Optimizing Range Time
You can't buy handguns right now and that’s a huge bummer for all of us shooting enthusiasts. The nice thing is that you can still rent them at many ranges. And, if your buddies already have them you can still go out and shoot together.
This means you’re hopefully spending some quality time at the range. Unfortunately, life does find a way to keep you busy. Work, kids, hobbies, and other responsibilities you have might keep you from spending your sweet time at a range. So, start thinking about optimizing your time there. It really doesn’t matter what kind of firearm you use but try to effectively use whatever time you have to get a little bit better.
I tend to divide my range time into two broad categories, blasting days and training days.
Explosive Therapy
There are just some days where you want to go and make some noise at the range. Bang rounds down range without thinking too hard about anything but hitting that paper. You're still working on your accuracy and fundamentals (HOPEFULLY!!), but you might have brought a new friend to the range or you want to just have some fun. These days are perfect for keeping the passion for shooting going.
A little better each day!
Training days are all about developing a specific skill set. Whether you're working on your fundamentals, practicing some more advanced skills, or just repeating drills to polish a skill. It’s about having an idea of how you’re going to spend your range time and what skills you want to work on before going in.
I tend to think of these days like a day at the gym. Go in without a plan and you will end up muddling around and wasting whatever time you have to spend shooting. Instead, spend some time creating a list of skills and outcomes that you want and build a plan around how to get there.
Are you working on accuracy by building your fundamentals, or do you want to push yourself to the point of failure by speeding up? Are you having a hard time finding your sights after reloading a new magazine? Or maybe you’re a little slow on finding magazines for an emergency reload, or fumbling magazines on a tactical reload.
A good buddy
A good range buddy is also a key asset in optimizing your time. My buddy and I are constantly watching each other, critiquing and spotting. We make sure we both have goals walking into the range and after our shooting session, we do a debrief.
The best part is, we keep each other accountable at the range and check in with self-assessment and feedback.
“Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down”
The other thing you should think about is keeping track and logging what you’re working on. You will improve over time but keeping track will let you actually see and feel the improvement. One of my biggest regrets when I started shooting was not keeping better track of how often I shot and what skills I was working on.
The nice (or terrible) thing is, I do have some videos from my early days of shooting and I look abysmal. Slow and awkward! A nice reminder of where I’ve come and where I still need to work toward.
Watch and Learn.
Looking at videos of folks competing is a great place to start to see what sort of skills you need to develop to shoot better. You see the techniques and start to break down the movement patterns and skills different shooters are using to build their repertoire.
There are so many skill sets to build that it can quickly become overwhelming, but just keep that goal in mind and work slowly and steadily towards it. Think about creating some goals and trying to figure out how to get there.
One of my newest favourite sayings is “You perform at your lowest level of training”, which to me means upping my level until my worst days look like solid shooting.
Here are examples of competition videos to watch.