Newbie - progression and frustrations

[rokada]

We managed to play a little with the grip, sandpaper and felt and indeed it fits better.

If you stack multiple layers of felt, make really sure you do not end up with something that is soft as a cushion. If it is soft, you won't be able to place your hand on the grip repeatedly in the same position.

[agatek]

good call, thank you. After two trainings - I don't think so, but I need to look into it. Will do some hand markings to see if they line up.

So far the relief of the pistol sitting tight and not rattling around my hand is overpowering anything else I might notice.

[rokada]

So far the relief of the pistol sitting tight and not rattling around my hand is overpowering anything else I might notice.

Use this feeling as an excuse/opportunity to make sure you're not using too much strength to hold the pistol. Make the brain believe just holding the pistol is enough and squeezing it actually makes things worse.
But, as usual, do not go to the other extreme. While it is possible to "hold" the pistol by just equipping it with a grip that fits your hand really good, in this situation it's rather not possible to pull the trigger without breaking sights alignment (not even mentioning getting the repeatable position of the hand).

[Gwhite]

LOTS of people "over grip" their air pistols. The team I help coach has a grip force meter that physical therapists & the like use, but it only reads down to 2.0 pounds. When we first got it, we had a bunch of the team's best shooters try it, and most of them barely registered. Some were up around 2.5 pounds, but I don't thank any of them hit 3 pounds.

We've had multiple students over the years where there were indications they were trying to crush their pistols. One student read 9 pounds on the meter. As soon as he used the meter to feel what a couple pounds was like, his groups shrank by over a factor of two.

The usual indicators are finger tips turning white because all the blood is being squeezed out of them, or rapid small jerky motions of the pistol caused by trying to CONTROL the pistol, as opposed to just hanging it out there.

[agatek]

Brillant comment, thank you. Indeed, before the fitting of the grip, my finger tips were indeed white, but it was because the pistol was not sitting at all. Clearly straining and squeezing the grip makes my arm swing all over the place, so let's hope fitting it will make a difference.

I will pay more attention to the pressure I apply, but it already feels that I need less power to hold it. With my tiny hands, and rather small body frame, this is probably why I couldn't move forward.

I will sit on this adjusted grip for a while before ordering a new one, and will apply the advice. Thank you!

[rokada]

it already feels that I need less power to hold it. With my tiny hands, and rather small body frame, this is probably why I couldn't move forward.

Actually I think that small size of the hands and body by itself does not have a huge impact (unless we're talking about the extremes that imply severely underpowered muscles). I'd say that for beginners working on building up the right set of muscles is usually necessary no matter whether the shooter is skinny, chubby, short or tall.

[Rifleshooter98]

You’ve already built a lot of consistency in your hold and breathing, so it’s really just a matter of time and reps. Maybe take one session a week to just play: try slow dry-fires, focus on one little thing (like trigger squeeze or breathing) without worrying about score.

[agatek]

Thanks for this advice - that's exactly what I want to do next.

currently, with the trainer we jump from one exercise to another too fast, without enough reps so that I can FEEL how this new things feels.

Like, we'd do 10 shots with 3 sec pause after the shot with him and a stopwatch next to me, and then we immediately go to shooting on a foam matress for 10 shots, then immediately 10 shots with double entry into aiming zone - so things we talked about don't have a chance to sit and mature. Each exercise is great, but the rotation is too fast, and every training looks the same, meaning every time I am shooting it's the same.

I come back home, take notes and reflect on what I learned, and make a plan for next training to put it all together, but the new rotation of completely different exercises starts...

I will add 1x per week of just me time on the range to try and error.