Fourtrax's Range Report

[Chris iliff]

Shot Atlanta. Ended 3rd Open, Barely!! Could have went several ways as the difference between 2-4 was a scant couple %. I took a stage win and I'm real happy with that. Mental game is coming along nicely. I had one error on my 3rd stage when the shooting order got flubbed and one squad mate wasn't ready. I was next in the order and when asked if I would go, said yes. Feeling rushed, but not wanting to hold us up in the heat I shot. Boy that RUSHED feeling followed me right through the stage. Man, I sure

was fast. (not a good thing)

I'm ready for Indiana State!! In fact, I'm watching Blazing Saddles as I write this. It should help!!!!

Edited July 26, 2011 by fourtrax

[Coach]

Shot Atlanta. Ended 3rd Open, Barely!! Could have went several ways as the difference between 2-4 was a scant couple %. I took a stage win and I'm real happy with that. Mental game is coming along nicely. I had one error on my 3rd stage when the shooting order got flubbed and one squad mate wasn't ready. I was next in the order and when asked if I would go, said yes. Feeling rushed, but not wanting to hold us up in the heat I shot. Boy that RUSHED feeling followed me right through the stage. Man, I sure

was fast.

I'm ready for Indiana State!! In fact, I'm watching Blazing Saddles as I write this. It should help!!!!

It cannot hurt, but I would not count on it helping. Going to be a great match.

[Chris iliff]

This is why you take the gun apart every once in awhile!! That's HALF of my firing pin stop. Who know where the other half went? Good thing I decided to give Juju a good cleaning before the Indiana State on Friday. That would have been a total cluster. Thank goodness I had the spare out of a slide I cracked. I just come in from function firing 20 rounds and everything is good to go. See you guys at State!!

[OpenDot]

Congrats on Atlanta!!!!!

This is why you take the gun apart every once in awhile!! That's HALF of my firing pin stop. Who know where the other half went? Good thing I decided to give Juju a good cleaning before the Indiana State on Friday. That would have been a total cluster. Thank goodness I had the spare out of a slide I cracked. I just come in from function firing 20 rounds and everything is good to go. See you guys at State!!

Holy crap!!...glad you caught it in time!!!

[Chris iliff]

Indiana State is in the books! I shot Friday 1 to after 9pm, grueling. It poured rain on and off until 1. The humidity was high and eventhough it wasn't raining, I never dried out.

These were the best stage designs I've ever shot. I can't believe how lucky I am to have a match of this caliber 40 miles from home. The setup crew did one outstanding job. Busting hump in hot humid weather setting this match. The rain and soggy ground caused some popper calibrations as they had a tendency to loosen up.

My shooting settled after 3 stages and I shot a clean 9 stages to my ability. I gave up to much on 2 speed type stages 5 & 6, too conservative. I did not push it and took the methodical easy approach. Stages 1-4, 7-9 were right in my wheelhouse and I am pleased with them. I really used my EIS training to my advantage, gotta thank Chris Keen and Micah Barcelo for that!! Just wish my brain had kicked in on my 2nd & 3rd stage. Dropped way to many points and a foot fault penalty cost me dearly. Also, a poorly planned timing error on two swingers activated by a single stomp plate, plus a failure to disengage my safety after dropping a shitload of dimes on another stomp pad easily cost me 3-4 seconds each. So that's 6-8 seconds of lost time due to piss poor preparation and match jitters. Coupling all that with the 3 mikes ( 1 on stage 10, 2 on 11) make my first 3 stages sub par. I finished 18th overall, 6th "A".

I also worked the match Saturday and Sunday. ROing 300 shooters is work, period. Add high temps and humidity, well then it's the typical Indiana State!! Shooters were great for the most part. Problems were solved promptly. Heat and humidity add to everyones weariness and mistakes happen. I call these situations lessons in the HEAT. I learned a ton as Stage 2 CRO. Mike and Jeff McCauley are Godsend RO's and two of the best anywhere, I was lucky to get to work with them. It was my privilege. I hope they feel the same way about working with me!!

To all the crew and competitors thanks!!

To Jake and Aaron: you guys did it again, bigger, better than ever, THANKS SO MUCH!!!

