Area 59 Championship Match critique

[Broski]

Below is my match video from the Area 59 last weekend. Just got bumped to Open “C” let me know what you see. I ran straight past a shooting position on stage 1, major back spasm on 3. Other than those 2 things I felt pretty good Overall, but I know you guys will be able to see things I look past. Thanks guys/gals

 

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by Broski

[MemphisMechanic]

Slow hands.

 

Snap hands to gun. Grip and draw smooth. Snap gun from holster to target. Same fastslowfast thing for reloads.

 

Weight low, weight forward. Get into a squat when shooting. You shoot too many of your shots on tiptoe with one foot or the other when you don’t have to. You stand totally upright whenever you can, and that burns time in every entry and exit. Upon entering you have to stand back up after dropping to run, and close feet can’t push off as hard as wide ones.

 

Get low. Stay low. Become used to shooting with a little burning going on in your thigh muscles. You should only be standing up tall when shooting over top of a low obstacle, if you can help it. And we should only see the orange soles of your shoes on hard leans.

 

There was no reason to pick up your feet between targets 1 and 2 of the second stage (with rhe big horseshoe shooting area) except that you didnt put them in the right place to start. Anytime you move your feet between targets it adds at least 1/2 second right now while your dot bobbles around.

 

D through C shooters don’t need to shoot faster. They need to do everything ELSE faster. You can shoot rather slow and make B if you learn to draw/move/load like your scoresheet is on fire until you’re pulling the trigger again.

 

Overall looks solid, and typical for a C shooter. Keep up the hard work and get lower and more agressive and things will shape up nicely!

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by MemphisMechanic

[GorillaTactical]

Having shot the match, I'll share some thoughts on stage plan specifically, as well as any other standout points not mentioned by Memphis above...

 

Stage 1:

The first paper could be shot through the first port on your way to position 2 (saves you going around the wall to the left to get it and lets you move more fluidly to the second position).

 

Stage 2:

MM hit a solid point already regarding T1-T2 transition.On the left side as you were moving forward, you shot kept the gun up and slow walked until the 4th target on the left came into view...no need to do this, after you shoot T3 on the left, burst forward.

 

Stage 3:

1 Handed, like a boss, might not have been the best choice, but I appreciate the ballsy-ness lol!  In all seriousness, if you didn't like down and instead sort of leaned over the table from the left side, you could get all the targets without having to compromise your upper body.

 

Stage 4:

When you entered the position, entering with your left foot first instead of right foot would have allowed you to take your shot sooner.  Your body would have been aligned on the leg you needed to lean on to engage T1.  And then get a lower on your movement as you push forward - instead of walking forward twisting, you could have been exploding with side steps.

 

Stage 5:

On the first array, there was a position about two steps to the right of where you set up, that gave you visibility of all the targets.  Would have saved you four steps.  

 

Stage 6:

Plan looked good, but you had 4 makeup shots on targets that were wide open at like 5 yards.  What were the hits like on those?  Did you need that many makeups? 

 

Stage 7:

Nice Run!  

 

Stage 8:

I think we'd be splitting hairs, but exiting position two to the right and outside the shooting area would have allowed you to carry momentum of your lean.  It also allowed for a nice entry looking right at a target on the way back into the shooting area.  Just food for thought.

 

Stage 9:

First four targets you took makeup shots on 50% of them.  Get into the shooting area and get LOW and drive forward down that lane.  Lower you are, theoretically the less sway your firearm will have which should result in not as many makeups when moving and shooting.  Sequence could have been a bit better on the swingers etc.  Saw you ran out of ammo on the last target right?  One of those extra makeup shots could have been the difference there.

 

Stage 10:

Plan looked good, but again, tons of makeups.  You will almost never be able to shoot 3 shots the same speed or faster than two clean one's.  I'd say that should be an area you work on.  Are you making up Charlies, Deltas, mikes?  I'm guessing your putting two on paper at those distances, so unless you're making up a delta or mike, it's probably not worth the 3rd shots.  And even then, the better answer is to slow down just a little with the first two shots to ensure A-A or A-C for example.

