I've been thinking about doing a thread like this for awhile, because when I first started shooting USPSA, I couldn't find hardly any information on how to actually get better.

I'm not sure if that was due to a lack of information, or just not searching for the correct terms, but im hoping this thread will be a good starting point for someone.

Practice
There are two basic ways to practice. Dryfire, and Livefire. (There is also some others with VR/simulators, but I'm not getting into that)
Think about this as a sport and what athletes do to improve... they practice, regularly.

One of the best ways to practice (for free) is through dryfire. Set up targets (in a room, outside, or at the range) and do a drill without any live rounds in the gun. Getting some par times to work towards will be a good motivator and give you an idea of what your speed should be. I use the par times from Practical Shooting Training.

Some common dryfire questions:
What do I do with the trigger? Start the drill with a set trigger, then after the first trigger pull, just pull on the trigger like you would if it were being reset. For SA/DA guns, you'll be letting it out, but typically not far enough that it resets for a DA pull. You'll also have to do another DA trigger pull after any reloads.

Do I dryfire with magazines in the gun? Different people have different opinions on this. Some say no, unless specifically working on reloading skills/dropping the magazine. This is to save time on not picking up magazines. I like to do it with magazines though, as I want it to feel as much like the real thing as possible. I have dummy rounds (brass/bullet/NO primer/NO powder) in the magazine to give a similar weight. I drop the magazines into a box on a chair (with padding in it) while doing stationary drills with reloads. This saves me from bending over and it keeps the dummy rounds from popping out of the magazine.

What timer do I use? There are some shot timers that can pick up on the hammer fall, but it's not worth the effort to try and set that up. I use Dry Fire Par Timer app to set the par time, wait time, and number of reps. Other people use a shot timer with the par timer... and others just use a normal timer.
I like to do a set number of reps... others like to just have a set time that they work at a drill and will check against the par time at the beginning and end of that time.

Should I use this thing in dryfire? Probably not. One of the things you should be doing in dryfire is learning to call your shots (identifying where your sights were when you pulled the trigger). Shot calling and a bit of self honesty is all you need. Everything else is a waste of time and money.

What targets do I use? A lot of people like using the scaled down targets from BenStoegerProShop... 1/3rd is easy math... 1 yard away is like 3 yards... 5 yards is like 15 yards.
I printed my own ones out and did custom scaling so that I would dryfire from the same spot and I have different sized targets to simulate different yard lines.

One final note, your dryfire times will be faster than your livefire. Do not try and shoot a match at dryfire speeds!

Live fire: I don't livefire enough to give a real in depth response on this. Most of my livefire practice is doing the same drills as dryfire, but I'll throw in doubles drills, or do a small stage mockup as well.
It's important to note that any drills you're struggling with in livefire, you can do a dry run of to help diagnose issues.

Stage Planning
If you have the opportunity, walk all of the stages before the match starts. Start figuring out how you want to shoot it. Once finalized on a plan, practice it as many times as you can, and then go through it in your head while others are shooting (10+ times). This will help prevent your mind from blanking once the buzzer goes off.
During your stage plan, you want to identify all of the targets and make sure you're not missing any, or double engaging targets. You also want to count rounds and determine where you're going to reload. You want to avoid any standing/unplanned reloads.

Something to remember, matches aren't practice... other than for practicing competing. You will not get enough reps during a match to train anything. Focus on competing at matches, and training during your practices.

Sources of Information
Forums: Brian Enos forums are a good, and long running, source of information. The moderation can be pretty heavy handed though.
Be very careful what information you pull off ARF with regards to practical handgun. There are a few GMs on here giving good information, but there are LOADS of fudds/timmies giving terrible information.
Practical Shooting Training group is a pay to access forum with a ton of good videos/information on it. I used it for a few months and didn't quite get what I was hoping out of it, but there are others that love it.

Books: There are a ton of good books out there from a lot of very good shooters. The only one I've personally used is Practical Shooting Training.

