CrashDodson

At our range we have these massive sun shade things in the bays. They are held up by large steel posts. I build the stage then on the ground have to figure out how to avoid shooting these dang posts and keeping steel out from under the canopy.

Building the stages in sketchup does take a while. Even when copying and pasting stuff from previous stages.

That is a valid option. I live 40 minutes from the range. I just know how long it takes for us to set them up the day before. Getting 20 people to help the morning of could be a challenge. I have thought about trying this method, but I feel like I would be even more stressed out then I am already. I get to the range on the day of the match and all that needs to be done usually is hanging targets and setting activators and a few misc things. Then make sure sign up gets done and tablets taken care of. That alone is enough to stress me out lol.

Its funny and sad that this is my first log post 2 years ago...and still struggling with the same issue.

In a setup like your describing, how do you gauge success? On the timer? My issue is say you run the drill 10 times. 1.cold baseline 2.faster 3. About the same as 2 4. slower than 1 (wtf?) 5. faster than 2 6. About the same as 1 ... How do you determine what you did better in run 2 and in run 5? or determine what you did in run 4 that made you slow? Are you videoing your practice?

It was nice to meet you in person Moto. Jake makes nothing but valid points, we have a love hate relationship. He tells me what I dont want to hear but what I need to listen to. Hes been an invaluable influence on my shooting thus far. So far this year I DQ'ed at two major matches. I dropped my brand new gun at cowtown and now lit off a round while moving at nationals. I just need a 180 to round out the season ROFL. I need to work on how to practice in live fire. I have really been trying to practice better. Some people call it wanting to be spoon fed or whatever but we dont really have coaches in this sport. I recently read a book that explains scientific research for the past 30 years on top performers of all different types of fields. Besides debunking the myth of natural talent, the book proves that what builds an expert in any field is a metric shit ton of deliberate focused practice. And the best way to get this type of practice is with constant feedback. You practice something, receive feedback, practice...repeat. In shooting we are really left up to our own wandering around the range to try and figure this stuff out. I think thats one reason I was attracted to dry fire. Here is a book...Here is a drill...you should be able to do said drill in x time. Go. I have a very small space in my garage to dry fire, turn and draws and small movements is the extent of my options. I have been trying to work out a way to dry fire in the back yard but its usually dark when I can dry fire. I guess I need to invest in some flood lighting and light my backyard up like a stadium. In live fire I am at a point where I can do the most common standard drills in GM times, but this does not correlate to GM or even solid M match performance at major matches. So now I am trying to figure out what to actually practice at the range. Lets say you setup some sort of mini stage type drill. Without some sort of goal, just running that thing a bunch of times doesn't really lend itself to any results. Even having a goal, without any feedback, doesn't really lend itself to good results either. So I dont know if filming practice sessions to self review later is a good way to get more out of practice or what else to do. Perhaps run a drill, walk over to the camera and announce the time. Repeat this so you can maybe review why run 5 was better than run 2. Lets say your a wide receiver running routes in practice, you have a coach right there to evaluate and correct your practice on the spot. Not many of us have that luxury in shooting, so thats what I am currently having trouble with. How do I go to the range, with a goal to practice "X" (after deciding what X is and then figure out how to actually practice X), and walk away from the range feeling like I have learned something? I have trained with Ben a few times and talk to him occasionally. One time he asked me, "so what did you learn", in regards to a practice session. I had no answer, and rarely think I ever really have from solo live fire practice. A few weeks ago I ran the 25 yard bill drill and its the first time where I felt I was getting something out of live fire practice. It was the first time I could say I was decently calling my shots. It was a great feeling, and in that moment practice was fun, but not a feeling I have been able to replicate with other drills. The ballers in this game have learned how to practice, they have learned what method of practice works for them. Outside of gun handling skills practice I have yet to really learn how to practice field course skills. Right now I need to hone shot calling and work on doing everything sooner. Seeing sooner, shooting sooner, moving sooner.

Hopefully thats all it is. Ive had an AD before in practice while trying to smoke a draw. But ive never had it happen during movement. Ive never been called on a finger or anything before.

