Practice Deck 1.0 FAQ (beta edition)

This is the FAQ for the Beta version of Practice Deck 1.0



For start position, is it always facing downrange unless specified?

Downrange is what's intended. Its generally faster than facing somewhere else. Don't let that stop you from experimenting with other things - but the "prescribed" drill is facing downrange unless otherwise specified.


2, 3, 4, 9, 10, J, K of Clubs: Does "alternate start box" mean for every string or each rep?

In each case, there's only one string per rep - so, alternate where you start each rep.


2 of Clubs: Do you stop at the 2nd box, or keep running back and forth from box to box until you've shot 10 rounds?

You keep running back and forth. Its a total of 9 sprints per rep, and you shoot from each box 5 times on each rep. Same thing with the 3 of Clubs. It'll get your heart moving!


8 of Clubs: just want to make sure that T2 is engaged from box B, and T3 from box C; not T2 from C and T3 from B

It should be T2 from C, and T3 from B. Alternately, the back box should be labeled B, and the right box should be labeled C. Basically, shoot the target that's directly in front of the box.


5 of Spades: Alternate starting sides of barricade?

I would - but I didn't feel like I needed to specify it on that drill. Shoot it as you like. I might make that change, though...


10 of Spades: can you use strong/weak hand as support on barricade when shooting with opposite hand?

It kind of depends upon how sturdy your barricade is! But... I wouldn't recommend it. Its going to be slower, in the end. The engagement around each side is relatively easy, so... The drill doesn't care if you do it, though...


Scoring: When a drill is "score each", do you score each rep and then add the reps to get one final score, or do you keep each rep's score seperate?

I'll have to reword that on the key card. Add the times up at the end for the total drill time.

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The DR Performance Practice Deck 1.0

Coming in the first half of 2009!

The DR Performance Practice Deck represents a new way to practice for practical shooting sports. Consisting of 52 basic shooting drills superimposed on a normal deck of playing cards, the deck allows you to have a thorough, fun, and effective practice session while avoiding the inevitable question "Well, what do I do now?". Its small, light, and fits easily in your shooting bag. And, in a pinch (like a long delay between stages at a match), it can even serve as a normal deck of playing cards.

If you're reading this now - the deck is finishing development, and should be going into production in the first half of 2009.

• The Idea


• 1.0 Design Ethics


• Scaling


• FAQ for Beta version of 1.0 deck

The Idea

One of the common questions I get is "What should I practice?" The right answer, "Everything", is a hard thing for most folks to swallow. Its like a big elephant - trying to eat the whole thing at once is impossible, and its not always obvious where to take the first bite from. In late 2007, I wrote a blog article on the Re-Gun blog that describes how to determine exactly what to practice first. That gets you some specifics on what to focus on, but doesn't really give you a plan on how to work on them. It also doesn't add in general skills practice - you need to maintain that while focusing on the stuff that needs the most work.

Around that same time, I started investigating efficient ways to practice. A thread regarding Motor Learning came up on the Benoverse, and piqued my interest in how to structure practice to show the quickest gains in skill retention (that translates to quickest gains in match placement!). I dug into some research around kinesiology and motor learning, and discovered something interesting - the short of its, psuedo-random practice works better for long term skill retention than hundreds of repetitions of an individual skill (in kinesiology terms, this is referred to as "blocked" practice - ie, a "block" of one skill). This blocked out practice works for learning a new skill's movements and intricacies - once you know the moves, though, moving toward a more random pattern may result in slower gains on each skill in a particular practice session - but you'll retain more of those gains in the next practice session and match.

As I was doing that research, the folks at CrossFit Agoge released their cool Hopper Deck product. A lightbulb came on - a set of cards with shooting drills on them! Shuffle, draw, shoot, rinse, repeat. Pseudo-random practice of general skills. I contacted Alex Taylor at Hopper Deck to seek permission to blatantly steal their idea, and he graciously replied with a lot of great info on how to get started. The rest is... recent history...

1.0 Design Ethics

I rapidly came up with a large number of drills. I wrote down 75 or so, but had ideas for many more. Inventing drills isn't particularly hard (though inventing drills that are useful long term can be challenging). It became apparent that I needed to pare the drills down to 52 drills in some sensible fashion. So, here's what I did.

1.0 is a deck that focuses on basic practical shooting skills. The drills in this deck involve a minimal amount of equipment, relatively short distances, and relatively easy target presentations. This set of properties makes it a sort of "every man" practice tool - its usable in dry fire as well as live fire, the full set of drills can be used on almost any range, and basically every shooter can benefit from the drills as they are written on the cards. The drills can be scaled easily, too, to make them harder as required (more on scaling below). And, its usable for any of the practical shooting sports - USPSA, IPSC, IDPA, pistol for various multi-gun and 3-gun events, etc.

