Doing My Best... Dreams of GM

[LexTalionis]

Well it's been a crazy last couple of months. The weather around here hasn't been conducive to outdoor practice... God basically decided to skip Spring in Bend, OR. Live fire practice in 40 degree / rainy weather isn't fun at all :/

I've been shooting matches regularly, however, and hope to have a report & video from my most recent one soon.

In the meantime, I thought I'd give myself a plug. For the past few months, I've been working on a new website for someone you guys might know. The site just went live, and I'm very proud of it. Be sure to check out the new:

www.springerprecision.com

Edited May 29, 2011 by LexTalionis

[LexTalionis]

Split-Second Lapses in Awareness

I've been pretty active since my last post. I've been going to as many matches as is practical, live firing once a week, and being decently consistent in my dry fire practice. With Area 1 coming up in less than two weeks, I'm trying to make sure I'm in the best shooting condition I've ever been in. This past Saturday's match in Albany was great preparation for that.

I had both my new hat cam and a 3rd person cam going at this match so that I could really analyze my stages afterwards. I've compiled it all into one 1st person video with the 3rd person shot overlayed in the bottom corner. If you're going to watch my clips, you might want to make sure you're viewing it at 480p and maybe in full-screen. The small clip in the corner can be hard to make out otherwise.

Stage 3 (

)

This first stage required us to engage an array, step out of the box to engage the next array through a low port, then shoot the final array from another box. Since it was the first shooting of the day, I went about it pretty slow. There was nothing spectacular about this stage. My hits were below average (102 out of 120 points), and I fumbled the final reload.

Stage 4 (

)

A fun stage that had gave me a chance to shoot on the move. The first two arrays were on the far left and far right. But from there it was moving shots to the over-the-barricade array at the end. I was focusing so much on seeing my sights during the moving and hoser shots that I kind of forgot to on the initial arrays. As a result, I clipped the no-shoot in the far right setup (doh!). The funny thing is, though, that I shot the stage excellently other than that. 22A and 1 no-shoot. Fortunately, my no-shoot just broke the perf, so it counted as an Alpha as well. As a whole, the shooting-on-the-move experience went very well. It all felt smooth, and my accuracy was good.

Stage 5 (

)

This stage required only a little movement, but had extremely tight setups. In order to shoot it smoothly, one had to step to exactly the right position in the shooting area in order to lean and pivot to the appropriate targets. I went into this stage focused on nailing my positions and seeing my front sights (especially on the far shots). At the buzzer, I moved and shot as smoothly as I ever have. Everything felt great!... except I had a mike (doh!). On the final hardcover array, my second round was barely in the black tape, and I lost the overlay challenge. At this point I knew something was going on. My hits were 19A and 1 mike. I decided that I was having split-second lapses in awareness. I was being perfectly aware for 99% of the course, but that 1 time where I was not quite on top of my game was costing me. My penalties were not total screw-ups. They were barely off the mark, but enough so to count. Hmmm....

Stage 6 (

)

This was another shooting on the move stage. One had to engage the no-shoot laden arrays on the left and right before hitting the barrel port at the end. Three poppers activated the swingers on the left and right. I went in this with the game plan of taking the left swinger first because it was the slower of the two (a mistake). At the buzzer, I moved into position and started laying down the Alphas. Everything was going great until I hit the barrel. First, my mag failed to drop free on the reload, so that cost me a half second. Then I missed the swinger! You can see in the video that my second shot on the left-side swinger was a total whiff (doh!). I did not catch this until scoring later. My shots were 20A's, 2C's, and 1 mike. Again, great accuracy on everything, but a small lapse in awareness cost me big.

Stage 1 (

)

This was the fixed time classifier Lightning and Thunder. I shot it ok. Looking at the video, my draws and reloads looked as good as I could have hoped for. My hits were alright. I ended up with 66/90 points which equates to 73% nationally. I'd shot this classifier once before and got a 76%, so this round won't count. I was disappointed that I couldn't improve the score, but was decently satisfied that I didn't completely blow it.

Stage 2 (

)

Our last stage of the day. I pushed a little too hard on this one, and (you guessed it) I hit a no-shoot. This was the overriding theme of the whole match. On the first target, my first shot was dead center in the A zone. My second shot clipped the no-shoot. I think it was because I had already moved on to the next target in my mind and yanked the shot low. My results were 19A's, 4C's, and 1 no-shoot (doh!).

