AlphaCharis

Ah! that's so interesting. I don't think I could give up my pistol matches to shoot revo lol. It looks painful on the reloads. I DO want to try revo, though. That's the only division in USPSA that I have, yet, to be classified in. Definitely a different game. I'm assuming you enjoy it, though, since you're committing to it for the next TWO YEARS. Well, I look forward to reading about your journey and you kicking butt at WS2020!

Hey, congrats on the pounds lost and working on your overall health! That's one of my goals this year as well; I'm about 100 pounds overweight and only 5' 3". I was just thinking the other week that I should track my weight, too, along with my practice and exercise Maybe tracking will help me stay on track better... or is it taboo for a woman to state her weight? lol I started dry firing again this year (was consistent for the first 3 months last year) and have found a little bit of dry fire goes a LONG way. I haven't been able to get out to live fire practice, but the past three weeks of dry fire has helped me do better at matches already. Sounds like you are off to a good start in 2018. Happy shooting

#dryfire 1/31/18 30 minutes I felt this was a very productive session Grip is feeling better, getting tighter without thinking. Nothing on the timer tonight. Lots of taking targets on the move. I was more concerned about my movement so at times my hits were getting pretty sloppy and shot calling was poor - need to at least call my sloppy shots. Using arm to exit and get it back in place on entry. Recorded some reloads on between positions. They seem to be getting a lot smoother. Starting to feel more confident. Need to get more aggressive in movements. 2/1/18 45 minutes 2/2/18 30 minutes Both these nights I didn't write anything down, just the times. Mostly worked on what I've been working on all week. Lots of movement and running, exits, grip. Getting excited to shoot! Ended my Friday night session on some accuracy drills, sometimes if I'm letting myself get too sloppy in dryfire, my next match is all alpha charlies lol. Takes a match or two to settle back down and aim properly. My hands were a little tired for this session and a little sore.

Awesome! World Shoot looks like an amazing experience. I haven't shot an IPSC match, yet, but would love to go to US IPSC Nationals this year. Did you shoot revo before your 929?

#dryfire 1/28/18 45 minutes No par times today. Kind of miscellaneous practice, nothing really in depth, just general familiarization. Warm up with draws, focus on grip, El Prez, focus on reloads, calling shots, draw and moving forward. Field work: reloads on the move, exits, calling BOTH shots on target. After a rough classifier (63%) did a similar drill at home with paper and steel and a mandatory reload. Unloaded starts with practice racking from the front serrations. I like how much quicker it is to regain grip after racking it from the front as opposed to the the rear. 180 degree transitions, paying attention to finger outside the trigger guard #physical fitness 25 minutes Squats, 2 sets of 20 bicep curls, lunges, 10 girly pushups (dang I'm out of shape with those), 50 crunches, shoulder rolls, 10 minutes of stretching. Rib area still stiff and range of motion isn't back, yet. #dryfire 1/29/18 45 minutes On the second stage of my match last weekend, my forward movement was really slow. My friend told me to practice using my arms to help me to move out of position quicker. So practiced mostly that tonight. Going to practice exits much more this week. Going longer distances still needs work. Will be a lot easier to practice when the days get longer and I can practice in my yard. Also touched on one(ish) step reloads. Gonna do that some more. Warmed up with general shooting, draws, el Prez, bill drill, plate racks. This is the clip of stage 2 moving forward (basically all my exits are slow) and then what I started to practice in dryfire for exiting. I didn't record it for posting, so just ignore the house and what I'm wearing... but anyway, starting to exit faster, at least for short distances where I don't need to reload.

Thanks! It was a fun day

1/27/18 Dundee - Production Win I could see improvement in movement and target acquisition at this match, and definitely some things to work on. My main focus for dryfire this week will be on my exits and reloads: 1. Explosive exit! use my arms more for getting out of a position, throw my weight around more 2. Reloading as I'm taking a step out of a position and completing it before I leave - one and done! There are two main ways I want to reload - before leaving my position and coming into a position - I need to stop dragging it out and slowing myself down by still trying to reload on the run in between positions.

