At the CMP National Matches this past month, I had the chance to attend the Advanced SAFS class that was put on the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU). At the end of the class there was a panel that included Jim Henderson, Jon Shue, Sally Talbott, and a few others whose names I unfortunately do not remember.
The following are my raw notes:
- AMU’s standards for pistols
- 22lr – 1″ at 50 yards
- 9mm – 1″ at 50 yards
- 45acp – 2″ at 50 yards
- This is the minimum standard. Realistically, they’re getting better results
- Hammer forward, get grip
- Grip around the pistol, getting as much friction as possible
- Matches are just practice with paperwork
- Sharks are born swimming
- 15-20 minutes of dry fire daily
- Dry fire line drills
- With thumb, trace a line up and down on the wall
- 5 minutes, 2x daily
- 1 minute of movement and 30 seconds (break I assume)
- This came from Jim Henderson and is a drill that was suggested to minimize tremors (from memory)
- Not warming up is a mistake
- At least move your arms around or something
- This shows up in people that start off rocky and then get better
- The tighter the grip, the tighter the wrist lock
- Work on grip strength
- Don’t forget to work on the extensors
- An interesting exercise, that can be done anywhere is:
- With your shooting hand, pretend that you’re gripping a pistol
- Now, move only your trigger finger as if you were going to fire
- Ensure that there is only movement in your trigger finger
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