I am out of state, and on my phone, so I'll try to keep this brief and to the point:
Definition of "chasing the timer," that I am referencing in my blog post: it is the only, and most important metric in any and all of your training, or nearly so. You allow the LCD screen to rule everything, and dismiss anything and everything, (technique, training method, etc) that hurts you on that one metric.
(reference the part in bold near the top of each part)
All I am suggesting is, that for practical/tactical training, there are some things to think about before spending all of your limited training ammo and time trying to beat any of Jerry Miculek's records.
I would actually have to disagree with you on one point: that "using" the timer is sometimes useless, and even detrimental. My definition of "using": another one, of several, metrics to take into account, and assist, in your evaluation of self or others.
That's right folks: this is a twilight episode. I am more "pro shot timer" than JTH!
The key being: there is a big difference between "using" and "chasing." I would honestly say that I can't imagine a training situation where _using_ a shot timer is bad.
Of course, depending what you are working on, and your current skill level, the timer should carry more weight or less. I like how Thomas broke it down, and would generally agree that his #1 category is where the timer carries the most weight.
But on the flip side, I don't think that the timer never carries weight. When I run a simple transition drill, where that is the sole training objective, I can get under 1.5 sec transitions. Now, if I am running some other drill with some other training objective and a stoppage occurs, my time can sometimes get up to 3 or more. (Neither of those times are very good BTW)
Which one of those times are going to carry more weight? The one where the training objective was a transition. Why? Because that is where I am trying to improve that specific task, and conditions are the most comparable, therefore the times are most comparable.
Now which time is really more relevant/realistic? The latter. Why? Because the conditions, especially mental state, are more realistic. I still look at this time and try to ascertain why it was slower. This is the time where I REALLY want to see improvement, and if my transition specific drill is not making an improvement there, then maybe I need to change the way I run that drill. In other words: I am not running transition specific drills to improve on those drills, I am running them to improve on the training objectives.
