I shot my first pistol match this past year and loved it. It was the GSSF series. The good that I have learned is the more you shoot the better you get. (Somewhat). How do I “perfect” my shooting? What are some routines that will make me improve instead of just wasting shots.

I shoot consistent but then I’ll drop a few shots at random. My goal is to shoot a perfect 250 in pocket and 500 in stock. I have improved each match and my goal to begin with was “ not be last”. My best and last scores were 244 & 465.

What should I focus on during practice?

Dry fire, dry fire and dry fire some more.

Have you looked into the SCATT type systems?

Dry firing tells you very little about follow through.

I have not. Neat info though.

If you don't have a timer, get a timer.

http://pistol-training.com/drills

Try and choose the drills based on your weak points and not your strengths.

I appreciate the info.
Thanks

Now you just have to pick which drill you're going to start with.

Do they have practice matches near your area?

Not that I’m aware of.

Timer would be a big help, I think there’s some phone apps. It’ll tell the whole story. When you’re fast you feel slow and vice versa. Focus on the front sight, shoot in the present tense.

Have a few standard drills as a way to measure progress or find “time”

Hits come first, speed comes second.

Slippery slope...

”Shooter Ready”

“Buzz”

😎

If you’re randomly dropping shots and don’t know why that’s where you should start. I’d work on pure marksmanship skills since that’s a problem you’ve identified and GSSF is just essentially bullseye shooting on the clock.

Learn the amount of visual focus and trigger control you need to make hits at the various distances involved in GSSF. At first just practice being able to hit the things.

Once you can hit them reliably without any pressure then add a time element and work in acquiring that visual focus faster and controlling the trigger under match type pressure.

Then practice transitioning between targets of varying difficulty on demand. The physical act of transitioning your gun between targets is not as important as transitioning between the different amounts of visual focus and trigger control needed for shots of varying difficulty.

That’s really it. GSSF is just hitting the things with a clock running and some of the things are smaller than others.

This weekend I have determined that my grip may need adjusting. I consistently shoot high and to the left. I’m a right handed shooter.

In yesterday’s shoot I had to shoot support hand and then strong hand with my pocket gun. I hadn’t practiced that. Big difference!
I’m also trying to train myself to shoot with both eyes open with speed. I never realized how many bad habits I had until shooting competitive. I’m really enjoying it.

Thanks for the input.

I wouldn’t worry too much about keeping both eyes open. You should be able to for the large targets but as target difficulty increases it gets hard for a lot of people. I think folks make too much out of it.

The point is to hit the thing you’re aiming at. So do whatever you have to, to do that. And if you’ve gotta squint a little or close an eye completely, then so be it.

And shooting high isn’t likely a grip issue. It may be sights, unless it’s something you just started doing.

If so, it’s probably caused by looking over the sights to verify where you’re aiming on the target. If you have a tendency to shift vision back and forth between sights and target as you’re preparing to shoot you’ll be much more likely to have weird shots go high.

I concur with everything Blue said.



Goose
(before he died)

Not being contrary, just did the competitive thing for 35 years, so I have empirical opinions on such matters. As Blue mentioned, keep it simple and focus on just a few things that really matter. I would concentrate more on the trigger aspect first rather than sight focus. If you can't manipulate a trigger correctly what you see as a sight picture or focus doesn't make chit of difference.. There are a dozen different descriptions of what a correct trigger squeeze is, where to place the trigger finger etc, pay no attention to that crap, place your finger where it is most comfortable and practice trigger squeezes, pulls, yanks, whatever method you choose to get the pistol/revolver to fire with minimal movement of the firearm. If you can do that, your half way there.
I shot IPSC back in the day, then to Steel Challenge and USPSA then transitioned to competitive revolver shooting for the last 10 years of my competitive run, and of course the two trigger manipulations are way different between an auto pistol and a revolver, but they seek the same outcome, make the gun go bang without moving the sights very much. Don't strive for a rock solid, non-moving sight picture, it will never happen, but you can minimalize it a great deal with practice.
As far as sight focus; I always strived for the best possible shot in the shortest amount of time regardless of the distance. If the shots were at 6" steel plates at 15 yards, the focus was as close to the middle of the plate as possible, if it was a 40 yard precision shot in a bianchi X ring, the same applied, take your best shot as quickly as you can, regardless of the game sloppiness will never win.
If you make it a goal in practice, to only shoot as smooth and fast as you can make a good shot (hit), and do that enough times, you will indeed find you get quicker and quicker with time. Ive won many a match using my revolver, where most all others shot autos, and shot way faster than I was shooting, difference was I was making consistent solid hits and they weren't.

As others have said, get a timer. You learn to react to the stress of it. Dry fire is a must. Dry fire trainers like Mantis X are very useful, but if nothing else, dry fire, rack slide if needed, dry fire. Rinse and repeat for a long time.

It is critical to shoot steel, or something easily reactionary. Instant feedback improves shooting a billion times faster than paper.

When you are at the range, slow down and speed up. I learned this from drumming.

Start your timer, draw and one round on target, SLOW with good technique. Start over, speeding up small amount until failure, back it off some and stay there for a while. Failure again? Slow it down again and stick there for a while.

Another very basic but goody.... same concept, but firing strings of 3 rounds. Go slow. Speed up to failure, slow down.

Also as jefemojado said, trigger is most important. Until you feel you’ve mastered that, shoot into the berm and video tape yourself in slow mow on an iPhone if possible. Watch the moment before your gun goes off. When that trigger breaks, front muzzle should have no movement. Some dry fire trainers help this to. Snap caps mixed in with your regular ammo for a range session also helps you see anticipation flinch, which I feel is 75%+ of fixing a shooter.

No matter which shooting discipline this kind of pretends
Always like the phrase" practice does not make perfect perfect practice makes perfect" if one does sloppy stuff during practice you will do sloppy stuff at the Big Show also

there's quite a few vids on yt about this, from Robbie Leatham and others. Do a search for Brian Enos's match shooting forums. There used to be some real shottists on Jouster's forum 2, when it was Culver's Shooting page. dunno now. you can learn tons from Jerry Mikuleks videos

As a couple others have said, there is no replacement for dry firing. Dry firing will teach you how to move your trigger without moving the sights. I do most of my dry firing at a blank wall with my goal being letting the hammer fall with no sight movement. Yes, I know it is very boring but it is necessary.

Second, when you do go out to practice with live rounds, figure out what one thing you need to work on the most and only work on that one aspect. Don't add anything to it, just one thing. It is really simple and depends on three things: trigger, trigger, and trigger.
Phil

I adjusted my grip, especially noticed the difference on my pocket pistol. I not practicing as much as I was earlier in the year. I can’t afford to. I did just win 1st place in the “B class”. I’m still not near as good as the pros who have been shooting competition for 30+ years.
My biggest issue is the pocket class.