TennJeep's Training Thread

[SCTaylor]

Watching your hands come together, it looks like you're getting the grip just about the time the gun is pressed out. For me, bringing the support hand over to my belly while strong hand is going to the gun, allows the the grip to start building sooner.  Not sure why but it seems I grip the gun harder and the index is better as well.

 

Your support hand actually has some sympathetic movement, back towards the timer at the beep too.

 

On the turn for El Prez, it has been a little quicker for me to pivot/spin on the left foot.  Moving only one left instead of two steps has built some consistency.  Anderson has a video on YT that shows some dry fire training with a student, you can see how he is turning which is what I mimicked.

[TennJeep1618]

Just now, SCTaylor said:

Watching your hands come together, it looks like you're getting the grip just about the time the gun is pressed out. For me, bringing the support hand over to my belly while strong hand is going to the gun, allows the the grip to start building sooner.  Not sure why but it seems I grip the gun harder and the index is better as well.

 

Your support hand actually has some sympathetic movement, back towards the timer at the beep too.

 

On the turn for El Prez, it has been a little quicker for me to pivot/spin on the left foot.  Moving only one left instead of two steps has built some consistency.  Anderson has a video on YT that shows some dry fire training with a student, you can see how he is turning which is what I mimicked.

 

You hit the nail on the head about my weak hand.  I didn't realize what I was doing until I watched the video.  While it may not mean a faster draw, I think my draw will be much more consistent if I get my weak hand over to the gun quicker, instead of trying to "catch" it after it's already in front of my body.  That will definitely be a point of emphasis moving forward.

 

On the turn and draw, I used to pivot off of my right foot.  But after experiencing some very different range conditions (grass, gravel, sand, dirt), I feel like I'm much more consistent if I pick up my right foot and turn it toward the target at the beep..  I'll play around with it some more and see what I come up with.  I'll have to look up the Anderson video.

[TennJeep1618]

I shot the BNA USPSA match in Hattiesburg on Saturday. I finished 2nd overall behind a Limited GM and 1st in Open, over two Masters. 

 

 

 

I got a little sloppy a few times, especially on steel, but other times I was locked in.

 

I almost won stage 1 overall. I was .27 seconds faster than the winner, but I pulled a D where he shot a C. I still managed 99.74% of a Limited GM on that stage, so I'm proud of myself.

 

I had a few “aha” moments on calling my shots, which is encouraging since that’s still a work in progress for me. I distinctly remember the last shot on the last target from the first position on Stage 4. I fired off the last shot as I was pulling away, and I saw that it was right at the edge of the target. By the time my brain processed it, I was already a couple steps away so it wasn’t worth going back for a make-up. Luckily that round was on paper, albeit an inch from the edge. That was my only D for the stage, but I'm ok with it because I saw it while shooting.

 

I’m not sure what happened on the second string of the classifier. My first string felt great, but the second string just felt off. It turns out that it was about a half a second slower than the first string, with worse hits as well. I don’t remember a bad grip or anything, so I’m not sure what happened.

 

I’ve been working on a lot of turn and draws in dry fire, and I felt like it paid off on stage 6 and in the first string of the classifier.

 

I've still been running and/or training pretty much every day, even though I don't update this thread that often.  Yesterday was 24 days straight (except for my wife's birthday, but that's excused, right?) of doing something productive for my health and/or shooting.

[TennJeep1618]

 

 

I had a very frustrating match on Saturday.  I don’t know why, but I couldn’t get my head straight.  I had some trouble executing my stage plans, but my biggest issue was the lack of visual patience and just letting the gun get away from me.  I had 8 Mikes during the match, which is extremely unusual for me, and a lot of them were on close, open targets.

 

Stage 1 – Weird start position.  Facing up range with gun unloaded and holstered and my stage plan required up range movement at the buzzer, which means that I had to wait to get into position, then turn downrange to draw the gun.  I had a Mike (barrel hit) on the really tight shot on the left side array, then I pulled another Mike on the second shot after the reload.  Watching the POV video, you can clearly see me pull the second shot low on the bottom target.  I’ve been working on shooting on the move, and I did that pretty well on this stage.  Getting around the front of the stage was trickier than it looks.  I saw someone get hung up on 2 different walls trying to move from left to right.

