Training Basics

Hot Versus Cold Shooting
There has been quite a bit written on hot versus cold shooting. There really is no “cold” Practical Shooting; you almost always get to look at the course, plan it out, and do some dry draws with sight pictures. Cold shooting is real life — like grabbing your gun out of a dresser drawer in the middle of the night when you hear a strange noise. That will really get your adrenaline moving!

Improving Your Cold Shooting
If there is a serious difference between when you shoot a match and practice, start treating your practice like a match. Set up a course of fire. Don your gear, mentally rehearse it and shoot it for score. Note time and points. Now shoot several more times and see how much you improve. If your mental game is well-developed, you most likely won’t improve too much unless you really blew the first run.
Every other club match, hang it out on the edge. Burn the stages as hard as you can.
The next match, hang back and see what is happening. Watch your times and scores and find out how much of a difference there is. If you are on the edge and still hitting everything, why not shoot there all the time? Here is a basic training and shooting schedule. Use this to start with and then develop your own. This is based on someone that wants to go all the way.

Practice
You should try to get in 20 to 30 minutes of dry fire practice daily one day off per week, and two to three live fire practice sessions per week using 300 rounds minimum each. All practice performance needs to be tracked. Use sheets at the end of this Manual or develop your own.

Perfect Practice = No Reason to Make Mistakes
There is no reason to make mistakes in practice or in a match. The only reason an error occurs is because of a poor mental game.

Club Matches
Shoot only the ones that you think will help you improve. Don’t waste your valuable time on poor matches, spend it practicing instead. Shoot to win all of them. You have to pay attention and focus just like the world title is on the line. Every shot has to count. If you are screwing around not paying attention in a club match, you are going to screw
around in a major match and it will cost you money. When you focus every time at a club match a major match is the same and won’t negatively affect your performance just because you’re in the
“big show.”

Major Matches
Shoot every one that you can. I would set a minimum at fifteen a year if you want to be a serious competitor. This match experience will add up fast. You will learn what it takes to be competitive on a national level.

Get Out And Do It!
Let’s eliminate some excuses. Your goal is to excel at Practical Shooting, so here are some things to think about when planning your practices.

Quality Counts
Make every round worth something. Use your Timer wisely, keep track of your progress religiously, and learn from each trip to the range. You’re spending money to do this, make sure that you’re getting what you pay for. This is one of the few sports that offers you total control over that aspect.

Time off Counts
Being dedicated is one thing, but don’t push yourself into “Burnoutville.” Use this suggestion wisely, because it’s an easy-out that can be abused. Two Truths and a Lie: There are many things that you can do instead of practicing. Some of them are more fun. Winning isn’t all that much fun, but will occur naturally with no sweat.
Take the time off from practice that you need to maintain perspective and keep your goals clearly in sight. Don’t skip practice and go to a movie just because you feel like it.

Shoot At Different Times
You’ll probably find that there are ranges open very early in the morning or late at night in your area. Make use of this flexibility, since it will help keep things “fresh” by avoiding the same-old-same-old syndrome. Don’t let your practices become a chore; they’re supposed to be a growth experience.

Shoot At Different Places
Whenever possible, vary your location — within reason. Shooting at different ranges will accomplish a couple of things. It will give you some experience in dealing with different layouts and locale rules, and it will get you accustomed to traveling and playing“away games.” This is crucial to successful competition in this sport, since almost every
important match will require you to travel and compete out of your normal environment.

Dry Fire Goodies
You can shoot at different times easily. It’s called dry fire, and requires a minimum of equipment, expense and preparation, and basically no travel. Discipline does not change, and you have to do some homework — literally. Make sure that there is an area in your
home that you can safely handle and dry fire a gun, and you’ve got it.

• Skipping this step once can lead to tragedy.
• You need to triple-check your gun for emptiness every time you pick it up to dry fire.
• You need to make sure that your home dry fire area has a bullet-proof backstop, because the gun is always loaded. Your local gun shop, range, or club can help you find or design one.
• You need to make sure that friends and family are aware of this are and the times you are going to be using it.

Set Goals
This has been covered in several places throughout this Manual, but it is so important that stressing it again makes sense. Improvement occurs when you compare a benchmark to a new achievement. Setting goals and keeping track of your improvement establishes the benchmark and makes it possible for you to spot and appreciate new achievements.

Make It Fun
Practical Shooting is an odd combination of severe self-discipline, physics and camaraderie. I have had some really “golden” times at matches and practices. The key to this is keeping perspective — you’re in this sport to excel and have fun. Maintain that viewpoint, and it will happen.