Saibot's Performance Journal

[saibot]

12.19.2017

No practice today. Still pretty sore from surgery and as much as I wanted to dry fire, I thought it would be prudent to hold off a little longer. 

I have been enjoying listening to the Shooter's Summit speakers and also thought I'd try to document my training program for anyone who wanted to follow along our use it as well. Instead of just pasting the program here, I thought I'd describe the background of it and how I arrived at the steps I'm using. It turned out to be a bit longer than I intended, and really too long to post here, so I put it on my blog so I don't take up too much space here.

Here's the link:

https://www.recoilsports.com/2017/12/building-your-training-program/

I'll get the program up there shortly, too.

 

[saibot]

12.21.2017

Dry fire

First dry fire session since surgery. I had to take it easy and it was still bit uncomfortable but so happy to get to practice a little.

I did come up with a little technique that seems to let me nail the grip at full speed. I am coming in from the side and my entire focus is to get my thumb up and over the beaver tail with the web of my hand pressed in the perfect position. Hard to describe, but in practice it is very very consistent, even at speed. Was easily getting .70 at 7 yards, and pretty much the same speed at 10 yards.

I practiced the surrender draw using the same technique and it looks like it helps there, too. I worked on exploding into my reloads and put it all together with some six reload six drills. Very easily making my par time of 4.20 with very good hits.

I began to hurt too much to continue so stopped right there. Ill try it again tomorrow and see how it goes. I want to work on my transitions since they were a bit slow, but we'll if I can do it without hurting myself. Just so happy to be practicing again!

[saibot]

12.26.2017

Dry fire

I wanted to confirm the draw/grip refinement from my last practice session, so I just focused on the sensation of getting the web of my strong hand on the proper spot on the beavertail and and notice a very strange sensation of shooting without any muscle tension. I think I finally know what it means to "shoot relaxed." More than just only moving the bare minimum to complete the draw, but focusing on only flexing the muscles in my hands as I crush the pistol. My drill times were faster while feeling effortless. My 10 yard 6 reload 6 went down to 4.10 and my reloads were really, really good for a change. I hope I can "recreate" that sensation, and hope that it stands up in live fire.

Stay tuned.

[saibot]

12.31.2017

Dry fire.

Once in a while you just have a bad day of practice, and this was one of those days. All of the travel, surgery, holidays, etc. are catching up with me. Looking forward to getting home and hitting it hard again.

 

[saibot]

1.3.2018

Dry fire.

Finally got back home and was able to dry fire a little, perhaps 30-45 minutes. Just getting the basics down to a decent par time. I’m glad that it didn’t take too long and I was getting back down to about where the times should be. Started to feel that relaxed feeling again and had a nice run until I started getting tired. Reloads started to get sloppy and I switched to shooting on the move before calling it a night. It’s good to be back and dry firing again!

[Brophy-J]

How is the surgery recovery going? Any plans for a match?

[saibot]

1 hour ago, Brophy-J said:

How is the surgery recovery going? Any plans for a match?

It's going alright I guess. I'm not supposed to do anything above a walk or lift more than 10 pounds for a few more weeks. The inactivity is driving me crazy to be honest. That being said I did get out to the range for a little low impact practice today. I doubt my doctor reads this.

There is a match this weekend I'm considering since it's pretty compact due to it's bays, so short courses is about as much movement I'd likely see there. My wife may veto the idea, so we'll see.

 

What about you, going to get your Q5 back out soon?

[saibot]

1.4.2018

Live fire.

Very low impact practice today, just getting a chance to pull the trigger since it's been about 3 or 4 weeks since I've gotten any live fire. And as expected, I was a little off my game. I shot a Letham drills and a few "Six Reload Six"/"El Prez" drills. Shot about 88% scores even with the train wreck reloads. Not sure what was going on with my reloads, but will have to focus on them in dry fire a bit. I also put up a piece of steel and worked on moving around barrels in figure 8's to tune up my shooting on the move. Did pretty well, just watched the sights and let them dictate the pace. Not a bad practice for as long as it's been since I've shot live fire. Is it summer yet so I can get out more?

