beltjones

[beltjones]

Yesterday after 11 hours of work, 1.5 hours in the gym, then dinner at home with my girlfriend I contemplated whether I had the energy to put in some dryfire practice. Then the following thought occurred to me: If I don't practice today, do I expect to be better tomorrow simply because I'm a day older?

That got me off the couch.

[spanky]

you're do(odie)ing a great job, beltjones!

[feederic]

Yesterday after 11 hours of work, 1.5 hours in the gym, then dinner at home with my girlfriend I contemplated whether I had the energy to put in some dryfire practice. Then the following thought occurred to me: If I don't practice today, do I expect to be better tomorrow simply because I'm a day older?

That got me off the couch.

Sounds quite a bit like my day. That got me off the couch and into bed.

[beltjones]

My first level II match of the year is in the books. Results were mixed.

The weekend started with a 1 day training class with Ben Stoeger. Ben's approach to training is really strong, and his views on some of the technical aspects of shooting were helpful for everyone. It was crazy to see massive improvement in my classmates over the course of just a day. I can post more on the class, but in short, if you have the chance to train with Ben - do it.

As for the match, I came in 2nd overall and 1st place M. I'm pleased with the result, but the result is never what is really important. I'm not in this sport for trophies or prize tables - I'm in it because it has become my addiction and my passion, and unfortunately that means what I really want is perfection, or at least to learn something.

The match itself was, how shall I say it, easy. There weren't any complicated stages with hidden targets or 10 different ways to shoot them or major risk/return trade offs. All you had to do was execute, and therein lies the rub. I felt like I didn't execute. Too many missed shots on steel, too many missed reloads, and on and on. Whatever. Those things are fixable. The day before the match at Ben's class it was very clear that my training needs to get a lot more difficult, and the match just confirmed it. 25+ yard plates and mini-poppers, short par times, tons of strong hand / weak hand are all on the menu going forward.

But what I really learned is that match to match, things aren't necessarily getting harder, except of course that I expect more out of myself. The upside is that I'm getting to the point that I can have a reasonably bad day and still do ok. After the match I was pretty frustrated, but driving to my brother's place in time to give my baby niece a bottle and put her to bed put everything in perspective.

Here's the video:

Edited April 23, 2012 by beltjones

[spanky]

Andy, your synopsis is spot on. Well done, just the same.

Also, PM me your address. Not sure if you saw my post on FB but I have your goodies from the prize table.

Edited April 23, 2012 by spanky

[beltjones]

Other than the general comments above, some of the specific things I need to work on are below:

1. Improve gunhandling. I missed a lot of reloads. In the class Ben suggested that if I reload a bit lower my reloads will be "safer" and more consistent. Interestingly Ken Yuan has told me the same thing on several occasions.

2. Be lower and more aggressive when shooting around walls and barricades.

3. Don't straighten up on the draw.

4. On the stage with the S.H.O. steel through the port, for some reason I stood with my right leg forward instead of my left leg. I always shoot S.H.O. with my left leg forward, and I should have known this would throw off my point of aim.

5. I need to reverse the magazine catch spring in my Glock 34 to add a little more tension so the magazines won't plop out on table starts.

In other news, it's really annoying when clubs don't upload match results to the USPSA website. The good folks at USPSA have done some cool things with the data one can pull out of match results (like total time, total percentage of points shot), and when matches don't use that system that data isn't readily available. Whether or not matches will use that system will be a factor in my interest in shooting certain level II matches in the future.

[LINC]

Andy you came out ahead of some really good shooters. Eliminate the little errors and there will be no stopping you. I need to bump up my practice, your getting a limited gun soon aren't you? Or maybe I just need to stick to open. lol.

[beltjones]

Sunday was an interesting training day. Following Ben's advice, I decided to set up some drills that would allow me to work on some things that are "difficult."

I set up a short 5 round drill as follows. There was a close turtle target about 5 yards away, then a 150 degree transition to a 25 yard steel plate, and finally a 25 yard turtle target in the middle of the bay. I ran the drill each possible way (close paper, steel, far paper; steel, far paper, close paper; far paper, steel, close paper and on and on). I found that the most challenging way (based on my time) was go close paper, steel, far paper, so that's what I set about to work on.

