The Snowball Effect of Training or 10 Steps to Improve Your Results Even Without a Coach

This post continues Video #21 on my YouTube channel, Pistol Shooting with Coach Dina.

I once saw a post in one of the FB groups where a shooter asked for help, but he mentioned something like, “Don’t just tell me to train more…”

And then I don’t even want to say anything to such a person, because simply adding a few minutes to your training time, whether it’s dry firing at home, dry firing at the end of a session, or even shooting an extra series on a blank target at the end of a session, will gradually help you to improve your score.

These extra few minutes create a snowball effect:

Extra training → you become stronger → your steadiness improves → groups become tighter → your trigger finger starts working more confidently → your overall confidence grows → your results improve.

As simple as that!

Six hours a week will probably keep you at roughly the same level, with very little progress. Every extra hour will help speed up your improvement.

So, if you can come to training only twice a week for two hours, then you’d better add two hours of dry firing at home. But do it gradually, in 30-minute increments; otherwise, your muscles will not like the workload.

And just assume that whatever the amount of training you do, it is never enough.

Many shooters are more concerned with the mental side of shooting, stressing that they need to know how to shoot at competitions. But when you train, polish your shot process, and become stronger and steadier, it becomes much easier to take a shot because your arm is stable.

A specific note for Indian shooters: the maximum you need to train is 24–30 hours per week, NOT 42! Forty two hours will not make you a better shooter; they will injure you.

Here are a few more ways you can improve, even without a coach.

1) Find yourself a goal.

If your goal is to shoot for fun and you can afford it, then no action is needed — just enjoy your time.

But if you want to achieve something — win a match, reach a grade, get selected for a team, etc. — then you’ll need to invest… mostly your time.

Don’t waste it.

2) Start each training session with dry firing.

I hate seeing shooters arrive and start shooting immediately as they approached their shooting bay and unpacked.

Your muscles need time to warm up, and your mind needs to switch from everyday-life mode into shooting mode. That takes time.

So, what’s the point of shooting rubbish and wasting expensive pellets/ammunition if you are not ready — neither physically nor mentally???

You know, I make up my own quotes and then quote myself 😊 So, here is one of them:

“Each dry-fire shot is a coin into a piggy bank of your skills.”

So dry-fire as much as you can, even though it is boring. This is for your own benefit.

At least 30 minutes at the beginning of a session. But in my course, I give at least 5 exercises to do when dry-firing, so it becomes entertaining, and 30 minutes seems not enough.

3) Each training session should make sense.

It is not about making a certain number of shots. It is about understanding how to make them correctly — not once or twice, but 60 times.

We need to know how that perfect shot happened, what you were thinking at the moment of the shot, and exactly what you were doing.

You need to dissect the process of your shot, develop faith in it, and work on polishing it.

Learn to recognise your excellent shots — those shots that felt good and looked good on the target.

Then analyse how you managed to create such a shot, memorise the process, and try to repeat… the process, not the result.

Remember:

“During training, we train our body. During a match, we train our mind so that the body can repeat what it was doing during training.” ;-)

4) Don’t shoot matches at every training session!

It simply doesn’t make sense.

You teach yourself to think about the score, and the score starts to prevail in your mind.

Although it is obvious that a good score will not appear if you are not doing your process correctly.

You start shooting nice scores during training, but then you go to a real match, the nerves hit, and you screw everything up. And, of course, the score is not as good as expected…

Because you do not feel the same way in training as you do in a competition, and it leaves you upset and frustrated.

So, what’s the point?

I even ask my shooters to remove the word “Result” — and anything that represents it — from their vocabulary.

5) Very often people ask, “What does shooting on a blank target give me?”

It teaches you to trust your muscle memory and to look at the front sight properly.

So practise it as much as you can.

6) Find all the information you can about stance and position on the internet.

When I see people approaching their bench, never checking their position, simply taking the pistol and facing the target, I want to faint…

I once saw a person doing it while wearing sunglasses.

Of course, it is not their fault. Nobody explained to them how to do things properly.

But it is just not right…

There is plenty of information available about stance and position. Use it.

7) There are a few “shooting-not-friendly” sports:

Basketball, volleyball, table tennis, and badminton.

I would add fencing, but pentathlon people say that it is not true. 😉

If you want to improve at shooting, forget about these sports.

Guess why?

8) Get yourself a diary.

A diary is your second coach.

It is not only your logbook; it is also where you write down all the positive discoveries that helped you make this or that good shot.

Those little discoveries are valuable. Write them down.

Also, describe your perfect shot. In as many details as possible. Create something like a checklist or a shot plan. And then read it before each shot. It will help you not only to concentrate on the process, but also to teach your brain some discipline.

9) Be patient.

Nothing works quickly in shooting.

Only wrist flicks. 😉

10) Holding is our everything.

Try to hold your pistol for as many seconds as you can, gradually bringing it up to one minute.

Do holding exercises as often as you can — ideally very often, but at least once every 10 minutes of your training.