chickenzomby

I think that a good show will have enough variance in the way you can shoot the stage(s) that each shooter can use their strengths. Combine that with former or current high level shooters that are fun to listen to commenting on the events as they unfold with slow motion replays. Stages with plenty of cool "moments" that can be analyzed and talked about. We don't have much of that (variance or commentators) right now, which is a critical failing point of broadcasting the sport. I've watched electronic games (mostly starcraft) for fun and the scoring system and metrics are complex and I don't fully understand any of it - but it's fun to watch because of the commentators and unpredictability of each player. The commentators break down everything into somewhat easy to understand layman's terms so the viewer knows why the players are doing what they are doing. Again, I know nothing about it nor do I have a desire to play the games, but it's fun to just watch it. I think that we have enough talent in the shooting world to do something like this, but the quality of the commentator is what separates us from getting viewership. 3GN has started something kinda like this with Patrick Kelly commenting on what shooters are doing, but I think the format can be made even more entertaining for a youtube-type broadcast, especially with how fast paced USPSA is. Top Shot gets most of their views from young adults, and 3GN as well if I remember correctly, it's just that we need a better way to format the coverage of the match. ESL has a lot of viewers and the pot keeps getting bigger for championship matches (DOTA 2, which my brother plays, currently has a crowdfunded prize pool of over $18 million). I think the viewership can be gained, given enough investment from USPSA and others. This will filter down to the average shooter and get more people out to matches. More capacity at matches means more sponsors, which means more money in the sport that I think every shooter will see. Yes, the higher level shooters will benefit primarily from this influx of money, but I think that with more chance of exposure comes more sponsorship money and better quality stages. This directly benefits most shooters because bigger prize tables are possible and more people will produce equipment and tools for the sport. When 3GN started to hit it big, quadloading a shotgun was in its infancy, and now there are multiple companies producing them at different price points. I think this will mean more accessories, more customization, and all at a cheaper price point. I don't think we should be fixated on maintaining the status quo or changing targets or not, I think we need to figure out a way to broadcast ourselves to the world and grow. More exposure equals more money, and if at the highest levels that means changing the targets to attract non-traditional sponsors, so be it. I don't think it will necessitate discarding the humanoid target, but small changes that bring more shooters are a net benefit to the sport.

USPSA is not practical, by and large. The raw shooting skills (grip, trigger manipulation, recoil management, etc.) do translate over to combative shooting, but the target presentations, dropping fully loaded mags, running through door ways, sticking guns through ports, race holsters, etc. are not by any stretch of the imagination. We are fully a game. The primary reason of switching over to turtles, in my mind, is drawing in more sponsorships. Wild West 3 Gun match last year had red bull girls handing out drinks and taking pictures. This is not to say we need to switch targets, but I think equating it to weakness and caving into anti-firearm groups' demands or a slippery slope with airsoft or laser guns at the end is overreactionary. And trying to claim we are getting away from our "roots" by switching targets is ignoring all the non-applicable stuff that looks good on camera but does not make a better shooter out of you. IPSC is balanced more towards raw shooting skill and consistently making very hard shots, even though it might be slower. All this said, if a match or the organization as a whole can get a major sponsorship for switching targets to a smaller A zone target, it just increases the difficulty and the skill required to compete. If anything, we should welcome a better test of our skill. A TV broadcast would require a format that lends itself to "moments" - like knockouts in UFC or touchdowns in the NFL, action shooting would need to have stages with reactive steel targets that are cool to watch when shot. When Max Michel shot the 18 rounds with two reloads in under 5 seconds video, it was a moment that could be replayed and enjoyed, because it had that wow factor. In regards to changing the sport for the better though, outside of scoring simplification, I think that there needs to be support for collegiate teams. Once junior shooters move to college, it seems that all the support they got as juniors evaporates. Collegiate teams would allow for continuity of their shooting and feed more people into the sport. For as many junior shooters as we bring into the sport, how many drop off or reduce the amount of participation when they enter college? Plus, you have alumni groups and established team loyalty (imagine a man on man steel shootoff between rival universities - that's pretty easy to spice up and sell to sponsors) to drive viewership. Most of the problems arise when there is no coach to help guide the changing team leadership and keep them accountable. Still, a collegiate identifier would be nice (like junior, lady, mil, LEO, etc.), and you can even live webcast it if you get enough teams at one match, similar in setup to golf. The other improvement I could see to make would be in adding team events (and not just 4 people's scores are added together...), such as a relay race of some kind, or stand and deliver stuff. There are tons of ways it could be done, but we're still doing the same thing we've always done and have not tried to think at least a little outside the box. Instead, it's been adding divisions. We could have companies sponsor loaner pistols to send to clubs along with gear for new shooters, or have clubs host new shooter matches and get a coordinator or marketing director that actively pushes USPSA across the USA. Exposure to a wider audience is what the sport needs. You make some allowances for spectators, but broadcasting to fanbases that already have intense pride and loyalty (collegiate) would be help, though would probably take a little while.

