Glock26Toter

No, the safety was off. It was a strange sensation. I was stepping into my position and suddenly I was looking at the gun in my hand. I don't remember actually falling. I knew I had fallen and my mind just said, "finger's off the trigger, still pointed downrange, nobody yelled stop... GET UP AND GO!" My safety is actually specifically tuned to be very hard to turn on. This prevents accidentally engaging it while reloading. Sometimes I have to use my left hand to engage it. Same with my mag release. It's cut short so it doesn't quite depress 100%... maybe 90%, where about 80% is needed to drop the mag. This again, prevents accidentally dropping the mag.

The walkthrough work you mention is very important. That's where you program EVERYTHING into the subconcious. Take the walkthrough very seriously. Hold your hands exactly like you shoot, reload exactly as you intend to. Some higher level guys can afford to blow some things off in the walkthrough, but for the most part you need to act as if you are shooting. The actual speed isn't nearly as important as the motions. I hold my hands up exactly as they'll grip the gun and give the trigger squeeze as realistic as possible, at the pace I intent to engage. While doing that I visualize exactly how the sight picture will look, down to the peice of tape I intend to hit (or whatever anchor on the target I want to hit). And for a while, when I was using a hard box for my shooting bag I did the same thing with goals. I printed them and taped them to the inside so I would see them while loading mags and stuff. All good stuff man. Keep up the good work.

Well, after skipping a weekend due to work I finally got to shoot two matches this weekend. The work wasn't bad as it was for my best freind and client who ownes a mansion in Pennsylvania so the accommodations are top notch! I mean, 15 toilets to choose from... who can complain? Anyways, the first match was at Aurora Gun club and I thought the stages were challenging and despite the cold temps I had a great time. Not a clean match, but I think too many clean matches means you aren't pushing hard enough. I forgot to charge up the old Gopro, so no vids. The first stage was a sit - load - shoot situation and once again I proved to myself that the old "slap and rack" load is the fastest way to make my gun go boom. I beat the Panda by 4 seconds on that stage for a wide margin stage win. The shots weren't too hard, although I did pickup a NoShoot, but I had time to make it up and move on. Maybe there was some other aspect that slowed Charlie down but I prefer to think that I moved fast and loaded faster. The only area for improvement on that stage would be the rush I was in during the first port. It was a pretty destabilized position and I did not exercise enough visual patience to call every shot. The next stage was a speed shoot that started with 2 poppers and a dash, then some paper. I wish I could have seen my draw time to that first shot as it felt really nice and I was super happy with how quick the two poppers were handled and I was on my way. I successfully called both shots, don't remember hearing the "bing" and was probably already entering the other box by the time they both had fallen. It felt really good. The classifer we won't talk about too much. Another instance of my doing lots of things like a Master... except on 2 shots.. and that's all it takes to tank an otherwise good classifier. I'm not too worried about a bunch of things to improve in that area. Next time, more holes less mikes. One more stage worth mentioning is one that I had designed. In retrospect, the best way to run is was so obvious that the "Option B" was a complete miss. I'm still a beginner in stage design, and clearly need to work on that. As far as running the stage, I was the fastest, but a guy that was 2 seconds slower beat me by 14 points. That's happend a few times on these "hose fest" stages with me. I think I need to remember to dial back a notch and keep in mind that you need some points to divide that time by. Maybe I just go "sort of" off the rail next time. Had I taken another second to pop a few more A's I would clearly have been in GM-Land for that one. So, Sunday night was the indoor match at Centennial Gun Club. Another triumph for these stage designers. I heard another complaint about some of the stages being too difficult for the beginners, but I disagree. I think one good "this is how the stages really look out there" will help prevent a false sense of ability when these beginners get out there. I can't tell you how many times I see new people at other matches these days and they are at their "first outdoor" match... CGC is doing something right to bring in this number of new shooters AND still keep some of us experienced shooters showing up too. So, Here's a vid from the first stage. I like the way that I picked the target order and stayed in a straight line accross the stage. This was definately a stage to work on the "why should I stop" thought process and I did just that. My time was great with a 14.27 and old Mr. 2nd fastest was a 16.00 flat. I watched him run it, and he just paused a tad too long at the same spots I was continuing to move. Proof to me that I've really learned some valuable lessons from Steve Anderson's book. And then, the classifer. (09-06, Diamond Cutter) Damn it. Another perfectly good run foiled by some wiseguy putting a No-Shoot where I was aiming. After removing the penalty it would have been an 87.5%. The hit was on the perf.. whatever. Next time just like .0001% more effort into CALLING EVERY SHOT. The last stage, I bust my ass on. Literally. Although a spectacle to watch there are some good points for review in it. The stage was going along great after the first 6 shots and then the first point... Indoor IS IN FACT not able to be run at 100%. I've always said that they just don't feel like 100% and this is a good example of my forgetting about that, giving it my all and making a mistake that one can NOT afford in our sport. The number of ways that falling with a gun in your hand can go horribly wrong are numerous. Although I'm laughing this off, it's not something that anyone wants to do even once in their shooting career. After I get up, I'm actually quite pleased with my shooting on the move. I managed to post the 2nd fastest time on that stage with a 18.77. Not too shabby for starting without a head injury but picking one up along the way. (I was fine but did have a headache.) So the second thing to note is the clear "shooting on the move" lesson here. The guy that won the stage did it positionally rather than while moving. Although he posted a great time, had I not fallen I would have beat that time significantly. I think it's another example of how important it is to stop only when you have to. The beginning of the stage was clearly a spot where standing and shooting was the only option, but after that those targets needed to be appearing at a good pace while the shooter kept low and just ran through them. I got a mike on the first target after standing up... I think I was still a bit dazed and can't remember what went on so I'm not too worried about it. So... goals. 1. Call every shot. Doing better... keep working on that one. 2. Why should I stop. Wow, I feel good about this one. Keep doing that. 3. 2 Dry fire session this week. Yay! I did 4. This really helps. AGC Local match, 2nd OA, 1st Open. 24-Jan-15 CGC Local match, HOA. 25-Jan-15

