Jake Di Vita

Are the stages going to be posted before the match?

I did this twice....the second time I did it with only head shots. 1st time: total time 8.93 - 7A 3C Average of .89 draw and HF of 5.26 2nd time: total time 10.56 - 5A 5B Average of 1.05 and HF of 4.26

My view is take the extra hour per day and do it right. The shooter's score is the shooter's responsibility....not the RO's, not the delegates, not even the stats officer. I want to make sure the score written down is the score I shot...good or bad. Using Kyle's example....if he had 2 C's instead of 2 D's...it would have moved him up 4 places in the overall standings....at the nationals. Is saving an hour really worth that to all the shooters it affected? I think not.

The Gorilla echoes my thoughts perfectly. Nice knowin ya.

Then what should be done is each shooter should be asked before they start if they want to be present while their hits are being scored. If they do...they have that right and I really don't think any extra 25 seconds per shooter who wants to see their hits on the target is going to be as big a deal as you make it sound? I could be wrong, if I am please explain.

Happy birthday... Brad!!! You can finally go see rated R movies.

Awesome stuff. It is absolutely amazing that once you break down one self imposed wall of skill level....others just seem to tumble down with a fraction of the energy required for the first. "He's starting to believe."

Just because a stage is comstock doesn't mean its ok to shoot however many shots you want...Challenge yourself to shoot with no make up shots.... Simple math....more shots = more time. If you are losing it on penalties, you need to work on your visual patience.

Happy birthday fellas!

I understand what you are saying...I guess that is where our different temperments come into play. To know how I shot I don't need to look at my scores or the results of a match...I know how I performed based on how I felt when I shot. When your only goal is performance...sometimes when you do perform well....you win which is an added bonus. Winning should never be the driving factor because then you will always be chasing something rather than experiencing it for what it is. This is just my take on it.

I actually always hold my breath for the buzzer....not sure why, everything else just feels off...

I totally echo shred's last post. Jim, Go ahead and shoot based on how everyone else is shooting...eventually you'll realize that it is only hurting you. It took me about 2 years before I actually understood it...(I have been shooting IPSC for about 2 years).

Alright guys we are getting down to the wire here. About 2 weeks till 1st shot fired. I know if I was even within 500 miles it would be worth the drive if only to shoot against Max and Travis another time this season. Let's get those apps in ASAP before it totally fills up.

I totally disagree. You can't "shoot against" a person and hope to improve because you will always be pushing yourself....in a match, pushing yourself is the only sure way to crash and burn. Your goal should always be performance....not beating so and so. Thinking you can keep up or catch someone else is a major trap I see a lot of decent shooters falling into. When you start trying to catch someone 10% better than you that does two things....one is introduce a shitload of tension, and the other is it gives you an expectation of what your performance should be. Bad juju.

But everything that you just said is all your own perception of the classifer. How is the classifier actually different from any other stage? It isn't. When people finally realize that...not only their classification but their match scores as well will sky rocket.

If I saw one of those in the tree outside my room I think I'd probably cry....followed by a shitload of lead flying out the window. Crazy lookin.

Or when you might have to do so.

I tend to disagree when I see Max shooting 97 - 98% of the possible points at EVERY match he shoots. At the top levels you can't have one without the other and even hope to have a chance.

Yes I too was less than gentle with the baby.

I would say it should have been reshot. Hardball, Yes it is very easy to not hear someone when you are that in the zone...especially if you double plug and are blasting away.

Wow....is this the first time the match actually sold out?

I didn't make GM till I treated the classifier like any other stage...

