter. Worry about your technique.

 

[krs]

Loop is giving good stuff.

Main thing now is to stay relaxed. It's too late for you to start trying to correct shooting errors one week before a match - you'll just make yourself crazy.

If you're righthanded you're could be pushing your pistol as you try to release shots. Think about what movement you might be making to upset your aim at the last instance to give you low left results.

But think about all that next week.

At least if your errors are all going to the same area of your target you are firing groups instead of just spraying shots with every error in the book. So you don't have as big a problem as more than half of the guys on the range with you will have.

Hold that thought - you're good enough to win!

At this late date all you need to do is to relax and have a good time. If you get yourself all stressed out and thinking about how awful you are you won't like the day and you might not go back. Nobody wants that - they ALL want you there shooting in their match.

 

[Sam1911]

Now wait a minute! Don't tell him he can't improve his skills in the next week!

Sharps, set up a good draw & dry-fire session and run it 100+ times each night before the match.

Put a dot on the wall. Get a stopwatch or timer that will beep. (Set it to 3 sec. or something.)

EMPTY YOUR GUN...FOR SURE!

At the beep, concentrate on bringing the gun up out of the holster, rotating it to point toward the target, and then bring it forward and your weak hand up to complete your grip as it's moving toward the target. Do this precisely and smoothly, exactly the same way every time. Even if you have to do it at a snail's pace. Up, rotate, forward, weak hand grip, sight on target, click. Develop a cadence or rhythm to help you do it just the same each time.

As your arms extend, make yourself see the target, and see the front sight homing in on it. Your shot should break just as your arms reach their correct extension. Make yourself see the front sight (in focus) right on the target (blurry) before, during, and after the shot break. Don't let the trigger finger movement wobble the front sight off the center of the target.

Then bring the gun back in toward your chest, reset the hammer/striker, and holster. Holster smoothly every time -- without fumbling for the holster, digging the muzzle in your side, or using your weak hand to locate it!

If you do this correctly 100 times -- as slowly as you need to go to do it very precisely, and stopping each night if you start to get sloppy -- it WILL improve your performance.

Maybe just a little for this match...but keep doing it and you'll be a machine before too many more match days come.

If you can get these things right, speed will come easily!

Good luck!

-Sam

 

[sharpshooter95]

Ok, I have been doing some dry fire shooting. Today i got my brother to come with me when i went to shoot a couple rounds. I would give him my gun and magazine, and he may or may not put a bullet in it. Then he would hand it back to me. I would have no idea if there was a bullet in the gun or not, so if anytrigger jerk or anticipation occured, it was very easy to spot. That helped alot.

I have stood in front of the mirror and practice drawing and breaking the first shot. I need to do it some more.
And loop, I would vise grip mainly with the support hand to counter balance my recoil anticipation problem wouldn't I?

 

[chbrow10]

The most important thing is to be safe. They should have a 1st time shooters brief. Listen to the safety rules. If you don't get disqualified, you had a great first match. The next most important thing is to have fun. Enjoy yourself. Don't worry about your score at all. Relax, and do the best you can.

 

[Sam1911]

I would vise grip mainly with the support hand to counter balance my recoil anticipation problem wouldn't I?

Your anticipation problem doesn't start in your grip, and can't be fixed (correctly) by simply improving your grip.

Dryfire practice (and the dummy drills you've been doing) will help with anticipation. Concentrate on your follow-through (that's the "see the sight on the target after the shot breaks thing) and you'll beat flinch / anticipation.

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa50-plo48

That should answer all your questions about grip. There's no better teacher of the fundamentals than that man.

Good luck!

-Sam

 

[sharpshooter95]

Ok thanks, I have watched a bunch of todd jarrets stuff.

I had a friend who had won second junior in the nation before and we shot alot. We would shoot as if we were in an actual match. So i do know the basics of saftey and competition shooting. My misses to the left are only about 2-4 inches running fast corses but that is plenty enough to make me want to fix it.
I was practicing with the instructor for the place i will be shooting at, "This was about 3-6 months ago" and it was the first day i had ever shot my glock.
As you all know a glock is much harder to shoot with accuracy than the 1911 I was used to.
I had answered ever one of the instructors questions about the mechanics of shooting, some before he finished the sentence. When we started shooting, i started missing low and left, really embarrasing if i might add. He started to really lecture about that becasue he wanted to correct me about something for the first time that day. He stayed on that for about 3 minutes to prove too everyone he was the instructor. So i have been practicing hard to redeem myself, ha ha! I have gotten alot better though, it was so bad that day i was missing 5 inch plates at about 8 paces! I have come a long way but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Thanks for your help guys.

 

[loop]

When I refer to locking your wrist I mean the strong, or shooting, hand. A long time ago I had a coach who was a former Camp Perry champion. He's long gone now, but when I met him he was 73. He challenged me to make him bend his wrist. I was 40 years his junior and an athlete. When he locked that wrist I could grab his hand and force him off balance and make his elbow and shoulder move, but I could not make his wrist bend even a little bit.