Dude. Glad you like the gun. Hope it gives you years of service. I was having a discussion the other day about the price of our accessories, and really we aren't that big of a market so if a product costs $25,000 to tool up there's not like a run of 500k units per year to water those costs down. It's probably more like 10k units/year depending on the product of course. This is why we see a lot of milled stuff. Believe me, I'm no expert and although the numbers are WAY OFF, the point remains that the potential sales isn't super high for those building quality products for us. That translates to higher prices... but quality is something we need to enjoy our sport. At any rate. Have fun and I'll see you at a match sometime.

Yay, welcome to the dot world. I think you'll find that although a lighted optic can help in low light, it has it's own challenges as well. That "static" that you see while shooting is magnified indoors and you have to find the sweet spot between too dim and crazy dot static each time you turn it on. If you miss that sweet spot the dot can become quite the spectacle to watch while trying to see the target..... still, if you can get all that under control, clearly you'll have more fun at an indoor match. Maybe you can come back and knock me down a notch.

Glad you were happy. You did well. Not that I know you very well, but seems like you are making improvement and that's great. Keep it up. Just remember, for every area of improvement make a note of something you did well also.

Today I got to shoot a match down at Pueblo West Sportsman's club. it's a great range and the guys know how to run a great match. As always, the stages were fun and challenging. The day turned out to be a very nice day, easily 50 degrees and I only had to put a light jacket on a couple of times when it go cloudy for a bit. I had a great time overall and felt like I worked on my goals and didn't do anything particularly stupid. I ran my newly finished green gun. I sighted in yesterday in 3 rounds and worked the safety so it's very hard to turn on just like the shiny one. Now both guns run great, are almost exactly the same shooting experience and I'm ready to cut loose this season. So, I was first up on the first stage and thought hard about being in Match Mode (calling every shot) and I carefully chose my target order. It was a 28 round stage and I programmed in a reload and couldn't decide if that was the right thing or not. At the last minght I kind of decided to skip the reload. When the buzzer went off, I was moving pretty quickly and made up a couple of mikes... but I saw them and called them, so that was a score for the goal list. There were these open targets on the way down to a port with a step-pad and a lighning fast "raise-lower" disappearing target. I had carefully chosen the order on these as the best way to shoot them seemed different that I would normally do it. However, the way I did it meant that I could keep moving. The disapearing target was no problem and I finished up the stage with by far the fastest time of the day and a stage win. The next one was another of the same type when it came to movement. This one was much more obvious to me that if you just took some steps backwards while engaging the first 4 paper and 4 steel targets that old number 5 would be fully visible. I keep my eye on the dot and performed the steps exactly as needed. It was a great Enos moment as my dot was super dim and I really had to watch (and it was very interesting) and let the rest of my movement execute in my subconcious. It worked great for another win that was 1.8 seconds faster than 2nd place. After that areas for improvement started showing themselves much more readily. The classifier just didn't flow at all. I completely failed to watch the dot and in an effort to move fast I lost the shot calling mode and wound up with a pretty bad finish. The next stages were a bit more of the same as I had really cooled off and missed some makeup opportunities. I proved to myself that you can't lose touch of your goals for even a minute. You have to call EVERY SHOT... throughout the ENTIRE MATCH. Stay in the moment and forget about the past and have no expectations. Just shoot. That's one of my core elements that I've been making notes on. "shoot like you shoot" It means don't think too hard about a particular target, or stage if it's already been proven within your ability. In other words... if you already know you can easily do something, just do it and don't waste time convincing yourself you can. I think I did that bit today where I took my recently learned tidbits and tried to apply them to every stage. Even the ones that didn't need them. So, it wasn't like a disaster, I just saw some mistakes made and lost some momentum in the later stages and don't feel that I shot to my full ability for all stages today. At any rate, I still shot well overall and found myself in the HOA spot. I'm happy about that and once again, can't wait to do it again next weekend! Goals moving foreward: 1. Call every shot. 2. during stage breakdown as "why should I stop?" 3. 2 Dry fire sessions this week. (drills from the book.) PPPS Local match, 01/11/15. HOA.