Please move me to the Race to M Class - Just got my A card in the mail!

Grip power balance is important - both hands have to grip in such a way that the energy exerted between them is "equal," that way the gun points perfectly every time. Another important part of this is to isolate the movement of your trigger finger by gripping hard with your firing hand, preventing the trigger finger from pushing the gun. The prevailing theory behind Vogel's grip is to place as much force near the bore axis as possible. How each person accomplishes this with each gun is based upon the individual shooter. Vogel pinches using the base of his support hand thumb and the area underneath the palmside portion of the knuckle of his trigger finger. He then rotates his elbows slightly out bound to exert the pressure. It takes awhile to learn and each person has to adapt the theory and find out what it means. I focus more on the balance of power between support and firing hand, and am still trying to find the best balance that brings the gun down from recoil.

Pretty good stage for me - a few mental hic cups and no practice on swingers of any kind. Used a grab bag of ammo that led to that malf (mentally hit myself on the last two plates). On the 3rd and 4th set of targets (with the single plate and two metrics and two metrics) I had good movement on them (within 7 yards) and had all A hits on them. I had a good pause on the single steel plate to make sure I nailed it on the first round. Any critiques would be appreciated. Overall, I think I could have shot faster and still maintained my A hits, especially on the second set of targets. I need more practice on moving targets (like swingers).

I...have the opposite issue. My hands are bigger than his, so my hand position is different from his. My support hand index finger wraps around the trigger guard and grabs the point where the trigger guard meets up with the frame, and my palm makes contact with the slide stop (I have begun to get a callous on my left palm from the slide stop rubbing against it in recoil).

Finally able to settle down from Area 6. Lots of things learned, but most importantly, GET REST THE NIGHT BEFORE. Didn't sleep a wink and 9 IPSC long courses and 3 short courses really made for some mental fatigue. It has been a long time since I was able to shoot metric targets, and it showed. I was naturally "aiming" to the right because of a rear sight I was forced to install on my Glock the day before the competition (previous one had its set screw back out). This caused my 4 mikes, 3 deltas, and 1 no shoot. My reloads were sloppy. What I thought was an ingrained skill wasn't. Will run additional drills and attempt to find my natural point where I fold the gun for reloads. Oddly enough, the stage where my mind was feeling the sleepiness and mental fatigue the most was one of my more solid stages (yank the crank). I told myself I would "just" watch my sights and only focus on getting hits and nailing my footwork and reloads. Oddly enough, everything came together on that stage - Lanny Bassham's advice of "focus on the process" is something that I will now model my shooting off of - focus on the process. A couple of big breakthroughs for me though - I noticed that when I placed my focus or attention on my sight, I was able to see the gun rise in recoil. This has been happening more frequently for me and the only thing that I can think of to achieve it is to focus on my sights and let my subconscious press the trigger, then I don't think about blinking.

I was at the class where that video was filmed. As since, I have adopted and modified his grip technique to fit my hand size and type. The purpose of canting the handgun is because it places the supporting arm in a more natural position to grip the handgun fully (otherwise there can be a gap on the lower half of the palm). The goal is to utilize the twisting of the hands at the elbow to exert force upon the grip in the area close to the axis of rotation. He is trying to form a sort of clamp on the grip and prevent the firearm from recoiling significantly. It has taken me awhile to adopt this technique fully - the balance between the right and left hand grip strength when holding the pistol is something that has to be felt out, as too much of one or the other makes the gun track wrong and will also throw off the natural pointing of the pistol.

one thing that helped me get my sights on target consistently was to visualize my draw right before it happened. Imagine seeing a pre-image of what your draw will look like, almost like seeing runway lights of where the plane is supposed to go for a landing or takeoff. You visually imagine this pathway and then let the buzzer go off, initiating your draw. Your body, after enough repetition, will be more consistent on aligning the sights on target.

So I didn't get any video of my practice, and it was probably a good thing. Theory meeting reality can be harsh. I need a lot more practice on those transitions, though I was able to string together a few great runs. Today I shot and one the local club match. Mostly production and limited shooters. I shot High Standards with a 59.83% (tried to do some fancy footwork on the mag changes and made it fall apart. Screwed up the transfer of the gun from my right to my left hand) and then shot Any Given Sunday with a 100%. I'm pretty sure it isn't a GM score, but Classifier calculator says it is. HF of 8.2474. The funny thing I found was that it was SLOW. I saw the sights rise in recoil, the slide moved back slowly, I could recall every shot I made, where I thought it had gone, but I did so instinctively, I 'felt' it. Now that I checked the scores for the match, I realize what it was and I'm going to work to achieve that state again!