Lessons Learned

So four times in a row definitely shows me a pattern. I need to treat each and every target with respect. On the long shots in this match, I was golden - Alphas all day long. One 20 yarder had the two bullets in a 3/4 inch grouping. So I know I can see the sights when I need to. My problem this match was not focusing on the "easier" stuff. And that was getting me in trouble. Perhaps I am transitioning to the next target in my mind too early. While I was upset about my penalty-ridden performance, I was also encouraged. Overall I moved and shot better than I ever have. And my many screw-ups were REALLY close! 1/4 inch in the right direction on any of them, and I would have been perfectly fine. So I know that I'm almost where I need to be.

Overall I finished 2nd in Production and 12th in the final standings. This was in a field of 66 shooters and quite a few M and GM class guys. Even with all my penalties, this was definitely my best showing to-date and, I think, very respectable for a newly classified B shooter. If I can iron out the gaps in my attention and perform this well at Area 1, I will be really happy.

[ncboiler]

When you shoot targets that are stacked, I believe you will find it easier to start on the bottom and let the gun recoil up to the top target. Sometimes you shot from top down, but not always. Just a thought. Good shooting.

[Chris iliff]

Low to high, far to near is generally a good axiom on arrays. Good luck at Area 1.

[LexTalionis]

Thanks for the tips. I generally try to go low-to-high on arrays. But what do you do about 4 target arrays where there are two on the top and two on the bottom like on stage 3 in my video (the first link)? I really wasn't sure if there was an optimum order to take those in. And since there was a no-shoot in between some of them, I figured the time saved rising with the recoil would be negligible since I'd have to be aiming closely anyway.

I'll have to remember the far-to-near thing. Usually I try to draw to a close target since I have a double action first pull, but other than that, I'll try to incorporate that concept.

[Chris iliff]

Of course it all depends on the array, so nothing is set in stone. The far to near relates to another concept, and that is it's easier to speed up than slow down our shooting.

Generally I start with the first visible at an array. If I have a hard set up with a distant shot, say a lean around a barricade, I want to ask some questions. If it's my last shooting position, I'll shoot coming in and work my way to the difficult shot. If it's my first position or one in the middle of a stage, what method allows me to get out of the position the quickest? Maybe coming in and setting up on the hard shot will allow me to work the other targets as I'm moving out of the position. Nothing is in STONE. You got to put it to the timer.

[Chris iliff]

Sometimes, the eyes don't lie. Where do the eyes naturally go coming in or leaving a position. I've programmed stages and then in the middle of the stage my eyes have locked on a target that was not programmed from that position. I'll take that target and adapt the rest of the programming on the fly.

This has happened less and less frequently as my stage breakdowns get better.

[LexTalionis]

IDPA Classifier

Shot an IDPA Classifier last night. Our club likes to run one of these a month during the summer time. Even though I'm not an IDPA member (and have never shot an IDPA match), I like to use it as a gauge of my shooting ability. The skills they require are pretty fundamental to good shooting in general (except for the tac reloads )

Anyway, I was very happy with how things went last night. I went in not caring about speed, just focusing on shooting A's. I ended up being about as fast as I've ever been when everything was added up, and I shot a lot more accurately. So, I made SSP Master for the first time ever! This shooting event was a nice milestone for me because one year ago was when I started shooting competitively. In fact, I shot my very first IDPA classifier that first month and still have the results.

June 2010

Total Time: 170.19 (with 69 points down)

ESP Marksman

June 2011

Total Time: 92.91 (with 26 points down)

SSP Master

Ya, I could have shot it a little better than I did. I had one mike, and I was trying to get used to some recent gun changes. But this was well within my comfort level for repetition, and it just felt good. I think I could have shot those scores all day long. Here's the video:

Now to focus on the real goal... USPSA Master

[LexTalionis]

Area 1

Well I got back home from Area 1 late last night. For my first major match, I had a great time! Overall I think I shot a good representation of my current skill level. I had 4 mikes throughout the match and a bunch of small foibles that cost me time. If you watch my match video, you'll see what I mean.

Some of the highs of the match were me getting to spend time with top-tier shooters. Mike Hughes was in my squad, and I learned a ton watching and interacting with him. I had a decent conversation with Cody McKenna while we were waiting for the results afterwards. Both of them were awesome guys who didn't hesitate to give me advice and even pay me compliments.

