Performance Tracking

“There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but some are quicker than others.”

Becoming a better shooter involves a great number of things. You have to learn proper technique. You have to cultivate a good mindset. You need to practice. Do all those things and over time, you’ll get better.

But just how much better, and how quickly, also depend in part on doing your homework. Part of that homework involves taking careful, detailed, and honest notes about your training routine and performance.

Tracking your shooting performance over time has a number of benefits:

• provides clear, statistical data on current skill level
• gives clear evidence when a plateau has been reached, with skill level being maintained but no real improvements being made
• identifies specific skills or techniques which require special attention or extra practice
• motivates the shooter to put real effort into small incremental improvements

In a nutshell, performance tracking tells you where you are today in comparison to where you were yesterday, and gives you the information you need to be better tomorrow.

How To?

First, simply tracking the number of rounds you fired isn’t enough. That will tell you how much you practiced, but it won’t tell you what you practiced or how well you performed.

Performance tracking requires taking notes… a lot of notes.

Track how much time you spent during a given session. If half of that time is taken up with conversations with buddies or sitting on your hands during a cease fire, note that. Track how many rounds you fired.

Take note of the time of day, the weather, and anyone that was shooting with you. This will allow you to discover the differences between shooting early in the morning versus midday, how rain or cold impact your results, and whether sessions with your pal Jimmy Jo Bob Billy somehow lead to poorer results…

You do not have to write down the results for every single drill you shoot. For example, I’ll often track simply my best time on something like 1-R-2. My notes might say “1-R-2 at 7yd, 8in circle, 20 reps, best time 2.76, best draw 1.08, best reload 1.56.” However, if I’ve specifically identified a weakness I need to address, such as reload speed, I will write down each and every reload time along with notes for specific runs such as “fumbled mag insertion” or “great mag access from under shirt.” For some examples, see the page from my shooting journal, above, and the notes I made about my shooting on the move (SOM) exercise that day.

For more comprehensive drills, like the F.A.S.T., I write down every bit of data: overall time, hits, draw speed, 3×5 split, reload speed, and the three 8″ splits.

Another piece of the puzzle that I would highly recommend is the use of a cold drill. A cold drill is simply something you do consistently as the very first drill each time you practice. It should be easy to set up and easy to recreate identically wherever and whenever you shoot. The F.A.S.T. can be a good cold drill. When I don’t have the targetry available (i.e., left the 3×5 cards at home) I’ll run a simple draw-and-shoot drill against a PAR time, and see how many hits I can score within a tight time limit. The benefit of a standard cold drill is that you can immediately see whether you’re improving over time.

Recording

Of course, measuring all of that stuff doesn’t do you a bit of good unless you actually keep records and review them.

Most shooters use a simple spiral notebook or bound journal and take hand written notes. This has an advantage in that you can easily jot down diagrams or sketch out a course of fire that you shot. The disadvantage is that you can quickly accumulate a library of notebooks, and it can be very difficult to cull through all of those pages for specific information.

I use an iPad app (pictured above) for my range journal, but obviously that might be overkill for a lot of people.

There is a happy medium, however. You can use a spreadsheet or simple database program on your computer to record the pertinent data from your journal. I use a program called Bento (available only for Mac):

It has fields for each of the regular pieces of information (where, when, who) as well as specific entries for certain drills or skills I measure on a regular basis. Some of those fields may be blank for any given range session, but over time I can look at, say, all of my recorded draw times from concealment.

There are also comment areas for goals (which should be filled out before you go to the range… mine is blank above, bad Todd, no cookie!), areas that needed improvement, things I did well, and general notes.

One final note on recording your results: Be honest with yourself! Record your mistakes. Don’t make excuses that prevent you from writing down actual results. Don’t fudge. Writing down that you did a drill twice as well as you actually can doesn’t impress anyone and only sets you up for failure down the road.

Use the Data

You’ve gone to all this trouble to write down your drills and scores and then record it intelligently. Probably makes sense to do something with all those notes and numbers, huh?

First, establish a baseline. Pick some drills that test all of your basic skills such as draw, reload, strong- and weak-hand only, accuracy, and speed. Record your results for 10 runs of each. Take special note of your best run on each drill, and your average run on each drill.

Next, look over the numbers. What stands out as excellent? What stands out as poor? Begin tailoring your training regimen — both dry fire and live fire — to put more emphasis on the weak areas. If you are consistently shooting 0.20 splits but can’t hit a 3×5 card weak hand only at seven yards, it’s time to take a break from speed shooting and focus on your WHO accuracy. A major benefit of performance tracking is that it helps break the natural human desire to practice what we’re best at, when we should be practicing what we’re worst at.

Every few months, reshoot those drills you used to establish your baseline. You should see improvement in those areas where you put the most effort. That doesn’t mean you’ll go from amateur to world champion in three months, but you should be seeing improvement.

• If you are seeing improvement, reassess where you should be focusing the bulk of your training effort. It may still be the same skills you’ve been drilling hard for the past three weeks, or you may discover new weaknesses.
• If you are not seeing improvement, you need to reassess your general training approach and your actual technique. Finding a plateau isn’t a bad thing. It’s a signal that you need to make some changes. Maybe it’s time to experiment with a different stance or grip, maybe it’s time to stop practicing with Jimmy Jo Bob Billy.

Again, keep in mind that we are looking for incremental changes. Taking a quarter second off your draw or reload is a more realistic goal than taking two seconds off. Going from a 45 to a 55 on a 10-shot bullseye drill is a major accomplishment… don’t expect to be shooting in the 90’s after just a dozen or so practice sessions.

By following this approach, you will actually see your improvement instead of just wondering or “feeling” that you’re getting better. You will identify your strengths and weaknesses. And you will have a concrete in-your-face motivator to get out and practice! You can certainly become a better shooter without keeping a training journal, but you will achieve your goals more quickly, with less effort, and with less expense if you establish a good performance tracking habit.

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG