Transition

A transition is the road between two targets - everything that happens after the last shot on one and before the first shot on the next. Stance, grip, draw, sights and trigger all describe the work inside a single target. The transition is the part in between, and because it repeats for every target in front of you, it quietly holds more time than any single element it connects. The mechanic runs on the eyes. The gun always arrives where you are looking, so the gaze goes first: it snaps off the old target and locks onto the new one before the muzzle starts moving, and it locks onto a small point - the centre of the A zone - rather than the target as a whole. Eyes glued to the front sight are the reason a muzzle overshoots the target, falls short of it, or drags back onto the target that has already been shot. Timing matters at both ends. A shot is finished when you have seen your confirmation, and only then are the eyes free to leave; going early turns the hit into a lottery. At the far end, the shot on the new target is available as soon as the muzzle crosses the line between your eye and the centre of the target - inside about seven metres a full sight picture is not required, while a farther or smaller target asks you to see more before you press. The body turns as one piece. Arms, shoulders and pistol stay a single rigid triangle: up to about forty-five degrees it rotates at the hips, and beyond that the legs join in, twisting through the outside knee. Reaching for the target with the arms alone breaks the grip and skews the stance. All of it builds dry at home, where the split between a click on one target and a click on the next is the transition time itself.