alpha-charlie Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Dryfire practice Tried some dryfire today. I was so pissed off about work my head really wasn't into it. As much as I tried to focus on shooting the events from the day and the rants in my head about it kept taking over. So it was sporadic at best. Everything about it was tense and forced. Too much aggression led to sloppy everything. When I called it quits I started to calm down a little and had a Coke. It really did make me feel better. I started thinking about how I just kept pushing my reloads faster and faster and kept fumbling them. I know that smooth is fast and tried a little experiment just to see how different the results were from my tense reload practice to calming down for about 10 minutes and performing a reload with smooth precise movements. I recorded the smooth reload just to make sure there were no blatant herky jerky movements like when I was tensed up. Smooth is fast, no doubt about it. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N7OXJG82ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 (edited) Starts with a "D" ends with a "ryfire"..........60 mins The weather has warmed up to a wonderful 36 degress. It's feels like summer time outside. It really put me in a good mood and made for a good session. Nothing too spectacular just my normal drills with the stereo cranked. A good mood, good music and feeling motivated really changes everything about practicing. I did work closely on re-establishing my grip after a reload. I never get a good solid grip after hitting a reload. This makes for sloppy follow-up shots. And considering I shoot Production, I really need to be able to do this. I decided to dryfire with Pro-grip today. It helped out alot. I continued with reload practice. I was able to get some in under a second. My main focus on this is being that fast when moving, because besides for a classifier, I'll most likely be reloading on the move on just about every stage. Have to work to have it done in under a second before the first step is complete. Sometimes I can, sometimes not. 'Amateurs do it until they get it right, professionals do it until they can't do it wrong.' I read that somewhere on the forums, I forget where, but it's true. ETA: Picked up a Gen 4 Glock 22 the other day as a possible new duty weapon. I still have yet to fire it but it feels really nice. After I shoot the crap out of it to get used to it and training with it in my new duty holster I'm probably going to retire my XD45 (current duty gun). I love my XD45, it was so awesome when I first got it and was the first gun that I used at a USPSA match. After I got my 34 a few months ago I've really fallen in love with the Glock platform. They're just awesome!!! Edited February 15, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 (edited) Less than 7 days until the first "Match" of the year. My "home" club, pinetree pistol club is hosting it's indoor tournament, Winter Indoor Ipsc Tournament and it's always an awesome match. I shot it last year and walked away with my first and only plaque. 2nd place C class. Doesn't sound like much but it really lit the fire for me when I was recongnized in front of other shooters. Competition will be tough, but I will shoot as good as my skills will allow me and let the chips fall where they may. Dryfire continues for this week as my experiment has yielded some interesting but totally predictable results. By dryfiring on a regular basis and especially the day before a match really puts me at ease on match day and I shoot like I own the place. Of course winning my division would be awesome but I am a realist when it comes to these things. But, I am setting my overall goal to beat the A class shooters. Time to dryfire. Edited February 27, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 Dryfire........60 minutes Went the detail oriented route tonight. Really focused on every sight picture and each step of my draw, presentation, and transition. It was like a review session pretty much. I slowed down and made sure to nail each movement with nothing wasted. When I had everything down I gradually sped up. I stole a technique from Micah and put a piece of white tape about the size of 2 pasters on the upper A-zone of each of my targets. I know that my poa is supposed to be the A-zone, preferably the upper A-zone but I seem to break a shot as soon as I hit the A-zone. Not that anything is wrong with that, but I want to train to present the gun and have my poa automatically be at the same area of the A-zone each and everytime. I'm using the tape as a reference so that I can get used to presenting the gun and getting a sight picture at that exact spot each and everytime until it becomes automatic. It really made transitions and one handed shooting easier. I'll continue to use it from now on. Reloads went well. Set the par time down to .75 and was hitting a few at the buzzer. That was cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Full Dryfire session.........90 minutes Had the opportunity to live fire today but the weather was once again 30 degrees with high winds so I decided to dryfire instead. Kept with starting slow and really working the fundamentals. I gradually sped up my drills and this seems to really be helping me stay consistent. I see it as kind of a warm-up. If you think about it, every other sport has a warm-up before they play so why shouldn't I. I'm gonna try and get at least 30 minutes of dry-fire in before a match. Even though I usually travel 1.5 hrs to a match I think