Area 5 match - Production GM

[waktasz]

Finished 10th at a5 this weekend. 83% of the national champ.  I was about 78% at Nationals so maybe I'm improving? 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by waktasz

[CHA-LEE]

This is what I see.........

 

Stance - Your stance within shooting positions is usually not wide enough to access all of the targets within the position OR exit the position with a solid push from the trailing leg. Watch your video and see how many times your stance within a positions varies to accommodate reaching all of the targets or exiting the position without needing to shuffle around while shooting or during the exit process. The answer is pretty much "never", which is a problem. The width and depth of your stance needs to vary to accommodate the requirements of the position AND how to exit the position. I am also not talking about changing your stance to shoot through low ports either.

 

Movement - This is closely linked to your stance, but your movement from one position to the next isn't optimized. You are taking a lot of retreating steps while engaging targets for no good reason. Or you are doing shuffle steps to launch out of positions for no good reason. Both of these things kill your ability to launch out of the position with true aggression and really haul ass to the next position. I also see several instances where you are not running between positions when full out running is needed. If you can't shoot stuff until you move to the next position then run like you mean it to get shooting sooner. The best way to think about this is any time you can't shoot because you are not "There Yet" is 100% wasted time. Eliminate as much wasted time by really running when needed.

 

Natural Point of Aim & Effective Cone of Fire issues - There are several times were you are engaging targets with your Natural Point of Aim isn't positioned correctly within the array of targets. This leads to targets within the position being just outside of your effective cone of fire which in turn forces you to take a shuffle step to access them or get into a funky twisted up position to reach them. Setting your NPA properly within the position allows you to engage an array of targets effectively while not needing to shuffle your feet. The depth and width of your stance will define the maximum width of your effective cone of fire to once again engage all of the targets without needing to shuffle your feet or get twisted up. The best way to think about the "Cost" in screwing these two things up is the time delay and reduced aggressiveness / precision in your transitions between targets.

 

Shooting on the Move - You are not low enough to shoot on the move AND have aggressive foot speed which preserves the stability of the gun on target. All of your shooting on the move is done at a slow "Mosey in the park" walking pace. There are several sections of stages where you are giving away time because your foot speed could be a lot faster while shooting on the move. The only way to increase the foot speed while maintaining a stable sight picture is to get lower. Your overall height should be dramatically lower while shooting on the move verses a stationary planted shooting position. Watch your video to observe your height between the two scenarios. Your head stays at the same height all the time, which leads to the slow walking pace shooting on the move. 

 

Gun handling - You have a pretty spicy scoop draw in getting the gun out of the holster but then the aggressiveness fizzles as you build the grip and present the gun on target. You also seem to vary the presentation speed of the gun based on the difficulty of the target. The speed of the gun coming out of the holster and onto the target should always be the same aggressive motion from start to finish. Then let the gun settle on target as long as needed to refine the sight picture and break the shot. Your support hand on reloads goes for the next magazine in a marginally aggressive fashion. Your support hand should be slapping down for the next magazine with focused aggression as soon as your hand leaves the gun. Getting the load done sooner would allow you to haul ass sooner to the next shooting position. You are currently getting reloads done before you get to the next shooting position, but that really doesn't say much when you are not accelerating or running hard to the next position. Watch the top Production GM's, they are performing very aggressive reloads WHILE hauling ass to the next position. You are currently not. 

 

Statistics in Performance - I reviewed the Match results and compared the top 3 in Production to your scores. The top 3 averaged a grand total stage time of 235 Seconds and captured 91.90% of the available points (1677 total points shot) before penalties. You came in at 272 seconds and 90.79% of the available points. You are shooting about 1% less points than your competition which may not seem like a lot but if you tally up the available points in the match that results in about 18 match points donated to your competition simply because you are not hitting the A zone enough. The far more glaring issue is the difference between your combined stage time verses the average of the top 3. You are 37 seconds off the pace. A better way to put this into perspective is to take the average total points shot by the top 3 (1677) and divide it by the average total time (235) to figure out the average match Hit Factor. In this instance it translates to a 7 HF. Your 37 additional seconds translates to 259 match points donated to your competition. This is a long and drawn out statistical analysis to basically point out that "Shooting Better Points" will help but pales in comparison to reducing your stage times by simply moving through the stages faster. If you moved through the stages more efficiently and more aggressively it would have a far more dramatic performance improvement.

 

Conclusion - I hope that you notice that I have not mentioned anything about your actual shooting. Omitting what I see wrong with your shooting is done intentionally because its NOT your primary issue. Doing everything else that is NOT shooting are your primary issues. Making GM from classifiers is fairly easy because those skill tests eliminate movement skills from the equation. Performing at a GM level at majors requires you to be well rounded in Shooting, Movement and Gun handling. If I was in your shoes, I would focus 100% of my training on movement skills as that is where you will get your biggest match performance return on investment. The guys beating you are not pulling the trigger better or faster, they are murdering you with better movement skills.

 

 

[rowdyb]

I feel like you just watched a video of me and described if in about half that......

[waktasz]

Thanks Charlie. I think I will print that out and keep it in my range bag. 
It's funny how much of that stuff is stuff I try to teach people but then forget to do myself

[davidb72]

You should be charging for that service Charlie - that's an amazing analysis.

 

[CHA-LEE]

38 minutes ago, davidb72 said:

You should be charging for that service Charlie - that's an amazing analysis.

 

 

I use to do these type of video analysis reports all the time but it ended up being a waste of time because the people would read the feedback, realize that it actually takes a crap ton of work to fix their issues, and ultimately never get any better.

 

The way I see it, if someone has put in the effort to make GM, they are dedicated to get better and my review efforts will be of value because they will actually attempt to deploy my recommendations to solve their issues. That and I think it says a lot about a GM, in a good way, when they are willing to stick their neck out to post up a video of their performance and ask for help in getting better. I know a lot of GM's that think they are too good to learn anything new from others then wonder why they continually get their ass kicked at the major matches they attend.

 

I make it a priority to attend at least one training class a year from a top shooter. For this to be productive you have to check your ego at the door and allow yourself to be receptive to learning and trying new things. Not many GM's are willing to do this because they can't take the hit to their ego. Their loss..... 

[rowdyb]

Off topic, but when I first started teaching local shooters and they asked my rate I'd say, "If you listen and work hard and make changes and improvements it is X dollars per hour. If you don't listen and don't try to change it will be 2X dollars per hour." Not to be rude, but to teach motivated students as much as possible. And yes, I did charge some people double but they knew it and accepted it.

[GorillaTactical]

Thank you for posting Wak, and Charlie for the analysis.  I was able to watch, read, and then rewatch a few times to understand and see all of the points of discussion.  I feel like this was a valuable experience for myself being completely unrelated...I saw when this was first posted and was interested to see what feedback was given.

Edited June 21, 2017 by GorillaTactical

[MikeBurgess]

After reading this yesterday I watched a video of Ben shooting a stage in Norway? on FB today, and the fist thing I noticed was his almost frantic movement between positions but the comparatively calm shooting once at the position. Charlies excellent breakdown highlighted that "do everything but shoot faster" example.