From GM back to U

[old506]

I had a break through practice session yesterday.

I set up a mini stage. Star, 2 metric paper targets covered with no-shoots and one open paper target, then a plate rack, all with movement and reloads with the plates behind a hard cover barrier. All at 15 yards.

I noticed, after shooting, that I was subconsciously prepping the trigger. On the open paper target I wasn't prepping and felt a little more sloppy buy I was getting my two A's most of the time with faster splits. It was kind of like my mind said, "here is a high risk, tight shot so lets prep the trigger". The plate rack looked like hubcaps and I had the feeling that I couldn't miss. The star went down smooth with a miss on the second to last plate (most of the time) as there was a little more movement than the other shots.

For me right now a tight accurate shot seems to be a slower shot but a sure shot. I feel like I need to work on speeding up the process of prepping and taking an accurate shots. Bill Drills? Any ideas?

[old506]

I set up a steel plate the size of an A zone today at 50yards. I put my .22 topend on and went through a brick. Man, it is a lot of fun to shoot a .22! Trigger control and trigger speed has been one of the hardest things that I am trying to master. It seems that prepping the trigger and following through, without moving my sight pic has been inconsistent. I can do it for a few shots and then SLAP. I have been working on steel and plates in particular as there isn't as much room for error here.

I got my plate rack time down to 3.77 @ 10 yards with the .45 topend. I don't really know what happened other than I shot 6 times and everything went down. In my mind, after I shot it, it all seemed a blur, I did see and watched my sights for each shot but it was quicker than my mind it seemed. Maybe that's o.k.? I can't fathom taking a second or more off of that right now. I wish that I would have recorded my splits and draw time. I suspect my draw was in the 1.3-4 area, I typically am slow on the first shot, taking my time to make sure the first one goes down. Maybe more work needs to be done in the draw?

[old506]

I Quit!

After doing some reflection on what needs to be done I am quiting! I am not going to do anything with a pistol if it doesn't include me being able to call my shots to the best of my ability.

I am quiting a timer in live fire.

I am quiting par times in dry fire.

I am quiting draw practice.

I am quiting movement drills.

I am quiting reload drills.

I am quiting pulling a trigger in dry fire. (not sure if this is good or not but right now I am going to do it anyway.)

What I am going to do:

I am going to begin each live fire practice session by shooting groups.

I am going to do bill drills and llib drills (forward and backward)

I really don't know what else I am going to do but I am going to do it. (suggestions seriously considered, btw)

I am going to finish each practice shooting groups.

I am going to dryfire without a holster and without pulling the trigger.

[old506]

Pouring over the "old stuff" I came across this:

Because of the high-speed nature of IPSC shooting, if one comes to IPSC without a good background in the fundamentals of shooting, I've noticed a pattern during the learning curve.

Typically we start out blazing away, so we never really learn what it means or the importance of calling each shot precisely. Then after shooting for some time, maybe years, we start to realize that hitting the targets is more important than going fast, because "you can't miss fast enough to win." During this hosing phase, we ingrain bad visual habits because the targets do not challenge our weaknesses, and after some time we just kinda point shoot most everything. Then, as we start to open up to the fact that calling is important, we're so used to looking at the wrong things while "going fast," it feels like we must really slow down in order to see enough of the sights to call the shots. At this point it becomes a psychological battle, because there's no way we're going to shoot slower.

At this point hearing a good explanation and believing in it become a factor. Furthermore, you must prove it to yourself in practice before you'll ever trust enough to do it in a match.

Spread 6 or 8 targets around the range between 8 and 15 yards, and stick no-shoots, right next to the A-boxes, on a couple of them. Draw and shoot one shot on each left to right, right down your time, then do the same thing right to left, then repeat both strings for a total of four strings. Then figure your score using the time-plus method, adding .2 of a second for each point dropped. Do this forever or until you figure out what you must do and how you must see in order to get the best score.

be

This pretty much sums up what I am struggling with right now, accepting the mediocre because the mediocre looks/feels fast. Accepting dropped points and the occasional Mike/NS because I think of it as the nature of going fast.

Fundamentally I am slower than what my ego says I am. Fundamentally slower than what another shooter says (observes) I am after I walk off the line.

