Author Topic: Target Practice?  (Read 26436 times)

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #15 on: July 07, 2016, 10:01:28 AM »
"Good, then I don't have to get you to unlearn anything.

Talk to a dozen experts and you'll get a dozen different techniques.  One will tell you to square yourself to the target, the next to line up at a 90 to it and everything in between.  Then you'll get the fire when you inhale or exhale or hold your breath and all that.

Sure those techniques will work for them, but that doesn't mean they'll work for you.  I lean towards the idea of finding what works for you, which means what comes naturally for you.  Because you're self taught, you've already started figuring out what's natural for you, hence, I don't have to get you to unlearn anything.

Let's start with your grip.  What I want you to do is hold the pistol as if you were going to fire, no need to line up on anything in particular, then close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.  As you breath, relax your hands, lift, stretch and wiggle your fingers one at at time off and on the grip over and over while you breath until it feels completely comfortable.  What that will do is put the pistol into the most natural position for you to use.

Once you feel ready, line up and take two or three shots, then go through the exercise again, and take another few shots.  Repeat the process until you're happy with how it feels.  Don't concern yourself with accuracy, this will probably throw you off a bit, and it's only the first piece of the puzzle."

Trax gave the girl a nod to go ahead.

Keshani

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #16 on: July 07, 2016, 04:56:55 PM »
Taking a slow breath in to try to convince her body to relax she listened to Trax's instructions and then did as he told her to.

She had learned early that the number one "safety" to preventing accidental misfires of a weapon was the trigger finger itself. Keep your trigger finger off of the trigger and the blaster wouldn't fire. It didn't matter how it was dropped or kicked or anything else - if there was no pressure on the firing stud it wouldn't fire.

So it was ingrained into her to point her trigger finger parallel with the muzzle, keeping it in line with the trigger but outside the trigger guard until she was actually ready to fire. That was firearms safety 101.

And as she drew her blaster again at Trax's instructions, she put action to subconscious thought and held the pistol in her right hand first, her pointer finger next to the trigger, her three other fingers wrapped around the grip of the weapon on one side, her thumb on the other, the space in between her thumb and pointer finger pressed up into the butt of the blaster, supporting its weight, the fingers of her left hand coming up to cradle those of her right from the opposite direction, the flesh of her hands behind her thumbs and her wrists coming up to meet together, firmly cradling the weapon between them.

Closing her eyes she took a few slow breaths, willing her hands to relax. Relaxing was always hard.

She took a few minutes to adjust her grip, tuning out everything around her and focusing on the weopon in her hands.

When she was ready she brought the pistol up and fired, aiming toward the center of the target if for no other reason than to avoid sending random ion energy in unwanted directions and then took her finger off of the firing stud again, focusing on relaxing her hands and finding a grip that felt comfortable. She realized she *was* shifting her grip a bit as she deliberately stretched and relaxed her fingers. It felt...different...at first, but once she got used to it felt like she had more control over the weapon than before.

She looked over at Trax to see what he wanted her to do next.

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #17 on: July 08, 2016, 08:07:08 AM »
Trax watched in silence as Keshani followed his instructions.  In the end, her change in grip was very slight, but the change was there, and it was an important one.  He studied how the blaster was now resting in her hands.  For the next while, he'd have to pay very close attention to any changes.

"Now for the fun part.  You're going to holster your weapon and do it again.  Then, you'll do it all over and over again until that's the position the blaster is in as soon as you draw it.  And here's why;

In a fire fight, the only thing you'll have any real control over is your grip.  You'll be ducking, dodging, weaving, running and all manner of other activities so your breathing is going to be all over the place.  In the heat of battle you're not going to get the opportunity to collect yourself and calm your breathing.

And you'll never know what your position will be, you could be running, crouching, firing from around a corner, lying prone on the ground, or crawling through duct work.  Which means you'll rarely be able to take the stance that's most comfortable and advantageous for you to shoot accurately from.

No matter what position your firing from or how labored your breathing is, how you hold your weapon is under your control.  You need to train the muscles in your hand to always hold it the same way.  That's going to take a long time and a lot of practice, it's not something that after today you'll have down pat.  But I'm hoping that after today you'll be able to recognize when you're not holding it the way you should be and adjust."

Between Trax's body language, or at least what little of that there was, and his tone, which was much more revealing, he was obviously taking this, and by extension, Keshani's safety and preparedness, very seriously.

Keshani

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #18 on: July 08, 2016, 01:01:33 PM »
An immediate feeling of frustration washed over her as Trax told her to holster her blaster and draw it again. She wanted to shoot at stuff, not just learn how to hold something that she had been holding just fine before....

But she let out a soft breath - almost inaudible if you weren't paying close attention.

He was the expert here and she had asked for his help. So she would do things his way. Listening to his explanation and watching as he spoke, she could tell that he was very serious about teaching her to shoot better. That scared her just a little bit. She wasn't sure she WANTED to be in a situation where she had to do all the stuff he was talking about.

She thought back to the Station and how scared she had been. Her high pitched scream as explosions had rocked the halls filled her ears once again.

'But didn't you just argue a while ago that Trax not taking you with him meant he didn't care about you?', her subconscious mind spoke up.

'Shut up'. She replied

Trying to push those thoughts away she pulled her mind, with effort, back to the current task at hand and holstered her pistol, waiting a few seconds and drawing it again, paying attention to her grip and adjusting it until it was in the same place as before....