 

Note to self: Don't let your grip pressure wain. Squeeze the gun like you're going to shoot a Bill Drill.

Edited January 5, 2018 by saibot

[saibot]

1.6.2018

First match of the year!

I made it out to a local match and although it was fun, it was a bit of a $**t show. In my defense, it's been a while since my last match, I'm moving very slowly since I'm still having some issues from my surgery, very little dry fire, and I'm sure I can find even more excuses if I think about it.

But honestly, I wasn't watching the sights rise and was yanking the trigger, so my accuracy was off. I hit two no shoots (boo!) and racked up a bunch of penalties on one stage where I was told that my support hand fingers were touching my arm during a SHO string. Whoops! I didn't realize I was doing that. I also was shooting the sights but driving the gun very slowly, so splits and transitions were very slow...for no good reason. In retrospect, I must not have been crushing the grip and it was taking forever for the sights to come back on to the target, hence the rushing and bad shot tracking. Just a timing issue from being rusty. I think (hope!) that I just need a good live fire session to get tuned back up.

 

On the good side of things, even with all the errors I did still manage to take 3rd, which is a bit of a miracle. I guess I'm not the only one light on shooting from the holidays.

 

In the end, shooting is like pizza. When it's good, it's good. When it's bad....it's still pretty good.

[saibot]

1.8.2018

Dry fire

Tuning up session. After the last match I realized that my fundamentals have decayed from the lack of practice. So I ran through Anderson's dry fire book (R&R) and wound up having a really good session. I did have a great "realization" on my draw and transfer to weak hand drill. If I imagine a point, my right hand shoulder, and bring the gun and weak hand up together, almost to that point, in a smooth motion like when lifting a dumbell, it rocks.

I also shaved 0.1-0.2 off of my turn and draw. For me, I snap my head and rip the gun out as fast as possible. I guess I had been gingerly pulling it out to get more turned around as to not violate the 180, but it really wasn't needed. I never realized that I was doing that until last night.

 

Reloads still need work. It's so hit and miss with them. Also, trying to shoot more relaxed. Work in progress.

[saibot]

1.9.2018

Dry fire

Ever have one of those nights where things just aren't coming together? Well, that was tonight. After about 30 minutes I figured I was doing more damage than good and put the Q5 back in the safe. Instead, I pulled my Open gun out and did a little dry fire with it just to have a little fun. I haven't touched that thing in ages. If/when my eyes get too bad for Production I'll get back to that thing, although I've been considering shooting it a bit to see what I can learn from it. Ryan Goold, you're making me want to shoot Open again!

[saibot]

1.11.2018

Dry fire

As much as I don't really care about the gear, assuming it's reliable, I sure have been turning over equipment lately. I really liked my P320's and only switched the Walther Q5 to have something safe to use while the whole recall thing got sorted out. Turned out that I really freaking like the Walther. It seems like the majority of the Production guys locally shoot CZ's and they love 'em. So I thought what the heck, I'll pick one up and try it out and sell off whichever one I don't go with. Anyway, tonight's dry fire was all done with the new Shadow 2 I picked up. I haven't gotten a chance to actually shoot it yet, but I spent about 1.5 hours seeing how it points for me. The DA/SA is dang strange. And the weight of the gun is almost twice that of the Walter. I think part of the magic of the Q5 are the sights it comes with it. Not at all what I've used in the past, but the fatter front sight with less light on the side, along with the shallow notch, is really working for me. I ordered a thinner Dawson front sight for it and never used it. So I might have to see if I can drive the Shadow 2 like I can the Q5. In the end, I guess that I never met a gun I didn't like. I really want to shoot them all. Like I mentioned in my last post, I dry fired with my Open gun, and I've been meaning to put a dot on the Walther and try it out.
Now if I could just figure out how to become instantly wealthy and have time/money to shoot every day.

