Nobody is perfect, but we
should be perfect; and that's a goal that all of us who compete in shooting sports which reward a fast "
first shot A-zone hit" (IPSC, et al) strive to achieve.
And that is the reason why we practice.
Paying attention to your draw technique – Notes from KR:
At 0:07 seconds, the shooter has a full firing grip on the pistol and the support hand is close to the body. That’s good. His support hand is really low on his body though, compared to where it eventually needs to be.
I once spent an afternoon at the range, with an observer running the timer, where I tried to get first-shot A-zone hits at a standard IPSC target at 7 yards in the fastest time possible.
My experience was that when I used the standard two-handed grip, I couldn't get the desired hit in much under 1,5 seconds. It was only when I quit trying to get the weak hand on the gun that I managed to get a best-time hit in 0.83 seconds. Once.
The thing is .... I'm not sure that I was very safe in doing so. (Which is why I don't recommend this kind of testing; the time may not be impressive to most people, but I felt as if I was "pushing the edge".)
The
"Draw Technique" video cited emphasizes safety, and when we compete we should always keep safety as the most important criteria in any shooting-sports criteria.
Most of us don't have the advantage of a slo-mo record of the way we draw, and how/when our finger actually curls onto the trigger. Trying to beat some kind of arbitrary 'best time" is a good way to find ourselves in an
"I JUST****** SHOT MYSELF!" scenario ... and that's obviously not the very best way to learn that we have just put Performance above Safety.
(Thank you, Tex, for performing a public service .. however unintended.)
SO, HOW DO WE SHOOT FAST, SAFELY?
(This section specifically applies to shooting sports which allow reloads with un-expended magazines, such as USPSA: YMMV):
When it comes to action-shooting competition, the best way to save time on a stage is to minimize the
'time-wasting' activities:
- Plan reloads; a "standing reload" is the greatest 'time waster' in competition;
- always reload when the stage requires you to do something else, such as moving to another shooting area or when you are waiting for an appearing target to start moving;
- If you are competing in a "Limited Capacity" division (eg: Production, Single-stack, Limited 10, etc.) always plan your stage attack so that there is a logical point where you have PLANNED to make a reload ... that reduces your need to think about doing a reload. A Decision Matrix is something which should have been evaluated, and decided upon, before you start shooting the stage.
- You can never have too much ammunition, or too many magazines: In some competitive games, you are allowed to reload when it seems appropriate to you; in other competitive games, you must abide to arbitrary rules which only allow you to reload when you have expended all of the rounds available in your magazine. In the more 'permissive' games, it's often competitively advantageous to drop a magazine which has remaining rounds because you can do so in 'dead time' and avoid the time-penalty inherent in doing a "standing reload". The option to reload to competitive advantage is significant. I won't spend much time discussing forced-reloads, because I think it's even less "practical" than USPSA has become. Essentially, reload when it is to your advantage. In a real-life self-defensive situation (where you might typically carry no more than 1 or 2 "extra" magazines) it would be a good idea to retain partially filled magazines; in competition, you may have a LOT more magazines, and so it
would may be competitively advantageous to drop partial magazines,
In a 'real life' situation, you would probably carry no more than 2 or 3 magazines; in that case, it would be exceedingly advantageous to retain partial magazines.
