I recently heard from Ace VR that the company has added a new skill learning drill: slicing the pie. For those who are new to shooting and unfamiliar, “slicing the pie” is the best way to effectively use cover or concealment. Instead of jumping out from behind concealment and shooting, you can instead advance along beside the cover, slowly moving the break in the cover across your field of view and only put yourself into a potential attacker’s view as much as it takes to get the shot.
In most situations, you don’t hug the cover. Instead, ou stay back to present a smaller target. Along the way, you keep your sights aimed right at the edge of the cover, firing just past it or even grazing the edge to keep yourself as much out of harm’s way as possible.
You only take a “slice” of the pie at a time instead of trying to take it all at once.
Because this concept is hard to describe in words, here’s a video from Guntalk Media that does a good job of explaining it visually . . .
To really develop this skill, you need someone who understands it to watch you and give you feedback. Most of us don’t have the opportunity to walk through a shoot house with an instructor to teach us. It’s incredibly easy to stick out too much, get too close to the cover, and otherwise get it wrong when you’re just getting started. And even then, it’s still tough to quantify all of the elements of the exercise and drill it down to absolute minimum time spent exposed to the enemy.
With Ace VR’s new exercise, you can not only practice what it feels like and get it right, but the computer program sees all and measures all, giving you the exact amount of time you spent exposed to the enemy’s view. Instead of making my own video, I’ll save us all some time and share a video someone else made . . .
.@acevrshooting just added a "slice the pie" skill builder for threshold work… It's so simple, so valuable, so shocking it hasn't been done before. Huge kudos to these guys. Wild how far this app has come.
Some 80% of my dry fire is in VR.
I have an affiliate deal with them.… pic.twitter.com/6Vt3VpcfIa
— ControlledPairs (@ControlledPairs) November 9, 2024
The key metric to be concerned with when doing this drill isn’t the time spent. As long as you aren’t hitting the “no shoot” targets and you aren’t launching stray rounds (both are counted), and you put two rounds in every bad guy target, the important thing is how much time you spent exposed. The less time exposed, the more likely it is that you’d come away alive in the real world.
I noticed that getting that time down requires getting everything right the way it’s been taught to me by instructors in meatspace. Get too close to the door? That’s going to up your exposed time. Don’t aim right at the edge and get those shots off quickly? You’re exposed more with that, too. Having a specific metric that you’re accountable for takes away all of the excuses and makes you focus on getting everything right.
I noticed with this drill that it’s particularly important to have lots of room available. If you’re doing VR in a small room without much space to walk around, you won’t be able to fully slice the pie. The problem is, VR units don’t like being used outside (the sun can roast the screen if the lens gets exposed), so you really need to clear some space in the room before you can, well, clear the room.
All in all, this looks like a valuable addition to the Ace VR experience. It’s the first tactical skill that the app helps you learn, and it makes it possible to really dial in by focusing on what’s really important.
ACE just keeps getting better and better. Since I reviewed it here earlier this year (https://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/training-and-technique/home-vr-training-ace-virtual-shooting/), they have completely overhauled the engine (which wasn’t bad before), and added all sorts of capabilities and additional handsets. Barely a week goes by that they don’t add new drills / stages.
ACE also has an exercise where three doors are in front of you (at about 7 virtual yards). When they open, one has a “threat” target (the other two are “no shoot” targets), and you have to double tap, center mass, the “threat” target before the doors close. As you keep doing the exercise, the time you have to engage gradually gets shorter and shorter. This exercise demands point shooting rather than aiming, which is good practice. Doing the exercise from the holster makes it a lot harder, and gives you good practice for drawing, presenting, and point shooting, as well as rapid target identification.
Everyone I have had try mine simply loves ACE, and practicing with it at home will improve your shooting. Check it out . . . .
Also, another good place to use ACE is in a garage. Back your car(s) out of the garage and close the door. Even a one car garage provides enough room for most drills, and a two car garage is enough more than enough room for most “moving” IPSC stages. When you’re done, pull the cars back in.