being a little warmed up with reloads, draws and some movement could only help. It also wakes me up, not exactly a jump out of bed and get moving type of person. Worked coming into and out of shooting positions with a reload today. I don't practice this as much as I should and it shows. But after slowing down and working on the major details of the drill I was moving nice and smooth with a quick reload. I noticed that the faster I tried to move while reloading really screwed me up. I would be so focused on running to the next postion that I wouldn't nail the reload. Instead of one step to reload I was fumbling with it for half the distance and then couldn't focus on my steps and coming into position with the gun alread raised into position. Taking a slower first step and focusing on the reload frees up my eyes to watch where I'm going and makes entry waaaayyyy smoother. Lesson learned, nail the reload as quickly as possible while starting to move and then focus on where I'm going and the next target array. Nothing I didn't know, but this is a great example of why to practice. Keeping things fresh and always learning during each session. Feeling good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 Live fire Was feeling very motivated after dryfiring earlier in the day so I headed to the indoor range for some livefire. My accuracy at 25 yds was very nice but my reloads sucked!!! After way too much Progrip on my hands I couldn't turn the gun and hit the mag release to save my life. That stuff works really good!! It was good to get some trigger time in and work on my grip. There was a ton of people in there tonight just mindlessly blasting away which made things pretty annoying, and the timer was useless. I'm such a frickin' range snob sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 (edited) Dryfire session.......60 minutes Continued to work as many drills as I can. I've definetely noticed that it takes about 10 minutes of draws, reloads, and sight pictures to get into a "groove." I think from now on I'll be sure to get a full night's sleep before a match and get up and get at least a 30 minute dryfire session in. I've mentioned doing this before but after paying close attention to how long it takes me to feel ready to go is disturbing. And I wonder why it usually takes 3 stages to start shooting good!!! The WIIT is Saturday and I'm gonna try and get out of work early tomorrow and head out to the range for the Thurs. night practice match. Another focused dryfire session on Friday night and an early morning mini-session on Saturday and then it's time to get the season started!!!!!!!! Edited March 3, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 (edited) 2011 Winter Indoor Ipsc Tournament (WIIT) Well, the 2011 WIIT is in the books and I am less than thrilled with the results. It was a definite improvement over last year but I was hoping of much better than I did. I ended up 6th out of 27 Production shooter but was going for 3rd or 4th. My times on the stages were competitive but I dropped way too many points. 50 penalty points over 6 stages is not a good way to stay in the top 5. I really need to learn to shoot more accurate at the speed that I want to shoot at. My achilles heel (support hand grip) continues to cause my accuracy to suck. My second shots on a target are the ones that are dipping into hard cover or a no shoot. Had I shot the match clean I would have been a top contender. But, that goes with anyone who shoots a match, shoot it clean and let the other guys make the mistakes. My first 3 stages went pretty good. After a long 3 hour break so the staff could set-up the next 3 stages and get the first 3 squads through, I feel apart on the last 3 stages. The first 3 were more speed/hoser stages while the last 3 were more for accuracy. I had to slow down a bit to try and be as accurate as possible but when I do that, I just keep thinking about how much time I'm wasting and rush my shots. Hence, 50 penalty points. So, instead of slowing down, I will just learn to shoot A's faster. Genious. ETA: Also, to top off a crappy performance I ran over a meteorite or something on I-90 which immediately blew out the front tire of my brand new truck. 1,000 miles on it and I gotta bust out $250 for a new tire already. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9LInbvYoos Edited March 7, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted March 15, 2011 Author Share Posted March 15, 2011 (edited) Live Fire Practice........3 hours After my crappy performance in the match that I trained all winter for I did alot of thinking during the past week. After watching the video of the match 100 times and thinking through each stage, I came to a few conclusions. 1) My weak hand grip needs to be consistent on each shot. 2) I need to stay on the front sight for every shot. 3) I need to realize that farther shots need to be taken with more care than up close targets. 