[old506]

1st Clean Match:

I went to the match this weekend with the wisdom of the post above, "Call All Shots, every time". All my practice for the last 8 days has been focused on my front sight. I have quit any and all practice if it doesn't relate to me calling my shot. I'm not calling my shots precisely but I am seeing my sights lift on the paper and am seeing them come right back down in the notch and lifting again. I couldn't tell you if the sights lifted in the A zone or not but I know they lifted on paper. Probably not close enough yet to "calling my shots" but getting closer, maybe?

During the match I had no idea of time I never listened to other people's times and I never listened to my time, I got done shooting and checked my targets for edge hits and then reloaded mags. I have no idea what my times were. I did have two people tell me I looked pretty fast, thankfully that didn't knock me out of my happy place.

Thinking about it I have no idea of speed today, looking back on things. I do know that I watched as my sights settled and lifted on every target except one target in the whole match. Fortunately on the one that I didn't see lift, I got a hit anyway. I need to work on steel, i am getting away with not precisely calling my shots on paper but I had 2 extra shots on mini pepper poppers and 2 extra shots on the 2nd half of a plate rack.

My gun felt "balanced" almost on a pendulum, up... and down...

I wasn't tense and never felt like I needed to "push it".

We shall see what happened with the time part......

[old506]

I should note (after getting the scores) that I shot faster and placed higher overall than I ever had.

1st Clean Match:

I went to the match this weekend with the wisdom of the post above, "Call All Shots, every time". All my practice for the last 8 days has been focused on my front sight. I have quit any and all practice if it doesn't relate to me calling my shot. I'm not calling my shots precisely but I am seeing my sights lift on the paper and am seeing them come right back down in the notch and lifting again. I couldn't tell you if the sights lifted in the A zone or not but I know they lifted on paper. Probably not close enough yet to "calling my shots" but getting closer, maybe?

During the match I had no idea of time I never listened to other people's times and I never listened to my time, I got done shooting and checked my targets for edge hits and then reloaded mags. I have no idea what my times were. I did have two people tell me I looked pretty fast, thankfully that didn't knock me out of my happy place.

Thinking about it I have no idea of speed today, looking back on things. I do know that I watched as my sights settled and lifted on every target except one target in the whole match. Fortunately on the one that I didn't see lift, I got a hit anyway. I need to work on steel, i am getting away with not precisely calling my shots on paper but I had 2 extra shots on mini pepper poppers and 2 extra shots on the 2nd half of a plate rack.

My gun felt "balanced" almost on a pendulum, up... and down...

I wasn't tense and never felt like I needed to "push it".

We shall see what happened with the time part......

[old506]

I see the sight lift out of the notch, I see it come back down, I see all of that but I don't register where the sight was at the exact moment it lifted. My mind just doesn't register it right now, my mind doesn't take a pic of where it was. I don't see any slight movement (just prior to breaking the shot) that might throw the shot off. When my index is good and when my grip pressure is right and trigger movement is right, I am on target and "know" where my shot hit the target. I double plug, I am not blinking, I see what I need to see except for the the slightest of movements just prior.

[old506]

2012

I have always liked the beginningng of the new year. To me it also brings Shooting Season 2012.

Tomorrow I begin Mike Seeklanders Shooting Program.

As a baseline I shot Ben Stoeger's Skills Test Friday. I plan on shooting this every month or so to try and see improvment and show areas where I need to work on.

One thing new is that I scheduled (for the first time ever) all of my shooting for first half of the year. It goes along with Seeklanders program but I have it all laid out as far as Live Fire, Dry Fire, Physical Training, Matches, and I also put in "review" days and "baseline" tests to see how things are moving along. I used the calender function on Gmail. I have it printed but can easily look it up on the phone too. I plan on "checking off" what I do so I can see what I am accomplishing and when I get lazy.

Would someone, Please!, develop Excel Spreadsheets for his drills? Man, I would love to come back home and plug the numbers in and have HF, etc. come up. I can probably figure out how to program it but I am pretty stupid when it comes to Excel.

Here's to 2012.........