Podcasts:
This is where I've probably picked up the most of my information. I've listed them in no particular order.
Speed Up & Get Your Hits- good technical information and stays on topic
Bullets n Bourbon- Lots of interviews, some technical information
The Hit Factor- good technical information, current events, group banter
Shannon Smith Shooting- No recent episodes. Good technical information, old "current" events
That Shooting Show- good technical information, occasional interviews, good match/training mindset
Shoot Fast- No recent episodes. Good technical information
Training Group Live by PSTG- good technical information and interviews
Short Course- good technical information and current events
Practical Shooting After Dark- No recent episodes. Had good technical information with a lot of banter/ranting about old events. Most of this info can be had in Training Group Live now

YouTube: be wary of VetBros and Guntubers. Look up good competitive shooters.

Instagram: same as YouTube where you should find and follow good shooters. I've picked up some good drills to practice from here. Do not try and replicate times, as they may be fudging the hits

General Tips
Eyes, and where you should be looking:
At the start of a stage, look at what you need to focus on, if allowed. If it's a table start, look at your gun. If a normal hands at sides, look at your first target, or where you need to move to.
While shooting, if you're shooting a dot, you need to be looking at the target (target focus). I'd you're shooting irons, this can vary based on shot difficulty and shooter skill. In both instances, while transition, you want to snap your vision to the next target. Do not following the sights while transitioning.

As I get some more time, I'll clean this up more and add additional information. Experienced shooters, please add information about getting better!

I learned so much by shooting matches, making friends there & shooting more with them. Experience that can not be beat.
 You want to get better....
Shoot more with better shooters than you are.

This.

First match I ever did was a real eye-opener, I learned so much and I was blown away at how cool and helpful everyone was, great folks, absolutely the most fun you can have with your pants on, lol. And it doesn't matter if you don't really plan on becoming a dedicated competitor, just go, even if you're dead last you'll have serious fun and make new friends.

ETA: Times is tough, so if you can't afford to do much live fire practice, buy a BB pistol, disciplines are all the same and it's good practice.

Been shooting IDPA for 25 years.  what I get out of it is shooting semi realistic scenarios, shooting at moving targets, shooting while moving to cover, shooting at moving targets while moving to cover, and shooting under stress- timed. Where accuracy counts.

IMO, ANY competitive shooting is better than not- it increases "trigger time".

I was asked to come over and add any info that I think is pertinent.

Disclaimer - I have been shooting since middle of October 2022, and am currently a 71.6% B class shooter.   I have shot a total of 75 matches including 3 majors.  

I am really having a tough time thinking of anything to add to the OP.  

As far as podcasts, That Shooting Show is probably my favorite.  Steven Anderson is IMO a great teacher and his tips about mental management have really helped me up my game recently.  There's a lot of technical information in it about how to train, and how to mentally access your skill without either underperforming or trying to overperform which usually ends badly.

Dry fire is huge.  It doesn't always seem like it's helping, but the results do not lie.  I try to do a minimum of half an hour a day, 5-6 days a week.

I myself HATE scaled targets.  I get the rationale, but a 1/3 target 10 feet away is still only 10 feet away, and it's the same depth of focus to my eyes whether it's a small or a large target.  So, I am lucky enough to have a shop with 40-50 feet of available depth, and I will set up full size targets whenever possible.  If I happen to be going somewhere I'll take a few scaled targets and just use them, but I don't like em.

I can add a little bit more on books:

Same as OP, I have Practical Shooting Training and it's a good book.  

I also have Dryfire Reloaded, also a good publication.

Any of Stoeger's books are going to be good.

My favorite dryfire book is Refinement and Repetition - Dryfire Drills for Dramatic Improvement by Steve Anderson.  It's basically a spiral bound workbook with a ton of drills in it that you can do dry, or live fire.  Lots of sections/space to record your notes and times as you improve.

I also keep a spreadsheet that tracks each match's performance.  Where I placed, raw time compared to everyone else, percentage of winner, and hits.  Hits are broken down into a percentage for each match(example 74% Delta, 21% Charlie, 3% Delta, 2% Mike, etc).  I also keep a lifetime percentage of the same.

In addition, I have another spreadsheet for each USPSA classifier.  When I shoot it I record the Date, raw time, hit factor, hits, and percentage.  This is useful for tracking improvement with classifier stages.

Gear: find what works and stick with it.  Unreliable gear is an absolute pain in the ass to deal with.  Get your gun running right with magazines and ammo(or reloads) and you can blame yourself for a bad stage, instead of steaming about a misfeed or a dead primer.  Speaking of which, if you reload, case gauge every round.  Get a shockbottle case gauge and plunk your ammo.  This has saved me a few times as I have caught rounds which would have undoubtedly lodged in the gun or simply not lit off.