I just finished reading Steve Anderson's book and I really liked it. I see why Charlie recommended this and I plan on changing my goal set to match some new things I've learned and really can't wait to start running through those drills. I've recently modified my draw as I just never felt very good about a 1 second draw as a master level shooter. Using some of Steve's tips and making a couple of changes to the angle of my holster I'm easily at a .6 draw on an open target. So the main thing I took away from this book was the reversal of the thought process from "can I keep moving?" to "why should I stop?" This along with all the other things about calling shots in match mode and keeping the gun high really boosted my desire to kick some ass. So I've set some goals for much more practice and specific practice for each aspect I'll be analyzing from here on out. I simultaneously started looking at my draw for the above reasons and really, the main reason I looked at it was because I had the attitude of "I like my draw, why improve it?" and since we should always be looking for improvement I wanted to analyze it for each and every movement. Now it's time to do that with every aspect of my shooting. This will get me GM one day! (Yes, I'm not a Master yet, but this is my way of sealing it up with attitude.) So new goals moving forward will be this: 1. Visual Patience is going to get changed to "Call every shot / Be in Match mode at matches." 2. Still work on stage breakdown, but with some of the thought process that Steve has explained. i.e., analyze each section and ask the questions "why should I stop?" and "what's the fastest way to the end?" 3. Commit to 2 dry fire sessions per week. I've put it in the AM on my schedule to try to raise the prioity. So far I've made it AND added some night time sessions. 4. I'm still writing my processes down and modifying them even more to include some of what Steve's book has in it. The more I journal, the more I see where I can analyze for improvement.

Taran Tactical is where it's at. I thought I liked the DP base pads too, until they hit the dirt and I had to hammer on them to try to get them open. TT's never have any issues. The biggest problem with TT's are sometimes you lose the pins, but nothing a cheap 1/8 drill bit and a Dremel cutting wheel can't provide in a few seconds. I used to use Grams springs, but for a long while now it's been all Taran Tactical and no issues.

Meh. That gun is "ok" I guess. If you're into the "highly reliable and bad ass" kind of thing. I think you will go far with that gun. Opinions on holsters is like... well, opinions on everything else. Personally, I'm hooked on my DAA Race Master. It's never given me any hassle. The one key element for me is the tension. Not all holsters have a tension knob (Ghost for example) and with my "scoop" draw I like the tension on it so the gun doesn't come out of the holster until I start to pull up. Other than that, there are many good holsters out there, and you just have to buy one and see if you like it. Just don't skimp! It's like, when a guy buys a Ferrari, do you see him pull into Walmart for his tires?

Something that helped me greatly with reloads was part of a Charlie Perez class. Learning some ways to improve the reload he pointed out that you have to consistently and very quickly snatch your magazine from your pouch and bring it to where you're going to reload. Before that I was more worried about keeping the gun up, and dropping the magazine, and secondarily was like "oh yeah, and grabbing a new mag too." For me, once I changed my focus to the LEFT HAND quickly snatching the new mag and bringing it up to the reload area it all made sense. Now the right hand drops the mag and pulls the gun back to the parking position for reloading more automatically, faster and a lot higher than before.

Let's look at this like Lanny Bassham would do it: First stage: jerking trigger and too fast this was the first stage of the day mike on first paper target Smooth turn, good technique on the steel for makeups. Fast reload and proper grip rebuilding. The "go back and pickup misses" works well to reset momentum of hits. Second stage: completely froze up on the swingers especially the second one and hesitated backing up still got 2nd production Completely nailed the activator steels. Notice the way you are tracking the swingers? With practice that will enhance your accuracy on them. Don't wait for them to stop if you are tracking them. Third stage: too slow on the first target through the door but this was my first production stage win so pretty good I guess You look like you are moving fast. Also, way to slaughter that star! Fourth stage: Felt like I did well on this stage 3rd in production on this one. You called the popper hits like a pro. Notice the time between the first shot and the remaining shots? You knew you had hit the steel and moved quickly out after that initial miss. Keep up the good work.

Which 2011 did you go for?

Nice goal list dude. I wish you all the best and anything I can do to help, just let me know.

