Shooting Accuracy Training

[gungal]

First, you need to be practicing correct fundamentals.
Practice makes permanent. If you are not practicing correctly, than you are not gaining anything. You are probably doing more harm than good.

You should consider coming to a USPSA match in the near future. You won't need to take a class. Just shoot a few matches and you will get all the help you need. You will meet shooters who are more than willing to give you pointers. You will also learn more gun handling skills than you ever thought existed.

There are many matches to choose from.
Here's where to go to find more information. Contact a club president and get more information about the sport. http://www.mnuspsa.org/mnclubs.htm

Calendar of events in Minnesota for 2008 http://www.calendar.yahoo.com/YYY,ab40c ... ?v=42&POS=

Good Luck

[cmj685]

Hey gungal,
Thanks for the invitation! I shoot IDPA (and occasionally various other shoots) almost every weekend as it is, so at least this summer I can't add anything to my calendar. My original point was that, being self-taught, practice takes a person only so far because, as many have noted, practicing bad habits does more harm than good. Perfect practice makes perfect, but the question is how does one learn what the perfect is? That point evidently eludes some who have responded here, but that is why I thought a good course on the theory and practice of accurate shooting might be worthwhile....to learn what good habits to practice. Otherwise, even as much as I shoot, I may actually be taking myself further and further from where I want to go. And yes, I think videotaping oneself would be of great help...if one had a good instructor to critique the tape! I wouldn't know what I am seeing.

[David]

...but that is why I thought a good course on the theory and practice of accurate shooting might be worthwhile....to learn what good habits to practice.

Exactly. "Pointers" only take you so far. And learning one little thing every so often isn't a very efficient way of learning. Seriously, go to a five-day course sometime at one of the bigger schools. You'll learn more in that five days than you'll learn in years of hanging around gun shops or even matches. It's not just having someone tell you what to do, or to critique you. It's the concentration of everything into an extended period of time. You do the same thing, all day, for five straight days. Unless you have a learning disability, you can't help but be a significantly better shooter at the end of it. And the way the skills are hammered into you, you'll never forget them. You could stop shooting for five years, and then pick it back up all of a sudden and still be most of the way there.

Those of you who were in the Marine Corps, will you EVER forget how to properly shoot a rifle? Will you EVER forget how that position feels when you're sitting on the ground, bent over, strap welded on? Of course not. It's because you spent many hours over many weeks doing nothing but that. Your DI didn't just show it to you, have you do it a few times, and then move on to the next topic. He didn't just give you some pointers.

Those of you who play golf, and did so for a few years before you took any lessons, weren't you amazed at how much better you were after those lessons, even when you had been playing for years? Especially those of you who went to a week-long golf camp?

Even though a lengthy course out of town is expensive, it's cheaper in the long run than practicing a day or two a week for years on end. Faster, too, which I think most of us would find valuable. Concentrated learning is what works. Instruction (practical and theoretical), combined with repetition and constant critique, in a compressed time frame.

And when it's over, you'll know going forward what to practice, too, as well as how to tell when you're doing it right or wrong.

I'm taking the Shotgun Advanced Tactical Problems class at Gunsite in late September. The first class in their carbine series (Course 223) is being held at the same time. Anyone want to go?

[cmj685]

Did they put air conditioning in at Gunsite yet? That's what I am waiting for!

[selurcspi]

I teach a number of different things, computers, shooting, skiing etc. and I’ve found that the people who learn the most are the ones who have motivation to learn. If you pay (or the family budget pays) for the classes, you pay attention; you focus on and gain from the adjustments the instructors make in your technique, even if they are small. In any learning experience you can learn things by the seat of your pants but being taught and coached makes for quicker learning and better retention through correct practice. Throughout the learning process (Life) you will have dry spells or plateaus, where you can’t make any progress. These times can normally only be overcome by the analysis and adjustment of technique provided by an outside source, a Teacher.

I’m not saying this because I want to get paid for teaching, but because I know it’s true. We all need to be taught if we want to achieve our best results. Teachers need teachers to see a different perspective, to learn better teaching techniques and maybe learn a new trick or two. ChinaKay and I just took Kimberman’s class and while we teach the many of the same things he provided some better explanations of the rationale behind some techniques and in depth legal clarifications that we would normally not have understood. Our future students will benefit from our taking his class; self taught learners don’t have a prayer of gaining this kind of knowledge by the seat of their pants.

My $.02

[selurcspi]

Video tape yourself sometime.

... We're talking about guns here. You keep that alternative trash to yourself.

I would love to see how you can see what you do wrong, if you don't video tape yourself.

Video is one of the best tools you can use, I had a glitch in my skiing technique that was holding me back from passing the level 3 instructor's test. I was told about it but I swore blind that I didn't do the thing my coach was telling me, we dragged out the video and I could see the problem that I had and then the adjustment made sense to me and I could incorporate it into my skiing and consequently into my teaching.

[David]

Did they put air conditioning in at Gunsite yet? That's what I am waiting for!

No, but there are a few months of the year out there where the weather isn't as hot as you'd think. They are up pretty high, so mid spring and early fall aren't too bad as long as it doesn't rain. When it does, it's only for a short time. It's nothing at all like Phoenix.

And I totally agree with Benny's comments. Getting instruction and critique is everything. I'm not any kind of firearms instructor, but I used to be a motorcycle instructor and I still do a fair amount of occupational safety training (OSHA stuff), and training is a "skill" in itself that translates to any topic. People learn physical things in essentially the same way.

I also agree with everyone's comments about video. I've videotaped most of the firearms classes I've taken (following people through the simulators and houses, mounting the camera on a vehicle or something else, and handing it off to someone else when it was my turn) and watching hours of yourself and others do all these things really sharpens the point. It's fun to see, too! I'm happy to loan any of those tapes to anyone who wants to see them.