 

Stage 2 – Simple stage, I just didn’t execute my stage plan.  I seemed to have trouble remembering that the paper targets required 2 shots instead of 1.  I didn’t shoot the array from the middle box like I had planned, so that cost some time.  I pulled the second shot on the second target from the last position low and left.  Just a whiff on an open target caused by not seeing the dot.

 

Stage 3 – Stage win and no big errors.

 

Stage 4 – Not a bad stage.  I had a good makeup on the first target after I pulled one low into hard cover.  I shot well on the move, but then forgot a target momentarily before the reload.

 

Stage 5 – I designed this stage, started on it, and was the first shooter.  I blame cold hands for the fumbled load at the start.  One of my Mikes was in hard cover on the tuxedo target on the right.  I think the other Mike was in hard cover as well.  No reason for missing the mini popper on the left, except for rushing.

 

Classifier CM 99-23 “Front Sight” – I shot this same classifier the previous weekend, so I knew where I was lacking.  Like last weekend, my first string was good (and .20s faster this time).  I was too deliberate on my second string before, so I made the mistake of trying to push this time, and pulled 3 Mikes.  No excuse.  I know better.  I didn’t see the dot on target for 3 of the first 4 shots, but I pulled the trigger anyway.

 

I’m not shooting a match this coming weekend, so I plan to work on my visualization and do a lot of match mode practice over the next 2 weeks.

[TennJeep1618]

I got off work early on Friday, so I was able to get out to the range and do a little live fire practice.

 

A pretty simple drill to setup and run is Steve Anderson's "Counting Alphas."  He posted this photo to facebook, so I assume it's ok to post here.  You'll need to buy the book for all of the other drills. (You can purchase all 3 of his books here: Amazon)

 

 

It's all about shooting on the move and trying to shoot as many A's as possible.  I ran the drill 10 times on Classic targets and my alpha count ranged from 18-23.  I caught myself not being patient, my weak hand grip being too weak, and lacking trigger control at different times during those drills.  It's hard to focus on all of things at the same time, so I'm going to break each of those down in dry fire to commit them to my subconscious.

Edited February 20, 2017 by TennJeep1618

[TennJeep1618]

I shot a local USPSA match on Saturday and came away with the overall win.

 

3rd Person:

 

POV:

 

 

It may be hard to tell from the videos, but it was a sloppy, muddy mess at the range.  Slipping and falling was a constant threat, so some of my movement isn't as aggressive as it otherwise would be.

 

Stage 1 - I shot this stage over 3 seconds faster than anyone else, even after forgetting a position and having to go back to it.  My hits were pretty good as well, so I got the stage win by over 12%.

 

Stage 2 - The first shot took me by surprise.  It wasn't technically an AD, since I was pointing at the target and getting ready to fire the shot, but I was still trying to get the dot on target when I pressed the trigger.  I had the gun pointed way too high at the start of the WHO string, so I didn't see the dot until the second target.  I haven't practiced WHO in about a month, so I definitely need to work that back into my dryfire regimen.

 

Stage 3 - First stage of the day.  I was too sloppy with my hits, especially those last 3 targets on the ground at the end.  I also had trouble reloading to a big stick, which I rarely practice.  I need to add that into my dry fire as well.

 

Stage 4 - I had the second fastest time (behind a guy shooting PCC), but my hits weren't great. A lot of C's from shooting on the move, and a couple of D's on those targets on the ground at the end.  I need to make sure I'm more deliberate on those really close arrays, instead of just blasting as I sweep across them.

 

Stage 5 - Really slippery mud on this bay.  I almost fell when my plant foot started to slip when I was trying to shoot the 3rd target (can be seen in the 3rd person video).  The longer shots forced me to be more precise, which led to good hits.  My left foot kept sliding off of the PVC shooting box, which lead to a difficult lean to hit the steel.

 

CM 99-11 - My first time shooting El Prez in a match.  Not my fastest run, but I made sure I saw the dot in the center of the target for every shot.  The reload wasn't blazing, but it was smooth.  Should be about a 75%, which is probably a good representation of where I am.  