4) No shoots and hard cover mean NOTHING, if the front sight is on the area of the target that needs to be hit, then who cares about the penalty areas. Put the sight where you need to hit and make it happen. No shoots and hard cover are there to make you think twice about your shot and distract you. The weather was fantastic and I had the whole range to myself so I stayed for 3 hours. I shot nothing but small poppers and targets drenched in hard cover. I also shot them at no closer than 15 yards. I started off in true fashion with hard cover hits all over the place. I've realized this before but lack of live fire practice makes me forget. I think I'm seeing the front sight the whole time but I'm not. I'm going back and forth from the sight to the target and blasting away. No good. Started to really focus on my grip and seeing nothing but the front sight. Much better. Moving to a secondary position is like a bull in a China shop. First shot was always low and the gun was jumping all over the place. I eventually slowed down my shooting to really focus on grip and my front sight. My times were slower by almost 2 seconds, but a run that's 2 seconds slower with all A's instead of 4 mikes will win anyday. Gotta go back to the basics and pay attention to every shot. In time, my accuracy will speed up. Edited March 15, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Live fire practice........3 hrs Made it to the range today for some live fire. I don't know exactly how many rounds I shoot but it's approximately 3/4 of a Foldgers coffee can. I just load and dump and off I go. Having a day off during the week is awesome because it allows me to go to the range while everyone else is at work. So once I again, I had the whole place to myself. Continued my practice on staying on the front sight and making sure the support hand grip is solid throughout. I do well just standing and shooting but my adrenaline makes me rush so I experimented a little today. I started out shooting groups and small poppers at 40 yards which went very well. It proved to me that I am in fact accurate, I just have to stay on the front sight the whole time and press the trigger nice and smooth. I brought it in to 15 yards and did some movement. Standing in box A, engage the plate rack (6 8" plates) and then reload while moving to box B. (about 10 yards to the right of box A) From box B engage small popper, static ipsc target and then another small popper. Sure enough I barreled into Box B completely off balance and rushed all of my shots. A couple corrections on speed and I ended up 2 seconds faster with one for one on all the steel and 2 Alphas instead of Charlie/Delta. Setup 3 targets: 15 yds, 10 yds, 5 yds, and stood at an angle which made the transitions very short. Also stood at different angle's to lengthen the transitions between targets. Started to shoot them far to near. My first shot time was way too long so I switched it up. Defientely a better way to shoot it. I find that once I get going I can transition to the farther target easier rather than taking a long shot from the draw. I focused on staying on my front sight and was shooting pretty much all A's. I was content with a best time of 3.40 with all A's. I then remembered what I learned at Stoeger's class, GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. I let it rip from there. From the draw I got it down to 2.63 with all A's. This is about how fast I could shoot it without staying on the sight and would've ended up with C's and D's all over the place. I like the confidence that I can shoot as fast as I have been but now I'm focusing on the front sight for each shot and hitting Alphas all day. It was a breakthrough day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 (edited) Classifier match Shot a quick classifier match today. It was only 4 stages but it went smoothly despite the cold weather and freezing winds. I guess it wasn't all that bad, heck, it could've been raining. I shot the match clean. No deltas and only a few Charlie's. My times were, in my mind, slow. One stage went very well and I expect a good % on that. The other three just felt like a high B class run, which is what I'm currently classified at. I wanted to really concentrate on my front sight and shoot accurately and I definetely did that. I like the confidence I have in watching my front sight now. Scores will be posted later so I'll do some math and see what happens. Next week is another classifier match so maybe between today and next week I can get the bump. I feel as though I'm ready to move up and not just looking for a better letter. Grandbagging should be illegal. ETA: Scores are in. Even though it was a classifier match it's still cool to win every stage. Hahaha. According to cmcalc.com I shot every stage in the 70's. I'm still a little short of making A class (72.5992) but I can taste it now. I'm gonna shoot the classifier match next week and try and start off this year in a new class. It's been discussed on the forums if a great performance motivates you more than a bad performance. For me doing good and coming closer and closer to a goal is a major motivator. I'm hungrier now to practice, drill and shoot more than I've ever been!! Edited March 27, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 Saturday: Another classifier match Sunday: Local indoor match I was lucky enough to actually have a Saturday off in who knows how long so I used it to my advantage. My quest for A class continued so I found another classifier match and shot it on Saturday. I tanked 2 stages but shot the other 4 well. 2 stages I shot 85% & 87% which was awesome!!! If my math is correct I should be getting the bump to A class. With shooting 2 classifiers at Master class level, I'm looking at it that I'm already 1/3 of the way to making Master. I don't want to stick around A class any longer than I have to, but like A class I will move up when my skills deem it. Thanks to Alex for shooting Limited today so I was able to take 1st in Production at the local match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SFNYSE4c6A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 Live Fire Practice.........about 2 