I'm getting up there in years now, but when I shoot the muzzle does not rise - and I shoot nothing but .45s. If I am having a bad day shooting I just focus on locking my wrist and my accuracy improves immediately.

The truth is that I hardly ever "feel" the trigger when I pull it. It is kind of psychological response - sight picture good -squeeze - boom.

I shoot my worst when I think about it and my best when I just do what I've trained to do.

One trick I've learned is that when things seem not to be going well, slow down and focus. You cannot miss fast enough to win. But, good hits are good hits no matter what the clock says.

Back to the wrist lock...

I don't know what you have available, but I have farm animals and tote heavy loads of feed regularly (not to mention building pens and mending fences). I practice every time I have to pick up a 140-pound bale of alfalfa or 50 or 100-pound bag of feed. I make sure I lock my wrists and pick it up without letting them move. I may use elbows, shoulders, back, legs, etc., but I don't let the wrists bend. Find ways to let the heavy work you do work for you.

Even if your only work is hoisting a brew you can make it benefit you. Do it without bending your wrist. Focus on that while doing other things in life and it will come naturally when you shoot.

BTW, I have pretty bad carpal tunnel syndrome. My wrists hurt all the time. Most of the time I can't feel my right thumb (which is a pain when shooting a 1911 in competition) and the pinky finger side of my left hand has been numb for years. I still win my class about 90 percent of the time. If I can do it, you can do it.

Just remember, recoil is nothing. The worst it can do is bruise the palm of your hand. I've had much worse bruises to the palm by slapping the bottom of a mag with an extended metal baseplate too hard...

Most important - have fun!!!

 

[Jim Watson]

What kind of match, IDPA or IPSC/USPSA?

If so, read the rules while you are not practicing. There is no reason to go wandering around on the range accumulating procedural penalties. My four priorities:

1. Be safe. Do not hurt anybody, do not scare anybody, do not get disqualified for safety rule violation.
2. Execute the Course of Fire correctly. Pay attention, follow instructions, watch other shooters, ask questions. Do not get penalized.
3. Hit the target. All previous replies have been about marksmanship, so do it.
4. Move along, it is a timed event. Do not run before you walk, LITERALLY, do not shoot faster than you can get hits, but do not delay.

 

[sharpshooter95]

The shooting club is just a redneck club, there is about 30-40 people in it.
They dont run IDPA, IPSC, or anything, they come up withtheir own courses and their own rules.

 

[OurSafeHome.net]

Dry-fire with a very firm grip.

Repeat 10,000 times.

 

[Sam1911]

The shooting club is just a redneck club, there is about 30-40 people in it.
They dont run IDPA, IPSC, or anything, they come up withtheir own courses and their own rules.

Oh, well, just relax and have (safe) fun then. I'm sure you'll do just fine.

Go, enjoy, observe.

When you get a chance, visit a club or two that does shoot IDPA and USPSA (IPSC). Those disciplines will seem to have a lot of rules and perhaps be a bit officious at first. (Aside from just being tremendous fun!) But if you get into either game more seriously you'll start to see that all those rules and regs are really just carefully constructed frameworks that allow everyone to have a fair shot at success, provide a universally understood set of safety guidelines that keep everyone going home in one piece without being arbitrary or confusing, and give the Match Directors the foundations upon which to build interesting and challenging stages. Very few of those rules exist without a significant reason -- and that reason may not be apparent without some lengthy explanation -- and they didn't come to be without very large amounts of experience and careful thought.

I'm sure these guys are safe and fair, but (as a Match Director, myself) writing my own set of rules to keep everyone safe and (mostly) happy would be a responsibility I just wouldn't want! And, as a shooter, I'm really thankful for the ability to show up at a new club, facing new challenges and the quirks of how a different organization runs things, and know where I stand, what I'm supposed to do, and what is expected of me.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes and what kind of stages they come up with!

-Sam

 

[sharpshooter95]

We are going to have 4 pistol stages following a defensive shotgun style stage, So it should be interesting.

I've probably shot 500-600 .22 pistol rounds in the last week at my house.
My "town" has 125 people in it so i can shoot whenever i want. I have about 15 steel pistol targets,poppers,knockdown plates, mini plates, shillouette, ect.

I've been getting a bunch of friends together and we set up and run courses just like we would at a match. We have a timer and compete with each other, It's pretty good practice. We have been using all the range commands, just to get used to them.

Sometimes the shooting club post videos on youtube. So i will give you a link if you want

 

[sharpshooter95]

I shot the match today and i dominated the high capacity class. I didn't miss the "A" zones but twice in the first stage.

Got a clean score for the next 3 stages. Wasn't as bad off as i thought i was! hahaha.