NickBlasta

10/20/2015 Dryfire Report Thanks for the suggestions guys. It's not so much jitters for me- I mean, I get those, but I can usually make them go away by doing a little calming breathing during make ready. It's just that I'm not *in gear* for the stage yet, know what I mean? I'm thinking I might try a stretch routine to physically warm up, and a full-speed walkthrough to get mentally warm. We'll see how it goes. Today I basically practiced the classifier I failed on on Sunday, Quicky II, since it's revealed a weakness I can target. Mostly this consisted of 3 targets, engaging them, reloading and transitioning to SHO/WHO. I know what I did wrong- in livefire I was attempting the reload while dropping into my offhand stance, bad idea. In dryfire I reloaded and then dropped into the stance on the hand transition, much faster. I was able to nail it in DF. One thing I noticed is I'm getting more comfortable using my left eye for WHO rather than bringing the gun over a bit to find the dot with my dominant eye. It feels a lot smoother in practice and I have fewer moments where I have to shuffle to find the dot. Interesting!

The floor for major in Limited and SS is 40 to create a safe space for 40 and 45. If 9mm/38 was allowed to make major everyone would shoot that instead in Limited, because it would be a straight capacity advantage. I imagine it's a purist thing for SS?

10/19/2015 Dryfire Report After yesterday I decided to target reloads again. Did 6-reload-6-reload-6 for awhile and felt pretty good about it. I can do about 4.8 seconds without missing the magwell or fumbling. One thing I forgot to mention in the match report from Sunday is that I'm starting to realize, as I get more experienced, that I have a real problem with shooting cold. My first stage is invariably my worst, and my last stage is usually one of the best, with a sliding scale of worst to best as I move through the match. This is a problem.

10/18/2015 Match Report Open Div - 3rd of 16 - 88.995% Open A - 1st of 6 Overall - 3rd of 54 - 88.987% Classifier 99-13 "Quicky II" (15A 3B 6C 15.67s) - 7.0836 HF - 67.46% 904 of 970 available points - 148A 6B 36C 3D 1M - 93.19% (94.74% without penalties) Felt like I had a good match. I couldn't do quite what I wanted on several stages with my pulled quad- I had to rein it in pretty hard to keep from straining it again, but a lot of the stages were stand and shoot or more technical limited movement so I could hang. I sucked out loud on the classifier which is very disappointing. Fumbled my reloads pretty bad. At least it's low enough that it won't count against my average.

Your grip should be solid enough to where it doesn't matter how you pull the trigger.

Cool podcast!

10/16/2015 Dryfire Report To keep things easy on my quad I did some SHO/WHO at first and then blake drills. My surrender to WHO transition was a little spotty so I wanted to work on that. Tightened it up pretty well by the end.

10/15/2015 Livefire Report Shot a couple stages today for practice. I ended up minorly pulling my right quad and it didn't agree with this whole practicing thing anymore, so I didn't do a lot. I'm gonna have to take it easy with the movement for awhile... which isn't easy. Misc I am officially A-class. Also at a higher percentage than I thought due to how the classifiers slotted into the update. 1%'s not that hard right?

10/14/2015 Dryfire Report Did movement practice, particularly with starting off with long strides and ending with quick steps at a fault line. I watched that open super squad video from nats and was wanting to try some of the pro movement techniques. I noticed Max Michel has a strategy of coming into a fault line with his heel, shooting, and then using his heel to push off the fault line. Simple idea but surprisingly effective.

Not sure why you'd say that. I'm not telling anyone anything about this. I'm ASKING because I've heard mixed things out there. And I'm hearing mixed things here. Also, since you know more about rules than most everyone on here, why not just answer the two questions in first post so we can all be better RO's and not start someone that is not in compliance with the start position? Simple yes/no answers would suffice Well, there's an anecdote, 'I asked Troy this and he said this...' and there's a sourced quote. I'd think the real quote would be more valid than the anecdote. If not though, maybe he changed his mind on the ruling. The quote is from last week which would make it most recent.

10/12/2015 Dryfire Report I was really tired today so I just tossed up El Prez. I was really sloppy to start but once I got warmed up I found I was edging inside the 3.5 par! I even felt like I was in control and not moving crazy fast. That excites me. I did it for about 30 minutes, nailing it every time, but then I started to get tired and got sloppy with my reloads so I called it for the day.