I went to a match last night at Centennial Gun Club. The stage were plenty challenging and I actually got on a squad with a lot of experienced shooters so it was more like a normal match. I felt pretty good shooting and despite not being able to move as fast as usual due to slippery floor I mostly got my dot set the the correct intensity and shot to my usual ability. The first stage wasn't so good as I plugged TWO no-shoot hits on this really skinny shot. I was the first to shoot it and most people took headshots on it after me and I should have optimized that section better and seen the obvious super-high risk and avoided it like everyone else. However, I got "lucky" and the 20 penalty points did NOT get recorded. HAHA! I hate it when that happens as I can't enjoy my score because my competitors were cheated and that feels crappy. However, in this case I was 46 points ahead of 2nd place so it would not have changed things. The next stage was an unloaded table start stage. There was a shooting box/barricade in front of the table and a lot of time could be saved by loading while moving forward. But in order to get one target a severe lean was needed. I practiced and found that leaning back and making sure to keep the opposite toe touching the ground would result in a C/D zone hit while maintaining a stable platform. I worked pretty well as I shot the stage for 2nd overall and posted the fastest time on the stage. I'm happy with that one and would do it the same way again. I watched the less experienced shooters do all kinds of crazy dances and jumping tricks to try to get that one knocked out and thought about my recent 4 Cores of physical shooting I've been making notes about... "stable platform" is one of them and while this element can look pretty unstable to some, I can see what a truely unstable platform can do to an otherwise perfectly good run. And then the classifier... d'oh! I didn't do so good on this overall, but analyzing it a bit I can see a few things to learn from it. First, I got a mike. Without that Mike, I would have scored a 77.7%. I also dot hunted at the start of my weak-hand string for what seemed like forever (resulting in the mike). It was about 1.5-2 seconds. let's shave off 1.5 seconds for an 85.45% potential. All this is not to beat myself up, but by sort of "removing the mistakes" I can plainly see that all the other shots and movement performed on that run were within the Master realm. This is positive news and I think Lanny Bassham would be proud of my exracting "how did you get all those master level hits" out of this 65% run! Well, I think overall I had a good match and things are looking pretty good for goal progress: 1. Visual Patience. (I saw some good stuff, but clearly lost it for at least 3 shots last night.) 2. Work at better stage breakdown. (1 clear miss on this last night, but another clear win. I know I'm working on it.) 3. Start documenting my process and skillset for mental stability. (Working on it and this is helping me "ground my technique"... or maybe, giving me basis to how I shoot.) CGC Local match. HOA 12/28/14

I did a bit of dry fire practice today on drawing. What got me thinking was this video of Ron Avery. The last time Ron and I talked, I was interested in taking a class from him. I'm still going to do that, I just haven't set aside the $$ yet. Anyways, he mentioned a bit of the type of thing he was talking about in this vid. This felt like a, "if Ron had time to talk for a while longer that day" kind of thing while I watched. So, it got me thinking and I decided to record my draw for slow motion playback for analysis. One thing that changed my game was a class from Paul Clark Jr maybe a year or so ago... maybe longer. He changed my draw completely from a "normal" draw, to a scoop draw. While the high-level look and description of a scoop draw seems to make people think it's different than a standard "over the top" draw. I've come to realize it's not really that different. I really feel comfortable with my draw these days and don't feel it's an area holding me back. Of course I'm not so naive as to believe that I couldn't use help, so if someone gives me advice I'm going to try it. Hence, todays analysis. First, take a look at Ron Avery's video and think about what he's saying about gravity, arm movement and your natural pointing movements and how that relates to the draw. Now, take a look at my video and run it at .5 or .25 speed. First; The overall arm movement and direction of travel for the hands and firearm is "I think" exactly what Ron is talking about. In true Lanny form, I'm looking at the positive. I'm looking for things I've worked on a lot such as no head movement. I used to move my head dramatically to the right to favor my left (stong) eye. Now I more naturally put the gun into my light of sight. My hands, I don't think are making any extra movements and my grip builds in that natural "hand clap" area while the gun continues to move up and out and into my aiming position without moving around or changing direction. Taking a look at the "scoop" portion of the draw. There's actually nothing spectacularly different about it, I'm still placing my hand on the grip and obtaining a full grip prior to raising the gun out of the holster. The only difference is I'm not making an extra down motion. I'm simply trusting myself, that if I grab the gun while my hand is moving up I can do that easily. Watch it very slowly, like at .25 and you'll see that it's very natural and smooth. Another thing that I think is a strong point to my draw is the surrender draw. I practice this almost everytime I practice and when I put my gun on in the safety area I draw about 6-8 times WITHOUT breaking a shot, and then 5 or 6 times from surrender without breaking a shot. I don't remember where I heard about this little warm up, but I picked it up somewhere and like it. So, onto the surrender draw. Watch the vid and there a few things I look at with this one. First is the fact that as soon as my hand hits the gun the differences are gone. There is no difference in my draw or the speed, or the point that my weak hand enters the grip building process. Now for the differences. I lift my hand off the gun and maintain the hand position and especially maintain the wrist and elbow position. That's why my palm is facing away from my head. I'm simply rotating the elbow back down the exact spot I was in before raising it. Watch my elbow in relation to the doorframe and picture on the wall as I go up, and back down during this time. It relates back to what Ron Avery was saying in his video about running the draw backwards and everything remaining the same with respect to to wrist. This makes me think that my surrender technique is actually an advantage over many shooters as I see them take longer to do this draw than their hands relaxed draw. I think my difference in speed for these two draws is negligible. Now, having gone over this, I want to make the point that I'm NOT a GM yet and don't think I'm analyzing this to show others how to do it. I'm analyzing this because that's what we do for constant improvement and wanted to see if I could pick something up from that Ron Avery video. If someone else can pick something up from this comparison or do one of their own like this and improve something for themselves than that would be GREAT.