My experience. I started a USPSA club in Midland TX in December. We already had a 3 gun club that I helped with on a regular basis. I no longer shoot 3 gun but have made a lot of friends through that sport and still help them with their match as much as I can. I got involved with the 3 gun group based on my IT knowledge and willingness to help them get going with Practiscore. Fast forward a year and I start a USPSA club, I am also married with now 3 kids. Im dry firing every night, trying to live fire at least once a week, run a match and balance home life. It is very hard. I am very introverted, nothing makes me more uncomfortable than speaking in front of people, talking to people is a requirement to running a match i have found lol. I find running the match as a good way to get me out of my shell a little bit. We have gone from nothing to 6 stage matches with 50+ shooters, I have guys driving several hours to shoot our match and its because I work hard at designing and producing level 2+ stages at every match. I post scores before most guys leave the parking lot. Our range is a members only range, but they allow non members to shoot our match. We are not allowed to setup for matches until 5PM the day before. Unlike Cha-Lee we are not allowed to use props or steel outside of matches. The problem we have is no matter how much I beg and try to guilt people into helping, we usually end up with 3-6 people coming out to help setup stages. I already offer free match fees to anyone that helps but $20 is not enough to get people to come spend hours of their time. We get enough help tearing down the match but myself and one or two others are left building stages by headlights the night before the match. Its usually me and a bunch of older guys setting up the match. I am quickly burning out. Being MD is stressful. I will never be able to shoot my match the same as I can go and shoot a match somewhere else. I have considered, and still consider not even shooting my own match. By the time the match starts my mind is anywhere but in shooting mode. I also RO a squad and by the time its my turn to shoot I usually have to go find gear and load mags and feel very rushed. If there is any benefit it is that I find myself super relaxed at other matches now. To run the match I have to design stages, build a stage packet that I email out and post to our facebook before the match (I like to see stages before I get to a match so I know others do as well). This takes several hours of my time in the weeks leading up to the match. I then have to keep up with supplies: Pasters, Targets, Tape, Paint, Sticks, Staples, Stakes, Hammers, Drills, Saws etc. I then have to keep up with the finances, take cash to the bank (some refuse to pay online), document all expenses. You then have to repair walls and other props that get shot up or damaged in some way. I also have to deal with the board of directors for the range and all the politics that go along with that. If I was not shooting USPSA I would not have a membership at this range, or any other range for that matter, so dealing with the range and their politics is not fun. Like @CHA-LEE stated you need a good group of help that you can depend on. Be prepared for that group to change over time as people get burnt out and you have to find new blood to swing hammers for a while. So........Is it worth it? I dont know. If I was single or no kids it wouldnt be as hard. Does it get in the way of my own shooting goals? Yes I think it does. There is a quite a bit of time I have to spend on the match that I could have spent on my own practice. Does designing stages help your game? I have not found that it does, building them makes your arms and back stronger though

I think running a drill like this would be good. Working up to nationals I ran a lot of mini stages with a lot of partials and hard targets. But as evident from video I am not shooting wide open targets or easier targets like 50% partials near as fast as I can. When I run drills like accelerator for example, I shoot those well. But in a match scenario it seems like I have an overabundance of caution. I think this mindset stemmed from some issues I had a while back with unexplained mikes due to lack of shot calling ability. Now that my skill set has improved I am still shooting in that mindset. I have not had a mike in a match in a long time but I am also getting beat by several seconds per stage. A little hair on fire practice could be a good thing. Up until the last two weeks my live fire practice has been sporadic at best, and when I did get to the range it was not focused deliberate practice. I have been unprepared and it shows. From dry fire I have gotten good at stand and shoot stuff which has gotten me a paper M card. The seasons almost over but I am going to try to dedicate at least 1 day a week from now on to live fire practice, with a plan and a goal for each session. I need to run Charlies site deviation drills some more, and really burn in those sight pictures.

@CHA-LEE I have the extra power mag spring, I thought about putting two in there! I have noticed the same thing in reviewing my match videos in the past. Sometimes I feel like its so slow I even consciously think at the time, "why am I not shooting". Definitely something to work on a big place for me to find time.

Here are 4 stages that I had videoed. I didn't get video of the stage @CHA-LEE worked because of the stage design and bay size it was hard to get someone with a camera in there. You can see on one stage I had a malfunction. The only thing I can imagine I did was bumped the mag release after reacquiring my grip. I racked the slide and the mag fell out. I currently have the smallest mag button available, and yet I am still getting my bear claws on the release from time to time. I tried dry firing with no button at all but it was really hard to get a good press on the release. Honestly not sure what else to try. I may have my new gun cut for the SV tear drop mag release.

