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Monica's Range Diary


monicataliani

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Wow, kudos to you. You did good at Indiana. First, Shannan Chada has as much experience as me and she is pretty darn good. Second, geez girl, you are third in C class over all. That is awesome!!! Soooooooo, Great job!!!

Oh, on DRYFIRE, do it for the manipulations, you know, draw, reload, turn and draw, pick ups, etc............

Quit pulling the trigger. I agree on really "knowing" in DRYFIRE, so I just quit pulling the trigger on most things. Seems to help me. Anyway, food for thought.

Edited by Chris iliff
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  • 5 months later...
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Wow, kudos to you. You did good at Indiana. First, Shannan Chada has as much experience as me and she is pretty darn good. Second, geez girl, you are third in C class over all. That is awesome!!! Soooooooo, Great job!!!

Oh, on DRYFIRE, do it for the manipulations, you know, draw, reload, turn and draw, pick ups, etc............

Quit pulling the trigger. I agree on really "knowing" in DRYFIRE, so I just quit pulling the trigger on most things. Seems to help me. Anyway, food for thought.

Thanks! I haven't been on here forever and didn't even see this! :-)

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  • 1 year later...

It has been 756 days since my last (range diary) confession...

At one time my life absolutely revolved around shooting. As time passed, I got super frustrated because I wasn't progressing the way I thought I should. I was putting 110% into it and I was no where close to the guys who would beat me every weekend at our local matches. Again, this was NOT due to lack of effort. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people who are just good at shooting. I wish I were, but it isn't natural for me like it is for some. I had to work hard to make the gains that I made. I started to get better but when I wasn't seeing the results I thought I should be getting, I got burned out. Around late fall last year, after taking my mountain bike out for only its third adventure for the year, I decided that what I was getting out of my hard work and practice just wasn't worth what I was giving up. So I stopped practicing. I stopped dry firing. I stopped taking the meticulous care of my equipment that I was once known for. I still shot sometimes, but I decided that I was not going to take shooting so seriously and I was going to just have fun. Life does what life does and the time started passing quickly. After missing several majors at the beginning of the year due to various things I finally made it to a match. I was so sick I could barely get through. I am pretty sure I talked to several of you that day and I promise, I am not that aloof. I literally fell asleep at a table at one of the bays at one point. I to this day still have no idea where I placed because I didn't look. Fast forward to beginning of summer. I had decided not to shoot the Ohio match but at the last minute decided I wanted to go because of the amazing staff and shooters who turn out there every year. So I went to that match as an RO. I struggled through the match and had a very lack luster performance thanks to my gross lack of preparation. Since that time I have shot 2 other major matches. Same thing. After each match I would remember what I loved about this sport and simultaneously be incredibly ashamed over match performances that were not up to par with what I was capable of last year at this time. At first not putting in all that effort was working out to be freeing. I haven't looked at my match scores pretty much all year. I couldn't feel frustrated about my performance if I didn't put anything in, right? WRONG! It was eye opening seeing how much difference all that work made. It made it all seem worth it. So now... I am back. I started dry firing again already (did a lot of transition work tonight) and I am back at writing a range diary to make sure I am accountable those days that I would rather go out and mountain bike instead of practice.

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As a guy who has been sporadic with training, I can tell you...you get out what you put in.

It's nice to have new goals like... I want to be ready to shoot as soon as I'm in position. Instead of tanking a match and thinking...I should have kept up practicing gun hadling.

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Welcome back! I hope to run into you somewhere. I have spoken to several shooters that have gone through the same thing recently. I don't know how it feels since I haven't burned out, but I do things in an attempt to avoid it. I have no idea if it will work, but here's a few things to think about.

Everyone grows at their own pace so I try to only set personal achievement goals and not relate them to any measurement. For instance. "make GM" is, of course something I want to do someday. Instead of putting that on my goal list I actively keeping it off the list and work on things like "analyze every step for efficiency." If I'm not wasting any time in a stage plan, then I'm doing what GM's do. Eventually it might lead to the result, and maybe not, but working on those small goals will help me not worry about how long I'm spending in M class, or whatever.

Also, training is still part of the having fun process. If you don't like training then don't train. You'll still get better, just at a much slower pace than without. If you're fine with that then great. While it's true that we don't get to enjoy every second of everything we do. You do have to weigh your desire to improve against your desire to train. There is a balance without getting into some "grinding through" mode with regard to training. Personally, I've gotten into a dry fire about once a week routine and all but dropped my training off due to life changes. But I'm still having fun and know that my increase in ability will be slowed because of that so I'm not getting frustrated about it. For a while I was able to train once a week and dry fired several nights a week. I have to be careful not to let myself get bummed because things have changed.

So anyways, it looks like all I'm saying is "don't be so hard on yourself" and "look inside for improvement" rather than worry about how you place. Enjoy the people (sounds like you already do) and good luck.

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