I'm glad you felt good about the shooting last weekend. Seems like you are doing a great job at analyzing your performance and focusing on what's going well. The fact that you are breaking things down, making sure you are doing what you have to in order to score well is an achievement in itself. I think the move from C-B is all about shooting well, THEN hauling ass. You are on track with that. Keep up the good work. This brings me to your next point about the bullets you are trying. I went through similar issues. People said, "try this, they are better" and I couldn't see an advantage and therefore chose not to change just for change sake. I kept shooting what worked for me and my gun. Only recently have I seen what that difference can give me because I was looking for a specific solution to a problem I identified. It was muzzle climb and when I tried the new bullets my muzzle climb changed just enough to be a solution. Before that, those bullets were a solution to a problem I didn't know I had. That was a really long way of me saying, shoot what you like. Listen to advice of other shooters and wait until YOU see an improvement from equipment changes before you implement them. I use this method for all my equipment. Anyways, I might not be qualified to try to help, but like to see others improve and I thought I would throw my 2 cents in.

My first plan was exactly your "if I was shooting open" plan. I just didn't like having to stab that spot so precisely to avoid overrunning that far right target on the 2nd Right array. I couldn't quite see all the front steel from that position and didn't like having to lean and move over while engaging it. Hence the two small steps while reloading to give a full view of steel at the end. Did you notice the RO almost run into me? He thought I was moving all the way down there... haha. Thanks bro!

Another great weekend of shooting. I was able to make two matches. One at Ben Lomond Gun Club and the other at Weld County. It was cold and generally miserable weather with Saturday being windy and not so cold, and Sunday being not so windy and cold. During these matches it's very easy to let fingers get cold only to find slow or NO movement when going for that quick trigger feathering or reload. I always make sure to keep fingers warm and not RO or Score when I reach in the hole status. It takes a couple of shooters' time to make sure hands are completely working. Basically I shot well this weekend and I was able to snuggle up next to the old Panda for 2nd overall in both matches. The first match at Ben Lomond, I felt like I was remembering my goals with not too many mistakes to note. On a couple of stages there were some "stand and shoot" positions that spread the entire 180 degree span. I was careful in both cases to obtain a far left(or right) stance, pivot by only moving one foot in order rotate to center, then move again to pivot far right (or left) so that I split these positions into 3 cones of fire instead of twisting way too far one way or the other. This felt like the correct choice for such a far spread and resulted in a stable shooting platform throughout the position and good hits. I did forget some things on a couple of stages and wound up with 2 mikes for the match on one stage where I just pushed too hard at speed and forgot to remember the "hawkeye on the dot" goal. Without getting into too much negativity, in the stages where I "screwed up" I did it fast enough to score well anyways.... so not all bad. On the classifier, I was very careful to keep things within my ability and just move as fast as I could comfortably perform everything. During the walkthrough I said, out loud, "no accessory movements." To me, this just means taking the walkthrough seriously and although these are short stages there are still plenty of things to reherse. In this case (Tick Tock CM 13-05), I made sure to get up out of the chair without moving my feet. I loaded, shot and reloaded with a definate squat in my stance so I didn't waste time standing upright, and then bending down again for the reload. I think this as the best way I could run this, and wound up with a 90.8% on this run. hehehehe! On to Weld County on Sunday: Again, happy overall with my performance with one exception and feel like I made some progress on my goals. The first stage to review video on (Youtube Link) was an unloaded table start where I used the old "slap and rack" technique that many people feel is a show-boat routine, but I've been doing it so long I'm positive it's faster than the standard load. I've shown many people how to do it and the only real tricks are 1: don't move your left hand... it just holds the gun while you are loading with your right. and 2: Know when to use it. There are times (like if you are moving) that it will slow you down. So, that stage I'm mostly looking at movement. Especially getting out of that position 1 for the long haul down to the ports. I felt a definate "two large" come out of my feet and just kept pushing. That was truely as fast as I can run and I thought I looked like I was running naturally without a gun in my hand. The footwork between ports was much more difficult for me to try to reherse or decide on. I just decided that was one of those times when you just say, "forget about each step and just get over there as fast as you can." I was only worried about stabbing the correct spot in each port to prevent any re-adjustments needed and I'm very happy with my footwork that wound up just happening. I shot that stage in 17.55 and was a full 2 seconds faster than the 2nd place shooter. The next vid I threw in for more movement (Youtube Link) and was actually very unsure of my plan on this and would welcome a comment from Panda on this one. I decided to just make the wide left/right pivots and wind up with 5 stable shooting positions insteadof trying to float, move, or link these together. Each opportunity for movement was on a high risk (partial no-shoot) target and I did want a reload at the end. Hence this plan that I feel worked well. Again I was fastest on this one, being .5 ahead of the Panda, but both of us were 2 seconds faster than 3rd place. I was rewarded with a good score on this one and despite my lack of confidence it obviously wasn't a bad plan. I'm just wondering if I broke this down correctly. One that I wish I had for the blooper reel was the classifier. It was a mandatory reload and I completely lost control of the magazine during reload. I went to the next magazine and entered "make up world" where the remaining shots went un-aimed resulting in a train wreck. The only reason I bring this up, is because upon reloading said awry magazine I found that it had only 4 rounds in it. The weight had thrown me off, and had I landed that magazine I would have run dry and botched the classifier anyways. The lesson here is dilligence in the between stage routine with checking equipment. so I feel like the "grip strength" and "two large" goals have seated themselves into my routine enough that I can drop them off the list and move onto other things. So my new goal list is as follows: 1. Visual Patience. (the better way to say Hawkeye on the dot) 2. Work at better stage breakdown. Troubleshoot each section as Panda suggests. 3. Start documenting my process and skillset for mental stability. I'll do and talk about this down the road, but its something that's been going through in my head for a while now. Kind of a "how did I get here" notebook. In my career I'm a big-time documentation freak and believe strongly that documentation leads to full understanding and want to translate that to my hobby life. 12/20/14 - HPPS Local, 2nd Overall, 1st Open. 12/21/14 - WCPS Local, 2nd Overall, 1st Open.