#match day! 1/27/18 After sleeping through my 2:00 AM alarm and waking at 2:56 AM, I went to my driveway to find 2 inches of snow covering everything and the roads were only driven on by one vehicle who used only the middle of the road. My car is poor in snow, so I altered my path and went down the mountain instead of up higher through it. My friend told me he was leaving at 3:15. It was almost that time already and I was still 30 minutes away. Fifteen anxious minutes later and the roads were clear for me to speed. I shot a text asking, "How hard and fast is the 3:15 departure time?" and receiving only a thumbs down GIF of Commodus from NickBlasta as a reply. I made it to the house, carpooling friends gear packed in the car, car running, and one of my other friend later saying, "3:15? Nick told me we were leaving at 3:45." LOL. My friends know me too well. We arrived in Dundee, Oregon around 7:40 AM for the 9:00 AM match start. And got maybe 45 minutes more sleep on the ride. I loaded up with triple shot latte and a few Red Bulls throughout the day. Shot pretty well and saw some improvement from some of the things I had been practicing in my dryfire sessions. At the end of the day during awards, I got High Lady overall and got a cute ribbon. I actually like getting souvenirs from local matches, it's fun When Production division came around, I think there were enough in C class for an award, then they went to the overalls. I was a little disappointed there weren't any others in A class cause I wanted another ribbon! "3rd overall, xxx, Master class." Darn, I'm thinking, didn't make it..... "2nd overall, xxx, Master class." *sigh* "First overall, Production winner... Charis Denton." People clapped and were looking at me, and I just kinda stared blankly, not sure what was going on. Thought maybe I heard wrong, or he accidentally gave out awards in the wrong order. It was a pleasant surprise! And I got another ribbon Haven't made my match video, yet, as I was very ready for bed after less than 3 hours sleep. Here's the last stage of the day:

#dryfire 1/24/18 30 minutes I was really tired and didn't want to dryfire, but did it anyway. Slo-mo draws. I've been over-thinking my support hand and my draws have been awkward. Trying to ignore thinking. Draws at speed, adding multiple targets, concentrating on grip, trigger pull, calling shots. Draws while moving forward, then right, then transition to new position and moving forward. 6R6R6 on the move, a few stationary. Concentrating on the pull from the mag pouch, consistent position - have been grabbing with fingertips and flubbing the reload. Been trying out the lean on the grab, see how that works from me. Lots of reloads on the move. Did some lunges, then burst up out of position. Going to be adding some agility excercises soon. 1/25/18 So was tired the day before cause was kinda sick. Spent the day in bed. 1/26/18 Got home late. So tired! Loaded ammo and packed for match on Saturday in Oregon. Got to bed at 12:30 AM. Set alarm for 2:00 AM.

#dryfire 1/23/18 45 minutes Warm up: Warmed up with draws, draws to different targets, moving forward. Turn and draw practice, El Prez with no par. El Prez: 5.2 par x5, 5.0 par x5, 4.8 par x15, 4.6 par x5. Way more consistent on seeing my sights right away. I remember early on when I was pushing speed last year the whole first time across the targets I struggled to see my sights on target. Looked back at my old times and it was around 6.1 seconds with seeing sights on all targets, so improvement. On the faster par time tonight I sometimes had poor grip after the reload and started gliding over the middle target a bit Bill Drill: 1.9 par x10, 1.6 par x10 - last shot consistently on the beep 6R6R6: 5.9 par x5 - struggling to meet par, hitting magwell, fumbling snatch from mag pouch, dropped a mag. Did some perfect reps off the timer Reloads and shooting on the move: All off the timer. Worked on several target arrays with moving reloads between positions, advancing on open targets, retreating, distance change ups, drawing to head shots. Draw to head, reload, draw to body. Practiced barricade starts and leaning around to first target, reload to another position Ended with long distance shots, good trigger press. Was starting to feel much more confident and fluid in my reloads and like I could possibly improve.

