Those who are subscribed to the newsletter and have been reading it are aware that my third attempt at earning a turbo pin from Gabe White is coming up next month (October 2024). With that fast approaching goal, I figured it would be prudent to review recent match footage to figure out where to get the most bang for my buck from my remaining practice time. The review revealed a common theme between stages with a high count of A-zone hits and those with an equal distribution of C-zone hits and that thread was visual discipline. As such, that is going to be the primary focus of my practice time at least for the next few weeks if not the entire month.
Earning a turbo pin requires a consistently fast draw and consistent fast accurate hits. There is a lot more to a fast draw and fast accurate hits than visual discipline, but visual disciple is a key ingredient. This is where the old adage of, “aim small, miss small”, comes into play.
The adage emphasizes the importance of precise aiming. It’s the difference between aiming at the entire target or aiming a small precise point in a specific location on the target. The more precise that point is the better the results will be if that exact point is not hit. This holds true even when engaging a target at full speed. Let’s look at why that is.
The first benefit of putting visual focus on a precise point on the target is that it establishes a very stable visual index referred to as the eye-target line. That stable index allows us to drive the pistol quickly and aggressively to align with that eye-target line. It doesn’t matter if we are drawing the pistol from the holster, transitioning the pistol from another target (or point of aim), or it is returning from recoil. As long as we remain laser focused on that same precise spot, moving the pistol (or allowing it to return) to alignment with the eye-target line is a natural process that can happen quickly, efficiently, and precisely while minimizing corrective action from too much or too little movement. In other words, the pistol will naturally go to where we are looking so by looking more precisely the pistol will naturally go to a more precise location.
The other component of visual discipline is patience. That is to say that the “go signal” to press the trigger should come only after we process the correct visual stimulus that corresponds to the difficulty of the target. I’ve heard different folks use different terms for visual stimulus. For example, Brian Enos refers to it as “focus types”. Other folks, including myself, often use the phrase “see what you need to see”. Regardless of verbiage, we still have to patiently wait for the proper visual input before pressing the trigger.
What the proper visual input is for the difficulty of the target depends on the sighting system used since the input provided by iron sights and pistol mounted optics are different. I’ll omit the input details from this post and save them for future posts, but suffice it to say that visual discipline begins with visual focus of a precise point on the target and ends with patiently waiting for the correct visual input for each shot.
The easiest of shots will only require waiting for feeling physical alignment of the pistol with the eye-target line. We don’t have to wait for additional visual input from the dot or the iron sights. The “go signal” is when we see the pistol is generally aligned with the target. Even at the lowest level of difficulty the quality of hits depend on precise visual focus. It becomes the difference between a tight group of hits in the A-zone and spraying the A-zone with the occasional C-zone flier.
On the other end of the spectrum, the most difficult shots will require a very different visual stimulus. When using an optic, the stimulus will be seeing a settled dot superimposed on the precise point on the target before pressing the trigger and while the shot breaks. With irons, it will require seeing a settled sight picture followed by a visual focus shift to the front sight to confirm equal height and equal light before pressing the trigger and while the shot breaks.
Remember visual discipline begins with visual focus of a precise point on the target for each and every shot. In other words, every shot begins with aiming small. Assuming we patiently wait for the proper visual stimulus and don’t disturb the muzzle-target alignment while pressing the trigger. The hit will be either precisely where we are looking or close enough for it to be considered acceptable. In other words, missing small is still an acceptable hit.
So, yeah. Aim small, miss small.