Pro-Grip or Chalk for your hands and aggressive grip panels are a requirement.

The last thing I have to add, is that is a lot of fun.  Yes I take it fairly seriously at times, but I still enjoy myself.   Mentally it does more damage than good to stew over a bad stage.  Forget about it, and move onto the next one.

Join PSTG - Practical Shooting Training Group, and I would even challenge you to spend $100 on a Gold month.  The direct feedback from those guys is incredible.  Here is a link to my youtube channel, there is a lot of PSTG submission videos there.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLUcaSQBxAVFZiRfT2QRsOw

Take a Ben, Joel, Hwansik, Mason Lane, Velox... class.

What gun/division are you shooting?

I shoot CO with a Shadow 2.  The only dryfire I do with a empty gun is when I plan to do a reload and don't want to drop a dummy mag.  Otherwise I have a mag full of dummy rounds to get the weight correct.

As far as dry fire trigger pull/no press, I vary it up.   If I am pulling the trigger, every time I move I get the DA again since I take my finger off.  If you are shooting a Glock or another trigger that goes dead, you can do the ziptie trick and hold it slightly out of battery to get the trigger to keep moving, but you never get a wall.  I think this is my preference when using a gun like that.  A gun like a Canik or P320 I would just set the striker for the first shot then let the "dead" trigger move for the next targets.

My preference for dry fire targets are the USPSA half-scale, since they still look the same as real targets.  Some of the other ones look funny and it is distracting.

In!

I use live fire to confirm my dry fire is on the right path.  And that I am being honest with my dry fire par time.  If I am not seeing very close to the same times, then there is an issue.

So after a few static draws and some accuracy work to start off. I usually build a small stage with components that I either struggled on at a match or a movement drill .  I start with how I would normally shoot it in a match, walk the stage, count steps and think about footwork,  Then I'll change my footwork, how I enter, what foot I step with and see if it improves the HF or not.  Then I finish my practice with accuracy again

I’m an IDPA shooter that is trying to get from SS to M. This is great stuff! I just signed up for my first USPSA match.

Years ago, I plateaued at the top of C class.

I practiced every week, but wasn't getting better.

I took a class from a GM ( Matt Burkett before he go into trouble ) and immediately got better.

Later I took a class from Todd Jarrett and got moe betta again.

....then kids sports,  work, and primer madness got in the way of my weekends

I still practice and shoot every week

I am a B class shooter in most of the divisions I shoot regularly.  I think with some practice and stage planning skill, this can be an easy place to achieve.  Some of the newer classifiers can make this harder to achieve.

If you look at the criteria to get into B then the criteria to get out of B, that is where the practice will pay off.  I don’t think I will ever leave B as my psychomotor skills are heading in the wrong direction.  (I can make A in PCC if I shoot one or two more A classifiers, but PCC is cheating).

A few skills that I lack are shooting accurately on the move and moving targets.  These are things I don’t practice.  I try to shoot from set positions as my hits are poor when moving.  My splits are slow, my movement between positions are slow, I drop too many mikes, I could use a stronger grip…

I read Brian Enos book and have been able to achieve the Zen but found it mentally exhausting.  I applied some of those concepts to my golf game and it worked there as well.

Obviously we are all different but I made B pretty quickly, about 3 months.  Took me almost a year to get to A from there.

I’m hoping I can get to M in a year, but I don’t know.  Shit gets exponentially harder.  I can rip off an occasional M run on something in practice and I have two M runs in actual classifier matches, but that’s it.  Going to need to refine things and just allow for more time and practice.

Yep, taking a class for a true professional USPSA shooter will make a huge difference.  I took a 2 day class from Manny Bragg that was nothing but movement,  It was for Masters and up, so everyone already knew how to shoot, but learning how to move through a stage, footwork, hard and soft set up, etc really made a huge difference in my matches.  Probably the most beneficial class I took.  

I took a class with TJ a while back, it was a good class, but I didn't jive with his methods and philosphy as much as someone like Bragg or JJ.

There are certainly some different viewpoints on what is important, how to get better, how to move, etc.

Tom Castro teaches a very tall stance, drop step to move style that is the complete opposite of the PSTG crew.