#dryfire 1/21/18 45 minutes Don't remember what I did except reloads cause I almost dropped my mag on my box of glass ornaments I hadn't put away, yet. 1/22/18 35 minutes Reload Drill (6 reload 6 reload 6 ) 5.9 second par time. 20 reps on the timer. Several without the par time. I was struggling with this drill when I realized the retention on my mag pouches was turned up crazy hard. Loosened it up a bit and it was much smoother on the reload. Didn't feel like I was struggling so much. Just have to get it into the magwell now lol. My friend reminded me that he thinks I turned up the retention because I kept knocking mags out on the reload. I remember dropping a bunch last year, so maybe I just went crazy with the retention. Also instead of a static reload on this drill, I would step reload, or do a 90 degree transition to another target during the reload and back again so that every reload was on the move. Need to slap and snap my mag out consistently. El Prez no par with focus on seeing sights and having correct grip. Draw 30 reps at 0.9 second par focus on good grip out of the holster and seeing sights on alpha. 20 reps would draw to the target, fire two shots within the par, then transition to another target with sights on alpha, but not pulling trigger. Then getting ready for timer for next draw.

#dryfire 30 minutes Reloads! I think I don't always look at my magwell during the reload, so did a lot where I would pause at the mouth of the magwell. Then onto regular ones along with shooting different targets and reloading while moving in different directions to the next target array. Getting a bit smoother. Stopped after 30 minutes cause my blister broke during this session and my hands were tired and sore in general. Give it a day rest today and back tomorrow.

#dryfire 40 minutes I had an hour session last night, but spent some time texting my friend in between sets and a few minutes searching for the part in a video I watched the other week about the turn and draw. On one of Steve Anderson's podcasts he was describing how he did the turn and draw, I searched and found someones recent class that had where he demonstrates how he does the turn and draw. I normally start moving my right foot first (turning to my right). It looks like he moves his left foot first and then steps toward the target (turning to the right) with his right foot. Going to test both ways more this week on camera. I tried his way a few times, and it felt slower and like I had to think about it - so going to spend some more time on it so it feels more natural so I can compare. I wanted to practice my turn and draw and eliminate drawing uprange. At a match a while back, I started to draw too early and it looked so bad, I chopped that part out of my video. The RO couldn't tell cause he was standing on the other side. My squad mate, who saw it, told me, and I didn't believe him until I watched it on video. I guess it's not necessarily that I am "drawing too early"... I need to look forward and turn faster. Started off with warming up with some slow motion draws, long distance shots, then went on to a few timed drills - timed draw to one shot at .9 par time. 6R6R6 at 5.9 sec par time was a bit rough lol. Briefly touched on plate racks, one handed shooting, transfer to weak hand. Also practiced hands on barricade start and lean around to first target. My main focus of practice was reloads and shooting out of and into positions with various target presentations, 90 transitions, reloads in between target arrays. Used my grip stuff this time and it made worlds of difference than my last practice session. Can't practice without it! Tried to maintain my grip better this practice. My support hand still needs a little work on maintaining it throughout. Started getting a little sloppy with some of my hits and was pulling off target a little early. Need to follow through and make an acceptable shot, if not acceptable or didn't call it - shoot it again!

Thanks guys!

1-14-18 USPSA Paul Bunyan - 4th Production 1-17-18 It's OFFICIAL!! I'm in A CLASS!! Looking back over my classifier scores I only had four classifier scores in my first three years of shooting that were 70% or above. I stuck to my dryfire training January-March 2017 and in the nine months following this, I posted nine classifier scores that were 70% or above... it shouldn't surprise me that practice makes one better, I guess it surprises me that so little practice makes a difference. That definitely makes me want to put a lot more time in this year! #dryfire 30 minutes Had a good dryfire session last night. One of my callouses is coming back, but right now it's a blister. Indexing on hard leans is getting better. My last match was pretty rough, so trying to get back to where I was a few months ago. Reloads were the most rusty, so worked on those combined with exiting positions - I'm considering that my cardio for the day

I'm pretty sure I just made A CLASS!! ....totally not ready for it, but wanted it anyway. Guess it's good incentive to stick to training so I won't be bottom of the A's all year. This wasn't the best run, but it was enough to push me over 75% Kinda feels like I didn't earn it, though, cause I requested that my first hundo classifier count.

#pewpewing First match of the year! Super rusty already! I don't know what it was, but not a single person shot this match without at least 1 mike. I had a few stupid ones. Felt like I regressed with everything - reloads, movement, grip. I need ONE more "A class" classifier to make A class... this match wasn't it. 4.50 seconds, 7 alpha... 1 mike. The only thing i did well this day was the steel lol ...At least I'll be ready for Berry's Steel Open in a few months. #dryfire Dryfired twice this week - a quick 15 minute session and one for 30. Need to practice every night the rest of week since I already took my two days off. Back to the basics and concentrating on maintaining my GRIP throughout the session. Last year doing 5 days a week, 15 minute minimum worked well for the three months that I was consistent. Also been back to my weights, squats and stretching. My rib cage has been stiff on my right side from the car accident, so my mobility in hard leans isn't that good. Want to get that moving this year.

