A practical drill; I intend to give it a go. I like Paul Howe. His resume speaks for itself, and he's a very pragmatic, realistic, humble, low-key guy. He's about making better shooters out of LE and civilians.

This drill is outwardly simple; well, it's inwardly simple too. It's only when you really consider running it ten times back-to-back, that it reveals it's true potential to test you.

As he says, it's also safely doable with a group. You'd really want to work up to it, IMO (and in Mr. Howe's). I am not about to put a few buddies on line, and expect us to be able to do this ten times. The fitness level of my group is diverse enough that the fitter dudes would be forced to dial it back, while the other guys may be taxed to a point that compromises safety. This could be an interesting thing to try for jljones and his coworkers, as they are presumably all at a similar fitness level.

Thanks for the link. I can see the training value of that, not only for individuals who may already do a fair amount of practice on their own, but especially for groups that might have to work together.

It also reminds me of how difficult it’s gotten for me to assume the prone position. The last time I did that a few weeks ago my back spasmed so bad I couldn’t stand up straight for several minutes. I really should try to get some of my flexibility back. Any suggestions from the group other than, “Just do it!”?

I ran through five cycles this morning. Whew!

I didn't have one of those exact targets, so I used a torso target I did have, and drew an "A-zone" and a box in the head.

My takeaways are two: one predictable, and one informative. The predictable one is that adding fatigue to any shooting exercise will shine a spotlight on what real level of performance you can expect. The informative one is that I need to practice more from the kneeling position and/or experiment with alternate kneeling positions.

Another note, in glancing back at the video clip before writing this, is I did not check my battlespace before moving.

Time was 7:12
All my head shots were in the box
Eight body shots were outside the A-zone, pretty evenly distributed on both sides of and beneath the A-zone box.
I neglected to fire one shot entirely; no idea which or when.

One thing I opted to do was collapse my stock and switch my Elcan to 1x, on the move from 25 to 7, to put my rifle in more of a "true" CQB condition. Everything else was shot at 4x, with my stock in it's typical position.

I will experiment with my kneeling positions, and try again at a later date. I could slow down a bit (I'd still be in the par time) and give myself an endurance edge, if/when I go for more cycles, but I felt like the speed I was going was my typical jog, and anything slower would seem too slow for what I feel is my current fitness level.

I'll certainly be sucking big-time on a ten cycle run. I was huffing 'n' puffing on this run, and had the ol' phlegmy spit.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KSGM,

This looks like fun, but while my club is pretty permissive as far as gun clubs go, I'd probably get banned for life if somebody saw me running back uprange with a loaded rifle. The PD range I have access to only goes back to 75 yards. I might be able to get away with it if I ran the gun empty and flagged it for the return trip, then popped in a new mag of 5 back at the 100 yard line. I really like the combination of cardio, positional shooting, and accuracy standards.

quote:

I really should try to get some of my flexibility back. Any suggestions from the group other than, “Just do it!”?

I have a herniated lumbar disk and have battled back issues since my early 20s. The best thing I did was start running and stretching on a daily basis. It strengthened my core and helped me lose some weight, which probably helped my back, too. I went from being bedridden and missing work several times a year to being almost completely pain free for the past 8 years. I've had a few flare-ups, but nothing bad enough to keep me home.

You don't have to do anything crazy...start slow, always stretch before and after, and don't overdo it. I typically do a 7.5-8 minute mile, and I started even slower. Even walking is better than nothing...a good dog and a wife to talk to make that an enjoyable and doubly-productive exercise. I usually run 1.5-2 miles in the morning and walk the dog with my wife another 2-3 miles in the afternoon or evening. It's about an hour invested every day, but it's time well spent and has greatly improved my mobility and quality of life.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
This could be an interesting thing to try for jljones and his coworkers, as they are presumably all at a similar fitness level.

You give me way too much credit. I’m in decent shape but saying that I’m in the kind of shape of my kids 25 years younger is kind of you.