1/2 hrs. Made it out to the range today to work on some movement, reloads and shooting accurately after moving. I don't think you can ever practice movement enough. It's such a time killer if done improperly that I've really started to disect ever part of it. I'm getting better due to staying calm when moving and not rushing so much. Smooth is fast. In the last couple of matches I've shot I've noticed that I have trouble hitting the mag release sometimes and this costs me tons of time. I practice reloads in dryfire all the time, but when live fire comes around I'm all thumbs sometimes. I attribute this, once again, to rushing the reload. Smooth is fast. I've also noticed that the first shot I take after moving into a new position is rarely accurate. I figured that it was due to rushing into position, being off balance and breaking the first shot while the gun was still bouncing around. Yes to all of those but once I started smoothly coming into position and was still throwing shots I had to stop and think for a second. It was my weak hand grip. Also, by coming into position nice and smooth I've now realized that I should not just be pointing the gun towards the next target, but should start reacquiring my two handed grip about two steps before coming into position. Obviously reacquire the 2 handed grip and begin presenting the gun at the next target as I step into the shooting box. These are all things I know to do, but was not executing them the way I should have been. The Ohio State Championship is coming up fast and I want to be as ready as possible. My work schedule changed so my days off will be during the week instead of Sunday/Monday. With the warm weather I hope to get to the range nice and early on my days off to get some serious live fire practice in while everyone else is at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 Classification Update: Well my math was correct. It's official now, I've made the bump to A class in Production. I remember the start of the 2010 season when I made the conscious effort to really get serious in this game/sport/addiction/obsession and started focusing my attention to making B class. At alot of points I remember thinking that it was going to be impossible and that I'd be stuck at C forever. I wish I had this diary back then so I could look back and really see how I was feeling on a day to day basis. I made B class on 7/14/2010. 9 months in B class seemed like an eternity. I'm not putting a time limit on making Master, and will continue to practice and learn from every shot until my skills allow me to move up again. I'm off today so I'm heading to the range for some live fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Live Fire Don't ya just hate it when you're setting up your targets and bam!! No more staples in the staple gun. Had to improvise a little so I had three targets up and worked on the plate racks for awhile. I tried shooting the racks on the move for a change. I thought it would be a lot harder than it was but I surprised myself. Since I had no real set up today I decided to work on some different shooting positions. I don't think anyone really practices shooting around a wall with the last target being a hard leaning shot. I've done it many times in matches but never really practiced it. Also, I cut the A-zone out of a target and used it as a small port with 3 targets spread out in front of it. Having to get up close to the port really slows down transitions and eliminates any periphial vision of where the next target is. Tried different distances with the port to really work the angles. I even tried drawing and then squatting like a catcher to engage some targets. Not the stuff that'll be in the majority of matches but those shots are in there more than I think though, so I'm glad I thought to practice them too. Shooting in a catchers position is probably pretty rare but at least I know I can do it so it could be a little trick up my sleeve to help better game a stage in the future. Gonna try and get back out to the range tomorrow as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 (edited) Live Fire Whole lot of everything today. I shot the plate rack quite a bit and also concentrated on shoooting on the move. I really enjoy shooting the plate rack. It really makes you (well, me at least) of how slow my first shot really is. The best run I had was 2.58 with a 1.16 first shot. This was at about 10 - 12 yds. I know I can go faster, and my first shot is where alot of the wasted time is at. I feel like I'm moving pretty fast but I think I'm still plugging along at a snails pace. Maybe I just watch too many videos of GM's blazing head shots on the move and comparing that to myself. I was able to learn and control my throttle by placing targets at different distances shooting them either moving left to right or moving towards them at an angle. It was a good set of drills and I feel more confident in shooting while moving. I took my last magazine of the day and backed up to 50 yards to see how many Alpha's I could hit. 17 shots fired at 50 yds in about 20 seconds: 11 Alphas, 4 Charlie's, 2 Delta's. Having never really shot at 50 yds I was pretty pleased. I like shooting at distance, it really makes you focus on the fundamentals. Pic is below. Edited April 21, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Good read! Congrats on "A"!! I blitzed through "B" also. I am an "A" in open. I'm with you on not collecting the letter! I've been at it 6-7 years and it's still a blast! I want that class to match my match ability. Your