For two weeks until nationals I did not do much dry fire but I shot live fire 4 days a week. I focused on tight shots with partials, hard cover and mini poppers. I had to replace the rear sight on my gun so a little time was spent sighting it in, thats after I messed up the firing pin not knowing the mounting screw for the rear sight goes all the way through into the firing pin channel and has to be trimmed. Luckily my gun smith, Peine Custom, had plenty of extras and sent me a new pin and spring that I received the day before I left. As this was my first trip to nationals I was not sure what to expect. I used points on my hotel stay and I found it cheaper to fly on Wednesday leaving Monday. So I got to nationals two days early. I went on Wednesday and walked stages after driving from . I was able to walk all of the stages by myself without hardly anyone else on the range which was great. On Thursday I went back to the range, registered and walked stages some more. This actually helped as well because I came across some shooters walking stages that gave me different stage plan ideas to think about. I ran a full mag of ammo through every mag in the function fire area. I had tuned my mags before I left home but had not had the chance to test them other than cycling through rounds at the house. At the hotel I dry fired a little and worked on practicing some of the low ports/prone positions that I am not that used to seeing at other matches. Ended up with a nice carpet burn on my elbow! On Friday I got the range about two hours before I was to start. Just worked on getting my mind in a good place. Shot a little in the function fire area. Then headed to my first stage. Overall on Friday I felt I shot decent. I shot a little conservative but I walked away with no penalties and decent points. From practiscore it looked like I was shooting about 2 seconds per stage off the pace of the top guys that had shot my stages so far. Saturday I went in feeling confident with the goal of trying to shoot a little more aggressively than the day before. I knew I could make any shot the match demanded I just needed to do it a little faster. First stage of the day I ended up getting disqualified. The stage started you in the center with a run to the left or right. I went right came into an open target, with transitions to partials and then to an open 45 degree target. I actually started leaving this position too soon, it was an awkward exit requiring a step back to get moving and avoid hitting your gun on the wall. I ended up taking a makeup shot on the 45 degree target one handed as I left this awkward position. At this point I knew I needed to chill out a bit but was still full of adrenaline. I came into the position on the left, setup on the open target, transitioned to the partials and finished on the 45 degree target. Leaving this position was a short run to the next position where I dropped a mag to reload while running and had an accidental discharge before arriving at the next position and before inserting the new mag. It all happens so fast I am not certain exactly what I did but I either did not clear my finger all the way after starting the reload/movement or I had a lose grip and my finger slipped back in and tapped the trigger. The gun was pointed in a safe direction the round went through the wall and impacted the berm. I showed the RO a cleared gun and made the walk of shame back to my cart. I dont get very emotional but the weight of disappointment and embarrassment was pretty heavy. I sucked it up, bagged my gun and got my tape gun ready to work. I shot a lot of pasters and paint the rest of the day. We finished around 2:30 and I drove to the grand canyon for a little soul cleansing. I went back the next day and shot a lot more pasters and paint for my squad. I went to the awards banquet, even though I did not know many people at the match, just to get the full experience of the event. Despite the DQ it was still a good experience. I met a lot of great people in my squad and got to experience a level 4 match. The match did not feel any different to me than a level 2/3 match except it just had more stages. I found this a little surprising but I really didn't know what to expect going into it. There were a lot of tight shots, a lot of headshot only targets, plenty of no shoots and mini poppers. Everyone pretty much ran the same stage plans. I shoot the High Desert match this weekend in Albuquerque, hoping for a little redemption. I finish out the major match year with the Gator at the end of the month.

@hwansikcjswo when you mention analysis, are you referring to video analysis? Is this your match video, other shooters match video or some of both?

@SCTaylor How do you setup your mini stages for dry fire? How much room do you have?

Shot calling is frustrating. For something that should be so easy, I mean the data is right there in your face. I have the ah-ha moments where I feel something wasnt right and I shoot good makeups at times. But as far as knowing the difference in a A and a C, I for sure cant do that. I can see maybe 25% of my "D"s usually if they are low, I dont see the left and right as much in the sights as I notice the fiber low in the notch.

Ive always shot limited so dont have the gun switching problem but could see that as an issue. In November i am going to get a dot for my limited gun and see if it helps me refine my shot calling.

