After moving the family to retirement spot early, I made that 12-14 hour drive each way every 2 weeks for several years ... And now that I am retired, yes, I would make that drive for you. Any time.
Here you go.
Shooting Basics Step-by-step - Imagine I am in front of you walking you through the steps. These are steps I go over when I introduce people to point shooting.
SHORT VERSION: Here's step by step:
- Grip your pistol with shooting hand and extend out with "V" of palm high on back strap/beaver tail (partial or full extension)
- Form a "hook" with support hand and pull back squeezing shooting hand fingers while resisting movement with shooting hand/arm - Try to make full contact of support hand palm with pistol grip (This is Not Weaver or Isosceles as you can bend your elbows or do full extension)
- Increase push/pull until pistol can be held steady with work transferred to shoulders using chest/back muscles
- While watching the front sight, quickly press trigger until you hear "click" (Try 3rd finger if index finger moves front sight)
- If you push the front sight down, you are pressing too fast. Slow down a bit until front sight is steady with "click"
NOTE: On step #2, I noticed my support arm elbow torques down and "locks" to form a neutral push/pull grip, an isometric grip.
At 1:55 minute of video, push/pull demonstrated
Locking head with pistol - Once you are proficient with neutral push/pull grip and trigger control to not move the front sight, next we work on locking the head with the pistol.
- As soon as you draw and form a grip from partial extension (elbows bent) to full extension (elbows locked), imagine a body cast forming instantly from the head down the shoulders, arms, to the hands with the pistol. Eyes are locked looking straight forward, and looking at anything will now require your entire head down to hands to move in unison.
This allows the pistol to track with your eyes and whatever you are looking at, the barrel will be pointing at it so when you want to hit it, you simply use trigger control to pull/press the trigger fast without moving the front sight.
Natural Point of Aim / Synchronizing Natural POA with POI - Synchronizing your natural POA with POI regularly (I check this at the start of each shooting session) will definitely help enhance your accuracy and speed.
- At the range, place a dot on copy paper target and set it at 5 yards
- While focusing on the dot, close your eyes and draw the pistol and fire
- Open your eyes and if POI is different from POA, make necessary vertical/horizontal adjustments at the shoulders and waist only while maintaining steady/firm neutral push/pull grip
- While focusing on the dot, close your eyes and draw the pistol and fire
- If POI is different from POA, continue to make necessary adjustments until they are synchronized
- Once POI is synchronized with POA, place another dot on target
- With eyes closed, draw and shoot at left dot then draw and shoot at right dot.
- Continue the exercise with 4 dots on target
- Then with your eyes open, draw and shoot twice at each dot - This is "double tap"
- Practice until you can place fast double taps anywhere on target at will
- Cut copy paper in half vertically and use them as targets (This is essentially the size of USPSA A zone)
- Cut copy paper in quarter and use them as targets (This is approximately the size of USPSA target head)
- When you can place ALL fast double taps at will on quarter sheet targets, move the targets to 7 yards, 10 yards and 15 yards
- If your shots go outside of quarter sheet targets, move the targets closer and practice until ALL the shots go inside the quarter sheet copy paper before moving the targets further out
LONG VERSION:
Busting Myths - I do this with everyone I teach point shooting to shatter many Hollywood movie notions and shooting notions we have been "brainwashed" by those meaning well yet misinformed.
- You really only need 2 fingers to shoot and control a pistol - I do a demonstration by using 9mm/40S&W M&P Shield/Glocks and 45ACP 1911, gripping only with thumb and third finger to accurately shoot and control at multiple targets set at 5-7 yards, even double taps. Then I have the shooters do it themselves. Sure, the pistols will recoil more but they won't fly off the hands and as they get accustomed to shooting with 2 fingers, I casually tell them that if they were wrong about this shooting notion, what else could they be wrong about.
- I then do more demonstration of shooting myths along with point shooting but since I can't do a physical demonstration with you, I will skip to the next topic.
Trigger Control / Grip - As we have discussed extensively in this thread,
trigger control (and interconnected grip)
is the first shooting basics one must master to shoot more consistent which produces accuracy and speed (When you are bored, grab your favorite drink and read through the "Trigger Control" thread) -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/trigger-control.834737/page-2#post-11245640
As outlined in the AMU Pistol Marksmanship Training Guide, trigger control is essential (along with grip) to maintain sight alignment so the muzzle or rather barrel alignment with point of aim (POA) does not deviate to produce point of impact (POI) on POA.
- So clear the pistol and dry fire while watching the front sight using your "typical" grip and trigger control.
Did the front sight move or jerk?
- If the front sight moved, dry fire again while trying to not move the front sight.
Now take a deep breath and relax ... Fact is, front sight will always move.
Why? Because no matter how firm of grip you use, once you start pulling/pressing back on the trigger, due to trigger parts overcoming inherent safeties and metal-to-metal parts engaging each other, there will be small movements you will dynamically correct/compensate to maintain the front sight steady until the hammer/striker falls. So the front sight is continuously moving while you work to steady it until the bullet exits the muzzle. Being able to hold the pistol steady while the index finger (or shooting finger as you can shoot with middle finger with index finger along the frame - More on this later) pulls/presses the trigger back is key to not moving the front sight.
So how do we best address this?
While there are many solutions, this is what I found to be the best for me and share with everyone who I train/teach point shooting to - Neutral push/pull grip.
Neutral push/pull grip - Since the goal is to hold the pistol steady while trigger is pulled/pressed to not move the front sight, we use an equal force push/pull to not move the pistol yet allow relaxing of the trigger finger.