I shot another match today at Boulder Rifle Club. It was snowing like hell out there so they did a mini-match. Indoor, 3 stages. Boulder has massive restrictions on angles of fire and limited props so they make up for it with some major tricky aiming and lots of noshoots. Today was no exception. I handled the first stage by staying back and shooting some targets that the iron sight guys had to move forward to hit reliably. This saved me some serious time and even with a noshoot I won the stage. Thinking back on my movement I pushed out of the shooting position hard enough that I slipped and almost fell. The good thing about that is, I was pushing hard and that's what it's all about. The next stage was the classifier and I fell to the "indoor affect" on that one for sure. My time was good and I felt really good, but something didn't quite fly on one of the head shot targets and I wound up with 2 mikes. I'm still astounded by this as I called them hits. I knew I was not in the center, but obviously I'm remembering what I wanted to see and not what I was actually seeing. I know for a fact "it's impossible to miss if the sight is on the target when the gun goes off." I'll have to do better next time. The final stage was another one where I thought staying back was the wise choice. Again, time saved was enough to rescue an otherwise tragic instance of letting shots break before the dot was where it needed to be. At least this time I saw it happening and can learn from it. I shot this stage in 14.75 seconds with 2 noshoots. The next fastest time was a full second slower, but he had NO penalty points. I was JUST shown yesterday that if you shoot only with your eyes you will be fast enough and forgot all about that on this stage. I'll chalk this one up to the indoor effect and not worry too much about it. Overall, it was a fun match and it beat the hell out of the alternative.... not shooting. Goals, once again: 1. Two large ... well, maybe two medium when on a slippery surface. 2. Grip strength. 3. Hawkeye on the dot... repeat... hawkeye on the dot! BRC Local indoor. 12/14/14. 3rd Overall, 1st Open.

