N
nate89
Guest
Quick background to add some context (and the slight amount of validity that my opinion has). I served a two year mission for my church from 2008-2010 in the Philippines. While there, I became fluent in Tagalog (one of the official languages of the Philippines, English being the other), as well as being conversant in Ilokano, a local dialect primarily spoken in Northern Luzon. I was not the best speaker by any stretch of the imagination, but by the time I had been there for awhile I was confident in my ability to say pretty much anything I needed to, and rarely ran into situations that I was not able to understand. You may wonder what on earth this has to do with shooting (no I didn’t accidentally post this here instead of Ecclesiastical Times or some such magazine), and that would be a good question. Stay with me, and I’ll explain.
Last month I was at the second class I have taken with LMS Defense. This was a one day handgun class, and if anyone is interested in the details, I have an AAR posted here. One of the many skills I took from the class to work on is reset under recoil. Most people who have taken any basic shooting class, pistol or rifle, has probably been taught to hold the trigger to the rear as the gun cycles, then allow the trigger to travel forward until the trigger resets and the gun is again ready to fire. Chappy (the instructor for the course) explained that this technique is a stepping stone, but not the end state we should be aiming for. It is helpful for new shooters to learn trigger control and accuracy, but is not conducive to efficiency. While the gun is cycling, using trigger reset, you are simply waiting for the gun to return to battery instead of using that time to your advantage. Reset under recoil has you releasing the trigger the moment the shot breaks.
After consistent and proper repetition, your brain has sent your trigger finger so many signals relating to how far forward it needs to travel, and received feedback (too far, not far enough) that it knows where the proper reset point is. Ideally, as the gun completes the cycle of firing the shot, extracting the spent case, and loading a new round from the magazine, your trigger finger should have already released the trigger. Now instead of needing to reset and depress the trigger, you are prepped and ready on the trigger to fire again. One reference point I use to determine if I am doing it right is if I hear/feel the reset, I know I was too slow.
As with any skill taught at a one day class, I still was a novice at the technique even at the end of the day. I was determined to improve, and for the last 3-4 weeks I have worked at it 4-5 times a week, with about 1,200 rounds downrange. At the very beginning, it was hard to see any improvement. It felt like everything was happening so fast that I couldn’t keep up with the gun. (Here’s where my strange intro comes into play) The more I thought about it the more it seemed similar to my early days in the Philippines. While in the Missionary Training Center (ie. intro to missionary work) I had heard other white people speak Tagalog, and they were all very kind to slow everything down and enunciate words clearly so we could, in our consciously incompetent state, pick out general ideas every once in awhile. Then we hit the airport, flew across the ocean, and were dropped into the middle of real Tagalog speakers. The brain went into overload mode. Words seemed to fly at me as one connected string of unfamiliar syllables. Why did everyone feel the need to talk so fast?! It was frustrating, and it took time until I was even remotely aware of topics, phrases, or words being said. Nevertheless, that time did come, and in a transition so subtle I can’t even pinpoint the time it happened, I was one of those speaking to the people. My perception of people speaking slowed down. Due to repeated and constant exposure to the language, as well as consistent practice (and divine intervention), I became fluent in every sense of the word. Not only could I mechanically understand the words being used, I began incorporating understanding of the culture into my own use of the language. I also began to see the language on a level that I was using I words I hadn’t studied before, but somewhere had heard it used and just knew what it meant.
Hopefully that last paragraph you were attempting to draw your own analogies between the topic of language learning and learning to shoot. I am still nowhere near the point where I could say I ‘mastered’ the technique of reset under recoil, but something in the past 2 weeks changed. It almost seems as if, like listening to Tagalog, the gun is slowing down. Of course that is silly talk, the only thing slowing down is my perception of the gun, just like hearing a jumbled mess of vowels and consonants eventually becomes a coherent sentence after time. Just like learning a new language, a whole new world (not intentional reference to Aladdin) seems to open up. At least for myself, I have had more and more moments where I look back at where I was a few months ago, a year ago, or a few years ago, and realize just how horrible I was at shooting. I am sure I will look back to this very time in a few years and think the exact same thing. I think this is a good thing, because it means progress is being made. The people who scare me the most have been, by their own assertions, been “shooting their whole life” and have no need for instruction or correction. They have nothing to look back to because they are still there where they started.
Lessons learned:
There is no substitute for having a professional observe your shooting and provide individual feedback and suggestions. Sure you could probably take 100k rounds and figure it out, but we’re going for efficiency. Don’t waste time learning lessons that others already have figured out. Take a class from a quality instructor, and use it as a springboard for your own practice.