I find that you should find a high level shooter that is shaped like you (build, height, athleticism, etc) and emulate them.

I happen to be Ben Stoeger shaped, so I try to emulate him.

I think that is a good point.

"Be very careful what information you pull off ARF with regards to practical handgun. There are a few GMs on here giving good information, but there are LOADS of fudds/timmies giving terrible information."
In keeping with your statement above, what is your current USPSA classification?
If it seems like I'm being an ass, that's not my intention.
All your info sounds good to me but I'm not a USPSA guy. (IDPA SSP/MA and 3-gun before it died.)
I just started PSCL and movement, position entry/exit and something I am focusing on.

This times a 1000. Shortly (~a year) after I started IDPA, I had a chance to take a 2-day class with Brian Enos. I was SHOCKED to discover that most of what was taught I had already learned from the great group of people I shot with. Still worth it because, more practice.

I used to shoot with MB back in the late 80's in Seattle.  What did he get into trouble for?

ETA:  NVM, found it.  Also, I should say I shot with a MB in the late 80's.  According to the articles, he would have been 18 in 1990; a bit younger than the person I recall shooting with.

I'm a USPSA master
A136732 if you'd like to verify

The ol B-M bump from a good match... or a match with paper GM's

https://brianenos.com/shop/shoppractical-shooting-beyond-fundamentals/

It is also for sale at Amazon.

Despite the voice over from someone who says you can’t learn anything from anything less than a GM, there is some good unselfish info presented.  After all you have to shoot some matches to hit D, then some to hit C …

You may be exceptional and come out as an A shooter right out of the gate but I can assure you, you have practiced a lot before your first match.

Yeah nobody’s making A right away unless they are practicing and dry firing prior.

I went from zero to A class in just over a year.  Lots of dry fire and over 25,000 rounds of live fire.

Eh, 4 GM's in carry optics... what's the likelihood all 4 were paper?
Throw in that I beat 9 out of 10 Masters and 6 out 7 A class shooters and I think it stands.

I would rather have a match bump.

A match is a much more overall snapshot of your ability spread out over 10 or more stages.

“Paper GM” is the dumbest phrase ever.  Everyone shoots the same classifiers.  If your average gets to 95%, you’re a Grand Master.  Period.  

Sure, you might have cherry picked or even gotten lucky.  All that means is that you get beat by A classes at majors

I agree, shouldn't have said it.  I am one of those who actually thinks the classification system works.  Maybe that's just me who tends to shoot within 3% of my classification at about every major.

Yeah, I agree.  I hear a lot of hate about the classification system and how it’s broke or sucks, etc.

I don’t understand it.  It’s a national standard to measure everyone against.  Not sure how else you’d rank someone other than major matches.  And let’s face it, many people can’t or don’t shoot more than 1-3 majors a year unless they’ve got no other commitments.  I did 3 last season and I’m probably only going to do 2 this year.  And even then, matches vary by designer and area, sometimes a LOT.

I get the “hero or zero,” a little bit of luck, people who shoot a classifier for 4 hours the day before, etc…  Yeah there are outliers but if you look at any major match, from first to last it generally goes from G to D class “mostly” in order.

Stoeger's Practical Shooting is a great book for beginners I think. I still reread it when I'm sucking more then usual.

Someone else has said it I'm sure but a good group to shoot with helps. One that will both tell you when you suck and encourage you to do better.

The only direct to A class types I know are already squared away guys who trained a lot on their own and used available training materials/classes and simply didn't go to matches until they had some free time or discovered it late.

If you look at Jay_of_Mars on IG, he does a lot of USPSA related stats.

His numbers indicate that classification directly correlates to match placement.

The new classifiers are a way to reduce "paper GMs" also.

Just to state it an A shooter is a damn fine shooter.  A high B shooter is also a damn fine shooter.  Extrapolate that to M and GM of course but you already knew that.  All of those take work and thought.

Yep I follow him.

I believe it.

In the past, when new classifiers dropped, it was the best time to move up a class as the HHF was pretty low.  Happened with new division too

To anyone interested, here are a few free video lessons!

Free lessons


Anyone that's on PSTG can find some of my stuff over there too, along with IG/YT for other stuff.