dedication in practice is great to read. I'm going to the Ohio State too. I can't wait, that's a great bunch over there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 Thanks Chris. Ohio State should be a great first major for me this season. Good News: Out of the nearly 7,000 rounds I stockpiled during the winter break I've been able to blast away about 6,000 rounds already. Bad News: I have less than 1,000 rounds loaded and 2 cases on back-order for who knows how long. With each practice session being about 400 rounds and local matches I'll be lucky to have any left for Ohio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 Local Match on 30Apr11 Local match went pretty well on Saturday. I wasn't going to be able to make it out Sunday, but had Saturday open to go out and help set-up the stages and then shoot through. I've help set-up a couple times and it just never gets any easier. My hats off to the people who constantly do the designs, set-ups, stats, etc etc. By the time it was all set-up I was pretty tired. I shot the match well but after looking at some other shooter's times I guess I wasn't moving as fast as I thought I was. I still managed to win all the stages and take 1st in Production but I feel like I could have been faster. Alot of time was wasted by little mental lapses of my execution. Mostly forgetting a target or not following my plan is what cost me the most time. I attribute that to fatigue and that I haven't shot a match in a month. I've been concentrating on live fire practice and working on certain drills and accuracy. The practice has definitely helped as I was extremely happy with my accuracy for the match. I had one Mike on a swinger but I knew I had missed it. I'm still trying to teach my brain that it's o.k. to go back and take another shot. At least I know that I called a miss, which only leaves the insane question of "If you called a miss, why didn't you make the shot up immediately?" I don't know, but I'm very happy with my accuracy and shooting on the move. Practice has definitely paid off in those areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 Live Fire.......About 2 hours Hit the range today to work on some movement. I saw a drill on the t.v. show Handguns the other day that I tried out. I simply set up one target and 4 barrels. With a timer I would start at one barrel and shoot on the move from one barrel to the next. This incorporated moving left to right, forward, right to left, and then back wards. I threw in a couple reloads to push it a little more. After 34 shots I only dropped to out of the A-zone. I was pleased to say the least. I changed it up to deal with another on-going problem: shooting, quickly moving to another position, and shooting again. I've previously worked on moving longer distances but never really worked on shorter distances. If you think about it, the majority of stages have shorter distances that you move between. I used the barrels again. From the back left corner 2 shots and then move to the right barrel for 2 more shots. My hits were good but I felt so awkward and uncomfortable. I changed directions from left to right, diagonal, back to front, etc. I was off balance a lot when coming into position and was wasting too much time stopping, regaining my balance, presenting the gun and taking the shot. It's those little things that kill my times. The shooting Gods then smiled on me.........I run like a MORON. I started thinking about some videos of Ben Stoeger and Phil Strader and how they move. I thought I was moving like they said but wasn't. When moving from left to right/right to left I kept letting go of the gun with my support hand and wouldn't completely turn my body in the direction that I was running. I was kind of running sideways but stepping foot over foot. It's hard to explain but once I completely turned my body in the direction I was running while keeping both hands on the gun (while safely pointed downrange) it changed everything. I am now under much better control when stopping and setting up into position while completely balanced. Also, it's allowing me on closer target to present the gun and take the first shot (sometimes both) while still moving and headed to the next position. Today proved that sometimes less really is more. A simple drill and paying attention to the little details is hopefully going to take my shooting to another level. Feeling confident about Ohio State coming up in a few weeks, just have to stay focused and remember my fundamentals and what I've learned in practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 (edited) Match Day.....Schultz Rod & Gun Club First thing re-learned today.....leave early enough to get to the match on time!!!!! I arrived today just as the walk-throughs were being done. After tracking down someone to register with I got up and rolling. I started out on the most difficult of the stages and it showed. I had about three shooters ahead of me to try and figure it out but it wasn't enough time. Combine that with being flustered, I was choppy and completely unsure of where I needed to shoot next. I ended up leaving two steel plates standing. Also, it didn't help that I can't balance very well on a shaky "bridge." Anyways, the rest of the day went pretty good. It was definitely the optimal day to be shooting: about 65 degrees, slight breeze and sunny. The classifier, On the Move, went pretty well. For some reason I didn't check my final scores and times but from what I remember I should be under 9 seconds and had all A's with either 3 or 4 