self-timing or free timing in 10m AP

[doral]

Do you time yourself as you come down into the target area, start counting one, two, three, .....ten, if you haven't pull the trigger by then, you abort?

Or do you free time yourself, no time limit, abort when hand started shaking?

Which way do you use?

Self-timing for me is very mechanical and robotic, but I seem to shoot better that way then free timing.

[Tom Amlie]

I've had the same positive results when "self-timing"; I think (in my case) it was due to the counting drowning out the little voice in my head that nags, pesters, and second-guesses me while I shoot.

[indonesianAP]

i stop aim and lower my pistol when my front sight become rough. In Ap shooting i remember tracing front sight pattern, which one will result 10 which one 9 and which one worse. I am type of hunting shooting, when i feel this is 10 area than i start press trigger fast , if not i will wait , if getting worse on front sight i will lower my pistol. even i didn't count my shooting aim about +-20 sec according my stopwatch.

[Richard H]

You'd be surprised how accurate your internal timing is without counting down. With enough training you should know when you are getting in or near your over hold area and abort as appropriate. Most people will be within a few seconds everytime.

[Miacdc]

Just one more second, one more second, I can do it, just one more, one more.............

so much for my internal clock.

[lastman]

The thing to worry about with timing your shot release is that you begin to anticipate the shot.

I.e 1, 2, 3, 4, fire as you get to 4 your press the trigger and sometime you will press the trigger in a different manner to how you have been pressing for the rest of the shot.

Free timing will win in the long run. It allows you to focus on your sight alignment and your hold. The idea is that your shot will break at the point when your sights and hold have become their most stable.

My opinion is that your thoughts should not be on the trigger at all, just let it happen and it will be more smooth than if you are timing it.

However you do need to work on your discipline so that when the shot has not broken when it should you will immediately put the gun down.

Good luck

[b]

If you are counting in your mind, you are not thinking about what you should be. When your wobble area begins to increase, then you know you have exceeded your best hold time. Put it down and start over. It is all about discipline.

[peterz]

Just one more second, one more second, I can do it, just one more, one more.............

so much for my internal clock.

But that is your internal clock working very well. When you start to think "just one more second," you are over the limit and should abort. I think of myself as a beginner, but I've learned that and try hard to practice it.

-pete

[luftskytter-]

I tried this countign thing out for a short period once.
The purpose? To avoid standing there forever.
I struggled a bit to get the shot fired and decided to count slowly to five when things started "feeling right". The main idea then was that if I reached five, it was time to ABORT THE SHOT!

I haven't done this for a long time, now I just try to get into "the zone" by preparing things properly, and if this works, the shot takes care of itself. If this doesn't happen, I try to convince myself to lower my arm......

[joker]

I tried this countign thing out for a short period once.
The purpose? To avoid standing there forever.
I struggled a bit to get the shot fired and decided to count slowly to five when things started "feeling right". The main idea then was that if I reached five, it was time to ABORT THE SHOT!

I haven't done this for a long time, now I just try to get into "the zone" by preparing things properly, and if this works, the shot takes care of itself. If this doesn't happen, I try to convince myself to lower my arm......

LOL - that is when it feels as though the arm has a mind of its own ;0))

[Doral]

When counting up, at what number do you abort?

It is interesting, if I set my abort count at ten, most of my shots will go off surprisingly at about 8.

I timed most World Cup shooters, most of them shoot off at about count of 7-8.

Now if I tell myself don't worry about the time, take my time to give a "really" good shot, the time I use would be about 15 seconds, and the result would usually not be as good compared to using the count up method.

When I am free timing, I don't feel like I am over holding, and my results are just not as good.

[David Levene]

I timed most World Cup shooters, most of them shoot off at about count of 7-8.

I would bet good money that most of them are not using any kind of conscious timing. They will be using their well trained technique and aborting as soon as anything disturbs that process (such as thinking "have I been on aim too long").

The trick isn't in knowing how to shoot; that's easy. The trick is in knowing (and accepting) when not to shoot.

[lastman]

Now if I tell myself don't worry about the time, take my time to give a "really" good shot, the time I use would be about 15 seconds, and the result would usually not be as good compared to using the count up method.

When I am free timing, I don't feel like I am over holding, and my results are just not as good.

You need to commit more to a deliberate and positive trigger press.

Also if your taking 15 seconds to deliver the shot, your eyes will most certainly moved away from their level of peak performance.

You don't need to count. Deep down you will always know when the shot has been going on for too long. This can happen only 1 second into the shot.

Discipline is 1 of the hardest skills for a shooter to master.

Good luck

[2650 Plus]

There is good advice from Lastman. If you are shooting for fun rather than to win theres no reason for you change your lack of a real system for delivering the shot. For instance, do you have a specific time to start your finger moving on the trigger? How about when or where you focus on the front sight ?If you work and develope a sequence for delivering the shot, Reherse before you lift the pistol and execute the shot the same way every time you shoot you will never again have to be concerned about counting the seconds. I apologise if I am being too critical. Good Shooting Bill Horton

[appletree]

i start stop aiming when i found miss pattern. I usually recognise 10 pattern front sight movement, and outside 10 movement. When i found 10 pattern I will shoot if not just lower my gun.

[luftskytter-]

During last nights training session I did som blank target shooting (reverse side og a normal paper target). This makes it much easier to shoot fast :-)
It probably took me less than five seconds each from the time of establishing second stage contact to deliver a number of nice clean shots.
No need to think about timing.....

Some stray shots could easily be called due to faults made by me, the rest where pretty much in the middle of the paper and the result prompts the question whether it would be legal to do this in competition. With a very slight adjustment of group centering, most of the shots would score nine or better.

Why can't I do this as easily with the paper the correct way around?
Got some work to do here........