12-23-2017 IDPA Match @ PB - 3rd ESP, 6th overall of 63 So, I never shoot IDPA, but wanted to shoot since I take almost all Sundays off in the winter. Didn't go too bad. It was a basic match because of the cold and the holidays. I guess my trigger makes my Production gun a "Limited" gun in IDPA, not that it matters, though. Review of my 2017 shooting year! TL;DR: Video match review of 2017 below. I got a little gooder cause I dryfired. Gonna dryfire more, visualize, call my shots, and keep my stuff running to make Master. Just for fun, I put together some clips of my matches for this year to remember it by. I'm hoping this time next year this year's review will look slow compared to my shooting for 2018! This year I started taking targets on the move, started to try exiting faster and shooting sooner. I think those were my biggest gains this year and will continue to improve on that this year. Things that were better this last year, but really need to focus on improving this year: Match Day MAINTAIN my gun, mags, gear, nutrition/alertness, and ammo. Be earlier to matches with all my gear in order, drink water, snack, sleep. I was better this year, still need to do everything I can to avoid any issues during a match. Pay attention to what I am doing RIGHT then... don't "think ahead" to what I will be doing next. A lot of times if I miss a steel and have to go back to it, I'll throw my last shot on the paper I'm shooting into hardcover or the delta cause I start looking at the steel before I'm done with the paper. I was doing a lot better with this the second half of the year. After the winter break, I was kind of rushing back into this bad habit. PROGRAM my stage and then let my subconscious do its job. A focus on walk throughs and visualization EVERY time for every stage big or small. I've been doing so much better on that this year, I haven't messed up on a stage plan in a long time (I'm not counting day one at Idaho lol). Need more practice increasing the detail of my visualization. CALL EVERY SHOT... then I won't be shooting deltas on my way to that pickup on steel or transition to the next array. STOP THINKING/WORRYING ABOUT MY TIME. Dryfire DRYFIRE I was consistent with dry fire for the first 3 months of 2017 and I think all my gains can pretty much be attributed to this little bit of practice, which I didn't notice at first. This year, grip throughout the session, press my trigger way harder, and call my shots. The timer helped a lot in pushing my speed! Practice in speed mode and in accuracy mode. The items below will really improve in my match when I do the work in dryfire: EXITS leaving more aggressively. Improved this year, looking forward to better exits. MAG CHANGES Looking back at 2016 and early 2017, I forgot how much of a struggle mag changes were for me. Every match I complained how crappy they were. And I used to miss the mag release all the time, now I don't think it happens at all. Mag changes still aren't that good, but they have been a little more consistent and a little quicker. Will hit this in dryfire much more this year. MOVING OFF THE 180 FACING LEFT. I probably made 4 DQable offenses this year solely from this - but it wasn't seen by the RO/or was way too close to call. After slo-mo reviews, they were totally 180 breaks. The problem is I start turning my body for the mag change... but I broke the wrist before I'm turned enough. I need to keep my wrist straight. NEED NEED to break this habit, like.. THIS WEEK. TURN AND DRAW. Need to do it where I will never be drawing too early. GRIP I've had a better grip more often. The "Dry Hands" have worked tremendously. Of course much better when I actually dry fire properly and maintain a good grip. Been getting a good grip on my gun before drawing - this used to be a HUGE problem for me, and was always adjusting my grip... I don't think this is a problem anymore; I haven't noticed it in a long time. Also been getting more positive, consistent grip on my mags out of the pouches. KEEP ON KEEPING ON I get down on myself way too easily, especially with still being a B class scrub. Stick to my training schedule. Be positive. Ignore other people. Don't compare. There are no excuses. Do it for myself. Keep it fun. Live Fire LIVE FIRE PRACTICE I just got a shot timer! There's a few things I would like improvement on that will help more if I do it in live fire: SWINGERS still on my To-Do List to practice. I only had ONE live fire practice, like... ever. And it was cold and rainy and only shot a few bill drills, el prez and call it and leave it. SHOOTING SOONER much better this year. Still need to be more confident and know what I can get away with at certain distances. Sometimes my groups are so tight, I know I could have picked those up faster or sooner.