I found that the most important thing to not tanking the drill is to go 1 for 1 on the steel. Big surprise, right? But also the hardest thing is getting my eyes from the front sight to the steel, then back to the front sight HARD so I can confidently make the shot on the steel.

After running the drill for a while a buddy happened by who promptly started lecturing me that I need to practice what I'm bad at. I thought that's what I had been doing! lol. Anyway, after shooting the bull with him for a while I changed up the drill to include movement to make it more difficult.

In the meantime I felt a lot better about practicing considering I felt like I was actually getting better as a shooter, and I can't wait to spend more time on the range improving on weaknesses.

Next up is more distant steel, more movement, and more SHO / WHO.

[beltjones]

I had a good practice session today. I can tell I'm working on things I need to work on when I get to the range and examine the list of drills I made earlier in the week and I immediately feel like I don't want to do them. Today there was more aggressive shooting on the move, SHO / WHO on steel plates at 20+ yards, and double bill drills at 23 yards.

I need to improve my draw and reload times at long distance. I think working on those things will complement short range shooting as well.

I also need more work with WHO. I foresee a box of .22 and a conversion kit being in the training plan for next week, because at 22 yards or so I was missing with the weak hand on steel plates far too often.

The work today with moving and shooting was really helpful. I was working on being low and smooth and aggressive, and it was practice ammo well spent.

[beltjones]

Other than the FAST drill, what are some really tough drills I can use this weekend to push myself?

[tackdr1ver]

30 yard + Bill drills & El presidente's. Partial targets!?

Classifier CM-09-04 Pucker Factor.

I admire your dedication, I am practicing hard but not anywhere near M level yet. Hopefully I will be there soon! Keep it up man!

[Ben Stoeger]

Other than the FAST drill, what are some really tough drills I can use this weekend to push myself?

Dude a lot of people miss those headshots.

[RangerTrace]

Where are you shooting Andy?

[beltjones]

30 yard + Bill drills & El presidente's. Partial targets!?

Classifier CM-09-04 Pucker Factor.

I admire your dedication, I am practicing hard but not anywhere near M level yet. Hopefully I will be there soon! Keep it up man!

30 yard El Prez is interesting. I was doing 23 yard plates with an uprange start last week. I found it to be very challenging to find that first plate on the turn and then get a hard front sight focus so I could hit the darn thing.

I just shot Pucker Factor a couple of weeks ago at 99%. Any other really hard ones?

[beltjones]

Where are you shooting Andy?

Ferris. I've had a membership down there for a while.

[beltjones]

Other than the FAST drill, what are some really tough drills I can use this weekend to push myself?

Dude a lot of people miss those headshots.

Hmmm. I could use work on my gunhandling...

[tackdr1ver]

30 yard + Bill drills & El presidente's. Partial targets!?

Classifier CM-09-04 Pucker Factor.

I admire your dedication, I am practicing hard but not anywhere near M level yet. Hopefully I will be there soon! Keep it up man!

I just shot Pucker Factor a couple of weeks ago at 99%. Any other really hard ones?

Ok, but: CAN YOU DO IT AGAIN? On demand, that is?

Edited May 15, 2012 by tackdr1ver

[beltjones]

Here are my stages from the Arkansas Sectional match:

Some highlights:

On the first stage with a Texas Star (seated start) right before the timer went off I blinked and my contact in my right eye became dislodged. It is a damn miracle I hit anything on that stage.

On the stage with the Coke box I over-prepped the trigger when engaging a target and called a Mike. I made it up, but that meant a slide-lock reload and only 10 rounds for 6 shots on paper and 4 steel. On those steel shots I was thinking "front sight, trigger press, front sight, trigger press" on each shot so I wouldn't have to do a standing reload. It worked and I finished the stage on an empty gun - style points!

I made a mental error on a short stage. I really programmed hitting the activator steel, taking two more steel before the bobber popped up, and that's it. I did not program at all taking the last piece of steel before moving, and you can see the result. Whoops.

I also induced a double feed. Totally my fault. That's what we call bad gun handling.

So I didn't have a perfect match, but then again I cannot expect to have a perfect match. I feel like I am as good as my performance at this match, and yet I was still only 86% of the great Matt Mink. I can work on fixing the little things that went wrong, but what I really need to do is get better at shooting. I need to call shots faster. I need to transition harder. I need to shoot on the move better. I need to be more aggressive when I can. I need to shoot sooner when entering positions (that's a huge one pointed out to me by my good buddy Brandon DuBois who is a C class going on M class shooter).