C's. Depending on the exact numbers I should be right around a 85%. This would give me a third Master class percentage after only being an A for about a month. If it's not, no biggie, it'll work itself out. ETA: Match scores are already posted even with the USPSA website being down. Classifier went better than I thought. This one will be my highest ever: 88.06%. It's weird, I'm classifed as an A and only have one classifier out of my 6 that's in A class percentage. The rest are high B's and Master's. Some of the stages were a little tricky to break down but I find myself having a much easier time breaking down stages lately. I seem to be "seeing" the more logical way to shoot a stage instead of the "easier" way. I think not being afraid to shoot on the move and knowing that "I got that shot no problem" is opening more doors and helping with shooting stages better. Last match before the Ohio match as I will be in Lake Erie next weekend on a chartered fishing trip with a bunch of guys. It should be fun and maybe a little break is needed. I will continue my dry-fire and live fire though. Think I'll hit the range tomorrow to do some fast shooting accuracy drills. Need to stay on the front sight more during fast shots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwg37CS2blg Edited May 9, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Stoeger Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 It physically hurt to watch the first stage... GREAT shooting otherwise though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 It physically hurt to watch the first stage... GREAT shooting otherwise though. Yes...yes it does hurt. I've watched it about 25 times now as a punishment. It's not good when you're about 5 seconds into a stage and literally say to yourself, "Damn it, I have no idea what I'm doing." It was also nice that as soon as I cleared and holstered I turned around and a guy waiting with the next squad was laughing and says to me "You know you left those steel standing?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 Live fire today....2 hrs Went to the range today to work on accuracy/speed but forgot my damn belt/holster/mag pouches. So instead I worked on table draws since I've never worked on them. A simple drill that utilized a plate rack and one target with a No-shoot target on top of it. I cut the A-zone out of the no-shoot so that the only brown area available was A-zone. I had a barrel in front of the plate rack and a barrel in front of the target. Both target and rack were 30 ft away. Starting with gun unloaded on barrel and magazines on barrels engage at start signal. This was basically to work on getting the gun up, loaded and getting the first shot off under stress. Also, I put the no-shoot up to really make me see the front sight when running into a new position added with having to load the second mag off the barrel. It was a good drill and really made stay relaxe in order to make my shots count. Make-up shots kill. I don't think I'll be dry firing or live firing on wide open targets anymore, partial targets from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha-charlie Posted May 23, 2011 Author Share Posted May 23, 2011 (edited) 2011 Ohio Sectional Well, the rapture has come and gone and so has the 2011 Ohio Sectional. It was a personal best for me but I still hate watching my videos. My movement really kills me and I need to be much more confident and aggressive in it. The Positives: I shot the match clean. I've always worried about my accuracy and rarely shoot a match clean. My accuracy work this year has really paid off and it makes such a huge difference when you're not the quickest competitor out there. This match had a little bit of everything but was mainly a hose fest. Not a ton of tight difficult shots but they were in there along with the movers, memory stages and two bobbing swinger type things that blew my mind when I went to shoot at them. I got to the range early the day before to check out the stages. I've never done this but I will from now on. The memory stage from hell was on my mind all day. I spent at least 30 minutes trying to figure it out but I was still having trouble with it, just couldn't keep track of what targets were already shot. So when I see what stage I'm starting on, sure enough it's the memory stage. And guess who's shooting it first? Yep, me. Not a good start. Turns out this was one of my best stages. I placed 3rd on it. I pretty much said screw it, I'm gonna make sure I hit every target and go for the points. Turns out I did both pretty well. I even beat Matt Cheely on both points and time. The stage after that I gambled and tried to save a reload by running the gun dry. I missed a popper and went into slide lock and was forced into a standing reload. That cost 3 seconds. If my gamble would've worked out it would've been about 20 more stage points. That's why it's a gamble I guess. I was feeling good after the memory stage so I went for it, go big or go home. The retreating stage was a great example of why it's so important to get into the exact spot for tight shots. It pains me to have to watch me reposition and then let the swinger go by again. All in all my 3 major hiccups cost me at least 50 match points. Positive though: I've only been an A for a month and finished 2nd A in production and 5th overall in the division. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbz-2JfHyhM Edited May 24, 2011 by alpha-charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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