If you don't use it, you lose it! - Really?

[Oz]

Quick background; I'm dealing with some elbow pain which I outlined in another thread. I decided to stop shooting (AP) all together to let it do some healing. It's been tough/sad, but the pain was too much to focus, even with OTC pain meds.

I stopped 500 live shots & 150ish dry fires per week. Well, I decided to give it a shot (pun fully intended) since my elbow was feeling better night before last.

But I was going to take it easy. I did a series of lifts, followed by 5 minutes of dry-fire, followed by 5 live shots. Last night I did the same, keeping the same target up, provided me with a 10-shot target over two nights.

To my amazement, the 10-shots = 94. That's including an 8. I've always been told that unless you're shooting consistently, you _will_ take significant steps backwards in your progress.

Isn't a 3-week break long enough to cause negative progress? Because 94-95's are what I was shooting before my break!

Oz

[Guest]

Quick background; I'm dealing with some elbow pain which I outlined in another thread. I decided to stop shooting (AP) all together to let it do some healing. It's been tough/sad, but the pain was too much to focus, even with OTC pain meds.

I stopped 500 live shots & 150ish dry fires per week. Well, I decided to give it a shot (pun fully intended) since my elbow was feeling better night before last.

But I was going to take it easy. I did a series of lifts, followed by 5 minutes of dry-fire, followed by 5 live shots. Last night I did the same, keeping the same target up, provided me with a 10-shot target over two nights.

To my amazement, the 10-shots = 94. That's including an 8. I've always been told that unless you're shooting consistently, you _will_ take significant steps backwards in your progress.

Isn't a 3-week break long enough to cause negative progress? Because 94-95's are what I was shooting before my break!

Oz

It sounds like you got "Tennis Elbow" and that won't heal overnight. I have had it twice and it took almost a few year each time for it to heal.
I never got it again as long as I didn't lock my elbow.

[paw080]

Well Oz, apparently it is not!
Tony G

[paw080]

Duplicate post.....

[Soupy44]

My college team always found we shot right where we left off the first practice or two after a long break (Christmas). This was usually followed by a slight drop off. Best we could figure, you're not worrying about the little things you thought made you shoot well and more on the fundamentals. You were also concentrating harder since you felt you needed to.

[David Levene]

To my amazement, the 10-shots = 94. That's including an 8. I've always been told that unless you're shooting consistently, you _will_ take significant steps backwards in your progress.

Isn't a 3-week break long enough to cause negative progress? Because 94-95's are what I was shooting before my break!

Knowledge of how to shoot a good shot stays with you for many years; I am still relying on what I last used competitively 15 years ago.

What does deteriorate over time is muscle tone, taking with it the ability to hold the gun as still as possible.

Once we have reached a certain (individual) level of achievement, improvement is a slow process requiring lots of work and training. That's one of the things that makes champions, the ability and willingness to devote many hours per day to their shooting.

I doubt whether the deterioration in scores due to a reduction in training will be much different from the improvement resulting from increased training.

[Telecomtodd]

More amazement ahead. I stopped shooting matches (and practicing, too) right after Perry in 2008 due to health problems. 14 months later (this month) my health problems were resolved and I resumed shooting. Two weeks ago I shot my first 1600 metallic match since walking away from the line as a competitor - and shot a 1561-60X. Soupy scored most of my targets.

If I hadn't been shooting cheap ammo, I would have easily been at least 13 shots higher. I had a bad box of SK Jagd Standard Plus and dropped 13 shots on one 50-yard bull. I switched out to another box and cleaned the remaining three bulls. I'll discuss that issue on another post.

No negative progress here.

[jackh]

I quit shooting NRA matches from 1976 to 1997. With my 22, I was shooting around 95 percent scores. After the big layoff for raising two great daughters, I came back at 90% scores. Slowly I have built back up to mid 90's again. But age, eyes, health, have really shown up lately. It is very hard to commit to the work needed to beat the mid 90's.