Any other tips? Other suggestions? There are so many things to work on between now and the next match, it's hard to determine where to even start!

[beltjones]

Ben was cool enough to do a stage-by-stage breakdown of my performance at the Arkansas Sectional match, which is posted below:

Time for another video review!

This is Andy Stevens at the 2012 Arkansas Section match. I will take the stages in the order they are on the video ( I was not at the match and am not entirely sure what stage is what number)

Stage 1:

I for the most part liked what I saw here. The biggest danger area to lose time is on the reload. Andy had to make a standing reload and he accomplished it with a minimum of issues.

The way for Andy to go faster is going to pretty much come down to target transitions. A good example of this is the last target in this first stage. The transition from the full sized popper to a close, wide open “burn” target should be snappy as hell. This could (or perhaps SHOULD) be a .3 or .25 second transition. What I saw on the video was more like double that. The trick is to go from a nice aimed shot on a popper to slamming the gun over to a close target and triggering two As as fast as you can pull the trigger. I won’t harp on Andy’s target transitions again until I go through all the stages, but I feel like it is his biggest area where he can make some progress.

Stage 2:

I saw some good footwork and good shooting on the move here. What held Andy back was his first two reloads. The ideal situation is to be finished loading your gun and be ready to shoot by the time you are in a position to engage targets. That did not happen here and it cost a little bit of time.

Stage 3:

Andy had an ok run here… but the extra shot on the plates held him back. The way to pick up time on a stage like this is to improve your draw and reload speed. I wouldn’t push too hard on the speed you engage the plates.

Stage 4:

I don’t know if Andy had the most efficient plan possible on this stage or not. It looked like he had a relatively poor run though. He lost some time on the steel in the center of the stage. He did not have his gun loaded in time to shoot and fired an extra shot. Aside from that, I would have liked to see a little big more flow going through this stage. It would have been better to see Andy maintain motion while shooting through the ports with very close shots and then snap the gun right to where it needed to be to shoot through the next port. At 1:13 there is a great example of this. It would have just been better to shoot those 2 ports as one position. Maybe standing a bit further back from the wall would allow him to engage those targets more easily.

Stage 5:

This was a great run that could pretty much only be improved by speeding up the target transitions.

Stage 6:

It looks like Andy forgot his plan a little bit on this stage. Aside from that, I think he needed a higher aggression level on the first set of targets. Those can be shot much faster and he should have done so while moving.

Stage 7:

I would have liked to see more fluid shooting while moving in the beginning and at the end of this stage. On those close targets guys at Andy’s level should shoot just about as quickly as when they are standing still.

The other issue I see here is the swinger. Andy did not go after the swinger in a way where he could predict where it was going to be. I suspect his plan was to take the star and then transition to the swinger and hope for the best. This ended up costing him more than a second and a half as he waited for the swinger to reappear. It would have been better for him to activate the swinger and take the top plate off the star, then shoot the swinger, then finish the star. This would be more complicated but ultimately faster.

Stage 8:

This was a bad stage for Andy. He found himself way out of position after engaging the first few targets. He lost some time getting to where he needed to be. I think a better stage plan would have served him well here.

The big problem happened at the end. Andy blew his reload… and it was a reload he didn’t even need. The reload its self cost Andy about 2 seconds while he was sorting it out… and he only did it to avoid having to shoot 11 rounds at the end. The way things are in production division these days, you simply need to be able to handle a stage like that without needed the extra shots. Your competition certainly won’t be shy about shooting the gun empty to gain an advantage.

Stage 9:

This stage was blown by needed to come back to the first position to engage a piece of steel. I am not sure if Andy forgot about it the first time around or what, but it cost him dearly.

Stage 10:

Aside from the horrible death jam that Andy suffered I think she shot alright. I liked how he shot the outsides of the stage. He shot while moving a little bit in order to save time and it was well executed. The texas star could have been done much faster. When you have a full gun on a texas star, it does not pay to aim every shot to the point of absolute certainty. I think the best practice is to shoot a little bit more aggressively and if you need a make up shot or two then that is fine.

Stage 11:

The classifier here is a test of your draw and reload speed as well as your accuracy while shooting one handed. Andy looked pretty decent in terms of gun handling but it is hard to tell in the video if the points are there. In any event, one handed accuracy is a good thing to work on for anyone.