And, I pulled in several drills and target arrays I've found useful from other sources - folks like Max Michel, Jr., Brian Enos, and Eric Stanley.

Hit factor scoring is complex for this kind of thing. Max Michel described a "time plus" scoring system for a few of his drills to me, that I adapted slightly to the scoring system that appears in the deck for use by USPSA or IPSC competitors. It effectively makes each drill a fixed 5 hit factor stage, placing emphasis on shooting good points, but rewarding speed a bit more than IDPA's fixed 2 hit factor scoring. IDPA competitors should use IDPA scoring values to practice appropriately for their game. Other games can pick a system between those two. There is no distinction between Major and Minor power factor, either. What this allows you to do is to track your progress with a simple time number - and it makes it easy to compare your results to other folks who are shooting the same drills.

If 1.0 does well, I may consider developing a second deck with more advanced, involved drills - it could be shuffled straight into the 1.0 deck, giving you 104 drills in one spot. We'll see what happens...

Scaling the Drills

You may recall another blog post that I wrote regarding avoiding "easy" shots in your practice sessions and drills. Most of the drills in the 1.0 deck use wide open targets, and are set at close to moderate distance. For many folks, these are not difficult shots to execute. You can still get an awful lot out of practice on them, even as a upper level shooter. However, should you find yourself shooting 99-100% of points on the drills, at warp speed, you can definitely do some things to make the drills a more difficult challenge.

Distance: back up. This effectively makes the target smaller, and your shots become more difficult because of it. At some point, though, you reach a relatively uncommon target presentation at most of the matches we shoot - and you may run out of room on your range, as well. You can also scale the drills easier if you need to by getting closer - however, I'd encourage even the beginner to stick with the prescribed distances rather than making relatively easy shots easier. Your skill level will quickly improve to where you can make the shots in the deck without much difficulty.

Add no-shoots or hardcover: Another way to scale the difficulty up is to make the targets smaller by adding hardcover over part of one or more targets, or by overlaying one or more targets with no-shoots (non-threats in the IDPA vernacular). No-shoots are easier - you can just use another target and staples. Hardcover takes paint. If you use no-shoots, be sure to assess penalties appropriately!

If you choose to scale, be certain to keep track of that in your notes so that you can compare results the next time you shoot the drill in a meaningful way.

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Hanging a Shingle

I've wrestled a bit with exactly how to announce this. In the end that usually means I should just stop quibbling with myself and spout it out. So....

I'm now (officially) available for shooting training!

This is an exciting time for me. Teaching, for me, represents a multi-fold opportunity to give something back to the sport, and also another way to participate in the success of others. I've found that I really enjoy passing on the knowledge and experience that I've gained to other folks. That's part of the reason for this blog, of course.

If you're interested in discovering what I have to offer, please read on!


There are a few different ways to go about training, and they work with different degrees of success, depending on what your goals are, both as a trainer and a trainee. There are some broad categories - group training, and private - and some opportunities for more specialized programs. I can do them all - in this post, I'd like to lay out an idea for the third. If you'd like more information on the first two, please don't hesitate to contact me!

I've taken training in both group (small and large) and private formats, and gotten a lot out of both. As a trainee, group training requires that you really pay attention to all that is said to each participant in order to get the most out of it. Private training can be a lot like drinking from a firehose - more information than you can possibly retain in one sitting. Neither works without commitment from the trainee, of course, but that goes for any type of training.

What I'd like to offer is a slightly different spin - a more personalized, goal related training program designed to help you achieve the next steps in your shooting progress. For the sake of a snappy title, I call it the "Jump a Class Package". The package breaks down like this:

• 8 hours of range time in the central Texas area (I can travel to you, too - additional expenses apply)


• Basic skills assessment


• Introduction to and application of a goal setting program, including review of current goals, and methods to attaining them


• Phone and email consultation and coaching services


• Performance review and critique via video and, if possible, in local match settings, during the training period


• Drills and exercises to improve student skills will be detailed, and results reviewed during the training period.

Depending on the situation and the student's needs, the range time can be broken up into two 4 hour blocks, or combined with other students to make small group classes (max of 4). Aside from an initial skill assessment, the range sessions will focus on the skill improvements required to meet the student's goals. The training period would last from 3-4 months, and allows for followup and further reinforcement of the concepts and skills addressed in the goals and skill assessment. This "closing of the loop" is the strength of this package - with the other types of programs, you may not be able to easily spend more time with the trainer to insure that you learned the skills and are putting them fully into action.

Obviously, a trainee's success depends almost exclusively on their application of what they learn not just during training, but in the period following training, as well, as they put those newfound skills to work on their own. So, I can't guarantee your success, but I can definitely give you the best support possible on the way to your goals.

Questions? Thoughts? Hit me with 'em!!!

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