I asked if there would be any interest in a "getting better at pistol shooting" thread in the AR thread, and got enough of a positive response to decide one was worthwhile. Just as a heads up, this is going to be TL;DR for anyone who isn't interested in becoming a better pistol shooter, so if it holds no interest for you, feel free to check out.
Basically, what I'll be doing in this thread is periodically (probably monthly) be posting a new drill for people to try, and post their results. These drills will be designed to test your skills as a pistol shooter, reveal flaws in your technique, and help you become a better shooter.
I'd like to start by laying out two basic premises we should all be working from here for this thread, the most important being:
1) I am not an end all, be all expert. Nothing I say is gospel. I love shooting pistols, I enjoy competition, I truly love teaching beginners. I am not a Spec Ops guy, a SWAT officer, a national pistol shooting champion, nor do I run any famous well known shooting school. I'm a guy who is trying to get better at pistol shooting as I go, who enjoys teaching others some of the things I've learned along the way.
In that same vein, I'd tell you to be very, very wary of anyone who claims to be the authority on how to do things. There are skills and techniques that a SWAT guy would be very familiar with/find useful that isn't going to do much for a guy trying to shoot USPSA/IDPA. And competition skills are not necessarily going to translate perfectly over to good defensive skills with a pistol for concealed carry. So on, and so forth. But regardless of how you're going to use the pistol and what your end goal is (competition, self defense, etc), the one thing all pistol disciplines require is a firm grasp of the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship, and an honest assessment by the shooter of their own skills and deficiencies. This thread is aimed not at any specific discipline or use of pistols, but will focus primarily on drills/evaluations we can do as shooters trying to improve on our basic skill set. If people want to discuss other things, that's fine...but I'm going to try to keep my focus mostly on drills/skills to improve the fundamentals of marksmanship. The reason for this is basic premise number 2:
2) 90% of pistol shooters think they are in the top 10%. I'm not excepting myself from this, because I was guilty of it in the past. For the first few years I spent pistol shooting, I did so strictly on a square range, shooting bullseye style on paper targets. This is by no means a bad thing to do, but until you've pushed yourself and tested your shooting skills in other ways, this gives an incredibly false sense of skill. The first time I shot a USPSA competition, I realized just how inadequate my previous shooting had been. The first drill I'm going to share/recommend in the thread in the next post should help people establish a more honest assessment of their most fundamental skills: Sight alignment and trigger control.
If you're ready to take an honest look at your own pistol shooting skills, and want to improve your shooting, this is the thread for you. I doubt my drill scores/results will be the best submitted in this thread. I truly hope they are not, because as I said in the beginning: I am not finished with my own quest to improve myself as a pistol shooter, and hope others are interested in joining me on that quest. Do not be embarrassed to post disappointing results, because the only way we improve is honest assessment of what we do wrong and how we can improve. I will post some ugly results along the way, I am sure. Don't be afraid to do the same. I highly doubt any of us are perfect shooters, and we can all improve...myself included.
That being said, I'm going to end this already way too long post, and share the first drill below.
Basically, what I'll be doing in this thread is periodically (probably monthly) be posting a new drill for people to try, and post their results. These drills will be designed to test your skills as a pistol shooter, reveal flaws in your technique, and help you become a better shooter.
I'd like to start by laying out two basic premises we should all be working from here for this thread, the most important being:
1) I am not an end all, be all expert. Nothing I say is gospel. I love shooting pistols, I enjoy competition, I truly love teaching beginners. I am not a Spec Ops guy, a SWAT officer, a national pistol shooting champion, nor do I run any famous well known shooting school. I'm a guy who is trying to get better at pistol shooting as I go, who enjoys teaching others some of the things I've learned along the way.
In that same vein, I'd tell you to be very, very wary of anyone who claims to be the authority on how to do things. There are skills and techniques that a SWAT guy would be very familiar with/find useful that isn't going to do much for a guy trying to shoot USPSA/IDPA. And competition skills are not necessarily going to translate perfectly over to good defensive skills with a pistol for concealed carry. So on, and so forth. But regardless of how you're going to use the pistol and what your end goal is (competition, self defense, etc), the one thing all pistol disciplines require is a firm grasp of the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship, and an honest assessment by the shooter of their own skills and deficiencies. This thread is aimed not at any specific discipline or use of pistols, but will focus primarily on drills/evaluations we can do as shooters trying to improve on our basic skill set. If people want to discuss other things, that's fine...but I'm going to try to keep my focus mostly on drills/skills to improve the fundamentals of marksmanship. The reason for this is basic premise number 2:
2) 90% of pistol shooters think they are in the top 10%. I'm not excepting myself from this, because I was guilty of it in the past. For the first few years I spent pistol shooting, I did so strictly on a square range, shooting bullseye style on paper targets. This is by no means a bad thing to do, but until you've pushed yourself and tested your shooting skills in other ways, this gives an incredibly false sense of skill. The first time I shot a USPSA competition, I realized just how inadequate my previous shooting had been. The first drill I'm going to share/recommend in the thread in the next post should help people establish a more honest assessment of their most fundamental skills: Sight alignment and trigger control.
If you're ready to take an honest look at your own pistol shooting skills, and want to improve your shooting, this is the thread for you. I doubt my drill scores/results will be the best submitted in this thread. I truly hope they are not, because as I said in the beginning: I am not finished with my own quest to improve myself as a pistol shooter, and hope others are interested in joining me on that quest. Do not be embarrassed to post disappointing results, because the only way we improve is honest assessment of what we do wrong and how we can improve. I will post some ugly results along the way, I am sure. Don't be afraid to do the same. I highly doubt any of us are perfect shooters, and we can all improve...myself included.
That being said, I'm going to end this already way too long post, and share the first drill below.