I shot a match at Colorado Rifle Club today. It was chilly in the AM, but by the time we started shooting it has already warming up to be a decent day. It was a good match with some challenging stages that varied widely with aiming and speed. I only have 2 vids but it's plenty to see how the goal progress is moving along. First, Is Stage 4 (Youtube link) which required the farthest shots of the day. Not able to really get a solid platform it provided some major challenge for a lot of shooters and I watched many shooters crumble and fall before I was up. I was thinking pretty hard about just how much I'd have to watch my dot make this one mike free. Watching the vid, I for sure hit my "two large" when I exit the shooting area. It might not be that apparent, but I remember pushing hard for 2-3 steps before slamming on the brakes for Position 1. I would say I didn't exactly rocket out of that position but with a reload it was just too much to think "two large" while moving out. When I hit the far right position I can see just how slow the shooting is to make sure all my hits are good. It dosn't look "fast" as my splits are easily up to .25 and the steel looks like I'm shooting it in slow motion... and it felt like that too. It was dot-dot-dot as I just carefully put it where it needed to be before moving on. In true Enos form it was interesting to see this happening and in the end, it was "fast enough." I posted the fastest time (by about 1 sec), only 1 Delta (on a close target), and I was one of 8 out of 25 to shoot this clean. This is a great positive reinforcer and one to stick in the memory banks as a moment of "getting interested in the shooting." The next stage (Youtube Link) is a good one to see a few key points in my movement goals. The step-draw was very nice and the far left target, although clearly out of my cone of fire, was a wide open and I stand my the decision not to change stance as I engaged that last target. Moving to the right looks to me like the minimum amount of movement to square up to that array to be sure I landed properly on them. Those might "look" like low-risk targets but to me the setup was important because A- you can't afford to give up points on those by carelessly slamming that no-shoot, B- the side step for engaging everything on the left of the wall was important to get right. I clearly give it Two Large as I head into the far postion. The final movement point is the hard lean to the right. I was careful to land that position and concentrate on pointing my right foot out. This was a very casual off-the-cuff remark from Ron Avery one day about extending that counter ballance leg out, but making sure to touch the ground with it. I took note of that and this a tecnique that seems to work well for me, and kept me stable during that hard lean for this shot as well. Lastly, was the classifier (13-04, The Roscoe Rattle). DAMN IT! This was one that I could have easliy scored very high on, and was feeling great going in. I was relaxed, and on the first string (turn-draw-6 rounds into a single target.) I landed 6 Alphas in what seemed like a flash. String 2 (turn-draw- 6 rounds into target A, reload, 6 rounds into target . Again, I turned very quickly and landed 6 alphas, reloaded flawlessly (so I thought) but had knocked my safety on during the reload. By the time I fixed it and fired 6 more rounds I had dropped easily 1.5-2 seconds. I still wound up with a 9 second run and only dropped 1 point for a 78.9% on it. Had I not screwed up that reload I would have scored in the GM percentage for sure. Maybe next time. To review. I'm not going to get too worried about that misc malfunction. It was NOT the same issue that I've had before, but I have noticed some magazines aren't feeding the first round when they are at full capacity. On the line I've had to fight to get that round to feed. Once I'm down to the 2nd round (the normal reload setup) I've never had an issue, but more testing is needed so I can fully trust these new rounds. I took a Dremel to the safety tonight and made it hard enough to turn on that it's a manual process for sure. It takes an effort now, and maybe that will prevent this from happening again. This is the 2nd time in about 2 months and I've NEVER done that before, but absolutely CANNOT to it again. Goals. I feel like I made significant headway in all of them and feel more like a Master than ever before. I just need to stop sandbagging! 1. Two large... at least. 2. Grip Strength... feeling good about my splits. 3. Hawkeye on the dot... very few deltas these days and even less mikes. CRC Local, 12/13/14. 2nd Overall, 2nd Open.

Well, another weekend and another match is in the books. I don't know how I did and tried to wait until the results were posted, but there's some hold up with the guys that do that so I'll have to be patient. However, I have high hopes. My gun ran like a raped ape and allowed me to finally get a good match in at my full ability with the new 115gr bullets I've been sporting. No technical issues and I feel like I've learned a lesson about how to impliment changes in my equipment. On to the shooting. The first stage was of my own design and had a bunch of 4' high ports and barrels set around that required some pretty de-stabilized shooting positions. This was coupled with all head-shots to really try to challenge the accuracy portion of someones game. I was very happy with my shooting on this as I was able to pull some quick splits and when it came to the farther targets that were just partial A-Zone's I found it impossible to get out of headshot mode. I had a few makeups on them, but was able to get through the stage very quickly. Next was the classifier 06-05 (Fuffy's revenge 2) and although there's not much to this one, it has to go perfectly or you can quickly identify all the areas to lose points. Well, I was surprised to see my dot immediately land on the first steel and I recoiled off to the first paper target. My increased grip strength really came in handy here as I hit my fastest splits possible across the paper and was immediately rewarded with white steel behind my dot coming off that last target and watched as I hit a super low shot on it, but it still fell. I ran it at 3:07 and only hit a single charlie, netting me a 12.1 HF. That's a 96%...Hell yeah!! The remaining stages went about as well once I had that boost. I was a relaxed, dot watching son of a bitch and I did pull 2 un-called mikes but overall I felt like my shot calling was working well. My movement was good and although I missed some positions, I was very happy with most of it. My ability to index on the indended targets coming into a position really helped to keep a stable shooting platform leading to proper gun/sight alignment. This micro-movement/positional analisys is really helping me to have confidence in my stage plan and identify areas that I was previously losing time in. My new "Two large" goal is another thing that I tried to work on, and although I missed it several times I did manage to conciously work at it. Here's a video of Stage 1 (My last stage) (Youtube Link.) After talking about all these goals and movement I can see some things that I do like about this run. Also, it's for sure NOT my best run as I completely forgot my stage plan and ran it completely differently than intendid. It's downright comical and I decided to post it becuase once in a while you just have to put a screw-up in to show you still have a sense of humor. So, looking at what I like I for sure pull the old Enos "get to the shooting" and get out of the holster and fire my first steel shot (activator) without moving my feet at all. That's where I forgot my stage plan. I hesitate for just a sec on the swinger location and then move onto the intended targets, positioning my feet just right to be able to get good shots on them. When I move into Position 2 I do that one just as planned. The swinger was a port-only shot with no-shoots on either side, so one shot per swing was the only way to avoid catastrophe there. I run down to positions 3 and although I don't get a 100% "two large" sprint it was at least 80%. At position 3 I shoot everything I can see (WRONG) and then it's onto that final postion where I overrun it and have to screw around gaining my balance. I finally get my shit together and finish up, but my index and shooting stance are what allowed me to get all my hits on this stuff even though my mind was freaking out. My goal list remains unchanged for now. 1. Two large. 2. Grip strength. 2. Hawkeye on the dot.