If anyone wants, they're welcome to ask questions and I can help answer to the best of my ability as well.  I could even start a forum topic on it if people have enough interest in that :).  I'm still learning a lot of things myself, and IMO that's the most fun part of all this!


Rob Epifania

New year new goals, signed up for a USPSA match and PCSL time to do more then just take classes.

This guy!   ^^^^^

You’ll enjoy it and your skills will grow exponentially if you stick with it!

Good to see you on here Dan!  Hope you've been doing great 😁

I think the key is to train with a bunch of different viewpoints and then commit to one or two of them more long term.

Lots of differing and conflicting viewpoints will actually get similar results with enough time and effort, it's just a matter of what agrees with you

For instance, you'll have a lot of people saying to stay low and wide.

Eric grauffel taught us to stand up taller between positions in my class with him.  The theory was to conserve leg power for the next aggressive exit and movement.

My friend Brandon powers did some testing on the drop step theory and found when applied correctly (minimal foot lift off the ground) it's just as fast and even slightly quicker for him vs low and wide power out.

My grip is a combination of 4 or 5 different concepts from several people combined with my own ideas and experience in training etc.

I'm trying to get back into competitions.  Last time I shot was about a decade ago shooting 3-gun and I used iron sights on my Beretta 92FS.  I now have an M&P 2.0 with an RMR.  I'm comfortable with red dots and shoot them well but I noticed I still have to find the dot a lot when I draw from holster.  Everyone says to dryfire to get better but how do I know if I'm dryfiring correctly?  I don't want to dryfire with a bad technique to prevent building incorrect muscle memory.  I'll have some dryfire sessions where it feels good and I only struggle to find the dot 1 or 2 times.  Then the next time it feels like I can't find it no matter what.  I feel like this comes down to my grip.  I try to do it the same each time but it obviously doesn't seem to be working.

What can I do to practice finding the dot correctly?

Hit up Rob from above for his free online lessons.

FPNI

That's what I did.

I use practical shooting matches as practice for real life OIS preparedness. It's definitely improved my scores with my agency's yearly qualifications.

I did that right after I made that post and already got the first lesson in my email!  I look forward to getting the other ones.

I also have Ben Stoeger's dryfire book and I think that will be a HUGE help in setting up my dryfire routine.  I was just a little disappointed he kind of glossed over the fundamentals.  He kind of just says, "Make sure you have good fundamentals when you dryfire" and doesn't really explain what those look like.  I understand why, though.  It would probably take another book by itself to go over that stuff, and I'm sure it's stuff he goes over in his classes.

Not sure if I'll ever compete but I'm definitely going to try to apply the principles. I stumbled on Stoeger's YT recently and his teaching made sense to me.

Check out the dry fire drills with par times! It's a real eye opener and is a great way to guage your current skill level.

If you're pushing to improve times on those drills, it's ok to forget about accuracy while you work on speed. Once you've got the speed, start to bring accuracy back into it!

For those of you who made it to M or GM….

How do you guys stay motivated?

It took me just over a year to get to A, I am currently at 79.73%, which is almost spitting distance of M.

I think I’ve dry fired twice in the last 5 weeks.  When the optic came off my gun, I didn’t do jack shit while I was waiting for it to get fixed(took a couple weeks)and now I seem to have fallen off the wagon.

I have still been going to the range about once a week and expending 400-500 rounds, but I know that won’t do it.

Any advice other than “get off your damn ass?”

They've covered what really motivated me on the last 2 episodes of the "Not Another Shooting Podcast"... A lot of what worked for me was spite... I saw people that annoyed me beating me... and that motivated me to get better. Once above them though, that's where it becomes an issue...

I'm on about to have a baby break... and also hoping to lock in this trade for a DWX, so im coming to stand still on training... but trying to be the best in my area is my new driving factor. We don't have any GM's... and maybe 5 M's top at any given match, so it's definitely attainable.

Yeah.  That’s part of why I’m asking.

I’ve seen a couple guys who I’ve been pretty even with all year jump ahead of me or even one or two who are “definitely not matter than me” beating me.  And I’m pretty sure I know why.  I know they’re practicing but I also know I’m not.

I really hate losing to people who “I am better than.”  I don’t dislike them at all, just get silently annoyed when they do better and it’s just due to my laziness.

With you trying to get Master, try the Steve Anderson approach of "What would a master do right now" when you're trying to get motivated to train