10/11/2015 Match Report Open Div - 1st of 7 - 100% Overall - 2nd of 54 - 96.918% Classifier 09-09 "Lightning and Thunder" - 82 HF - 91.11% 689 of 760 available points - 99A 5B 44C 4D 1NS - 90.66% (91.97% without penalties) First match as A. I accomplished a mini-goal today, winning a weekend club match. I knew I could probably do it when everyone was off at nats. I managed to shoot another M-score on the classifier. I don't think I racked my gun at the make ready but I still got the 6 shots on target before the buzzer. I think racing it knocked me out of a 95%, since I accepted charlies to race the par time. Derrrp. I had a NS on stage 5 which was disappointing. Rolled right in and shot carelessly at a partial and ate the NS first shot. I hope I will be M soon?

10/10/2015 Match Report HK USP45 / FN SCAR 17s / Stoeger M3000 Heavy Optics Div - 1st - 100% Overall - 23 of 68 - 70.875% Raw time 465.24 + 12.5 seconds for penalties I shot Custer's once-yearly Z-Pocalypse charity match for Toys for Tots. We raised I think about $8500 for charity and had some fun. The weather was crazy, it alternated between nice, very windy, and pouring rain. Poppers and props were blowing over and I got soaked. I won because shooting heavy is like shooting in L10, you have nobody to beat but yourself. I thought I shot okay, I can't really drop praise or take my criticisms too seriously when I just don't practice with my rifle or shotgun at all. I made a bunch of mistakes, mostly related to stage planning and target engagement. Going back to shooting irons with no warmup is a trip, though, I can't hit anything. What are these things on the top of the gun? You have to line them up?? Also the paddle mag release on the USP gives me trouble. I engage it with my middle finger and it's easy to miss. And you really have to not cheat on your grip when shooting .45! Stage 3 was my favorite. You had 3 heads with a marker under each to tell you what gun to use and knocked over one head at a time. The barrels blowing over during my run just made it more dramatic. Back to USPSA.

10/9/2015 Dryfire Report Did 3 gun stuff in prep for the weekend. Halfheartedly tossed shells into my shotgun to refresh, did DA/SA with my USP, and made sure the SCAR was still on target. Just about as much work as I wanna put in for funhaving.

10/7/2015 Dryfire Report Started with component transitions and went to a full transition drill. It's nice to do learning drills sometimes to refresh them fundamentals. After that I designed a quick stage based around tight movement in my house. Mini stages like this will help me with my explosive movement. I see that too often I move with full strides, which is sloow for short distances, I need to make quick, short foot movements. Misc Have a 3 gun match this weekend that I'm going to and I gotta decide what I want to take. I suppose I should DF with irons some so I look a little more like I know what I'm doing.

10/6/2015 Match Report Open Div - 1st of 2 - 100% Overall - 1st of 13 - 100% Well I won an indoor match. I don't think I shot very competently- felt slow, wasn't on my game. Pulled a mike into the hardcover shooting strong hand which is atypical for me, I made it up on the weak hand portion but of course that's a procedural for extra shot. It was enough to win, but oh well.

Thank you. 10/5/2015 Dryfire Report I didn't have a plan for today, so when I tossed on the belt and the gun, I decided to see if I could run up against that 3.5 par in El Prez again. I found I was able to consistently make it, while being waaay better at placing alphas and calling every click of the trigger. Is this what getting better feels like? So I ran with it for 30 minutes. Tried some different hand positions for surrender. Prior to my dryfire of late, I'd always kept my hands tight around my face/brim of my hat. I think I'm faster if I keep my right hand a bit far out to the side, I can swing it right down onto place on the gun. I just don't see anyone else do that, which tells me it might be wrong. Hm!

10/4/2015 Match Report Open Div - 2nd of 15 - 88.02% Open B - 1st of 4 Open Div - 2nd of 64 Classifier 03-12 "Ironsides" - 7.0632 HF - 91.73% 544 of 584 available points - 96A 31C 3D - 93.15% This was the last match of our NW challenge series. I'm pretty sure I won the challenge for my class because I won.. every match for my class. So I'll be getting my trophy and my $50. Woop. It was a good match though. I had a couple mental malfunctions where I wasn't totally on my game, but I finished okay behind the M (now GM in what, 10 days) that leads me. I shot my best classifier yet, 91.73% which puts me at a solid 80% average. Misc So I was gonna make A at the classification update this month anyway, but today in the mail I got a little headsup from USPSA that they thought I did a grand job in Utah. I had thought about it a little since I shot 77% of Kincaid Ross, but I hadn't won A-class so I didn't expect it. I think a match bump is pretty cool.

