Do you practice for a match?

[Jeeper]

If you have stage diagrams of stages for an upcoming big match, do you focus on the skills necessary for those stages? In adition do you try and set up some similar stuff to what the stages will be?

[shred]

I never try and repro stages from a match booklet unless they're something very simple like the standards at the RGNs a couple years ago-- things change way too much between paper and berm.

If some skill is needed that I may be rusty on (vast amounts of strong-hand shooting on the move, or weakhand mandatory reloads or something), then I'll try that in practice and learn what I need to do.

[Matthew_Mink]

I usually practice the stuff that I don't see very often. Case in point, that awful 50 yard stage in Area 4 this year is getting practiced heavily right now.

[Jeeper]

Case in point, that awful 50 yard stage in Area 4 this year is getting practiced heavily right now.

That is on my list for next week.

[Loves2Shoot]

I think I usually shot a stage best the 1st time I shoot it, less thinking and more doing.

[rhino]

Now that I've been a cheatin' practicer for a while, I can answer this.

We don't setup stages for practice, just drills or even just single targets for drills. The exception is we occasionally shoot an El Prez or something similar, but that's pretty much because we have three targets standing there.

One time our practice session got hijacked by another guy who just sort of took over and decided what the rest of us would do. He eventually setup a pretty bad stage which we did. Coincidentally, I had the best time on it.

I think drills of all kinds are far more beneficial for someone at my skill level. Today we just shot for groups for a while.

[Shooter Grrl]

Yup - I practice PIECES of the match if they're kind enough to post them. Alot of mandatory reloads and standing shooting - I'll work on that... looks to be like a lot of moving/shooting, i'll dry fire and practice transitions.

But mostly, I always practice funky positions and picking up the gun off of tables

[tightloop]

Are you kidding?

HELL YEAH.....

[Jasonub]

i just practice my weak points, like weak hand, and 45 meter classic targets that seems to be common in the philippines.

the good thing is they put full targets not half targets at that distance and they also have been kind not putting no shoots or swingers at that distance......yet

[eric nielsen]

Yes.

[uscbigdawg]

Never. I kind of look at it is a mild case of cheating, but don't fault anyone for doing it.

If there are odd positions, or drills (i.e. Ring of Fire at the first Infinity Open), I'll practice strong and weak hand.

Standards is part of the normal routine now, so it's mostly just shooting the uni-hand parts.

Rich

[Al Capizzo]

Like most of the others, I will practice whatever looks different or whatever I feel I'm weak at.

So... tell us about this stage you 've designed for Space City?

Al

[tightloop]

Al

go back a page or two on this thread and find Jeepers proposed stages and look at #3 with the plate rack. He said that is pretty close..

[tightloop]

Jeeper

I am curious why you posted this question. Are you afraid we will set up the stage from the SCC and run it?

It is kind of like women flashing their goods, if they have nerve enough to show it, I have nerve enough to look... same with stages, if you let me know what I am to shoot ahead of time, I am going to shoot it...

[SiG Lady]

All this cheatin' theory notwithstanding, I attempted to purchase a routine target at the range one day that we often use in matches and the RO wouldn't sell it to me, claiming it was for matches only. Nonsense, we've always been able to buy ALL targets!! So... off to my computer, created the six bullseyes, pasted them up on paper, took 'em to the office, used the oversize copier, and Voila!, match targets! Never try to stop the SiG Lady's creative "cheating."

[tightloop]

Cool.

Where there's a will, there's a way..

[Jeeper]

Jeeper

I am curious why you posted this question. Are you afraid we will set up the stage from the SCC and run it?

It is kind of like women flashing their goods, if they have nerve enough to show it, I have nerve enough to look... same with stages, if you let me know what I am to shoot ahead of time, I am going to shoot it...

Actually I dont think I have ever shot a match that had the stages posted. I was just curious about how many people would actually use it ahead of time. I am going to practice certain skills from it definately. I wanted to see how many others would also. Of course it is impossible to duplicate exactly. For example Area 4 has that awful 50yd standards which I will shoot a lot befor ethen. At Space City there is a 20-25 yard plate rack which I will also practice.

[benos]

You can bet the farm that all the top guys would be practicing the crap out of a pre-published standards, especially for an Area-type or above match. Except for maybe Arnt Myhre... Who'd probably just show up late to the range, stumbling around half asleep asking what stage he was up on... then go win the toughest stage/standards in the match first thing in the morning, on first day of the match.

But we can't all be The Greatest Ever.

[JFD]

With the SC State match coming up, I specifically setup stages that I thought might benefit the shooters. Two were standards stages that included freestyle, weak, and strong hand shooting. One of them was "Ring of Fire" (mentioned earlier). Of course I set up the stage I'll be providing to the SC State match. From my end this wasn't for practice as much as it was for debugging. The key to that stage is maintaining your calm. I was good to go until I hit the halfway point, then sort of freaked and shot enough extra shots to screw up my score.

Speaking of Ring of Fire, there's hardly an easier way to increase the match round count with a minimum of time and props. There's only 8 target stands and a box needed for this 32 round stage.

So my match ended up with 6 stages and 160 rounds minimum. More than 1 person had to run out after registration to obtain more ammo.

I'll stop before I drift even further off topic

[tightloop]

Debugging/Practicing , ok..

[TriggerT]

If I can see whatthe stages are going to be ahead of time, you bet I try to run them before the match. I practiced one standards stage for a month before the Area 5 match a few years ago.

For local matches I will usually just try to run through the classifier if I have time.

[dajarrel]

I try to practice the skill sets. The stage descriptions are usually pretty broad with the exception of a classifier to really try to set up.

dj

[Flexmoney]

Same here. I try to identify skills sets from the posted stages. Usually, it serves as a reminder that I need to work on those skills.

[j1b]

Like everyone else - I practice what I anticipate I need to work on. Never a full stage, but certainly components of a stage.

I'm planning on shooting Area 4 this year so I too will be practicing the 50 yard standards.

The one thing I do know is that this is a mental game. I have focused, and will focus on the core basics. I'll drill some specifics but generally I go with the basics. That provides a foundation to do more at a match.

I don't care how good the diagram is - what it shows will be different than what happens at the actual match. That's why I just focus on the basics.

JB

[Jeeper]

I'm planning on shooting Area 4 this year so I too will be practicing the 50 yard standards.

I am planning on area 4 also. I havent seen you shoot in a damn long time. I thought about you when I was shooting in tucson over christmas with salim and them. My first match was one you shot at there.