 

I still need to work on my target transition speed and staying low, but I'm pretty pleased with how the match went, as a whole.

[TennJeep1618]

I shot the 2017 Alabama Sectional this past Saturday.

 

POV Video:

 

3rd Person Video:

 

Stage 1 and 2 were pretty disastrous. Stage 1 was poor execution. Stage 2 was a bad stage plan, due to not understanding the activator sequence properly. I thought that the far right popper activated the drop turner, but second one from the right actually activated it. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch many shooters ahead of me, so I picked a (wrong) stage plan and it didn't work out very well. Lesson learned: know exactly what activates moving targets. Man, I wish I could have that one back.

 

Stages 1 and 2 were shot back-to-back (like separate strings in a single stage), staying hot in between. I was very jittery at the beginning of this match and I think that is because I've been working hard to improve and this match was the first opportunity to really see how far I've come since October.

 

Stage 3 - Pretty simple stage, as long as you didn't forget any targets. I felt like I was moving fast, but the video was slow. Decent result, regardless.

 

Stage 4 - I went first on this stage and changed my plan before I shot. The good thing was that I walked it a whole bunch the day before and considered all 3 main stage plans, so committing one to memory quickly wasn't an issue.

 

Familiarity with the stages was very beneficial to me throughout the day. I shot with some very high level competitors who were more than happy to discuss their plan and thoughts, and that information led to some stage plan changes for me.

 

Stage 5 - I noticed from the video that my transitions were slow. That's been a work in progress and I'll continue to work on it.

 

Stage 6 - One of my best stages. I need to stay lower to help me change direction quicker, but this stage went well.

 

Stage 7 - Almost DQ, and I didn't even realize it until I was told by others after the stage. I remember having to fire a makeup shot on the first target, but I didn't realized that I was already swinging toward the next target when the gun fired. I guess it was a combination of trigger freeze/delayed press and trying to transition too quickly. I tagged a no-shoot with that shot, but wasn't DQ'ed. My initial position on the bridge wasn't as stable as I hoped, so I had to kick my right leg out a little wider. Once I did that, I just let my hips swing with the bridge and was able to hold my upper body pretty stable.

 

Being told that I was almost DQ'ed shook me up a little, but luckily I was able to clear my head before the next stage. The movement to the left after the first 4 targets had a lot of people either break or come really close to breaking the 180, but the RO was almost always behind them so it didn't get called. I made sure to be hyper-aware of my muzzle direction, especially while doing the reload.

 

Stage 8 - Another good stage for me, and one where I changed my plan completely during the walk through. Many thanks to one of my squadmates for seeing the inefficiencies in my initial plan and explaining his thoughts. This match had a lot of jerky changes of direction, but my plan on this stage was about as smooth as it could be.

 

Stage 9 - Another plan change during the walk through, though a minor one. My original plan was to go to the left at the start signal, then step on the stomp box as the second position. The plan worked well, I just had way too many make up shots, a few of which weren't necessary.

 

Stage 10 - Another change of stage plan, to eliminate coming back up both hallways and to account for the door potentially staying open or half-open. I should have gotten a re-shoot because the activator cable caused my gun to malfunction, but I forgot about it by the time I got to the end of the stage. It probably wouldn't have made much difference in the results, though.

 

Fun match overall. Not much target difficulty, just lots of movement, changes of direction, and deep positions. I'm pleased with my overall percentage of the Open division winner (82.15%), considering I shot 63% of the Open winner at the Gator Classic in October. My consistency was good for 7 of the 10 stages, but stages 1, 2, and 7 really brought my match score down. Gotta be consistent all the way through the match to score well.
 

[mosher]

Congrats on the finish.  According to the new match bump procedures, if they have them in place, you should see a bump to A as a result of this match.  Cool way to make A.

[TennJeep1618]

15 minutes ago, mosher said:

Congrats on the finish.  According to the new match bump procedures, if they have them in place, you should see a bump to A as a result of this match.  Cool way to make A.

 

Oh yeah?  I thought there had to be 50 shooters in the division for the match bump/classifier rules to count.

[caspian guy]

2 hours ago, TennJeep1618 said:

I shot the 2017 Alabama Sectional this past Saturday.