Edited January 1, 2012 by old506

[old506]

Well, I read this about 10 times. I dredged it from the depths of the forum to give it some light. It really makes me remember that what I need to do is build a skill, reflect, correct, build a skill, reflect, correct until the skill is solid, until no doubt remains.....

Henny,

The bigger your pool of experience, the more you have to draw from.

I don't think we can logically fathom the depth of this pool because the conscious mind has the capacity to remember sooooo much, and although we are only able to consciously recall a small fragment of what passes through the screen of experience, we are able to act out, and do, continuously, much more than we can ever remember consciously. For that reason, the simple act of practicing/shooting while aware is tremendously beneficial. There's a lot of truth to "the more you practice, the better you get." And if you practice poorly, like not attempting to call every shot you fire, your motor skills still benefit from the simple act of firing the pistol.

But more specifically, if you have not learned, at a conscious level, what you must see and do to hit a specific target, there's not much chance you will, especially under pressure. That's why the pro has trained and knows what it takes to hit any target under any circumstances. At that point it's not possible for him to be surprised.

You must train for a considerable amount of time just to ingrain the motor skills required to quickly pivot and shoot various targets at different distances. But that's only a fragment of one's training, of which the point is to enable one to execute the fundamentals more quickly. Depending on how you apply yourself, it will also take some time to train yourself to know for certain what is personally required to hit any target at any distance and in any circumstance, quickly.

So endless dryfiring and range time is indispensable. Just as is match experience. Because matches will show you unknown (to you) weak points in your training.

So to nutshell it - it helps if you know from the beginning what is most important. And then gear the majority of your training toward mastering that, until no doubts remain. The greatest skill you can develop is to know where the bullet went before it hits the target. Then continued training will enable you to do that more quickly. So every aspect of one's training is important, and adds experience to the pool. Dryfiring, range time, analyzing, and match experience all contribute to one's advancement.

Or you might think of it like this - If you don't know for certain what you need to see and do in order to hit a certain target, every time, doing it on demand won't be much different than rolling the dice. And every single thing you do to that end is beneficial.

be

[old506]

Seeklander Program 1st Month Review:

I was hoping to have something to measure by now but I don't have a whole lot yet. I had a head cold earlier in the month and that held me back a little bit. Snow screwed up my live fire for a week and a half and since I like to dry fire outside too, that was screwed up. I didn't have the Seeklander videos when I first started so by the time I had gotten the videos, I found out that I was doing a couple of drills differently so my "baseline" numbers were wrong. This next month I should be able to have some numbers to compare and hopefully see sommeasurablele improvement.

Good things:

My draw, grip and presentation seem very solid. I have an attitude of not excepting anything other than an Alpha and it is helping. I have also been drawing on the head box of a very small metric target about 3/4 of a size of a piece of paper in the house. When I go outside and practice on the full size targets the head box looks huge!

Organization has also been one of the great things in the program. I made a Google Calendar that I printed out and keep on a clip board. As the day goes by I check a box off if I complete the program, PT at 6am, Dry Fire at 3pm, Live Fire MondaFriday, Firday a.m and Saturday a.m.

One other thing I have been doing is to "Watch Tape". That is the name I have given to watching other shooters (GM's) on Shooting USA, etc. I have DVRed a bunch of episodes and once a week in the evening I have been watching them in slow-mo, frame by frame. It is pretty interesting and I have picked up a few things.

Not so good things:

At my monthly quiz (match) this weekend I missed a paper target (somehow, I can't recall why/what happened when the stage was over) and had an edge hit on a piece of steel that I thought was good. After the shot broke on the steel I was out of there and heard the "ding" on the way to the positionooting postion and never thought anything of it. Obviously I didn't call an edge hit. So I had two Mikes overall. Too bad on the edge hit, but oh well! Those were my only penalties.

I still can't call my shots great yet. At times in practice I can, at times in the match I found myself doing it but there was the Mike and the edge hit on steel so I still have a ways to go here.

Things I am looking for in February:

Being able to consistently call shots.

Shoot A's

Shoot a clean monthly match.

Edited January 30, 2012 by old506

[old506]

Seeklander Drill: Session B Movement.