Got to the range around 7:00 on Saturday morning. Was probably a perfect day for shooting with lots of sun and just enough of a breeze as to where it wasn't uncomforatable. Right around 8:30 we got to our first stage...stage 1. Stage 1: Radarish 2 18 rounds...basically start on either side, run to the middle, and hose em all down. Targets were spread across from the left to the right of the bay. A few people decided to shoot on the move on the way to the targets, I decided to just sprint and get into position as I didn't think the time savings would be worth the potential number of points to be dropped. Shot 7.07 with 2 C for 5th on the stage...A little slow but a good start to the match. Stage 2: Big Brown Truck Interesting stage with a lot of small ports to shoot through...positioning is very important. At the beep got off the chair and shot the first port near perfectly...run to the right side of the truck for the final shooting position. Everything was going great...I was mowing the targets down with great points...I knew I was having a GREAT run on the stage. Apparently the shooting gods deemed that what I was thinking was hubris because as I was on the 2nd to last target I jam up. My first reaction was WTF....I rack the slide...still doesn't go into battery. Dump the mag, reload, rack the slide and it finally worked. Finished the stage with a lot of swearing. Cost a good 3-4 seconds....which is a life time on a 10.7 hit factor (HHF) stage. That little beauty set me back a good 35 match points. Wonderful...here we go again. After the stage I grabbed my big stick...took it apart (still swearing I might add) to figure out why my most reliable mag was BOHICAing me. Take the guts out and inspect it. Look at the feed lips and find a huge freaking burr on the inside of one. Just wonderful....my only big stick is out of commission for the match on the second stage. I ran over to Dan Bedell who was on the next stage and told him about it and the saint of a man gave me a few of his 170s I could use for the match which worked perfectly. Thanks again Dan! Stage 3: Close Quarter Standards Quaint little fixed time stage worth 90 points. I had set this up in practice and knew I could get all the shots off without a problem so I wasn't really worried at all. First string was 2 on 2 targets, reload, and 2 on the head target. No problem. Draw to 4 perfect A's...nail the reload...and CRUNCH the first shot down into the hardcover. I called it so I made the shot up with about a .15 split. Great makeup....unfortunantly this is a virginia count stage. Yeah that was nice watching 10 match points going down the drain for the extra shot. 2nd string got all the shots off no problem with all A's. 3rd string...draw to 4 A's again, reload and go to weakhand..pull the trigger and nothing happens. Why?....oh it's because I managed to knock the safety on when I changed grips...ok no problem I'll just crunch down on the ambi safety and then finish....it ain't budging because a nice chunk of my flesh was wedged up there. End result: A lot of pain...and losing 10 more match points...did I mention the swearing? Stage 4: Room With A View Now I'm gettin pissed. I'm last up on this stage...which is one of the only stages in the match which my strengths really played a huge part. Seated table draw...port on the left, port on the right, port in the middle. At the beep take off like a bat out of hell (out running half my mags in the process). Run the stage very fast...but drop about 13 points. First stage win of the day so I know I'm not out of it. Stage 5: Diefenbach's Cafe This stage also played big time to my strengths. After shooting the first 10 rounds I was coming into the first window...indexed on the target and mowed through them (2 paper and 1 popper). Once again folks...let me digress. There is a universal truth I wish to relay to you. When the dot is not on the target, and you pull the trigger anyway, you will not hit the target. Yes that is right...about 5 extra shots on a full popper and a mike on a full target 7 yards away. Wasted a good 3 seconds. Anyway...take off after the first window....coming into the second window, actually see the dot, and mow through the final targets with all A's... Stage 6: Forty Miles Of Bad Road Very long stage and one of the biggest of the match. I thought the way I had figured to shoot it was the best way....I was very wrong. Hindsight is 20/20 eh? Anyways shot this stage a good 3 seconds off the pace and dropped too many points. If I could reshoot it I would have shot it a totally different way...Lost about 25 match points on this stage because of my crappy planning...Not really much more to say about this one. Stage 7: Darth Yeker Had a way I wanted to shoot this stage...but after the debacle that was the previous stage I decided to shoot it the way everyone else was. This plan required taking the first 5 targets strong hand only....then finishing everything up freestyle. Planned on reloading right after the port but changed my mind to do it after the 3 targets in the middle. Shoot the stage. First 5 targets go great...kinda fumble putting the activator in the hole then shoot the 3 targets. After which I grab a mag. While moving to where the next array of targets was I actually look at the mag in my hand and ask WTF am I doing. So then I take these 3 hard cover targets strong hand only while moving. Yes that's right folks I took 16 out of the 30 shots required in this stage strong hand only. I think I may need to go in for a freakin cat scan because that was ridiculous. Ended up still having a great time but I should have been a good second faster. Stage 8: Quit Moving Interesting stage with a lot of activators which included a clamshell, dropping no shoot target (covering most of one and revealing another) and a 2 target slider with a no shoot in between. Shot this stage very solid dropping 5 points for my 2nd stage win of the day. Stage 9: Bleak House Real fast stage...4 poppers at the beginning then 3 arrays of 2 targets at spitting distance. Come out of the box...take 2 extra shots at one popper and double another, wasting a ton of time. Finish the stage off with 3 down and still one of the best times of the match. Have no clue how my time ended up being good with all the extra shots, but I'll take it. Stage 10: Save My Baby Last stage of the match. I know I am pretty much screwed by now so I decide just to shoot the stage and take my aggression out on the fake baby you had to move to activate 2 of the targets...I had serious thoughts of sending the baby over the side berm. Anyways...shoot the stage with a real good time and dropping 4 points for my last stage win of the match. Final Results (as of shortly ago) 1st Brad Balsley 100% 2nd BJ Norris 99.21% 3rd Jake Di Vita 97.99% Overall the match was fantastic. Great stages, and a really great staff. I will definetely be back next year. As for my shooting...ugh. I figure I dropped about 100 points in stupid mistakes throughout the match...a good chunk of those was from my death jam on stage 2. I also think I shot a little bit too loose with 92.5% of the possible points....maybe I was pushing too hard...who knows. Back to practice I guess. One thing I want to mention also. Cameron (from the forums) shot one of his best matches to date...although he had a few melt downs he really stepped up and hit his goal of shooting 75% at the match. Great job bud! Oh yes...one more thing. Brad Balsley is an exceptional rapper. Just get him going with some Vanilla Ice and you will be laughing for hours. He is the whitest man I have ever met.

Remember. In our sport there are no "local" rules. A safety violation is a safety violation...you are doing the shooter a disservice by NOT DQing him. Going to the RM would have been the best bet.

Yeah...I'd really enjoy seeing Jerry in action. No definitive word on if he is or not... Yeah I got the class schedule....looks good. See ya in a few weeks.