In USPSA one skill that truly sets shooters apart is how they engage their targets. It’s very easy to get sucked into a cadence of an easy target vs. a far target. So one thing to remember is how to engage those targets in an array, and we have an array setup here with varying distances and difficulties to you show you how it’s done the right way and the wrong way.

In this array I’m Starting on the left target. It happens to be the easiest target and the fastest to shoot A zone hits, the mistake is maintaining this speed for all the rest. Now the correct way, the best way, to shoot this array is to shoot only as fast as you can read your sights. Some targets will be shot faster than others.

We just finished shooting the right way and the wrong way, this is the furthest target, the most difficult target in the array, and as you can see there is quite a spray of hits on here. On my first time through I shot pretty fast. I didn’t even see the sights on the target because I got sucked in to that easy target cadence. I had two D’s, barely even hits on the target.

My second time through I really slowed down, watched the sights, and had two somewhat center hits. Now the moral of the story is to remember, don’t get sucked in to that first target. You could end up having misses, or even worse, scoring a zero on the stage if you have another penalty somewhere else.

Let’s show you a different way to engage targets on a different type of stage. We’ve changed things up a bit. We’ve brought in a new target, a classic target, that has a smaller A zone and we’ve moved the center targets up so this time our difficult shots are on the outside, we’re starting with them. I’m going to show you the right way and the wrong way to address this type of target array.

The most difficult target is my first one. The common mistake is to let these difficult shots control the speed as I move across. The correct way is to speed up on these close targets to shoot the stage as fast as possible. These are my two close targets and as you can see they score the same, but the difference is on my first run I shot over seven seconds. My second time through I pushed on these and shot as fast as I could see the sights and I was around five seconds. That’s two seconds time difference and that can really make or break the difference between winning and losing on a stage.

The next time you are at a match remember don’t get sucked into a cadence. Shoot each target based on the level of difficulty and you’ll find yourself with better results.