I use a derivative of Vogel's grip technique - imagine your shooting hand is directing its pressure down and away from it (the direction of your palm if that makes sense) and your support hand is rotating up and towards your firing hand. You are "pinning" the axis of rotation of the gun in between your support hand index finger and the base of your support hand thumb. You do rotate your elbows in, but you use your chest, triceps, and shoulder muscles to accomplish the rotation, exerting significant force on the axis of rotation, thus reducing recoil to a minimum. You also have a tendency to cant the gun to the right a few degrees (though the angle doesn't matter) to match the rotation of his elbow so that his support hand wrist maintained a position that allowed maximum force to be applied through it to the gun.

Please add me to the production list - currently unclassed. A81983

My name is Matt, and I am a currently-unclassified-but-shoot-B-class-classifiers USPSA shooter that also shoots Steel Challenge and 3 Gun. This is a collection of my thoughts and ideas as I travel towards GM and national level matches. I would greatly appreciate comments, critiques, and advice from everyone. 2/21/14 - Dry fire day in preparation for live fire day (2/22) - Objective: continue to explore what I believe to be a breakthrough in my transitions by way of shooting the 4 scholastic pistol program stages - Method: Move smoothly/slowly at first, attempting to grasp the basic mechanics, gradually speed up and search for failure points or problematic habits, also observe the most efficient way (fastest) in terms of body and technique mechanics. - No par time, perfect runs, move into a high par time, work smoothly, get "perfect" runs consecutively, move to a faster par time. Continue doing this until I cannot keep up with the timer (defined as moving so quickly that my technique is either deficient, or it deteriorates to the point of ineffective "hits" on steel) - Work in four drills on each stage using the previously mentioned methodology: from aiming stake to first target with a good trigger break on the first steel plate. Then accomplish the "hardest" "zone" (termed by KC Eusebio - it essentially means zones of the stage) using the same methods, focusing on transition movement between them. Then run the zone after the hardest zone. Finally, put all together by running the entire stage. Outcome: Beginning to become more aware of the necessary components of the transition. A few key areas I've noticed that seem to be required: -"seeing" the target and sights: I've noticed that my binocular focus is on a space in between the plate and my sights, so my sight focus would be a 2 or a 2.5 depending on the plate. My view on this has changed significantly, from having a type 4 focus (razor sharp front sight) to a type 1 (target focus) to now floating somewhere in between a 2 or a 2.5. My awareness of all targets is also something I've begun to notice as well - opening my eyes to see every target and my gun (and the aligned sights) in my peripheral vision allows me to transition much faster. - Open the calculator on your computer. select a set of numbers you have to input (I was calculating my team's scores for scholastic pistol program when I was doing this) and try and input them as fast as possible. To go faster (past a certain point), you have to maintain a focus or awareness of all the numbers and signs on the calculator. The awareness of all numbers and signs allows me to direct my "attention" as I term it (the focus of my mind within the general awareness of the calculator) to a specific number (my target) and also lets me track where the pointer is (my sights) as it goes to meet the number (target). When it reaches that number, my mind subconsciously clicks the mouse (pulls the trigger) because it "sees" the pointer aligned on the number (where my attention or focus is) and then my attention transitions to the next number (because I am observing or seeing all the numbers on the calculator at the same time without a specific focus on them this is easy and fast). As the pointer (gun) moves towards the number, I see it moving very close to the next number and I subconsciously slow it down using my hand to guide it in the last little bit and then my subconscious sees the alignment of the pointer on the next number and clicks immediately. This is the state of my awareness and kind of how I figured out how maintain a certain awareness of my targets and my gun in relation to them. - "abandoning" the sights: I have trouble with refocusing on my sights just before they reach the target, loosing my awareness and general focus and consequently not aligning the sights with the target. - Knees: I never really got the idea of only using your knees and I thought I was transitioning correctly until one night when dry firing I had one run where everything tracked perfectly and VERY quickly. I have been trying to analyze that instance and the following instances for a week now and one thing that I have noticed is that you have to "lock" your upper body and your hips together to transition without "jerking" the sights past the target. Additionally, I'm still trying to figure out how to consistently maintain control over the movement of my knees so that I can move quickly to the next target while still being "smooth" and not causing my legs to "whip" the rest of my body and throw me off target. Video to follow tomorrow for critique on technique.

I like being able to adjust my POI depending on the stage. Call me crazy, but just like on a rifle, I like to know what my rounds do at different ranges. I really only adjust mid match if there is a long range stage (like at Area 3). Go from a 25 yard zero to a 50 yard zero in a few clicks and back again.

My team got a line on a set of McNally triggers for use with our limited guns. It does allow for adjustment of pre- and over-travel with only the slide removed. One thing that I have noticed is the trigger bar and trigger safety pins will "walk" out of place. For full disclosure, the one used in my G34/35 was used extensively before it came into my possession. It is my understanding that the standard McNally trigger is not Production or SSP legal. Bottom line: I prefer the "feel" of a Glockworx trigger. A buddy of mind prefers the McNally.