I have done these drills a few times now, enough to see a pattern or change and today I had a big change. The big change is that I hit everything I was trying to! I only had a couple of C's all session. When I did the drills prior, I wouloccasionallyly miss a head box but I had zero head box misses. I even found myself calling a few shots and making up a few edge hits (that ended up being A's most of the time anyway). If you aren't familiar witSeeklanders's drills, he has you varying your target on every rep, Body then Head box, Body then Head Box, etc.

I think what set this up is that all my dryfire has been focused on the A box, both Body and Head all week. I have refused anything but sights in the A box. I went into these drills the same way and it really showed, it was fun.

After watching the tape and looking at my recorded times, I did have to back my splits down a little bit. My draw wasn't too different but my splits were in the high .3's and low .4's (7 Yards). It cleaned up the Head box Mike and pushing body shots into the C zone though. I still have work to do, to get those splits down and see my sights quicker.

Right now I am shooting a stock SingleStack with a 4 pound trigger. I am guessing that with a better trigger I would be able push these times down?

[old506]

Plyometrics with a Pistol (P90X)

I got crazy and did Plyo with my pistol. For those who know whatP90X is you will know what I am writing about. It was a brutal workout, it really hurt. I put up two mini metric targets up on the wall on either side of the T.V. so that I had to transition on every squat. When I went into the squat or other motion I would bring up the gun from where the weak hand meets the strong hand after the draw, I then extended and found the A-Box with my sights. At first my sights were all over the place but in no time I was able to shoot A's as I figured out what I needed to do to see the sights on the A-Box. Basically I really had to focus on my core in order to "shoot" an Alpha. On other portions of the workout such as the swing kicks over the stool and the "circle run" I just planted the sights on the A-Box and held them there as long as I could. My arms where burning and the gun felt like a brick.

Plyo is a pretty rough workout to begin with. I can do it without the gun but add the gun and it goes to a whole other level. I then had to focus on getting an Alpha and not just on the workout itself, that was pretty tough. I tried to maintain the rhythm of the video and did pretty well but admit that it was pushing it, trying to drive a gun while doing something this intense. I am sure that it will get easier the more that I do it, I and going to try to add the pistol into a few other routines. Another thing that I thought of was doing a reload from a "table" after a squat, basically doing a squat, come up and reload from the table as you are going along with the video. Another idea thorws in transitions between weak hand and strong hand. I am sure there are a million differen things I can throw in.

[carlosa]

Seeklander Drill: Session B Movement.

I have done these drills a few times now, enough to see a pattern or change and today I had a big change. The big change is that I hit everything I was trying to! I only had a couple of C's all session. When I did the drills prior, I wouloccasionallyly miss a head box but I had zero head box misses. I even found myself calling a few shots and making up a few edge hits (that ended up being A's most of the time anyway). If you aren't familiar witSeeklanders's drills, he has you varying your target on every rep, Body then Head box, Body then Head Box, etc.

I think what set this up is that all my dryfire has been focused on the A box, both Body and Head all week. I have refused anything but sights in the A box. I went into these drills the same way and it really showed, it was fun.

After watching the tape and looking at my recorded times, I did have to back my splits down a little bit. My draw wasn't too different but my splits were in the high .3's and low .4's (7 Yards). It cleaned up the Head box Mike and pushing body shots into the C zone though. I still have work to do, to get those splits down and see my sights quicker.

Right now I am shooting a stock Single Stack with a 4 pound trigger. I am guessing that with a better trigger I would be able push these times down?

sounds like you making some awesome progress! congrats! as far as the lighter trigger goes... a lighter trigger won't make you shoot any faster... the only advantage to light triggers is that it's a easier to brake the shot before you have a chance to anticipate (which can still happen)... that's why going from a light trigger to a normal trigger is more challenging that going from heavy to light.. I'm not trying to steer you away from a lighter trigger, just saying it probably won't make much of a difference in your splits..

[old506]

The reason that I mention the trigger pull is because it feels like I have to be on the trigger forever (and hold the sights) before it breaks. If I "slap" it at 7-10yds (going faster), I will pull the shot about two inches or so onto the a/c line or into the C zone. I am assuming that if it is lighter, I could speed up a bit? In the last few days, I have been able to speed up my splits though (high .2's, low .3's). Not really trying, just happened on the clock.

