26 October 2011

Fundamentals, Executed Perfectly

Dry fire exercise, when properly performed, is exercise.

A couple of things I have learned just from the past three days (Sunday, Tuesday and today; I missed Monday afternoon and had to make it up Tuesday morning) of dry fire exercise:

My trigger control is getting better. I still occasionally pull off, particularly when I have been at it for a while and am getting tired, but it doesn't happen nearly as often, even after only three days.

My forearms ache. Properly executing that grip puts quite a bit of strain on the muscles in the left forearm, particularly when you are gripping as tightly as (humanly possible) you are supposed to.

The grip is the foundation on which all the other control methods build. Properly executed the grip allows everything else to fall into place. This may sound simplistic, but believe me it came as quite a revelation after only a couple of days worth of dry firing when I suddenly realized my sight picture and trigger control were improving.

Concentrating on sight picture rather than the target is harder than it sounds. I have had to do it without my glasses, or by looking through bottoms of the bifocals, because when I wear my straight lenses the sights are too close and they blur. Curse my old eyes! It looks like I will have to bow to the inevitable and ditch the straight lenses all together.

Ten minutes doesn't seem like much, but after five I am ready to quit. I have to force myself to finish, and when I have to force myself to finish I also have to force myself to do things the right way. Training consists of forcing yourself to do things the right way while you have the time so that when you don't have the time you will do things the right way automatically.

Stance. Grip. Presentation. Sights. Blur the target. Trigger control. Follow through.
Stance. Grip. Presentation. Sights. Blur the target. Trigger control. Follow through.
Stance. Grip. Presentation. Sights. Blur the target. Trigger control. Follow through.

Am I leaving anything out?

2 comments:

cmblake6 said...

Excellent! Well said, well defined.

Larry said...

I can really tell the difference.
Thanks for dropping by!