 

Hope that helps! 

[Broski]

8 minutes ago, GorillaTactical said:

Having shot the match, I'll share some thoughts on stage plan specifically, as well as any other standout points not mentioned by Memphis above...

 

Stage 1:

The first paper could be shot through the first port on your way to position 2 (saves you going around the wall to the left to get it and lets you move more fluidly to the second position). We shot this stage right after lunch, and my squad went back early. I ended up missing the walk through and was on deck when I arrived back at the stage. I never had a good chance to look it over and after seeing other videos I saw where I missed setting up the best plan.

 

Stage 2:

MM hit a solid point already regarding T1-T2 transition.On the left side as you were moving forward, you shot kept the gun up and slow walked until the 4th target on the left came into view...no need to do this, after you shoot T3 on the left, burst forward. On T1 &T2 was strictly a mental breakdown. I was still steaming from stage 1 and never got my stage plan 100% set in my head, plus it didn’t help than I nearly fell 3 times that stage.

 

Stage 3:

1 Handed, like a boss, might not have been the best choice, but I appreciate the ballsy-ness lol!  In all seriousness, if you didn't like down and instead sort of leaned over the table from the left side, you could get all the targets without having to compromise your upper body. 1 handed was not the plan, but somewhere in the first 6 targets my back spasmed and I was trying not to hurt it any more. I eventually just had to fight through the pain and lay down.

 

Stage 4:

When you entered the position, entering with your left foot first instead of right foot would have allowed you to take your shot sooner.  Your body would have been aligned on the leg you needed to lean on to engage T1.  And then get a lower on your movement as you push forward - instead of walking forward twisting, you could have been exploding with side steps.

 

Stage 5:

On the first array, there was a position about two steps to the right of where you set up, that gave you visibility of all the targets.  Would have saved you four steps.  

 

Stage 6:

Plan looked good, but you had 4 makeup shots on targets that were wide open at like 5 yards.  What were the hits like on those?  Did you need that many makeups? I made up Charlie’s to alphas. I shot open Minor PF, so my thought was that I had to have the alphas. I was right but I sacrificed a lot of time to get them. May have been my downfall.

 

Stage 7:

Nice Run!  

 

Stage 8:

I think we'd be splitting hairs, but exiting position two to the right and outside the shooting area would have allowed you to carry momentum of your lean.  It also allowed for a nice entry looking right at a target on the way back into the shooting area.  Just food for thought. I looked at going around, but didn’t like the position I would have been in for my reload at the time. It was a tough decision, and like you I think it was splitting hairs there.

 

Stage 9:

First four targets you took makeup shots on 50% of them.  Get into the shooting area and get LOW and drive forward down that lane.  Lower you are, theoretically the less sway your firearm will have which should result in not as many makeups when moving and shooting.  Sequence could have been a bit better on the swingers etc.  Saw you ran out of ammo on the last target right?  One of those extra makeup shots could have been the difference there. Absolutely agree, all my make ups took C to A, but just too many on that COF. I have not had much experience with swingers, so that is something I definitely need to work on in the off season.

 

Stage 10:

Plan looked good, but again, tons of makeups.  You will almost never be able to shoot 3 shots the same speed or faster than two clean one's.  I'd say that should be an area you work on.  Are you making up Charlies, Deltas, mikes?  I'm guessing your putting two on paper at those distances, so unless you're making up a delta or mike, it's probably not worth the 3rd shots.  And even then, the better answer is to slow down just a little with the first two shots to ensure A-A or A-C for example.

 

Hope that helps! 

Thanks for taking the time to walk through it. All in all I am pleased with my 2nd major in my first year in the sport. I just have to get to work on what will help me improve the most in the shortest time.