- Clear the pistol and hold with shooting hand with "V" of palm as high as you can get on the back strap.
- Instead of "gripping" the pistol tight with your shooting hand, focus more on providing a firm push with the "V" of palm
- Next, form a hook with support hand fingers and place over the shooting hand fingers to allow as much contact of support hand palm with the pistol grip with thumbs stacked on top of each other
- Now this is important. Apply different amount of force of push with the shooting hand and use corresponding amount of equal force of pull to hold the pistol steady WHILE keeping the shooting finger relaxed. Try this with elbows bent and fully locked.
- If you want a firmer grip, try relaxing the shooting hand fingers but push firmer on the "V" of palm and squeeze tighter on the support hand fingers and pull back to match for amount of push all the while keeping your trigger finger relaxed.
- Now, while watching the front sight, dry fire. Was the front sight more steady?
- Next, cycle the slide to reset the trigger and return to neutral push/pull grip.
- Now, TRANSFER the work of push/pull to the shoulder muscles, chest muscles and back muscles. This is key as hand muscles (which are essentially actuated by forearm muscles) are smaller and will tire/fatigue easier as you shoot. By transfering the push/pull work to larger shoulder/chest/back muscles, you are able to better hold the pistol steady while you pull/press the trigger and be able to hold the pistol steady as you shoot without tiring the hand/forearm muscles.
- With shoulder/chest/back muscles doing the work of push/pull of grip, you will find relaxing the trigger finger is easier and dry fire while watching the front sight. Properly done, you should see decrease in front sight movement.
At 1:55 minute mark of video, Rob Leatham demonstrates this neutral push/pull grip -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-help-me-speed-up.824618/page-4#post-10902444
Locking head with pistol - Once you are proficient with neutral push/pull grip and trigger control to not move the front sight, next we work on locking the head with the pistol.
- As soon as you draw and form a grip from partial extension (elbows bent) to full extension (elbows locked), imagine a body cast forming instantly from the head down the shoulders, arms, to the hands with the pistol. Eyes are locked looking straight forward, and looking at anything will now require your entire head down to hands to move in unison.
This allows the pistol to track with your eyes and whatever you are looking at, the barrel will be pointing at it so when you want to hit it, you simply use trigger control to pull/press the trigger fast without moving the front sight.
- At this point, I would demonstrate draw and locking the head with pistol and shoot at multiple targets requiring moving the head around with pistol tracking with head and also have the shooters do it themselves. But since I am not there physically, I will have you watch some videos of this in practice.
All the seasoned regional/national USPSA shooters do the same as their head "floats" steady and vertical/horizontal adjustments are made at the shoulders/waist even though they are running through the stage engaging targets at different heights and angles.
Even with good shooting basics principled shooters sometimes under the pressure of match shooting, rushed to meet stage times and awkward shooting positions/situations (like bobbing/spinning targets) can break and end up with wildly deviated shots outside of A zone or miss the steel targets entirely when they should have hit the targets.
When I examined why this occurred, what I found is sometimes under stress, we resort to fundamental "natural point of aim" that our body ACTUALLY produces instead of carefully AIMED front sight flash point of aim. And for many shooters, natural point of aim (POA) could produce different point of impact (POI) and synchronizing the two will help with match shooting and is the foundation of point shooting.
Natural Point of Aim / Synchronizing Natural POA with POI - Synchronizing your natural POA with POI regularly (I check this at the start of each shooting session) will definitely help enhance your accuracy and speed.
- At the range, place a dot on copy paper target and set it at 5 yards
- While focusing on the dot, close your eyes and draw the pistol and fire
- Open your eyes and if POI is different from POA, make necessary vertical/horizontal adjustments at the shoulders and waist only while maintaining steady/firm neutral push/pull grip
- While focusing on the dot, close your eyes and draw the pistol and fire
- If POI is different from POA, continue to make necessary adjustments until they are synchronized
- Once POI is synchronized with POA, place another dot on target
- With eyes closed, draw and shoot at left dot then draw and shoot at right dot.
- Continue the exercise with 4 dots on target
- Then with your eyes open, draw and shoot twice at each dot - This is "double tap"
- Practice until you can place fast double taps anywhere on target at will
- Cut copy paper in half vertically and use them as targets (This is essentially the size of USPSA A zone)
- Cut copy paper in quarter and use them as targets (This is approximately the size of USPSA target head)
- When you can place ALL fast double taps at will on quarter sheet targets, move the targets to 7 yards, 10 yards and 15 yards
- If your shots go outside of quarter sheet targets, move the targets closer and practice until ALL the shots go inside the quarter sheet copy paper before moving the targets further out
This is working towards "Zen" of shooting where you absolutely positively KNOW your shots (POI) are going exactly where you intent for them to go (POA) regardless how fast you shoot your double taps. Once you master natural point of aim and POI remain synchronized to POA, you will continue to hit your targets even under stress of match shooting and/or awkward shooting positions.
Once you mastered Natural Point of Aim and maintain synchronized POA with POI, next steps are learning and practicing advanced match shooting techniques such as shooting on the move, order of target engagement, shooting single strong/weak hand (tilt your pistol in so your hands are like on car steering wheel at 10/2 O'clock to better "lock" your wrist to improve rigidity and transfer recoil force to arms/shoulders), and keeping track of round count so I try to change mags while I am transitioning between groups of targets or with last round in the chamber for mag change so I am not surprised with a slide lock while engaging targets.
These advanced techniques and match shooting tips are covered in this thread for your review -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-help-me-speed-up.824618/page-4#post-10902710