Seeklander Drill: Session B Movement.

I have done these drills a few times now, enough to see a pattern or change and today I had a big change. The big change is that I hit everything I was trying to! I only had a couple of C's all session. When I did the drills prior, I wouloccasionallyly miss a head box but I had zero head box misses. I even found myself calling a few shots and making up a few edge hits (that ended up being A's most of the time anyway). If you aren't familiar witSeeklanders's drills, he has you varying your target on every rep, Body then Head box, Body then Head Box, etc.

I think what set this up is that all my dryfire has been focused on the A box, both Body and Head all week. I have refused anything but sights in the A box. I went into these drills the same way and it really showed, it was fun.

After watching the tape and looking at my recorded times, I did have to back my splits down a little bit. My draw wasn't too different but my splits were in the high .3's and low .4's (7 Yards). It cleaned up the Head box Mike and pushing body shots into the C zone though. I still have work to do, to get those splits down and see my sights quicker.

Right now I am shooting a stock Single Stack with a 4 pound trigger. I am guessing that with a better trigger I would be able push these times down?

sounds like you making some awesome progress! congrats! as far as the lighter trigger goes... a lighter trigger won't make you shoot any faster... the only advantage to light triggers is that it's a easier to brake the shot before you have a chance to anticipate (which can still happen)... that's why going from a light trigger to a normal trigger is more challenging that going from heavy to light.. I'm not trying to steer you away from a lighter trigger, just saying it probably won't make much of a difference in your splits..

[old506]

Seeklander Program 2nd Month Review:

I am progressing nicely. I am very happy with the results that I have been getting. I have not even come close to being consistent with the prgram due to weather (mainly). I tried to fight the weather a couple of times but I now just take it as it comes and dryfire instead. There has been plent of steps ahead regardless of my lack of live fire.

[old506]

.

Edited February 28, 2012 by old506

[carlosa]

The reason that I mention the trigger pull is because it feels like I have to be on the trigger forever (and hold the sights) before it breaks. If I "slap" it at 7-10yds (going faster), I will pull the shot about two inches or so onto the a/c line or into the C zone. I am assuming that if it is lighter, I could speed up a bit? In the last few days, I have been able to speed up my splits though (high .2's, low .3's). Not really trying, just happened on the clock.

Seeklander Drill: Session B Movement.

I have done these drills a few times now, enough to see a pattern or change and today I had a big change. The big change is that I hit everything I was trying to! I only had a couple of C's all session. When I did the drills prior, I wouloccasionallyly miss a head box but I had zero head box misses. I even found myself calling a few shots and making up a few edge hits (that ended up being A's most of the time anyway). If you aren't familiar witSeeklanders's drills, he has you varying your target on every rep, Body then Head box, Body then Head Box, etc.

I think what set this up is that all my dryfire has been focused on the A box, both Body and Head all week. I have refused anything but sights in the A box. I went into these drills the same way and it really showed, it was fun.

After watching the tape and looking at my recorded times, I did have to back my splits down a little bit. My draw wasn't too different but my splits were in the high .3's and low .4's (7 Yards). It cleaned up the Head box Mike and pushing body shots into the C zone though. I still have work to do, to get those splits down and see my sights quicker.

Right now I am shooting a stock Single Stack with a 4 pound trigger. I am guessing that with a better trigger I would be able push these times down?

sounds like you making some awesome progress! congrats! as far as the lighter trigger goes... a lighter trigger won't make you shoot any faster... the only advantage to light triggers is that it's a easier to brake the shot before you have a chance to anticipate (which can still happen)... that's why going from a light trigger to a normal trigger is more challenging that going from heavy to light.. I'm not trying to steer you away from a lighter trigger, just saying it probably won't make much of a difference in your splits..

if you are slapping the trigger so hard that your pulling shoots at that distance your probably shooting way to tense..

My experience has been that as shooters we tend to have two types of trigger pulls..

1)The conscious trigger pull where you put most of the focus on slowly applying pressure to the trigger getting a surprise break

2)subconscious trigger pull where you simply pull the trigger when you see the sights where they need to be.

Often shooters spend more time developing the conscious trigger pull and never develop the subconscious pull poorly because when they practice accuracy they alway do the slow thought full trigger pull..

