THE IMPORTANCE OF THE
FIRST TARGET IN ANY RFP SERIES
THE CRUEL, HARD TRUTH – if you don’t get the first target
right, the next four will most likely be ‘not much good (euphemism)’!
·
Raise Pistol and Settle in Aiming Area
·
Sights Aligned
·
Timing
·
Trigger Control
·
Follow Through
RIGHT TO LEFT or LEFT
TO RIGHT?
RFP newbies often ask, “should I shoot left to
right, or right to left”?
The answer to this is very straightforward:
a)
If
you shoot the pistol with your right hand; RIGHT TO LEFT, or
b)
If
you shoot the pistol with your left hand; LEFT TO RIGHT.
Why?
Your body will more naturally turn ‘inwards’:
Does it make a difference at the targets?
There is a marginal difference here: a left-handed
shooter will have a (VERY) marginal advantage on paper targets if the
shooter is running close to being overtime on the last (Fifth) target and has
a ‘skid’ shot on their fifth target.
This ‘advantage is (again, VERY) marginal,
and if you are running that close to being overtime you need to work on your
series times rather than rely on the marginal advantage on paper target – on
EST there is no such advantage!
GETTING THE FIRST TARGET RIGHT
Raise
Pistol and Settle in Aiming Area
The movement for this action is the same as you would use when raising the pistol
from the Ready Position for a Rapid Fire Stage shot in ‘sport’ or Center Fire Pistol – the difference for RFP is that you
need to carry out this movement MUCH FASTER.
In the Rapid Fire Stage shot in ‘sport’ or Center Fire Pistol you have a three seconds facing to
raise the pistol and release the shot – in RFP, your first shot needs to be
released in about 1.5 seconds!
Sights Aligned
If your sights are not aligned when you raise the
pistol to your aiming area, get it fixed!
This problem will be due to either:
•
Your
grip not giving you a ‘natural’ aligned sights picture when the pistol is
raised to the aiming area, or
•
You
have not trained your raise from the Ready position enough (10000 reps?), or
•
You
made the mistake of aligning the sight picture in the Ready position. After your last sight picture after the
call “Attention”, lower the pistol to the Ready and focus on, and at the area
where the front sight will be when you release the shot, or
•
Any
combination of the above points.
Timing
As mentioned above, in RFP, your first shot needs
to be released in about 1.5 seconds!
If you take longer than this, you will have to ‘rush’ the remaining
four shots and this is NOT a good thing!
Trigger
Control
As with any pistol discipline, Trigger Control is
essential – RFP is no different to the other pistol disciplines, poor trigger
control will always lead to poor shot technique.
1.
A
tendency to ‘snatch’ the trigger is a common problem, and this is best
overcome by consciously smoothly pulling the trigger straight back towards
the shooting eye.
2.
If
your pistol has a pronounced change in feel between its first and second
stages, consider taking up the first stage as part of your follow through
after each shot release/
Follow-through
It is all too easy to think (MISTAKENLY)
that there is not enough time between shot in RFP to routinely have a proper
follow-through – with practice, there is!
You should be able to identify:
•
The
sight picture for each shot,
•
Your
triggering,
•
The
trigger reaching its stop after each shot is released (felt, not trying to
squeeze the blood out of it!),
Then transit to the next target.
© 2026, Spencer Tweedie
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