Observations of a 20-shot practice
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 6:03 pm
Ok, technically it was a 50-shot practice, but I threw down 30 warm-up shots, went down range and changed out targets so I could see how things look.
To me, and I say this a lot especially to new silhouette shooters, is that this sport is a lot like golf. You want to develop your swing and repeat this swing on every drive because you need it to be predictable. The golf ball and the club are predictable like your ammo, barrel and scope. Now if you can get your stance, hold, trigger control and follow-through into a "swing", you'll quickly see the correlation.
The warm-ups are important. They not only get you in the groove of things, but you start to remember a lot of the little things you need to do right, the things you need to avoid and what good shots look like. Most importantly, you remember your "swing" - you FEEL your "swing". You know when you're swinging correctly and you know when you're standing there trying to pull off a mulligan.
I can tell I'm in my "swing" when the shot breaks because I sighted the picture and the trigger seemed to have pulled itself. I'm confident I'm in my swing when I see a snap-shot of the dot, in my mind, sitting on the target as I heard the shot. It's when one of these little things doesn't happen, I know it was a lack of discipline - I broke my swing and threw up a shot to chance.
So, what did 20 shots tell me? It told me, it's about what my average score is for a match.
(The shootin' iron)
Section A - You can see these 5 I pulled up over the top, 2 of them horribly. The three bottom shots were me being sloppy. The top two were just a plain breakdown in discipline.
Section B - More sloppy effort. While I felt they were in the vicinity, I should have better recognized I wasn't in my swing and started over.
Section C - A bit more than 1/2 were solid, in my swing, shots. Each one of these, I knew were going to be nuts because the trigger released, I had a picture in my head and I could feel I was in the swing. Another thing I've learned is that my "vicinity" seems to be a 3" radius when it clearly requires a 2"radius to stay in the hit-zone.
So - the question is - if you find yourself outside the swing, recognize this and start over - how do you get to the swing... I'm going to explore that one a little more this week...
(A South'ern Range)
To me, and I say this a lot especially to new silhouette shooters, is that this sport is a lot like golf. You want to develop your swing and repeat this swing on every drive because you need it to be predictable. The golf ball and the club are predictable like your ammo, barrel and scope. Now if you can get your stance, hold, trigger control and follow-through into a "swing", you'll quickly see the correlation.
The warm-ups are important. They not only get you in the groove of things, but you start to remember a lot of the little things you need to do right, the things you need to avoid and what good shots look like. Most importantly, you remember your "swing" - you FEEL your "swing". You know when you're swinging correctly and you know when you're standing there trying to pull off a mulligan.
I can tell I'm in my "swing" when the shot breaks because I sighted the picture and the trigger seemed to have pulled itself. I'm confident I'm in my swing when I see a snap-shot of the dot, in my mind, sitting on the target as I heard the shot. It's when one of these little things doesn't happen, I know it was a lack of discipline - I broke my swing and threw up a shot to chance.
So, what did 20 shots tell me? It told me, it's about what my average score is for a match.
(The shootin' iron)
Section A - You can see these 5 I pulled up over the top, 2 of them horribly. The three bottom shots were me being sloppy. The top two were just a plain breakdown in discipline.
Section B - More sloppy effort. While I felt they were in the vicinity, I should have better recognized I wasn't in my swing and started over.
Section C - A bit more than 1/2 were solid, in my swing, shots. Each one of these, I knew were going to be nuts because the trigger released, I had a picture in my head and I could feel I was in the swing. Another thing I've learned is that my "vicinity" seems to be a 3" radius when it clearly requires a 2"radius to stay in the hit-zone.
So - the question is - if you find yourself outside the swing, recognize this and start over - how do you get to the swing... I'm going to explore that one a little more this week...
(A South'ern Range)