[rvb]

...a foot fault penalty cost me dearly. ...Coupling all that with the 3 mikes ( 1 on stage 10, 2 on 11)

I wondered what the penalty was for. I saw the penalty and 2Ms and I thought maybe you forgot to engage something. Having your foot out and only getting 1 penalty isn't as painful as foot fault penalties usually are!

I also worked the match Saturday and Sunday. ROing 300 shooters is work, period.

Yes it is! It's much appreciated

-rvb

[Chris iliff]

Thanks RVB. Foot fault was controversial. I felt I was in as I could feel it under my foot. I decided not to bother with it because I had the 2 mikes anyways. But, when I finished several shooters (who I never met, or shot with) said I was definitely in. I had Coach called in and the RO stated he was 100% sure I had faulted on one shot. So I got the penalty.

I was backing up shooting the Laurel/Hardy handshake stage when it happened. I think as my last shot fired I was simultaneously pivoting for the bridge and the RO heard gun fire from somewhere else and just happened to see my foot. It is what it is. Never affected my match. I shot better from there on out. Little methodical on the speed shoots up top but I always am on that stuff and I need to practice it.

The RO on that stage is a great guy and shooter, differences of opinion will invariably arise in our sport. I would not hesitate for him to RO me anywhere anytime.

[Chris iliff]

Oh, and as far as foot faults go,..... I hate that rule above all others. I actually penalized a shooter on my stage Sunday for a foot fault. He got one and one only. Some RO's give one procedural per shot and always claim "significant advantage". I think that's bull crap. Most foot faults are unintentional and no advantage (except in the range Nazi RO's mind) existed. But they still dish out one per shot,.....unsportsmanlike on them in my opinion.

Rant off.

[Corey]

were you able to get video of your runs? Im working on getting mine uploaded now.

[Chris iliff]

Not one single video. I don't have the head camera and I just didn't feel comfortable asking anyone to video me at that kind of match.

[rvb]

Thanks RVB. Foot fault was controversial....

The RO on that stage is a great guy and shooter, differences of opinion will invariably arise in our sport. I would not hesitate for him to RO me anywhere anytime.

Certainly there are times when the RO sees what he sees and the competitor knows what he saw/felt, and they conflict, but both are sincere in believing what happened. That happens, and it's on the RO to be SURE because the call usually sticks. If it's not an RO that has a consistent problem making calls (and it's not in this case), then that's just part of the game. No instant replay allowed. You have the right attitude about it.

Oh, and as far as foot faults go,..... I hate that rule above all others. I actually penalized a shooter on my stage Sunday for a foot fault. He got one and one only. Some RO's give one procedural per shot and always claim "significant advantage". I think that's bull crap. Most foot faults are unintentional and no advantage (except in the range Nazi RO's mind) existed. But they still dish out one per shot,.....unsportsmanlike on them in my opinion.

I don't hate the rule, but I 100% agree that "significant advantage" is cited WAY, WAY too often. It's one of those areas where it's a judgement call on the RO's part. And per-shot penalty is important else people (like me!) would be gaming the heck out of it.... but a per shot penalty for a toe outside the line in no way improves the quality of the sport.

-rvb

[Chris iliff]

Figured I'd get my other rule monkey off my chest, so here goes.

I find popper calibration to be a joke. Poppers should be calibrated by prescribed load by the RM prior to the match. During the match if the hit is full diameter in the calibration zone that's good enough. Competitor makes his PF no problem. Competitor doesn't, he gets the MIKE.

Easy to track on the scoresheet. Steel hit, but still standing is scored as a good hit, but also marked as PFM. Power Factor Miss is only applied if the competitor fails Chrono.

Otherwise it's ignored. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Edited August 6, 2011 by fourtrax

[Chris iliff]

Shot Wildcat today. It was fun. Challenged Joe Viray to shoot a stage WH only and so we both did. It had a Texas star on it!! Fun! Dad shot it SH only and burned it down.

Brett Johnson is leaving the area, bummer. He's been a good friend and mentor, but his job is taking him to Sacramento.

I'm happy with my shooting and quite pleased with my State performance. My season was geared towards State and now that's over I feel a little deflated about all of it. Not sure what to do next. Today's match was pure fun and the shooting was nothing to talk about. Giving up 35 seconds by shooting a stage WH was fun, but unrecoverable match wise.

Good shooter at State told me to practice the classifier Baseball Standards. I don't know. I just feel indifferent at this point. I'm a low A and I feel like I'm losing the bug to really get after it.