Here we go again... Maybe I can stick with it this time. Its interesting seeing my progress reading back through this log. I made A class in December 2016 and made M class in July in limited. I've made it to M class almost purely through dry fire and some unorganized live fire training. For about 3 months straight I did Andersons 12 drills, two sessions a day about 30 minutes per session. Sometimes longer sometimes shorter. This got me to M class on paper. Recently shot Area 4 and ended up 23/100ish in limited at near the bottom of M class. I shot 73% of Cooley and, though not apples to apples, only 5% better than last year as a C class shooter. I had a few magazine related malfunctions that caused a few seconds of loss. I also changed to a .400 bullet right before the match and did not shoot any of them. I had about 50% of my rounds tumble at the match and I believe it cost me at least two mikes and a no shoot on one long distance array. Regardless it was not a great performance and I came away with an understanding of some shortcomings. It seems mentally that I have difficultly shooting partial targets with any sort of speed. I have a lot of hesitation and I am losing time when there are a lot of partials on the stage. I am really focusing on that now in training leading up to nationals. I came away from A4 a little discouraged and have not been dry firing regularly since then. I did get three live fire sessions in this week, which is more then I have done in one week in a long time. The trouble with my live fire practice up until this point is it has been disorganized and unproductive. I go to the range without a plan, shoot some drills and walk away without learning anything. Recently I have been reading a lot about sports performance and great performers in general. Most recently "the art of learning" and "peak". Peak gets into a lot of research done on performance and basically proves that innate talent in great performers is not really a thing (barring physical limitations). That to become great at something it takes thousands of hours of what he calls purposeful and deliberate practice. You have to practice with extreme focus and determination. You can spend thousands of hours practicing with no purpose and really get nowhere. For a while now I think thats where I have been. In this robotic phase of repetition, but repetition alone will not get me where I want to be. This year I trained again with Ben, and with JJ and with Anderson. I hosted Ben and JJ at my club and Anderson came up as an opportunity and I figured why not. While they all have different approaches, what is apparent about great shooters is that they have learned how to practice. While you can read all the books and take all the classes you want, in our sport it is ultimately up to us to carve out our own training path. The great ones have found what works for them and that is what I am seeking to do. Shooting is different from other sports in where there are many experts and coaches available to guide you along the way. It seems the experts and coaches in practical shooting hand you the tools but then expect you to find your own path. Or it seems many of the great ones in our sport cant really regurgitate what it took for them to become great. In the book "Peak", he talks about the only real way to get in deliberate practice is with guidance and feedback from experts and coaches in your area of training. The way he describes to become great at something is to work with a coach who can provide constant feedback and adjust your training accordingly. In practical shooting we are pretty much on our own to come up with our own training plans and evaluate their effectiveness. Hopefully we can all figure that out for ourselves before we are too old for it to matter. In my second live fire session this week, on the recommendation from @CHA-LEE I ran some drills to help with my shotcalling shortcomings. The first was a sight deviation drill where you have targets at multiple distances and displace your sights to learn what sight picture is required at a given distance. While I have done similar drills in the past I have never really taken them seriously. I found that out until about 15 yards its hard to not get A's. at 20 and 25 yards the sight displacement becomes more apparent. At 25 yards the fiber in the bottom of the notch or above the notch will produce D/M hits. While no light bar on the left or right will still produce C hits at 20 and 25 yards. I am using a manny dot front with a .090 rear, with a wider rear notch this left and right displacement would be much greater. On Saturday I had a lot of time to focus on a good practice session which lasted about 3 hours. I started with a 25 yard bill drill. I started the drill with the goal of focusing on my sights and attempting to call my shots. From one of my classes with Ben he recommended a par time of 4 seconds for this drill for me. My first attempt at the drill was over 5 seconds but I quickly found out I can shoot this drill as quickly as mid 3's with acceptable hits. The faster I shot the drill the more I was seeing in the sights. I would walk up to the target knowing that I had a shot low or high and while not sure the exact placement 75% of the time I would have a hit where I called. This is really a first for me and was a big confidence boost. I found that I would break shots 3-6 with the fiber lower in the notch than I should, and once I really focused on my support hand grip I was shooting impressive groups for 6 rounds at 25 yards under 4 seconds. I got the best groups when I had my strong hand deep in the web of my thumb/index in the beaver tail and could feel the edge of my palm riding the magwell. In the past I have had the tendency to shoot with my whole hand by tightening my grip as I pulled the trigger. The second drill I ran was the "tight squeeze II" classifer as this has 3 partial targets that I really wanted to focus on after A4 and upcoming nationals. GM HF for this in limited is 9.82ish based on the AZS calculator app. I started out shooting a 7.4 HF with my average being in mid 8's and 9.02 being my best out of 15 or so runs. I focused on different breathing techniques to calm myself and clear my head. The two closer no shoot partials are really no concern. The center zebra target takes a little more patience to shoot. I was seeing 1.2 draws and 1.1-1.4 reloads. My live fire draw and reload times are surprising to me verses my dry fire par times which are much faster. Finished the session with a two position mini stage full of partials and mini poppers. Focusing on hard entries and easy/hard exits. Some with reloads. Hoping to get three more live fire sessions in this week and at least 30 min a day on dry fire. Trying hard to regain my dry fire motivation.