Seems to me that switching your focus to manipulating your trigger accurately at speed could fix your problem.

Think about it this way when you dry fire..

How fast and hard can you hit tether trigger with out disturbing your sights??

If you can slap the dog shit out off the trigger when you're dry firing and not have the sight disturbed then you're doing pretty good, and your worst trigger pull will still be a pretty good one..

This is not to say that you should alway have to man handle the trigger..

Spending some time shooting live ammo as fast as you can will also teach you to manipulate the trigger in a more relaxed mode. Do you ever shoot a bunch of rounds just to see how fast you can manipulate the trigger with out worrying about accuracy??

Anyway keep kicking ass!

Cheers,

Los

[old506]

Seeklander Program 2nd Month Review:

I am progressing nicely. I am very happy with the results that I have been getting. I have not even come close to being consistent with the program due to weather (mainly). I tried to fight the weather a couple of times but I now just take it as it comes and dryfire instead. There have been plenty of steps forward regardless of my lack of live fire.

I shot a match this weekend. I am only shooting one match a month so I don't get a whole lot of feed back on my overall progression. I really cleaned up at this match. I signed up in Limited and shot my SingleStack gear (only thing I have). I did this as I wanted to know where I am at with better competition. I came in 3rd overall behind an A and Master shooter (They had a clean match also), I felt like I really burned the stages down! I only shot 91% of the available points, I need to work on squeezing a few more points out. I was fast on the field courses and even while having to do 2-3 more mag changes I was on par with the other Limited shooters and even some of the open shooters. The difference was that I shot a clean match, my second clean match in only my 9th match since I started.

Things happened at this match that I loved, my sights were planted in the A zone. I feel like I now call shots. I felt like my body knew exactly what I needed to do to get what I wanted. I can't help but feel that everything is coming together and all of the hard work is coming together, most importantly, on match day.

Good things:

I am calling my shots and know what I can do and do it after the beep. I am seeing things much faster. I am beating A's and M's in Limited or at least keeping up with them and am nipping on the heels on A's and M's in open. My stage break down must be ok at least. I accpet nothing but A's in practice, including dryfire. I think that this really showed up this month. I did shoot a few D's but they came on a couple of longer shots and swingers.

Things to work on:

I need to be faster on transitions. I don't know if I need to forcefully drive my gun to the next target and hit the brakes hard? This causes a lot of sight movement and takes longer to find my sights. If I practice driving my gun hard to the next target, will it become easier to stop harder on target?

Things I am looking for in March:

Well I think that I pretty much accomplished February's goals after looking at my post in January. Maybe I need to stretch them a little bit?

Shoot 95%+ at next months match.

Shoot a clean monthly match.

Win Limited with a SingleStack. (Whoa Now, Easy boy!)

Edited February 28, 2012 by old506

[carlosa]

Seeklander Program 2nd Month Review:

I am progressing nicely. I am very happy with the results that I have been getting. I have not even come close to being consistent with the program due to weather (mainly). I tried to fight the weather a couple of times but I now just take it as it comes and dryfire instead. There have been plenty of steps forward regardless of my lack of live fire.

I shot a match this weekend. I am only shooting one match a month so I don't get a whole lot of feed back on my overall progression. I really cleaned up at this match. I signed up in Limited and shot my SingleStack gear (only thing I have). I did this as I wanted to know where I am at with better competition. I came in 3rd overall behind an A and Master shooter (They had a clean match also), I felt like I really burned the stages down! I only shot 91% of the available points, I need to work on squeezing a few more points out. I was fast on the field courses and even while having to do 2-3 more mag changes I was on par with the other Limited shooters and even some of the open shooters. The difference was that I shot a clean match, my second clean match in only my 9th match since I started.

Things happened at this match that I loved, my sights were planted in the A zone. I feel like I now call shots. I felt like my body knew exactly what I needed to do to get what I wanted. I can't help but feel that everything is coming together and all of the hard work is coming together, most importantly, on match day.

Good things:

I am calling my shots and know what I can do and do it after the beep. I am seeing things much faster. I am beating A's and M's in Limited or at least keeping up with them and am nipping on the heels on A's and M's in open. My stage break down must be ok at least. I accpet nothing but A's in practice, including dryfire. I think that this really showed up this month. I did shoot a few D's but they came on a couple of longer shots and swingers.