Wow, this thread got some action. Looks like you received some good advice from everyone and you can narrow all this down into an action plan or list of goals to start working on. Keep posting what you are doing. My Journal is 100% for ME. I post like nobody will read it, and if someone does and helps me out, GREAT. If not, the general idea is to journal so you can keep track of your goals and improvements for yourself. Here's a couple more nuggets for you. Read Lanny Bassham's "With winning in mind" to get the idea behind mental management for improvement and take these drills and go for it. Have fun! I honesty have a lot more fun now that I consciously walk away from a stage with "did you see me hit that plate rack?!" instead of "Yeah but I got a Mike." Also, I noticed that you said "I'm not ready" when it comes to USPSA shooting. I call bullshit. Don't let vids and these posts deter you from going for it. Us USPSA guys are just a bunch of nice people having fun. Just like IDPA we are all about the new shooters and enjoy helping people out and we ALL started at the bottom looking at the people ahead of us wishing we were there. The two disciplines are different from each other in rules, method, people, and equipment. People argue back and forth about which is "better" but the bottom line is they are two sides of the same ass-kicking coin. Try both and pick your favorite but don't feel like you "have to be ready" for either.

So, the first question I'll ask you is, what sport are you after here? IDPA? If that's the case then think about the drill you are performing and what that's replicating in the sport. (I have ZERO IDPA experience) However; From a USPSA perspective that's not a usefull drill because we would never fire off a string of shots like that. You aren't practicing splits... you are practicing emptying a magazine. A split is the time between two WELL PLACED (Aimed) shots. There's no such thing as a double-tap. So in order to practice plits you need to either put more targets up and then look at your split times contrasted with your transition times. OR, just shoot two rounds and look at your splits. BUT your split times don't count if they are not accurate. In other words, if a .15 results in an Alpha-Delta hit or Alpha-Mike, then it doesn't matter what the time is... it's too fast. As an example you mention .15-.20 "splits" and I can tell you from my own experience and experiementation (where have I heard that sentence?) that you are trying for some seriously high-end (A Class/Master class) times there. Based on your vid that's a bit advanced for you. Here's what I think you should do. Work on testing YOUR ability based on skills that apply to your sport. Maybe advice from some other local shooters a class or two above you. Then work on some baselines with what YOU can do and how fast YOU can do it. Like, maybe work on maintaining your Yellow Zone hits at increasing distances and times until you fall into the Red zone. Then from those numbers you can work on some goals to meet incremental improvements within the Yellow zone. (if that zone is your acceptable accuracy.) In my case, I didn't even think about improvement based on technical numbers until I was well into B Class and going for A. Up to that point, the list would have been overwhelming and I was just trying to make it through the courses without "doing something stupid." I hope this helps a bit. I'm guessing a lot.

OK, so I shot a match at Centennial Gun Club on Saturday night. I tell you what, they are getting better at creating fun, diverse and challenging stages down there. They are technical enough for us advanced shooters, but there's always a fairly cut and dry way to run them so the beginners can shoot them without camping out in a pile of brass for too long. Good job guys! The first stage I did exactly the opposite of my "watch the dot even more carefully" goal and just pulled lightning fast splits without aiming too carefully. My movement goal was met and I ran the stage fast enough that my score was still darn good even with a ton of C's, a D or two, and a NoShoot. The next stage was really good because it was very technical with having to hit some positions just right, but there were some alternate "easy" positions for the less risky shooter. I felt great on this and watch my dot a lot more actively this time. I had solid A/C hits on all the hard targets and then when I got to the end just hosed down the final array and stepped a bit over the line winding up with a Mike on a full-open target about 10 feet away. Still, nothing to sneeze at but I was amazed at some of the splits I was able to pull with these new rounds. Fun stuff! After that it was more of the same. Some good runs overall, and some obvious moments of forgetting about my goals. I try not put too much weight into the indoor matches since there is a large mental aspect with all the new shooters and there's something different about the stress level in there. Nobody seems to quite relax to the "themselves" point so I think our performance is about 80%. Oh, and on the technical side: My light Dremel work on that "corner" seems to have done the trick. Not a single malfunction! More shooting is obviously needed, but I think things will be much better now. Still a GREAT match and a boost to my confidence that I'll make it to M... sooner rather than later. Still my goal set is. 1. Two large. 2. Grip strength. 3. Hawkeye on the dot.