Practice Makes Perfect, but where?

[Bravo1ResQ]

I shoot regularly at H&H and Wilshire and I dry fire A LOT, but where are you guys and gals practicing your USPSA stage planning and execution at? I need to vastly improve my flow through the stages to hopefully improve my overall scoring.


-Kevin


PS: As of the date of this post - see some of y'all tomorrow!

 

[Matt1911]

At the house.
Back when I dry fired, I would set up mini USPSA targets on the walls in different positions up and down the hallway and various places throughout rooms in the house and run it like a stage.
I would practice getting on target and finding my sights in the A zone when pressing the trigger.
I would also do a lot of mag changes like I was shooting production, just to get used to the motion.
I should really start doing that again cause it helped tremendously.

 

[Airic]

Stage planning and execution are the hardest to train.

In the planning portion you get 5mins to figure out a stage in a way that best suits your skill level. One of the biggest things I see people do wrong is to watch the GM/M shooter and think thats the only way to shoot the stage. That guy is planning based on his skill level and experience, not yours. Im not saying you shouldnt follow his lead, just realize that some things he does might be too risky for a lower level shooter.

The only way to train this is shooting matches to see new stages, especially major matches as they really test you. I also used to grab stage diagrams from upcoming majors and make stage plans on them, then wait until it was over and watch peoples match vids to see how they shot it.

Stage execution: I really feel like this is probably the most important skill. You can be a mid-level shooter but execute well and finish at the top. Its almost impossible to train. You just have to prove to yourself that you can be consistent and have the confidence that you will do exactly what you planned to do.

 

[Rockon71385]

+1 to what Eric said. Shoot more matches. Stage planning, visualization, and execution are match skills that are entirely separate from your shooting ability. The best way to train them is to shoot as many matches as possible and to plan/program/execute as many stages as possible.

Also, major matches will have the most complex and difficult stage, so if you want to push the boundaries with those skills, go to a major or two. If you can plan and execute the stages at Area 4 or any other major match, the stages at a local match will usually feel like a joke.

 

[Wall]

As for stage planning, if you have the means....copy a stage from a recent local match. Run it many different ways & see what the timer tells you. You may be surprised at what you think is fast but is actually costing you time.

 

[Bravo1ResQ]

Thank you all. I'll keep doing what I'm doing in my dry fire sessions which is setting up small parts of a stage and work on them.

(i.e. setting up in my garage a turtle target partially covered with a no shoot and tape a box on the ground, run to the box on the buzzer and get on the trigger with an A zone hit as fast as possible etc)

 

[Airic]

Thank you all. I'll keep doing what I'm doing in my dry fire sessions which is setting up small parts of a stage and work on them.

(i.e. setting up in my garage a turtle target partially covered with a no shoot and tape a box on the ground, run to the box on the buzzer and get on the trigger with an A zone hit as fast as possible etc)

Your on the right track