Saturday, August 19, 2017

Train to Win: Quickness

Stampede Loverboy may disagree with me but I think quickness is the fourth most important element. Any way here are the answers from Rodeo Romeo.  If you want to go fast go to the Camp.
 
Levi Jordan Auctioneer
Everett Hitch invited me to write an article for his blog about the mechanics of quickness. Since I couldn't find the "new post" link I am posting it here with permission to copy and preserve as a repost to his blog page. 

I like to keep things real simple and basic. Some people like to make things harder than it is or should be. I also like to isolate skills and work on them one at a time instead of trying to do everything all at once. When we are talking about training quickness we have to understand some basic principles of the universe and figure out how to take advantage of those principles to make them work for us. 

60 mph vs. 700 fps:
The first principle we need to understand is the more you help the gun the slower you are and the less you take advantage of this universal principle.
Mohamed Ali has the fastest punch recorded at 60 mph, that is 88 fps. The wax bullet propelled by a shot gun primer is roughly 700 fps on average. Dave Mongo-Miller and Russell Duty Firearm Patriot did recent testing to confirm this stat. So the longer the Draw or the further the Poke the longer you are going 88 fps rather than 700fps. To overcome this you have to have quick reaction time and quick hand speed. That will only get you a few .100 of a second up to about .10. To shave off .10's of seconds you have to shorten the Draw and travel distance of the gun combined with reaction time and hand speed. Let the gun do the work and figure out a way to take full advantage of 700 fps as fast as you can. 


Practice with purpose.
Practice with goals.
Isolate skills when you practice. 


The concept of you have to train your body for speed and quickness first is controversial by some. All the fast guys say you have to train to go fast first then let the accuracy catch up. The critics are the ones not doing it.
I have an advantage with a 40' greased wall and I can put a timer on the target and one on the wall to record the times of the misses. You will have to be willing to miss some when you change things but have the persistence and discipline to stick with it until you master the skill to a proficient level. Don't be afraid to miss some because your subconscious mind will automatically be working to improve accuracy as you isolate other skills.
Accuracy is still king but guys are training harder and getting better so speed and quickness is just as important to even qualify for Magnificent 7 shoot offs. Even though we are talking about quickness it doesn't matter how fast you are without accuracy so you really do have to have both to win. 


There are 5 different skills to work on separately in practice to get all to come together at a match.
Reaction time / hand speed / short Draw / gun travel distance / timing. 


When you first start training to go faster the first thing you lose is timing but you have to start at the beginning to get your timing down in the end. 


REACTION TIME.
Don't ever pass up an opportunity to practice with a start light or start response of some kind. If you don't have a target and timer you can dry fire in front of your TV. Turn it on, turn the sound off. As the scene on the TV changes Draw and dry fire. It's random and you don't know when it will change.
Train reaction time at red lights. When the light turns green react and step on the gas. When you see brake lights ahead of you slap the steering wheel or just close your gun hand, some kind of reaction. Be creative in practicing reaction responses during you every day life. 


HAND SPEED
As your practicing reaction drills practice drawing to your anchor spot with quickness. 


SHORT DRAW
That black spot on the side of the shirts of the Fast guys is affectionately referred to as "The Gunfighter Badge". If you see the gunfighter badge on your opponent you know he is going to be fast because he has a short draw. If you are a poker this is one of the hardest skills to retrain. It takes 21 days of continuous conscious effort to form a new habit. It's not easy to change. It won't happen in a week. This is where you have to have persistence, discipline, and a burning desire to accomplish this goal. 90% of the people reading this won't do it. 80% of the people that try it won't accomplish it. 20% of the ones that try will have some success improving. 10% will make the 21 day commitment to make dramatic changes in improvement. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. It takes work. 1 out of 10 will have the burning desire and discipline to make effective change. Prove me wrong, I dare you. 


GUN TRAVEL DISTANCE
Pretty simple. The less you help the gun the faster you are. Smooth is fast. The goal is to get to your Draw position as fast as possible and take advantage of 700 fps. Get that bullet off down range as quick as you can. 


TIMING
You have to go threw the pain of developing the other skills even before you arrive at timing. Most people have a comfortable draw that is fairly accurate and you have the timing down when to pull the trigger. When your training for quickness you have to relearn the timing going faster.
When you are training train up close to the target. 3-5'. You always want to train to increase confidence. It's harder and more frustrating trying to figure it all out slinging wax at 21'. Develop your natural Draw. You do that up close. Start without the light. Shoot 10-15 shots on the target at your Draw hight and tighten up your hit pattern to about 6" circle. Then turn the light on and practice quickness keeping that 6" pattern. Make a quickness goal. Use your target goal of the fastest time at the closest distance. Move back 3' at a time. You have to hit the target every shot and hit your fastest time at that distance to move back another 3'. If you miss you have to move back to the previous spot and hit the fastest goal time again. Move back 3' don't do the math and cheat an equivalent time. Keep your goal time the same all the way back to 15'. Discipline is the key here to keep you pushing for quickness. 


See you in the Magnificent 7

Rodeo Romeo.

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