Things to work on:

I need to be faster on transitions. I don't know if I need to forcefully drive my gun to the next target and hit the brakes hard? This causes a lot of sight movement and takes longer to find my sights. If I practice driving my gun hard to the next target, will it become easier to stop harder on target?

Things I am looking for in March:

Well I think that I pretty much accomplished February's goals after looking at my post in January. Maybe I need to stretch them a little bit?

Shoot 95%+ at next months match.

Shoot a clean monthly match.

Win Limited with a SingleStack. (Whoa Now, Easy boy!)

Hey!!

Congrats man!!

Sounds like you're burning it up!!

Cheers!!

[old506]

Seeklander Program 3rd Month Review:

I am not taking any huge jumps right now. Reflecting back on the month I think it is kind of a month where I am polishing things, I have the basics down and now I am just making everything shine. I am trying to drive the gun harder and faster and shave .10ths off.

Good things:

My Performance Goals for the year were to:

1. Learn to call my shots

2. 2 or less penalties per match

3. Get 90% of the available points on each stage

4. Place in the top ten (overall) on each stage using Hit Factor.

Well I have pretty much accomplished everyone of those already! Getting around 95% or so points and not having any or one penalty in the last few matches. Number 4 is the tough one, those Open Masters are hard to beat with Single Stack Gear!

Things to work on this month:

I feel like I need to “power” through or “drive hard” on my transitions and (basically everything else). My speed is o.k. but I need to get quicker. I have been trying to do this in DF and it has been going better but I am finding it hard to get the sights to stop precisely where I need them to be without a wiggle. I suspect that this is what I need to get to the Master Level?

I have refocused on the Mental Part of the game. I have invited a (famous to us) GM out to dinner. The schedule didn't work out but maybe in the next month or so? I stole this from Lanny Bassham BTW.

Things I am looking for in March:

Well, I didn’t quite hit all my goals from last month. I did get my 95%+ this week but out of the corner of my eye on the very last stage I noticed a spectator that, for an instant, I thought was too close as I was breaking a shot on target right on the 180. I pulled a shot into the NS and immediately made it up but the damage was done. Just a split second lack of focus cost me another clean match. Because of this I have recommitted to building up the mental portion of the game.

Shoot 95%+ at next months match.

Shoot a clean monthly match.

Win Limited with a SingleStack.

[old506]

Shedding Par Times:

Reflecting on my last month I felt that I plateaued a little bit so I decided to "drive the gun hard" in practice this last week. Because of weather and birthday parties, etc. etc. I haven't been able to LF but I have been able to get large amounts of DF in. Before, when I tried to drive the gun hard, I would drop points. In DF right now I am getting my points, we will see what happens when I am able to get the pistol loaded up but I think mfundamentalsls have caught up with my desire to "drive the gun hard" and my sights land right where they need to be. I am also doing a few drills that incorporate movement, reload and transition. That's a lot of stuff going on but I can focus on "driving hard" to the mag change, driving the gun to target, etc. In my last few sessions the par times are coming down and the consistency is coming up.

In matches I think this is what is costing me. My stage plans are solid, I get an average of 95% points, I just need to do everything else between the beep and IFULSC sooner and with great consistency.

[old506]

One of the things that I have been kicking around is "10,000". This is one of those ideas that hit me when I was just waking up one morning.

As a start, I am thinking about starting with 10,000 perfect draws hands relaxed at side. Then go to 10,000 above the shoulders, 10,000 reloads, etc. I noticed at a match a while back that I was having to adjust my grip from time to time and at one point I hit a NS from the draw because I didn't get a perfect grip. I practice draws/reloads, etc. in DF, I am thinking, though, that I am not mastering them. I think what is going on is that I am just spending a few minutes on them, getting a few "good ones" and then moving on. At this rate of just "knocking out a few reps" I am not mastering the movement. It manifests itself in the match with 5-6 good draws/reloads and then a hiccup somewhere.

The end state that I want is perfect execution at the match, I suspect that after 10,000 perfect, focused repetitions I would have it down?

