non intuitive target sequence for Steel Challenge

[les snyder]

I've been working on my RFPO for the last month or so, with emphasis on first shot accuracy....for the decades I shot USPSA from a holster, I never placed my finger on the trigger until the gun was presented, and up to eye level... with SC, I started to contact the trigger as the gun was rising from the start position... so for practice one day on a shot clock, I tried a prolonged index of my trigger finger down the side of the frame, delaying incrementally until the dot was better centered... my hit quality immediately improved, and my first shot times actually shortened... hmmm....

I then looked at target sequence, primarily Pendulum and 5 to go... I'm right handed and dominant right eye, and shoot with both eyes open, and have always preferred to shoot a target sequence right to left if possible, so that my non dominant eye can find the next target... 5 to go is an increasing diagonal distance stage (from left to right) and the stop plate is closer up range and on the very right of the stage...so I at a timed practice session, tried engaging from right to left, most distant target first, and the accuracy delay in first shot... even with the wide swing from left to the stop plate my times improved about .2s...

for many years as a classroom teacher I had students determine their reaction times by catching dropped meter sticks, and calculated the time from the distance at which they caught the sticks, and a grouping showed up

left handed around .12 to .14s
right handed with dominant left eye about .16s
right handed with dominant right eye but when fingers were interlaced and thumbs crossed had left thumb on top .16- .18s
right handed with dominant right eye and right thumb on top greater than .2s (which unfortunately I am) so I'm already at least .1s slower than those setting Peak times upon which SC classifications are calculated (in addition to a 75 year old body)

in the course of 25 or so years of USPSA I had an opportunity to talk to a lot of world class shooters and almost all were right handed with dominant left eye, which I would argue are most world class athletes as the brain hemisphere dominance reaction time is critical in performance...

a corollary for left eye dominant shooters then, would be that the non dominant right eye would be their lead eye and so would shoot target array better from left to right.. those of us that are not left eye dominant attempt to copy the shot order of the world class Steel Challenge shooters that are, and may actually improve by not following the accepted shot order... I'll take .2 second improvement per run, even with the wide swing to the stop plate...  and Pendulum's order 2,1 4,3, stop was also about .2s ... regards Les

 

[Big Frank]

That was interesting. I never thought about eye dominance related to shooting that way. Cross-dominance comes in handy in some other sports too, like baseball. A left-eye dominant right-handed batter can keep his good eye on the ball when he's at bat, and he's facing the right way to run toward first base. I've never shot competitively and wouldn't be able to without training my eyes. My right eye is dominant most of the time, but just barely, and I can't shoot any kind of gun with both eyes open, not even a shotgun. 

[Rastus]

I gotta ponder this.  Did you say lefties are always faster in your classroom exercise?

[les snyder]

Rastus... yes, my sample group over about 20+years were predominantly 9th graders (14-15yr) honors regular, and learning disabilities inclusion classes over the years....

at the time I was looking into brain hemisphere dominance in athletic performance (The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Galwey, and shooting performance in particular, a video by Olympian Lanny Basham "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect"

the meter stick catch allowed a non watch piece evaluation of reaction times, using the distance the stick dropped as a function of gravity's rate of acceleration

the interlaced fingers and crossed thumbs evaluation was suggested by a mother of one of the students that was a Psychologist

I actually reported the findings in the USSOCOM SOPMOD manual edited by a good friend...

I shot a practice Steel Challenge stage of 5 to go this morning, and shot it reversed for the first time with an open rim fire rifle... I had two times about .15s quicker than my best average time on record...and about .2s quicker with the open pistol

will definitely play with it... regards Les

[Big Frank]

It sounds like you're onto something.

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