Anyway, back to the training log. I practiced just getting the grip built and driving the gun to where my eyes are looking. Surprisingly, it wasn't too far off from the Walther. And I do seem to be able to reload it faster already. I setup Fluffy's Revenge 2 with some dry fire targets and ran it a few time to see how drawing to a mini popper with a DA trigger would feel. Dang strange. Not sure what my live fire time would be on it, but I was hitting my par time of 3 seconds with regularity. I setup a single target at 10 yards and practiced 2 reload 2 on it, landing about 2.5 seconds most runs. I can't wait to see how the thing actually shoots! If by some chance I can get out to the range before it gets dark tomorrow after work, I'll get it sighted in and what the heck, I might shoot Saturday's match with it. Should be entertaining...for the people on my squad.

 

[saibot]

1.12.2018

Live fire

I wanted to sight in the new Shadow 2 and see how it ran with my Q5 and P320 loads, and really just see what I thought about it in comparison with my Q5's. 

The Shadow 2 came almost perfectly sighted in, just needed a little adjustment to the elevation for my ammo. I found that my P320 ammo was too long and occasionally failed to go all the way into battery, whereas my Q5 load which is 1.10 in length feed flawlessly. Other than the P320 loads that were too long, the gun ran absolutely perfect. With that out of the way, it was on to shooting some groups to get the feel of it. To be honest, they were pretty awful. I'm going to grab a few makes of factory ammo to see if the issue is ammo, me, or the gun, but not good at all. Will have to identify and address.

I shot a Leatham drill and scored below what I typically shoot by about 9ish A's. I did have one miss at 25 yards that I didn't call, so not sure what happened there. Flyer?

I can shoot a 7 yard Bill Drill with my Q5 will under 2 seconds with all A's, but struggled to get below 2 seconds with the Shadow 2 and even at that, I was getting lots of C's. 

Setting up various other drills to test splits/transitions/etc. were hit and miss. 

I really do not like the DA first pull. At all. It's going to take some getting used to if I decide to keep the CZ.

One thing I really do like about the Shadow 2 is just how fast is settles back on target. I really have to focus hard and crush the grip on the Walther to track like the CZ does easily. 

I've really some to love the sight size/ratio of the Q5. For me, it is perfect. If I see the fiber, it's aligned well and I can break the shot. I'm very good at hitting what I need to hit with my Q5. Not so much with the sights on the Shadow 2. I don't mind the width of the front sight on the CZ, but don't like the ratio, there is too much light on sides, so I think I'd have to get a smaller notch rear or wider front sight. Will have to see.
So the initial thoughts from the first outing with CZ and 451 rounds:

Meh.

The CZ is a work of art, but I'm not sure I can achieve what I can with the Walther. We'll see. 

 

 

[saibot]

1.13.2018

Match.

I was able to make a match this weekend and took my Walther Q5, which I shot in Production, and my Shadow 2, which I shot in Limited Minor. My aim was to compare the two platforms to see how they perform under match conditions. Although I shot the Shadow 2 in Limited, I shot it exactly like I did my Q5 Production run so as to not skew the data. I also shot the Q5 first in every stage. The results were very interesting! 

I took first place in Production with my Q5, and third place in Limited with the Shadow 2. In Overall standingings, I was 18th and 20th, so very consistent overall execution. 

As expected, I do drive the Q5 much better than the Shadow 2, but again, I'm used to that gun, but the Q5 was a natural fit from the instant I picked it up. I had very few misses on steel with the Q5, but was shooting a bit off my typically accuracy. Going back and forth between two radically different guns at a match is a really bad idea, and it was very impactful on my timing, but again, I knew that could be an issue here, but this was all about the science! 

With the Shadow 2, it very quickly became obvious that I can split the shots about as fast as I can physically pull the trigger. I just comes back on to the targets and ready to deliver another round. I noticed that in practice, but under match pressure, it was a freaking jackhammer. 

I did miss more often with the Shadow 2, but then again, the makeup shots were right behind it.

The classifier was CM 06-05, Fluffly's Revenge 2. With the Q5 I shot a 9.65 HF with 2 C's. With the Shadow 2 I shot a 10.07 HF with 1 C and a makeup on the last mini popper. Like I mentioned, the splits on that gun are radically faster for me than the Q5. It is worth mentioning that I shot this in "Match Mode" with both guns, not trying to "Hero or Zero" it, just good honest shooting. I wanted good data.