 

POV Video:

 

3rd Person Video:

 

Stage 1 and 2 were pretty disastrous. Stage 1 was poor execution. Stage 2 was a bad stage plan, due to not understanding the activator sequence properly. I thought that the far right popper activated the drop turner, but second one from the right actually activated it. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch many shooters ahead of me, so I picked a (wrong) stage plan and it didn't work out very well. Lesson learned: know exactly what activates moving targets. Man, I wish I could have that one back.

 

Stages 1 and 2 were shot back-to-back (like separate strings in a single stage), staying hot in between. I was very jittery at the beginning of this match and I think that is because I've been working hard to improve and this match was the first opportunity to really see how far I've come since October.

 

Stage 3 - Pretty simple stage, as long as you didn't forget any targets. I felt like I was moving fast, but the video was slow. Decent result, regardless.

 

Stage 4 - I went first on this stage and changed my plan before I shot. The good thing was that I walked it a whole bunch the day before and considered all 3 main stage plans, so committing one to memory quickly wasn't an issue.

 

Familiarity with the stages was very beneficial to me throughout the day. I shot with some very high level competitors who were more than happy to discuss their plan and thoughts, and that information led to some stage plan changes for me.

 

Stage 5 - I noticed from the video that my transitions were slow. That's been a work in progress and I'll continue to work on it.

 

Stage 6 - One of my best stages. I need to stay lower to help me change direction quicker, but this stage went well.

 

Stage 7 - Almost DQ, and I didn't even realize it until I was told by others after the stage. I remember having to fire a makeup shot on the first target, but I didn't realized that I was already swinging toward the next target when the gun fired. I guess it was a combination of trigger freeze/delayed press and trying to transition too quickly. I tagged a no-shoot with that shot, but wasn't DQ'ed. My initial position on the bridge wasn't as stable as I hoped, so I had to kick my right leg out a little wider. Once I did that, I just let my hips swing with the bridge and was able to hold my upper body pretty stable.

 

Being told that I was almost DQ'ed shook me up a little, but luckily I was able to clear my head before the next stage. The movement to the left after the first 4 targets had a lot of people either break or come really close to breaking the 180, but the RO was almost always behind them so it didn't get called. I made sure to be hyper-aware of my muzzle direction, especially while doing the reload.

 

Stage 8 - Another good stage for me, and one where I changed my plan completely during the walk through. Many thanks to one of my squadmates for seeing the inefficiencies in my initial plan and explaining his thoughts. This match had a lot of jerky changes of direction, but my plan on this stage was about as smooth as it could be.

 

Stage 9 - Another plan change during the walk through, though a minor one. My original plan was to go to the left at the start signal, then step on the stomp box as the second position. The plan worked well, I just had way too many make up shots, a few of which weren't necessary.

 

Stage 10 - Another change of stage plan, to eliminate coming back up both hallways and to account for the door potentially staying open or half-open. I should have gotten a re-shoot because the activator cable caused my gun to malfunction, but I forgot about it by the time I got to the end of the stage. It probably wouldn't have made much difference in the results, though.

 

Fun match overall. Not much target difficulty, just lots of movement, changes of direction, and deep positions. I'm pleased with my overall percentage of the Open division winner (82.15%), considering I shot 63% of the Open winner at the Gator Classic in October. My consistency was good for 7 of the 10 stages, but stages 1, 2, and 7 really brought my match score down. Gotta be consistent all the way through the match to score well.
 

From where I was standing it looked like you shot well at a fairly technical match ( lots of positions and critical to hit spots)  and are probably ready for a bump :-)

 

[TennJeep1618]

23 minutes ago, caspian guy said:

From where I was standing it looked like you shot well at a fairly technical match ( lots of positions and critical to hit spots)  and are probably ready for a bump :-)

 

Thanks!  It was great to shoot with you!

[mosher]

1 hour ago, TennJeep1618 said:

 

Oh yeah?  I thought there had to be 50 shooters in the division for the match bump/classifier rules to count.

 

Your right.  I was assuming they had 50. 

[TennJeep1618]

I wasn't planning on doing much gun stuff this weekend, but I ended up loading 2K rounds of new match ammo, case gauged it all, and went to the range.  I just wanted to chrono the ammo and sight my gun in, but I was there alone for a while so I did a few drills.