I've said before that making GM is very doable. I believe I could get the card inside of a season. I think at the level I'm shooting, anyone could. But, it would only represent that. I don't want the Grandbagger GM card.

So, my priorities about shooting are changing. I see more clearly. I guess I question my own desire. What is important to me? Has it changed as I have matured as a

shooter. I think it has. Maybe for the better.

I had fun today.

[kch]

Chris, well done at the state match. Open is a tough division and your finish is nothing to be bashful about.

You saying you feel deflated and not knowing what to do next has a small amount of my brain working....that's all that ever works though

You say that your times are off? My thinking may be way off but here's my .02. You seemingly don't have anything holding back your ability to shoot a stage faster. No physical ailments or disabilities. If you do then my thinking is not relevant. Being a racer for 15+ years I relate shooting to it because it's really all I've ever known. When I was racing I was at, say, level 5. For some reason, being practice, time on the bike, good equipment, etc. I was able to compete at level 5 consistently. So now that I'm at level 5, how do I get to level 4? or 3? or 1? (1 being FAST and WINNING). It is really easy to get comfortable in your skill level. It didn't matter if I practiced 4 times a week or 1 time. If I practiced and trained at a comfortable level that was all I knew. In order to progress I had to PUSH, take chances and risks, more often than not, in my selected sport that meant a pretty serious chance of extreme injury. So it got to the point where I'd go practice and just do laps. I wouldn't try to do anything crazy or push it too hard, just a solid good moto(match). After a while I noticed that didn't work. I was staying stationary as far as progression and others were moving up the ladder. They did that because they were pushing and taking more risks than I in practice. Practice is practice. The idea of it is to better yourself. Wow that sounded redundant, but it's true. With shooting, its hard to set up a lot in a practice session. You seem to get your hits when you have a solid stage. That's good! BUT, maybe at a club match you could just say, "I'm going to shoot this stage as fast as I can, I'll see how the points end up." I think we need to push ourselves out of our 'comfort' zones to advance. It's not gonna happen the first stage, the second stage, or even the first few club matches in total. I got to a point where, when I was really pushing, I'd go, "holy sh** that was scary." Once I did that a hand full of times it started to become normal.

I'm not preaching at all. I'm pretty new to this sport but I bring a lot of what I've learned in another sport into this one. I think everyone is capable of killing it but most just get caught in the 'comfortable plateau.' Maybe try this at a few matches in the future. You might be surprised at what you're actually capable of.

On another note, thanks for all the work at Warsaw. It's much appreciated and great job!

Side note....After reading my post, it jumps around a little but I'm too lazy to organize it. I'll go back to dry-firing.....

[Chris iliff]

Hey, good post. You are 100% correct. The sky is not the limit. The limit is much more distant!! I think I can see where I need to go quite clearly. I was trying to say that now I don't feel an overwhelming desire to get there. I will still get there!!

I guess it's hard to explain. Since I started shooting competitions back in 04 or 05, that's been who I've been. I'm Chris Iliff, the guy who shoots. Well, really, we are all

so much more than "shooters". I love shooting USPSA, but it's really not who I am, it's just a piece of me. I was so wrapped up in it, get this, I would physically shake at the start of most stages. Stage jitters are common I know, but this was getting to a point beyond that.

Now it's time to BREATHE. I just want to breathe and have fun. I feel like I've lost something important about what it is we do. And Maybe, that something, was my stumbling block.

Edited August 7, 2011 by fourtrax

[BillD]

The absolute best match I ever had was MI Sectional last year. I told myself it was the last major of the season so, just go out and have fun. Ended up winning HOA. That was fun too. Sometimes it's easier when you can let go of the angst a little.

It's easy to get very wrapped up in this sport. I could be shooting right now but decided to skip a monthly club match and spend the weekend with a couple of my grandkids. But, come Monday, I'll be back on the range.

I don't know how one can excel at this sport without putting in a lot of time. Of course, you have to enjoy what you are doing.

Good luck Chris, always good shooting with you...

[Chris iliff]

Im using my phone, I can't edit real good. So ill just do another post. In my last post, last paragraph, I talk about losing something important. What I mean is that I think I've lost something that "I" thought was important, but really isn't. My focus was skewed and it was affecting my performance. This, I think is a good thing. I think mentally I'm getting back on track. My next big match is the Florida Open.