 

As far as my match performance went, I would rate it around 75% of what I should be shooting. I wasn't prepared properly for one stage that I was the first shoot on and got a little lost and ran poorly. Movement was pretty good, and was really pleased with getting into/out of positions. Overall accuracy was under par for me in general, perhaps switching between the two guns is to blame, but likely my lack of live fire training/practice in the last couple months.

 

I put all of the stats from the match into a spreadsheet to try to make some comparisons. 

 

 

[Brophy-J]

Looks like you are shooting the CZ very well for little practice. LPA makes the same set of sights for the CZ SPO1 shadow, if the rear cuts are the same it might be worth getting a set.

[saibot]

On 1/16/2018 at 7:54 AM, Brophy-J said:

Looks like you are shooting the CZ very well for little practice. LPA makes the same set of sights for the CZ SPO1 shadow, if the rear cuts are the same it might be worth getting a set.

Great idea, Brophy-J! I'll have to check that out.

Thanks for the tip!

[saibot]

1.16.2018

Dry fire

I really am going to have to pick a gun soon and run with it exclusively. Going back and forth between the Q5 and the Shadow 2 is not helping me with either pistol. I know it's realistically too soon to say this, but for me, the Walther Q5 seems a much better fit for me. I'll have to get more live fire with the Shadow 2 and really experiment what I can do with it, but I need to decide soon how I want to proceed for the season.

 

One observation I noticed last night while dry firing an array of targets is that if I take just a little longer and get a perfect sight picture, more than is probably needed for the target (this array was only at 10 yards), the accuracy seems to carry through the rest of the string, without causing any delay on subsequent targets. It was very interesting! And I was able to reproduce it every time I tried it. I'll have to play a bit more it and see how it holds up, but it's definitely worth exploring at the range.

 

Note to self: Spend a little extra time getting the initial sight picture, it carries over to the rest of the targets in the string.

[cheby]

5 hours ago, saibot said:

 

 

Note to self: Spend a little extra time getting the initial sight picture, it carries over to the rest of the targets in the string.

I noticed that too. The real challenge is (For me) to do that during the match especially while shooting standards (Classifiers). Looks like it takes some extra focus and discipline. 

[saibot]

5 hours ago, cheby said:

I noticed that too. The real challenge is (For me) to do that during the match especially while shooting standards (Classifiers). Looks like it takes some extra focus and discipline. 

Thanks for the sanity check, Cheby! I'll keep playing with it and see how it goes.

[saibot]

If anyone is interested, I put up a post on my CZ Shadow 2 build.
https://www.recoilsports.com/2018/01/the-ultimate-cz-shadow-2-uspsa-production-project/

[saibot]

1.21.2018

Updates

Dry fire - Yes, I'm still dry firing, just have been so tight on time I haven't logged my practice sessions. The thought was that I would go all in with the CZ and not touch the Walther for a while and see if I could make it work. In dry fire things seemed to be going well with it and my times for things like 180 degree transitions were inching up where my plastic guns are. I also thought I'd try some new mag pouches and got a set of the AA Race Masters since they offer a lot of flexibility in placement. It took some time to get them setup in just the right places and angles, but they are quite different than my trusty CR Speed pouches, which have been just fine, but again, it's the pre/early season and this is when I explore this sort of stuff.

Match - I hit a local pistol match and while I do enjoy shooting in general, the match was a horror show. It really doesn't looking like I'm going to be able to meld with the CZ. Even stopping, getting a perfect sight picture and a good trigger squeeze wasn't getting hits on small targets. It was super frustrating to say the least. I just stopped in the middle of a stage and quit. I also was having trouble with the mag pouch positions and was knocking magazines out and had to stop shooting before all the targets were engaged. So, overall, a pretty poor match in most ways. So I'm done with the CZ experiment and going back to the Q5. I'll have to knuckle down and make up for lost training time with the Q5, but it's not like I didn't really like the Q5 in the first place. From the instant I picked one up we worked well together. I was toying with the idea of putting a dot on the backup one and seeing what does for my presentations, transitions, etc, and how, if any, that helps with my Production game.