 

I started by working on my shot calling at 20yds.  Draw, put 2 shots on paper, immediate turn away and mark where I called my shots on a target right beside me.  I found that I was pretty good at knowing where my 2 shots were in relation to each other, but I tended to call them a little higher than they actually were.  I also noticed that a lot of my first shots were near the bottom left corner of the A zone, so that tells me that I need to work on my trigger control and weak hand grip. (I double checked my zero and it was dead on when I had good trigger control.)

 

After that, I worked on my transition speed.  I used 2 targets at close to 90 degrees to me at about 8-9 yards.  My transition started at .35-.40 seconds, but I was able to get it consistently down to .24-.28, with one run at .20 seconds.  I planned on staying a little longer, but 3 cars pulled up as I was walking back to load mags, so I just called it a day.

[TennJeep1618]

I've been practicing and shooting, just haven't posted any updates in a while.  I'll start by posting match videos and refrain from breakdown unless someone asks.  I'll talk about my practice in the next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TennJeep1618]

 

 

[TennJeep1618]

As far as practice, I've been mainly in speed mode until this week.

 

Over the past few weeks, I've spent a lot of time on transitions, shooting sooner, as well as strong and weak hand only shooting.  I've quite a bit of live fire, shooting Steve Anderson's "Drag Race" and "Call it and leave it" drills, as well as lots of plate racks (freestyle, SHO, WHO) and working on speeding up my transitions.

 

This week I've been in "technique" mode in dry fire, since I'm shooting A6 this weekend.  I've bumped my par times up and my focus has been doing everything correctly and consistently.  I've found that it really helps me get into the right mindset going into a major match.

[Broski]

Good luck this weekend buddy. I'll see ya soon.

[TennJeep1618]

 

 

Area 6 Championship

 

My biggest match to date.  Fun and challenging.  My first 7 stages (5-12) went fairly smoothly, but the rain hit on the last 4 (1-4).  By the end, it was all about surviving.  Just doing the best you could while dealing with the bad weather and not getting DQ'd.  The most interesting thing about this match was that 2 of my Mikes came from fast, easy stages that tempted you to go too fast.  Both of those mikes were from pulling off of a target too quickly while trying to transition to another.

 

I finished at 67.57% of KC Eusebio, but I'm not disappointed, considering only 2 other people finished within 10% of him and only 8 people finished within 20%.  This may have been my most consistent major match, with no crazy good stages, but no bombed stages either.

 

I'm taking a week off of training to just relax and refresh, then I'm going to get back after it before the Jabs match at the end of May.

Edited April 25, 2017 by TennJeep1618

[TennJeep1618]

I planned on skipping the match this weekend and resting after a hectic few weeks, then the MD decided to host a classifier match after the regular match.  I wanted to update my classification in Limited, so I just shot the classifier match.

 

 

I'm definitely not used to the gun and I haven't shot an iron sighted gun in competition in over 8 months. All of my hits were high and left. I'm not sure if the sights aren't adjusted properly, if my trigger control was bad, or if I just didn't have the sights aligned like they should be.

 

After the Jabs match, I'm not going to shoot any majors for a while.  I may end up back at the LA Gator Classic in late October, but I didn't bother signing up for the GA State match.  I haven't decided what my big goals are for the rest of the year, but shooting a lot of majors isn't one of them.

Edited May 8, 2017 by TennJeep1618

[TennJeep1618]

I've been stressed lately and part of it has come from shooting.  I've got the Jabs match coming up in a couple weeks, but I have no motivation to dry fire or practice.  I also need to load a bunch of 40 ammo for the match and do some intensive testing, so that is nagging at me as well.   I've been running around like crazy since A6 and haven't taken the time to just relax and recharge like I planned.

 

Let's take a look at the goals I stated on 1/9/17:

 

On 1/9/2017 at 8:36 AM, TennJeep1618 said:

I've been hearing a lot of people talk about goals for 2017, so I started thinking about what my goals should be.  So far, I'm thinking:

 

* Shoot fewer major matches.  I shot 7 or 8 majors in 2016.  While I really enjoyed them, I feel like my time would be better spent shooting locals and practicing.  Plus all of those majors took a toll on my vacation days (not to mention my wallet).  I'm currently signed up for the AL Sectional, Area 6, and the Jabs Steel match in March, April, and May, respectively.  I'll probably try to shoot another major or two later in the year, but I'm not sure which matches yet.