Edited August 14, 2011 by fourtrax

[Chris iliff]

Took most of August off.

Shot Ft. Wayne today. Won 3 of 5 stages, second on one stage, and tanked the other. Pretty decent match overall for me. I have only touched my gun for two matches in the last month or so The rust is showing. I ended 2nd overall. That one tanked stage killed me!!

There are only a handful of matches left for this season. I plan to shoot a couple more of them. I got video, but the computer is down. I'll try to post it up soon.

[Chris iliff]

Above is a stage from this past weekend at Ft. Wayne. I was 1st Open , 2nd overall for the match. HOA for above video.

I can find some things wrong with this performance, but it was an overall stage win. I thought I could have moved quicker between the arrays. It's hard in the video to see, but there were gaps between each array. I shot a slow walk and immmediately transitioned to the next array. This made the shots increasingly difficult as the distances got a little longer. I should have shot moving, hustled, shot moving, hustled etc.

This stage was fun and I actually threw myself a loop on the very first shot. It was a small popper at some distance and the shot was quick and suprised me a little. I had it in my head for almost the whole stage. Wow, did I just nail that small popper that quick? You can clearly hear the ding in the video. This stage also cost me HOA for the match. I had two NO SHOOTS, which I made up, and that is how you place 1,1,3,1,2 at a match and lose the HOA. GOT TO GET THEM POINTS BABY!!!!

You guys got anything to add feel free, I'm all ears.

Edited September 22, 2011 by Chris iliff

[Corey]

On the first stage you showed video of (I believe it was stage 2 of the match), I noticed you shot the right array then the left. Then as you moved down, you shot the right, then the left. If you had shot the first 2 arrays and then transitioned directly downrange to the 2nd left-side array, it would have saved you a cross path transition (you did 3, could have done it in 2). Little time saver there.

I wish I had videod myself this match

[Chris iliff]

Shot Atlanta, good match, good stages, rained all match. I didn't get any video.

I placed 2nd overall, Coach nabbed HOA with a solid performance. I had some grip issues with my WH. I have been working on this. My grip loosens up as I'm shooting a stage, leading to sloppy hits. For the most part I'm happy. When I got the grip correct I had real good stages/hits.

Shooting "sooner" as a mantra, is working for me. It keys me to get my gun up and hustle, but without the "speed" focus. I had some awesome stage runs while thinking "grip" & "sooner".

[Chris iliff]

On the first stage you showed video of (I believe it was stage 2 of the match), I noticed you shot the right array then the left. Then as you moved down, you shot the right, then the left. If you had shot the first 2 arrays and then transitioned directly downrange to the 2nd left-side array, it would have saved you a cross path transition (you did 3, could have done it in 2). Little time saver there.

I wish I had videod myself this match

Yep, you are right, my goal on that stage was keep moving. I did accomplish that. I definitely would have saved a tick and been smoother. Ahh, the little things!!! Thanks

[Coach]

Shot Atlanta, good match, good stages, rained all match. I didn't get any video.

I placed 2nd overall, Coach nabbed HOA with a solid performance. I had some grip issues with my WH. I have been working on this. My grip loosens up as I'm shooting a stage, leading to sloppy hits. For the most part I'm happy. When I got the grip correct I had real good stages/hits.

Shooting "sooner" as a mantra, is working for me. It keys me to get my gun up and hustle, but without the "speed" focus. I had some awesome stage runs while thinking "grip" & "sooner".

At times he is a magnificent bastard.

[Chris iliff]

Coach, I don't know if you are referring to yourself, or me. Either way, I agree!!!!

You shot a good solid match. I might add that you also did that while helping your daughter every stage. Good on you Brother! World needs more DADS like that, kudos.

[Coach]

Coach, I don't know if you are referring to yourself, or me. Either way, I agree!!!!

You shot a good solid match. I might add that you also did that while helping your daughter every stage. Good on you Brother! World needs more DADS like that, kudos.

There is no reason we cannot both be magnificient bastards. My dad classification is still in doubt until she is 25 and we will take stock then. Whatever it turns out to be it won't be from a lack of effort. I gave her a flinch now lets see if I can help her get rid of it.

I am looking at stage for WVPPS in October. I will let you know if it is worth the drive. I am leaning toward yes right now.