365 Days of Training

**white_ræbbit** · 01-06-2012, 11:54

I've recently wondered about the amount of effort VS improvement when it comes to shooting ability. For example, how much practice and effort it would require to reach for example, expert, how much to reach master, etc. Obviously it depends on inherent natural ability per person, but I googled a bit and came across a 365 Days of Training expedition by Tom Jones on Pistol-Training.com.

He basically set himself certain goals to reach within a year of daily practice, one of which being to achieve master ranking. He also vowed to diarize each and every training session, whether dry or live. Unfortunately it seems like he quit after about 3 or so months, due to other (claimed) commitments.

I've decided that I should maybe embark on a similar mission to answer my own question. I would be happy with Expert ranking as a one year goal, and a few other "measured test" results as goals.

Maybe I'm completely misjudging the amount of effort in terms of my goals, so it could take less time or more. But my current plan is to do daily dry fire sessions, and at the minimum, one live range session per week shooting at least 50 rounds, hopefully more. These sessions will consist of mostly specific skill delepment drills, like Press Six, etc found on Pistol-Training.com, instead of just plinking away at targets with little to no value addition. Each session will also consist of a cold FAST test to guage improvement, taking the best score out of 2 tries, as well as a monthly Dot Torture to assess improvement in fundamentals and accuracy, as well as to identify weak points to be concentrated on.

Any ideas, suggestions, etc?

**Adri** · 01-06-2012, 12:04

I have also been wandering on the site you mention, IMO to increase classification you need to shoot faster but still accurate, no getting away of those accuracy dot torture, I am going to do more dot shooting but going to try to gradually increase speed to do it.

I unfortunately only recently find out about dot shooting so going to do it more!

I also think monthly is not enough, it should be weekly range work!!

Regards

**Skaaphaas** · 01-06-2012, 12:23

Sounds like a good regimen, WR.

When I still cycled avidly, I kept a training diary and measured myself against set standards, etc. It eventually put me off cycling completely, as it took away all the fun I had when just riding my mountainbike on a brilliant piece of singletrack or a long forest road.

So just be wary of that. It is not the same, of course, shooting isn't simply a hobby or a sport, your life can depend on it. So keep us posted with the results, it sounds pretty thorough!

**white_ræbbit** · 01-06-2012, 12:29

Yeah, i also thought of that, and it probably will happen. I think a break of sorts will be needed every now and then. That is IF I can stick to the plan with a 2 year old and a 4 month old in the house, plus a wife to keep happy. Blistered finger and all.

As a side note, this is mostly for two reasons. Because I am curious, firstly, and secondly to improve my shooting ability as much as I can with the available time I have and resources, in as little time as possible. It has nothing to do with competitive sports participation, and as such I will only be using IDPA shoots as another standard or measurement tool.

**white_ræbbit** · 01-06-2012, 12:45

So to commit to this, I did a "baseline" on Wednesday :

Total Round Count: 125

Dot Torture:
- 3m - 47/50 rounds
Notes: Practice SHO and WHO and 1-Reload-1, and slow down until 50/50 is reached, then increase to 5 meters.

FAST:
- 3m - 8.49s
- 5m - 8.30s + 1s = 9.30s(miss on the square)
- 7m - 9.59s
Notes: Work on best out of 2 at 3 meters until below 5s, then increase to 5 meters.

Let's see how and if any improvements happen.

**Craig Gerstner** · 01-06-2012, 13:20

FAST:
- 3m - 8.49s
- 5m - 8.30s + 1s = 9.30s(miss on the square)
- 7m - 9.59s
Notes: Work on best out of 2 at 3 meters until below 5s, then increase to 5 meters.

Let's see how and if any improvements happen.[/QUOTE]

Pistol-training is a great site.It motivates you to do a lot better when you read the drill of the week results on the forum.
Try the 99 drill - really humbling.

Re : the FAST drill - it's a test and should be done at 7 yards.I think it will not help practising at shorter distances.Rather stick to 7 and use it as a guideline/standard.
Rather practise the skills seperately to show improvements.
Practise D&F 1 and then 2 shots at a 3"x5" index card.
fire 1 reload fire 2.
bill drills.

All of these drills are under drill of the week in the forums.

Good luck.

**white_ræbbit** · 01-06-2012, 13:30

Craig, I was in two minds about the FAST drill distance. On the one hand it's like you said, on the other hand shortening the distance eliminates one more variable namely distance to worry about, and in my opinion 3m should still be enough to analyse shooter related errors without the added distance factor.

Maybe I'll take a cold best-out-of two FAST drill at 7 meters for as a test, and a 3 meter FAST drill to work on balance of speed and accuracy issues.

**Craig Gerstner** · 01-06-2012, 13:48

Originally Posted by white_ræbbit

on the other hand shortening the distance eliminates one more variable namely distance to worry about, and in my opinion 3m should still be enough to analyse shooter related errors without the added distance factor.

At 3m an acceptable sight picture and your splits are going to be very different that 7m.Keep the FAST as a test, but break it down into different drills to practise at varied distances to know what an acceptable sight picture is for that shot and your timing of bringing the front sight back after recoil for the next shot.

**white_ræbbit** · 01-06-2012, 13:49

Originally Posted by Craig Gerstner

At 3m an acceptable sight picture and your splits are going to be very different that 7m.Keep the FAST as a test, but break it down into different drills to practise at varied distances to know what an acceptable sight picture is for that shot and your timing of bringing the front sight back after recoil for the next shot.

Agreed, thanks for the input :-D

**white_ræbbit** · 07-06-2012, 19:31

Had another range session today focusing on one shot draws from concealment. Started with the FAST drill as always, which I'll share the results of just now.

Have been dry firing almost every night in the meantime, with no range sessions between the previous one and today's. I won't bore anyone with every day's dry fire results, but the general routine for now looks like this :

Wall Drill with coin on the front sight - 20 perfect reps.

From high compressed ready, press out and fire one shot :
- 20 slow and perfect reps.
- 20 reps at a PAR time that pushes me, but slow enough to do each rep smoothly.
- I then decrease the PAR time by 0.10 seconds and do another rep. If I can still perform it well enough, I decrease PAR again, and so on until I can't make PAR without fumbling something. Next session I try to beat this time.

I repeat this cycle for Press Out, Draw from concealment and one shot, tac reload and one shot, slide lock reload and one shot.

For now, I'm focusing on basic fundamentals, especially trigger control and sight focus. I'll incorporate other drills later, like movement and what not.

The results of the last 7 days of dry fire minus two days missed, from the last range session on 30 May? An improvent of the 7 meter FAST drill from 9.59 to 7.65 seconds on the first attempt, and 7.80 seconds on the second with a fumbled reload, and all 0 shots down.

I'd say yes, from personal experience, dry fire practice helps significantly if you put some time and effort into it.