Part of the reason I've been stressed is the major matches I've been shooting.  After Jabs, I'm signed up for the MS State Production match in June and Open match in July.  I'll probably shoot the CQB rifle match in August and the Limited match in September as well.  While these are major matches, they don't require the travel time and expense like others.  Because I've been shooting Open so far this year, that's really the only one I really care about.  The others are just for fun to break up some of the monotony.  I'm skipping the GA state match and probably won't shoot the LA Gator match either.

.

 

On 1/9/2017 at 8:36 AM, TennJeep1618 said:

* Keep practicing and get better.  I'm not making a specific goal about making A or M class, but I want to be able to compete with the A's by the AL sectional in 2 months.  I'm not terribly far from that, I just need to keep up the practice and let it work.

I wanted to make A by this time, but it hasn't happened yet.  My match scores have been right in the middle of the A class Open shooters at both the AL Sectional and A6, so I feel good about that.

 

 

On 1/9/2017 at 8:36 AM, TennJeep1618 said:

* Take some time off from shooting.  I shot a lot in 2016 and didn't take a break. When I started to get burned out in Production, I switched to Open. While that's been a lot of fun and has reinvigorated my dedication, I'm going to need to take some time off this coming year.  I may take a month or so off during the heat of the summer, as long as it doesn't interfere with any major matches.

I took a week or so off after A6, but life kept me crazy busy during that time so it wasn't relaxing.  I've decided to take a month off after Jabs, but I can't decide if I'm going to shoot the MS Production match at the end of June with no practice or if I'm going to skip it and just start back practicing Open at the beginning of July.  I need some time away from shooting to get excited about it again.

[TennJeep1618]

Delete

Edited June 2, 2017 by TennJeep1618

[TennJeep1618]

I shot the 2017 Precision Tactical Jabs Extreme Steel Target Challenge this past weekend.

 

I had little to no motivation for shooting going into the match, so my expectations weren't high.  I especially had very limited practice with an iron sighted gun in the last 9 months, so I shot that division just for fun.

 

Irons POV Video:

 

 

Irons 3rd Person Video:

 

 

 

It was obvious I hadn't had much practice with iron sights before this match.  I caught myself burying the front sight in the rear notch, but I struggled to make myself correct it during the stages.  I've never done that before, so I'm not sure what caused me to perceive that as "normal."  I finished 2nd place in B class, only 2 plates behind the winner.

 

Open POV Video:

 

 

Open 3rd Person Video:

 

 

 

I shot a little better in Open, especially once I made myself be a little more deliberate when aiming than I was in the first few stages.  I finished 2nd place in B class in this division as well, but the winner beat me by 28 plates, shooting a Carry Optics gun.  His score was right up there with the GM's and M's, so I'm guessing his true classification hasn't caught up with him yet (I was only 1 plate behind the top A class shooter).  Such is life and the wide variety of skill level in B class is one of the reasons why I’m trying to get to A.

 

Shoot-Off Video: 

 

 

 

I finished 23rd overall, but because a couple people weren't there on Sunday and several folks were in the top 16 twice (once in each division), I snuck in the shoot-off.  I wasn't expecting to be in the shoot-off, much less do well, but I pulled off a couple wins and finished in 4th place.  Everyone I shot against was a Master, so I'm pretty pleased with my performance.

 

Now I'm taking a month off from shooting.  I planned on doing some fishing with my dad this weekend, but it looks like the weather isn't going to cooperate.  I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and I may do a little dry fire if I get bored, but I don't feel the pressure of having to do any training.  I'm going to shoot the MS State Production match at the end of the month, with no expectations whatsoever.  It feels really weird having a weekend with no plans revolving around shooting.  For the past few months, I've been either shooting a match, testing guns/ammo, reloading, or something else that revolved around USPSA.  I'm going to do a whole lot of nothing this weekend and I'm really excited about it.