Speaking of which: practice, practice, practice. There was no substitute in shooting or speaking for actually getting out and doing what you wanted to improve.
Be willing to try new ideas and techniques. Closing your mind off to additional ideas because you have reached some self-appointed acceptable standard is doing yourself a disservice.
Thanks for reading, hopefully you found something of worth here.
Last month I was at the second class I have taken with LMS Defense. This was a one day handgun class, and if anyone is interested in the details, I have an AAR posted here. One of the many skills I took from the class to work on is reset under recoil. Most people who have taken any basic shooting class, pistol or rifle, has probably been taught to hold the trigger to the rear as the gun cycles, then allow the trigger to travel forward until the trigger resets and the gun is again ready to fire. Chappy (the instructor for the course) explained that this technique is a stepping stone, but not the end state we should be aiming for. It is helpful for new shooters to learn trigger control and accuracy, but is not conducive to efficiency. While the gun is cycling, using trigger reset, you are simply waiting for the gun to return to battery instead of using that time to your advantage. Reset under recoil has you releasing the trigger the moment the shot breaks.
After consistent and proper repetition, your brain has sent your trigger finger so many signals relating to how far forward it needs to travel, and received feedback (too far, not far enough) that it knows where the proper reset point is. Ideally, as the gun completes the cycle of firing the shot, extracting the spent case, and loading a new round from the magazine, your trigger finger should have already released the trigger. Now instead of needing to reset and depress the trigger, you are prepped and ready on the trigger to fire again. One reference point I use to determine if I am doing it right is if I hear/feel the reset, I know I was too slow.
As with any skill taught at a one day class, I still was a novice at the technique even at the end of the day. I was determined to improve, and for the last 3-4 weeks I have worked at it 4-5 times a week, with about 1,200 rounds downrange. At the very beginning, it was hard to see any improvement. It felt like everything was happening so fast that I couldn’t keep up with the gun. (Here’s where my strange intro comes into play) The more I thought about it the more it seemed similar to my early days in the Philippines. While in the Missionary Training Center (ie. intro to missionary work) I had heard other white people speak Tagalog, and they were all very kind to slow everything down and enunciate words clearly so we could, in our consciously incompetent state, pick out general ideas every once in awhile. Then we hit the airport, flew across the ocean, and were dropped into the middle of real Tagalog speakers. The brain went into overload mode. Words seemed to fly at me as one connected string of unfamiliar syllables. Why did everyone feel the need to talk so fast?! It was frustrating, and it took time until I was even remotely aware of topics, phrases, or words being said. Nevertheless, that time did come, and in a transition so subtle I can’t even pinpoint the time it happened, I was one of those speaking to the people. My perception of people speaking slowed down. Due to repeated and constant exposure to the language, as well as consistent practice (and divine intervention), I became fluent in every sense of the word. Not only could I mechanically understand the words being used, I began incorporating understanding of the culture into my own use of the language. I also began to see the language on a level that I was using I words I hadn’t studied before, but somewhere had heard it used and just knew what it meant.
Hopefully that last paragraph you were attempting to draw your own analogies between the topic of language learning and learning to shoot. I am still nowhere near the point where I could say I ‘mastered’ the technique of reset under recoil, but something in the past 2 weeks changed. It almost seems as if, like listening to Tagalog, the gun is slowing down. Of course that is silly talk, the only thing slowing down is my perception of the gun, just like hearing a jumbled mess of vowels and consonants eventually becomes a coherent sentence after time. Just like learning a new language, a whole new world (not intentional reference to Aladdin) seems to open up. At least for myself, I have had more and more moments where I look back at where I was a few months ago, a year ago, or a few years ago, and realize just how horrible I was at shooting. I am sure I will look back to this very time in a few years and think the exact same thing. I think this is a good thing, because it means progress is being made. The people who scare me the most have been, by their own assertions, been “shooting their whole life” and have no need for instruction or correction. They have nothing to look back to because they are still there where they started.
Lessons learned:
There is no substitute for having a professional observe your shooting and provide individual feedback and suggestions. Sure you could probably take 100k rounds and figure it out, but we’re going for efficiency. Don’t waste time learning lessons that others already have figured out. Take a class from a quality instructor, and use it as a springboard for your own practice.
Speaking of which: practice, practice, practice. There was no substitute in shooting or speaking for actually getting out and doing what you wanted to improve.
Be willing to try new ideas and techniques. Closing your mind off to additional ideas because you have reached some self-appointed acceptable standard is doing yourself a disservice.
Thanks for reading, hopefully you found something of worth here.