10/2/2015 Dryfire Report Was listening to Steve Anderson's latest podcast when he described a dryfire routine in which you would race a metronome while practicing transitions. I was intrigued so I tried it. The basis of the drill is setting a tempo that you can hang with, and then try and drive the gun to each target before the next beep, seeing how fast you can get. I don't know what the heck the settings on the metronome mean, but I was able to get it beeping pretty fast in my transitions. I need to try this again and see if it helps me improve.

9/30/2015 Dryfire Report I did bill drills for about 30 minutes. Alternated hands at sides and surrender. I surprised myself on surrender in that I've stopped swinging down, stopping, grabbing the gun, and instead am slapping my hand right into place on the gun and yanking it up. Way faster. Maybe I missed that I started doing this because I usually blend it with the turn and draw. But it's nice.

9/29/2015 Match Report Open Div - 2nd of 3 - 96.26% Overall - 2nd of 17 - 96.26% 361 of 380 available points - 65A 6B 13C - 95% 'Nother indoor match. I did better this week although it still kinda throws me off on the first run. I turned up the gas and I was excited- beating the Open-M that runs these matches is one of my mini-goals and I almost did it, 96.26%! So close.

9/28/2015 Dryfire Report Worked on gun-up stuff for about 30 minutes. If there's one thing I have a problem with is it's dropping the gun down to my sternum as I move. I alternated between position exit and entry. I need to do this outside, I don't have enough space in my house. Still, I had improvement. After that I did quick-step with my shooting box. I'm wondering, is it faster on a "running" section of a stage to one hand the gun and pump your arms, or keep both hands on the gun and do the wiggle? I see the top open shooters here do both. Must not be much difference.

9/27/2015 Match Report Open Div - 5th of 19 - 86.826% B-Class - 1st of 5 Overall - 5th of 96 - 86.826% 833 of 895 available points - 121A 4B 52C 2D - 93.07% I think this is the last USPSA major of the year around here, our WA sectional. I thought I did pretty well, I finished 5th behind the GM and 4 Ms, beating all the A-and-below classers. I was also closest to our local GM than ever before (86.82%). No penalties and I shot consistently while also attempting to put my dryfire experience into action. I was faster than I ever have been, shot good points, and won my class and the one above it. One mental malfunction on stage 5- I swung around to the right of the port and finished the paper without engaging the popper. I made it worse by engaging the popper about 4 seconds later. If I had left it standing I would have improved my hit factor, and if I'd actually shot it at the end of the stage like I shoulda, I would have gained 22 more match points. That wouldn't be enough to bump me up another place in the standings, but it bothers me anyway. I was kinda thinking about a thread I saw discussing what makes a "hard" stage, and one opinion was if the majority of the shooters can't shoot it clean, it's probably too hard. We had a stage like that, stage 6- only 21 of the 96 shooters shot it with no penalties, 22.1% (or roughly 1 in 5). It was a combo of a lot of things, awkward firing positions through ports, no-shoots behind steel, and memory-stage style arrays. I shot it clean and actually it was one of my best stages. Makes me pleased.

Ha, missed this comment- thanks! I try to have fun with 3-gun, in the way that I'm not taking it too seriously. It's kind of my break from working hard at USPSA. 9/25/2015 Dryfire Report Messed with my grip, particularly my offhand support. I watched Vogel talk about grip on youtube for awhile and he likes to have his hand canted downwards so that the thumb is way far forwards on the frame. I tried this and it feels a little better to me than what I was doing before. Did 4 aces today for about 45 minutes. At first I had to remind myself the drill was called 4 aces for a reason and not 3 charlies 1 delta. Didn't bother with a timer for awhile, just draw and tapped when I had an alpha in view. Set the par for 2.5 and tried doing the same thing- I was making it every time, and it didn't even feel like I was going fast. Very weird.