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #19 on: July 08, 2016, 01:56:33 PM »
Trax caught the soft exhale, Keshani was obviously not happy with him but that didn't matter.  What mattered was that she did as he instructed so she would be better prepared.

Over the next almost half hour he pushed her to repeat the process over and over and over until as far as he could tell, even when her grip wasn't exact, it was close enough that he was confident that with continued practice on her own time it wouldn't take long for her natural grip hold to become more instinctive.

He knew he'd frustrated the girl, but it was necessary and he had no intentions of apologizing for it.

"Okay," he said when he finally stopped her.

"It'll still take time, and practice, but it looks like you've got the hold close enough on the last few draws that you'll recognize if it's wrong and be able to adjust easily enough."

Keshani

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #20 on: July 09, 2016, 12:26:27 AM »
Her frustration with Trax as he had her again and again holster and draw her pistol was that of any teenager told to practice anything in their lives. Most teenagers couldn't comprehend the importance of seemingly minute and "trivial" things and didn't have enough experience to trust those who were more experienced when they made them do it.

When he finally stopped her, it was with a mixed feeling on Kesh's part.

Part of her was relieved. Hopefully they would go on to something more engaging now.

But part of her was disappointed, as well. He hadn't said "Good, you're doing a great job". He hadn't said "Okay, you've got it now" or anything like that. Instead - Okay, it'll still take time and practice but it's close enough for now, pretty much.

Again, this inexplicable desire, even maybe a need, to impress Trax.

She let out a soft breath again. Apparently today would not be the day to do that either...

"Okay," she responded, hesitantly, "What do you want me to do next?"

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #21 on: July 10, 2016, 08:56:39 AM »
"Now we're going to work on stance.

Just like with the grip, you'll start with how you've been positioning yourself and take a bead on the head of the dummy.  Once you're lined up, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and try to relax your body.  When you're feeling nice and relaxed, open your eyes and see if your pistol has moved.  If it has, adjust your feet and turn your whole body to line up on the head again, but don't move your arms.

Once you've adjusted and lined up again, you'll close your eyes, relax, and then open them to see if you're still lined up.  If you are, holster the pistol.  If not, same as before, adjust your feet and turn your whole body to line yourself up again."

Keshani

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #22 on: July 10, 2016, 11:34:48 AM »
"But you said that stance isn't something you can control in a firefight, " she replied before she could stop herself.

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #23 on: July 10, 2016, 12:35:02 PM »
"That's right," Trax began with a slight nod of agreement.

"But 'a', it's still important, 'b', we're not currently in firefight, and 'c', because you can never know what position you'll be in, we're going to go through this exercise while standing and crouching out in the open, with crouching we'll go through it as if you firing over top of some half height cover as well.  After that we're going to through it standing and crouching while simulating firing from around a corner, both left and right.  And once we've been through all of that, we'll do it while lying prone on the ground.

Just because you can't control something, doesn't mean you can't prepare for the possibility, or in this case, the eventuality."

Trax's look and tone was very easy to understand, it was clearly saying, do you want to question me on anything else?

Keshani

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #24 on: July 10, 2016, 01:43:36 PM »
She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, clearly rethinking whatever she had been about to say. But then, barely missing a beat she nodded. "Um. Ok. Sounds like you had better let Nim know you're gonna be busy for a while...you sure she won't get jealous?"

Her tone and expression were innocent enough, but there was a kinda....twinkle in her eyes...it wasnt quite clear whether she was serious or teasing....or maybe a bit of both.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2016, 01:45:52 PM by Keshani »

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #25 on: July 10, 2016, 03:44:59 PM »
Trax moved right close to Keshani, standing less than a foot away from the girl and looked down at her.

"Does she have a reason to be jealous?"

Keshani

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #26 on: July 10, 2016, 04:07:06 PM »
Kesh felt the urge to back away as Trax stepped close in, invading her personal space.

"Um. No.." she answered quickly. There was something...masked about her expression but again, it was difficult to tell what the girl was thinking.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2016, 06:34:35 PM by Keshani »

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #27 on: July 11, 2016, 07:31:53 AM »
Trax took a step back.

"Then we better get started,"Trax smiled a small, crooked smile while his body relaxed and his tone lightened significantly.

"We're going to be busy for a while."

It was fairly obvious he'd just been messing with the girl.

Keshani

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #28 on: July 11, 2016, 12:18:37 PM »
As she saw a small, albeit crooked, smile appear on Trax's face the girl couldn't help but smile a bit herself, a small smile tugging just at the corner of her lips - she was still in serious mode for the most part right now; she wanted to do this right.

But she had never seen the man smile before, and that fuzzish feeling in her gut came back a bit in realizing that he felt comfortable enough with her to tease her a bit.

She took on a mock pouty expression and crossed her arms for a second. "No fair." she said, tongue in cheekly (OOC: Yes, that is now a word).

Her expression turned serious again after that, but her body posture was more relaxed.

"With all this time with my eyes closed, do you promise no dummy is hidden anywhere that's gonna jump out and start firing at me or anything?"

Again, that twinkle in her eye, a SLIGHT hint or sarcasm in her tone. Just enough that she may have been totally joking, or there may be just a bit of seriousness in her question, as well

Trax

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Re: Target Practice?
« Reply #29 on: July 11, 2016, 12:30:34 PM »
"I swear no hidden dummy is going to jump out and start firing at you."

Trax replied, repeating almost exactly what Keshani had said.