Ive been using the manny dot and havent broken one in about 10k rounds on my new gun. I likley dont grip as hard as you though.

Having the sights return to target is 10% stance and 90% gripping the piss out of the gun.

I can definitely memorize the stage. I am not consciously making decisions when shooting a stage, i dont think. I could look at a stage for a while then easily draw it on paper. I can draw past stages I have seen before. But I can not visualize, with my "minds eye", anything. Let alone visualize shooting a stage at a match. JJ said he can close his eyes and see the stage in his mind. I can not do that. Its one reason I dont like reading fiction, because I cant visualize the book. Like if someone said "visualize a blue hat", thats not something I can do. I do on occasion find myself day dreaming, and seeing things in my minds eye. But I can not do it on demand.

I still think shot calling is voodoo meant to keep us mortals confused! I ran some mini stages yesterday and had one round tag a no shoot square in the face on a 10ish yard half covered target. Did not see it in the sights at all. I had to look around the private range I was at to make sure someone wasn't on top of the berm with a supressed gun f*cking with me. Something as simple as watching whats in front of your face is so hard to do. I do agree that shot calling is important, if not the most important skill I can learn. I have also learned I cant pay someone to teach me how to do it. Its there in front of me but I cant get my brain to register the data yet. It happens sometimes, like random daydreaming, but it does not happen on every target. I know it takes time and as you also know Jake, I am not very patient . Besides shot calling the other thing I know is holding me back is what I would call a lack of sense of urgency. I cant figure out how to shoot a stage with urgency or aggression or whatever you may call it. I shot my local match this past Sunday, and while I won limited I had a (sandbagging) B class shooter only a few % behind me, but he shot the match 6 seconds faster than me. A local open GM shot the match 16 seconds faster than me . I have area 4 this weekend and a second or two a stage is really going to show itself over 12 stages. Shooting a match mostly clean works at most local level matches but at an area match I am going to have to shoot it clean, faster. Not sure if I am shooting too cautious or what. What do yall do to get in the zone or match mode or whatever you want to call it? I rehearse the stages as much as I can but I also dont see vivid mental images that others say they can see. For me its actually looking at the stage and going through the process in my head but I cant close my eyes and see the stage or targets or anything like that. When I took a class with JJ we talked about this and he asked what color my front fiber was, green. He said try to at least visualize the green dot on the target if I couldn't visualize the whole gun, but I cant seem to do that either. I think I am mentally defective lol. When I step up to the line I dry fire once, rehearse the stage again while looking at the stage/targets and try to take a couple of deep breaths. I dont ever actually feel ready, quiet, at peace or whatever one may call it.

Thanks @CHA-LEE. Any tips for working through that? I have considered working with a mental training coach but its a little cost prohibitive and just unsure if it would help. There are a lot of choices out there for sports psychology / mental training. I have been trying to work on a trigger or mental switch to get me into, for lack of a better term, the zone.

At the end of practice yesterday I ran a few drills for fun Bill drill: 1.67, 1.82 and 1.74 4 Aces 2.55, 2.17 , 2.05 and 2.13 I could never get 4 aces below 2 sec like I do in dry fire. My best first shot was .7 something. Not the .6 draw par that I run in dry fire. The draw drill that I run in dry fire is just draw to sight picture so perhaps .7-.8 is not that bad live. On the 4 aces its evident that I feel like I need to see more shooting live then I feel I need to see in dry fire.

Some good stuff here to chew on for a while, thank you. I do think there needs to be a balance but at the same time I think a lot of people never push the speed as far as they can. Perhaps because of their strict front sight front sight front sight way of thinking. If someone doesn't learn what it feels like to go fast, then I dont think they will ever be able to obtain the speed gains that are possible. Dry fire is a good place to push to the ragged edge safely then go out and see what you can actually do live. I shot el prez at a match in July. I slightly fumbled the reload and shot 58 points in 5.92 seconds. Clearly slower than the 3.6 par time I generally run in dry fire. I need to find a way to get my best runs and cold runs of a skill closer to each other. It seems like just pounding out repetitions of a skill, even while getting faster at that skill, is not going to take me to the next level. Now if I was to dry fire el prez at a 5.0 par time it would feel like an eternity. I will run it a few times with the par set at 5 and see what it feels like to ensure A hits. Granted there are a lot of factors like the use of scaled targets and the distance between them. I only have so much space to work with. I recently read an old interview with seeklander and Eric G. He said that he doesn't use a par timer in dry fire (the little dry fire that he does). I think I need to balance my dry fire more with a better mix of static drills and simulated course type stuff with no par time.