Here is a video clip from the recent Steel Nationals. I was smooth and clean on the first 4 runs, and when I knew it was in the bag, I went for broke on the last run. That didn’t turn out to be better than my 4 smooth runs, which gave me a comfortable GM score. The point here is that transition speed is much more dependant on good technique, rather than raw muscular speed. How fast and precisely you move your eyes from target to target and how little muscle you add to the gun during recoil both matter much more than trying to go fast. Though I well know this, I’m still human and have to relearn it from time to time. Much better for me to execute at my level, rather than trying to do more. If I want to go faster on this stage, I need to move my eyes faster. Other things may help as well, but for me, my eye speed is slowing me down here.
An area that many people try to force speed from is the draw. Of course I want to draw faster, but the fumble factor here is much higher than sports that let you start hands at your sides. Not only is there the match pressure, which I find to be much greater than many other sports, there is also the lack of an index for the draw, and it is very easy to mess that up. So while draw speed is certainly worth training to make faster, trying to force it in a match is almost always the wrong decision.
Steel Challenge is a very demanding sport that offers the tactical shooter a lot of benefits. I have talked about them before so I won’t rehash it now, but if you have not shot a Steel Challenge match, I highly recommend you do.