With that being said, we commonly run stuff like this. One of the drills is a quarter mile run in less than 2 minutes, followed by 3 rounds prone at the 100. Run to the 75, 3 rounds kneeling supported. Run to the 50, 3 rounds standing supported. Run to the 25, 3 rounds standing unsupported. Total time counting the run is 4:30.

Another is the GRS burn down. 5 mags loaded with 2 rounds each. Run from the 300 to the 200. At the 200, fire two and reload. Repeat at 150, 100, 75, 50, and 25. Sub 5:00.

Both are shot in kit. Wanna make it really suck? Run it in a gas mask.

Another one of my favorites is 12 or so yards and a plate rack. You start out with 3 burpees to buy the first shot, draw and fire at the first plate. If it’s a hit, holster and 3 more burpees, and hit the next plate. Time stops when all plates are down. If you score six hits on the plates, you only have to pay 18 burpees. But…….. if you miss a plate, it goes to 4 burpees to buy the next shot. The the next miss becomes 5. And so on.

I shot the Trex 50 round carbine course today in a gas mask. It’s a worthy challenge.

I should have mentioned that I conducted my run totally slick; no equipment of any kind.

I will try those drills and report back. Thank you, Jones.

Luckily I don't have a plate rack; I'll use that as a good-enough excuse to avoid your drill involving the dreaded B-word!

I ran the 100-7 again.

7:07
Five cycles. All 25 shots fired this time.
13 outside the a-zone, ranging from six to nine o'clock, no more than four inches outside the line.
All head shots in the box.

I need to take a few more seconds, on the kneeling positions, to ensure a good shot. I also need to remember a bit of a hold, at the 25 and 50. I have a 100m zero; had I paid more attention to the proper hold, four of my misses would have been fixed.

Part of my problem is I have some kind of subconscious pre-conceived cadence in my mind, which makes me anxious to break the shot within a certain amount of time after getting into position.

So, as is often the case, I just need to slow the heck down and focus. I can probably still keep it under eight minutes, while getting a much cleaner target. If I can get a clean target with a time of about eight minutes, I am fairly confident I can do the full ten cycles under twenty minutes. The proof, however, will be in the pudding.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:

Part of my problem is I have some kind of subconscious pre-conceived cadence in my mind, which makes me anxious to break the shot within a certain amount of time after getting into position.

Completely normal.

The two scariest words on a police range is time and test. This fear is real. An example is the ample time given, particularly at distance on police qualifications. So for instance, at 25 yards one might have 25 seconds to fire 4 rounds. You figure 2 seconds is sufficient time to draw and present the pistol, the math of it leaves 23 seconds to fire the remaining 3 rounds. Shooters that are less than confident will often burn through all four rounds in 5 seconds and hit nothing. The better plan would be to manage the time better and make hits. They don’t. And they don’t learn from poor performance. The buzzer goes off and they lose their minds.

The problem comes from a fear of running out of time and an inability to see courses of fire as nothing more than a math problem.

The cure? Understand your ability and how much time your ability takes at a given distance for a given level of performance. For instance, I know at 25 yards a good, steady, reliable first shot is 1.75 off the draw. Subsequent shots of the same quality cost about 1 second each. 4 rounds from the holster equals 4.75. Nice and tight. Knock the splits down to .75 and it might be A’s and you might sneak a C in. At half seconds, there is gonna be a couple C’s. At thirds it’ll be mainly C’s. At quarters, there’s probably going to be a D. And so on.

Repetition is a good way to build confidence. You are basically building data on performance. That data builds confidence. And confidence builds better performance.

Turns out I've been doing a little better than my results initially indicated. The "a-zone" I hastily drew on my target was 5"x7". The typical dimensions are 6x11, so the majority of my misses would have actually been caught. I do need to rewatch his video though, and see what exact target he's using; it may not have an IPSC a-zone.

He never does say the dimensions of the box. It's not stated on Action Target's site either. It looks like it may be even more generous, in height, than the typical a-zone.

I also forget to check battle space, again, on that second run.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KSGM,