Overall, I finished 23rd Production at 69.42% of Angus Hobdell (the match winner). I know I could have done better, but I also know I could have done a lot worse. Since there were so many stages, I'm going to forgo a play-by-play commentary this time around. I've added some comments to my YouTube video, and I'll let my shooting speak for itself. I know I have a ton of stuff to work on

[Steve Anderson]

"From there I started to struggle. I felt that shooting only A's was too slow and decided to see what I could do to speed up. Of course that resulted in less accuracy and poor scores."

What did you think you could do to be faster than you are? Try harder?

Practice is for trying and thinking and analyzing and breaking down and wondering and hoping and hustling.

Matches are for shooting alphas.

When you are shooting subconsciously, it will feel very slow and this will be scary. If you don't like your speed, that means you need to change something about your training. It doesn't mean you need to "try" to shoot faster during the match.

I remember trying to speed up my draw at the first nationals I went to. Matt Burkett was watching me so I thought I'd impress him with a smokin' draw on a very close target.

He was not impressed with my delta-mike and laughed at me for a prolonged period of time.

What's silly about that is that I routinely did .7 draws on close targets all the time in practice. Where's the need to hurry?

You also mentioned earlier that you are depressed after live fire. Please find a way to change this immediately. You don't want to spend any time thinking you are "a bad shooter." Find something to celebrate.

[Steve Anderson]

btw... Making GM is easy compared to competing with them.

[L-10_shooter]

good shooting dude! Nice run on a moving star.

[LexTalionis]

Thanks, Jan. Besides the gun-handling mishap (bumped my slidelock), I think that stage went really well for me. I ran the numbers, and without the 3+ seconds the slidelock foible cost me, I would have made top ten on that stage... I'm going to dryfire like a madman and make sure I never do that again!

[LexTalionis]

Steve,

Thanks for the responses! You've given me a lot to think about.

One of the GM's in my squad at Area 1 told me some of the same things about positive thinking. I'll see what I can do to structure each live fire practice so that I have positives to reflect on.

Also, the whole "push it in practice, shoot alphas at matches" concept is one that I will be more conscientious about in the future. I have not been purposeful about doing that.

Along the lines of your second post, I've come across more than one GM who "regrets" having made GM. I guess there's much less pressure to perform and maintain one's skills at the M level.

Thanks again! I'm going to go work hard at this stuff.

[inkballedtarget]

Great videos! I really enjoyed the post from area 1.. It looks like they had some pretty awesome stages!

Keep up the good work!

[LexTalionis]

Update!

Well it's been a busy busy summer. I've been shooting local matches regularly all summer long and even managed to make a couple major matches after Area I.

In July, I went to Idaho and shot at the MGM Man-On-Man Grand Nationals. It was all 1v1 steel type shooting with Jerry Miculek winning the whole thing (with an open revolver, lol). I finished 2nd B Limited class and, because of the sweet sweet prize table, won a Glock certificate! That in itself was worth the cost of the whole trip. Overall, I had an awesome time and met some great people.

In August, I went to the Oregon USPSA Sectional match. It was a one-day, 8 stage match. And although it was hot (96 degrees), it was a great match! I finished 5th Production, which was kind of funny because I zeroed a stage. Overall, it was a great learning experience. My confidence level and match experience are definitely starting to show in how I approach stages. I know the pace I need to shoot to get good hits, and I'm comfortable dwelling in that zone.

In September, I started practicing every week with another shooter in my club. We go out every Wednesday and spend 2-3 hours running drills and figuring out how to improve. It's been very valuable so far and has allowed me to start pushing myself to shoot, move, and see faster. Improvement is coming slowly but surely.

I've also become a MD at our local club. I lead the Mixed Steel match each month. It's kind of a mixed bag of shooting disciplines... basically whatever I want it to look like that month. I've been putting a lot of USPSA-style stuff in the stage designs, and it has been well received. Check out my YouTube page for some of our match videos.

So it's been a great shooting season for me. I've started up my dry firing again (kind of took a couple months off), and am really enjoying it. On top of all that, I finally made A-Class in this last update! I'm looking forward to a fall and winter of hard work and steady improvement.

[Cheshire_Cat]

Congrats!

[Chris iliff]

Good job making A!!!