Dry Fire Drills

Getting back into bullseye after 10 years.. 

Can you recommend dry fire drills or provide literature on the topic? Ed Hall's articles are great.. I've been reading the AMU's guide to Advanced Pistol Shooting.. I have five copies of Competitive Shooting in storage that I cant find..

Thanks.

Shot Call Drill. Put a target on the table in front of you and have a stack of nickels (or any other indicator). After each shot put a nickel on the spot of your call. Repeat this at the range live firing.

Good-Bad Shot Counter. Choose one thing in your shot process to work on this session. Put the same stack of nickels (or whatever) in the middle in front of you. If you do that one thing well, move a nickel from the middle to the right. If you do it poorly, move a nickel to the left. When you run out of nickels, write down your good score. Now move the nickels back to the middle and try to beat your score.

I might suggest any good/bad to become simply rewards for good.  Why even acknowledge bad?*

Dry Firing:  Take the opportunity to really study what happens at the gun during the trigger operation. Make some changes and see what they affect.  Take positive notes.**  Work mostly with a blank wall so you can really focus on the gun.  Use the sighting system to watch the gun's motion during the shot.  Do single shot from hands off through "click" to learn the best repeatable grip.  "Repeatable grip" should include: gun comfortable in grip that won't shift under recoil, sighting system aligned with eye when brought to area of aim, trigger operation occurs without sighting system showing misalignment with eye.

And run through Improving Hold and Trigger Manipulation a few times. (Thanks for the "shout out," BTW.)

* Good and bad are perceptions, with bad carrying all kinds of emotional misgivings.  Since the subconscious thrives on emotions, perceptions of bad carry more weight than we should allow them,  Reward success, but ignore less than what is looked for and let it slip away.  Focus on success.  Seek what you desire.

** Positive notes have a few benefits, some of which are: (as CR10X recently mentioned) helping to ingrain more than short term memory, Helping to understand the why this works, references for the future.  You should review these notes often.  This helps ensure you're still catching some of the details and they can help with a starting point for your next improvement.

Ed Hall wrote:I might suggest any good/bad to become simply rewards for good.  Why even acknowledge bad?*

Dry Firing:  Take the opportunity to really study what happens at the gun during the trigger operation. Make some changes and see what they affect.  Take positive notes.**  Work mostly with a blank wall so you can really focus on the gun.  Use the sighting system to watch the gun's motion during the shot.  Do single shot from hands off through "click" to learn the best repeatable grip.  "Repeatable grip" should include: gun comfortable in grip that won't shift under recoil, sighting system aligned with eye when brought to area of aim, trigger operation occurs without sighting system showing misalignment with eye.

And run through Improving Hold and Trigger Manipulation a few times. (Thanks for the "shout out," BTW.)

* Good and bad are perceptions, with bad carrying all kinds of emotional misgivings.  Since the subconscious thrives on emotions, perceptions of bad carry more weight than we should allow them,  Reward success, but ignore less than what is looked for and let it slip away.  Focus on success.  Seek what you desire.

** Positive notes have a few benefits, some of which are: (as CR10X recently mentioned) helping to ingrain more than short term memory, Helping to understand the why this works, references for the future.  You should review these notes often.  This helps ensure you're still catching some of the details and they can help with a starting point for your next improvement.

Thanks for the tips, Ed. I'm including this in my routine practice. Working on this this morning. Hope all is well!

Orionsic, another thing you might look at is your strength like gripping and holding, if it's been 10 years and you're in your 60s, it will be a factor. 
 In the past 5 years I lost some strength, I was using the "Zins grip" and went back to wrapping my fingers around the pistol and letting it give me added strength. With the 22 it's great, and the 45 needs a "little" added muscle and it really firms it well without shaking.
 During dry fire this past week, I tried a different finger placement. I have a little trouble feeling my crisper 22 trigger so I pushed my finger in a little more so the 1st joint is in the middle of the trigger. This did two things for me : it allowed me to pull back straighter, and I could feel more of the triggers actual movement when pressuring this lighter weight.
 I combined this with better body alignment for N P of aim, and that tightened the grouping more. 
  This was my ah-ha moment this week, I am pleased and it excites me.
If you listen to Steve and Ed there's no doubt you'll be back to where you were and be a more improved shooter. Like Ed says follow your desires.
 Stan

Ed Hall wrote:I might suggest any good/bad to become simply rewards for good.  Why even acknowledge bad?

Good Point

chopper wrote: During dry fire this past week, I tried a different finger placement. I have a little trouble feeling my crisper 22 trigger so I pushed my finger in a little more so the 1st joint is in the middle of the trigger. This did two things for me : it allowed me to pull back straighter, and I could feel more of the triggers actual movement when pressuring this lighter weight.

I was working on this myself this morning. Found that the total amount of grip pressure is more stable when I place the meat next to the joint of my trigger finger rather the joint itself. All good feedback, thanks.