#pewpewing 12/2/2017 Jefferson County - Production "Win" / 6th Overall 63.73% 12/9-10/2017 Vision-X Classic Had a lot of fun once I figured out I could wear both my headlamp and GoPro at the same time - made loading mags and taping frozen targets in the dark much easier This year's match was two days long - a night and day portion. Went home with 2nd Production, a cool plaque, and.... I was happy to get my match fee back in prizes It was freezing cold (20s) and I didn't spend a lot of time walking stages and visualizing at this match, wasn't really my best shooting, but had fun.

Thanks! And yes! that's one of the reasons I just want to be A class right now, even though I'm barely ready for it. I'm so sick of messing up badly, but still having it be a 58%! I try and ignore my class and just tell myself to wait and it'll come when I'm ready... but then I see that B by my name and my percentage edging within 1-3% and I don't wanna be a scrub anymore (at least not a B class one).

My first 100% on a classifier!! I mentioned having my first hundo the other week. It felt okay and thought I might have gotten an A class score or just missed it since I messed up my grip and had a really slow draw to first shot - I think it was 1.6 seconds. I was definitely surprised it was a 100% for Production. And... I'm only B class so it doesn't count. Still stuck in B class. Even if it did count it would put me at 74.21% LOL #Bclass4lyfe I can probably get that T-shirt made after all.

Was talking the the other day to NickBlasta how he improved pretty quickly and my improvement is more like a very slow incline, and the line to GM will probably hit it in like 70 years from now. So, I am pretty motivated to dryfire more this year Went over my classifier scores today to see how much I improved. Median classifier scores and what percentage of them were in each class. D class scores have almost disappeared save for the occasional major screw up like #pronefail, and my B class scores are more frequent and higher percentages. I got my first A class score this summer and my first hundo this week Median Scores D C B A M GM 2014 33.646 59% 29% 12% 2015 51.668 29% 48% 24% 2016 53.327 30% 37% 33% 2017 61.317 7% 37% 50% 3% 3% My percentages at Area 1 and National matches Area 1 Nationals 2014 44.335 2015 48.099 52.688 2016 55.3055 54.8408 2017 58.9095 63.0892

I've been using "Dry Hands" and really liking it. I use it in dryfire as well as shooting. You don't need much, and it doesn't make your hands super white or sticky, but gives you a nice texture on your hands for gripping the gun. I've also tried Pro-Grip, Liquid Grip, and Grrrrip as well. https://www.amazon.com/Products-2-Ounce-Ultimate-Gripping-Solution/dp/B01BE5SK6U/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1512439501&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=dry+hands&psc=1

So I've had a couple matches since my DQ, but have been taking a bit of a winter break with everything else. Matches I haven't been too serious about and been having some fun. With registration for Area 1 and Oregon State, and my Christmas tree already up, I've been thinking about this coming shooting season and I'm getting excited and almost ready to start dryfiring again! 11-5-17 Got classified in Single Stack - now just have revo to go! 11-12-17 Turkey Shoot - 2nd Production My first and last stages were stage wins in Production 11-26-17 Movember Classic - Production Division Win! High Lady and 12th Overall out of 94 shooters IDPA SCORING Down 18 for the match.... you have to AIM so much. I guess I know I can aim now so I don't have any excuse for not aiming when I shoot Production. The sad thing is that I scored higher with this IDPA scoring than I usually do in USPSA So that was kinda depressing. I am not a fan of time+ though, much less dynamic than hit factor scoring. I was fairly consistent at this match and didn't totally bomb stages, which is good. And it was really good practice for calling my shots, I followed through and didn't rush off targets.

Bwahahaha! Yes, Nick and John and T and Andria all gave me a hard time all day. And then the classifier match after that the gave me a "DQ Trophy" and joked how they thought it would be funny if I DQd at that match, too. Then last week - Nick, John, T and Panther gave me more crap all day long about DQing and if I was going to drop more F-bombs at that match, too. LOL #squaddies4lyfe