[saibot]

1.22.2018

Dry fire

Back to the Q5. In a way, it was a good thing since it feels a little "foreign" after the time spent on the Shadow 2, and I was feeling little nuances that perhaps I didn't notice before. For example, the support hand sits a little better when the second knuckles of my support hand rest directly into the second knuckles of my strong hand, like a triangle inside of a triangle, if that makes sense. 

I thought I'd shake things up a bit and did part of the Elements section of Ben's book. I did spend a significant amount of time just pulling the trigger on a 25 yard (simulated) target and noticing what was happening, and what I had to do to prevent the sights from moving. I realized that sensation is what I experience when I've been shooting a lot and focusing on my accuracy. Nice to see I can get that back at will without a trip to the range to get "tuned up." I worked on that strong/weak hand as well, then did it all again with the timer. At the sound of the timer, pull the trigger as fast as you can without disturbing the sights. Wonderful little drill. I also noticed that my perception of pulling the trigger straight back is somewhat off. It seems that I need to pull back and up, as well as a little to the 5 o'clock to keep the sights from moving. 

All and all, it spent about an hour working on various drills and just being sure I like what I'm doing, foundationally, with the Walther. 

[saibot]

1.25.2018

Live fire.

I ran over the range for a quick practice session over lunch, so it was really short, but it was great to be out shooting nonetheless. I have been switching up guns a lot lately as well as getting far less dry/live practice in and it's really showing. My times are way down. Hits not where they typically are either. Being hamstrung the last couple of months has REALLY taken its toll. I'm glad it's early season, so plenty to time to get it right. <--- Making excuses. 

[saibot]

1.27.2018

Match.

I'm happy that I was able to get a local match in yesterday! I shot the Q5 and starting to feel a bit more in line with it again. It was a HEAVY steel day and I had a ton of misses on small steel. Looking at the footage of my match, when I miss, it's consistently right over the top, dead center. I'll have to get out to the range and figure out what I'm doing to cause that. It would be great if it was just my sights being off, but I really doubt that's the case.

My wide transitions were rocking. The focus on them looks like it's paid off. Getting into/out of positions looked really good, too.
I was slower than usual getting the gun out of the holster, reloading, etc, which I chalk up to lack of practice. It's like my aggression drains out when I'm not actively pressing on it.

I also discovered that if a 380 auto case sneaks into the press, it'll load, but won't fire. Also, I need to find a place for an extra magazine. Again, I knocked a mag out and didn't have enough to finish a stage. #StupidStuff
I do need to spend some time practicing driving the gun hard, in target focus. I used to do that really well, but backed off for some accuracy deficits, and that decays fast for me.
But, most importantly of all, I had a blast.
:)

[Mcfoto]

1.27.2018
Match.
I'm happy that I was able to get a local match in yesterday! I shot the Q5 and starting to feel a bit more in line with it again. It was a HEAVY steel day and I had a ton of misses on small steel. Looking at the footage of my match, when I miss, it's consistently right over the top, dead center. I'll have to get out to the range and figure out what I'm doing to cause that. It would be great if it was just my sights being off, but I really doubt that's the case.
My wide transitions were rocking. The focus on them looks like it's paid off. Getting into/out of positions looked really good, too.
I was slower than usual getting the gun out of the holster, reloading, etc, which I chalk up to lack of practice. It's like my aggression drains out when I'm not actively pressing on it.
I also discovered that if a 380 auto case sneaks into the press, it'll load, but won't fire. Also, I need to find a place for an extra magazine. Again, I knocked a mag out and didn't have enough to finish a stage. #StupidStuff
I do need to spend some time practicing driving the gun hard, in target focus. I used to do that really well, but backed off for some accuracy deficits, and that decays fast for me.
But, most importantly of all, I had a blast.

Yes, it was a great match. Too much steel for my taste but it seemed to keep the rain away. I was having the exact same issue which became obvious during the plate racks of shame. The bigger brains on my squad couldn’t diagnose so I aimed low to finish and will check my sights today at the range. Now subscribed so looking forward to your diagnosis. Maybe Mike set the targets too low? ;0)