So, 10,000 reps:

Divided by 4= 2,500/Week

5 Days a week DF= 500 reps/session

5 Seconds a rep= 41 minutes/session (I used 5 seconds because they mustbe focused and perfect to get what I need to get out of it)

The other thought that I have is that at the same time I need to be keeping up with my other DF practice so this may have to be on top of the "regular" DF. 2-a-days, I guess!

12 Months in a year, what are the top twelve things to "master"?

[Chris iliff]

This is my .02 cents. I can't remember how it happened, but these 3 things changed me once I linked them together.

1. Drop all other dryfire practice. Cut your reps down to a total of 5,000. Do them "DEEP".

I've been reading on here about "DEEP PRACTICE". It is working for me. Basically it is any motion, like a draw, done very methodical and correct. I hate to use words that denote time, but slow is what we're talking here. Just enough that it is "perfect".

2. One of the top dogs, I believe Max Michel, said he only did slow dryfire. I didn't really get why. Then I remembered this...

3. Myelin. This is a substance, in our brains that "greases" neuro pathways. You have to build the new pathways stronger than the old. Until you do, it'll be difficult to fix those "training scars" and under stress (shooting a stage) you'll revert to the old familiar "wrong" way.

Like I said, it's just my .02 cents. I developed some training scars and I'm slowly getting rid of them doing the above.

As for a top 12, movement, which includes a ton of different stuff would be high on the list.

Shooting groups would be high.

Trigger control. Might be the first one. I'm just getting this. Made it to A in open after 8 seasons and I'm confident this one will take me to GM if learn it completely.

[old506]

Goals Missed

One of my goals was to win a certain match, I trained hard for it this year and came up 2.5% short. I shot this match to the best of my ability, I didn't overdrive the gun and wasn't on the ragged edge, but I didn't crash either. I only had two penalties, one for a popper that I hit clearly (splatter two inches from the edge) in the calibration zone but didn't go down and of course did when I challenged it. I can't believe how much this threw me off! One of Mike Seeklander's tips in his program is to "reward" yourself when you accomplish your specific goal. Well, what do I do now? I missed it by a hair! I never thought in a million years that I would fail, it never crossed my mind, now what do I do? Frankly, I didn't want to shoot, I didn't want to train, I didn't want anything except to go back and change things. Really, I hate to lose!

Well, I took a few months off, hiked into some wilderness and did some hunting. That seemed to help, now that is over and it is time to get back on the bandwagon!

Comparing Training/Match day notes

I looked back on all of my training notes from this year and then compared them to my match notes. Here are some things that I noticed.

1. More than a couple of times in my training notes I wrote down how focused I felt. When I felt focused on training days leading up to a match (the week of) the match day performance went to another level. I really need to replicate this focus on training days and find out what I happened in particular on these days that may not have on others.

2. More than a couple of times after a match I would jot down how I felt and how I think I did at the match. One thing that jumped out was there were a few matches where I could remember calling every shot, or nearly every shot, on target. It seemed it was seared into my brain what went on even a few hours after the match. After getting the match results, they confirmed my initial reaction (that I jotted down right after the match) and I had a good match and placed where I wanted to be overall. I looked back at my training notes for the week prior and I found an entry that went something like...."was slow starting out today, had too many dropped points/misses and decided to stop what I was doing and go back and make sure to call every shot on target. After this the dropped points stopped." I know it is simple but this seems to be a common thread and springboard to a good match. M-F directly effects what happens on Saturday's. I have to get M-F right!

Plan for the next month

I am going to go back and read through my "shooting books". This should take a week or two.

I really want to work on "explosiveness" during non-shooting actions. I wonder what kind of drills NFL DB's do? I know I need to get the momentum moving sooner, before the last shot is fired, what kind of physical training will help this? I am thinking I need to work on dropping and rotating the hips, how do I accomplish this?

I switched from P90x to Insanity. After a round of Insanity, I am doing a Hybrid Insanity/P90x that I came up with. Maybe this will help build "explosive" movement?

I think it is time to fill out next years shooting calendar.

Edited November 21, 2012 by old506

[toothguy]

old506, lots of great info here, love reading it, keep posting.