Stage 12:

This stage was largely well executed. There is an opportunity to pick up some time by getting the reloads done sooner, but other than that it was pretty solid.

General comments:

Andy looks really good. He is at a place in his development where improvement is going to come hard and slowly. He can work on his draw and his reloads and shooting on the move and all that other stuff, but he really needs to work on target transitions to get better stage times.

When Andy transitions to a close target, he needs to push the gun onto it and shoot two shots as fast as he can pull the trigger. He should work to sound like a machine gun. He should develop his transitions on close stuff, on far stuff, and on stuff that mixes it up. There are lots of drills to get this done, but basically he needs to go from a hard sight focus to hosing a close target with hardly a pause between shots. He needs to get his sights to the next target and break the shot before his sights are fully settled. That is where he is losing time.

[DonovanM]

Aside from the horrible death jam that Andy suffered I think she shot alright

The only thing I really noticed was the lack of aggression on closer targets - I think it's good that you're not wanting to drop points, but you might be able to see a little less to do so. Something I'm working on too.

Without the jam and the few little bobbles here and there I think you could have made up a lot of what separated you from Mink... and he's a goddamn wizard... anyway I would be extremely pleased if I were in your shoes. I'm looking forward to you beating the crap out of me if I can make it to Nationals.

[beltjones]

Aside from the horrible death jam that Andy suffered I think she shot alright

The only thing I really noticed was the lack of aggression on closer targets - I think it's good that you're not wanting to drop points, but you might be able to see a little less to do so. Something I'm working on too.

Without the jam and the few little bobbles here and there I think you could have made up a lot of what separated you from Mink... and he's a goddamn wizard... anyway I would be extremely pleased if I were in your shoes. I'm looking forward to you beating the crap out of me if I can make it to Nationals.

Do you have a spot? Did you get on the waitlist?

[DonovanM]

Aside from the horrible death jam that Andy suffered I think she shot alright

The only thing I really noticed was the lack of aggression on closer targets - I think it's good that you're not wanting to drop points, but you might be able to see a little less to do so. Something I'm working on too.

Without the jam and the few little bobbles here and there I think you could have made up a lot of what separated you from Mink... and he's a goddamn wizard... anyway I would be extremely pleased if I were in your shoes. I'm looking forward to you beating the crap out of me if I can make it to Nationals.

Do you have a spot? Did you get on the waitlist?

On the waitlist.

[beltjones]

Ben was cool enough to do a stage by stage breakdown of the match, and I've been taking his advice to heart. Here is what I see when I watch the video:

Here's what I see:

Stage 1:

I need to start shooting the instant my foot hits inside the shooting area and my sights are on target. It makes no sense to get into position before shooting. It would be better to start sooner so I can finish sooner. I also needed to be backing out on the first target after the reload - that was a wide open target and I meant to move, but I just didn't do it.

Stage 2:

I hesitated with the reload going back to the door. Otherwise I'm happy with how I shot the array. I should not have slowed my footwork going to those three close targets. Shooting targets like that fast isn't important, running past them fast (and shooting just fast enough to not break 180) is what is important.

Stage 3:

Draw and reload and transition and shoot faster.

Stage 4:

This was probably the hardest stage for me. I wasn't confident in my plan, and watching other videos I realize I didn't do a good job of figuring out if I could shoot different targets from different positions that weren't obvious. What really bothers me is that I shot C, D on both swingers even though I had a lot of time to just shoot them as if they were normal non-moving targets.

Stage 5:

I reloaded going through the door which was unnecessary. It was just a mistake, otherwise this stage was ok.

Stage 6:

I needed to get forward of that box as soon as possible instead of shooting those first targets and then moving. On the pick-up I should have taken a few steps toward the ending spot and shot more aggressively on the move.

Stage 7:

I agree with Ben on how I should have attacked the star/swinger. That's how Matt Mink did it, but I just wasn't confident enough. Lesson learned. Mostly I'm frustrated with how slowly I shot the last five targets. Those were easy close shots that I should have nailed very aggressively.

Stage 8:

I was too aggressive on the first three targets and overran the port for the 2nd array which caused a hesitation when moving back into position. Ben is absolutely right that I shouldn't have reloaded into the last position. Those were easy shots and the risk of running the gun empty was nil considering I basically did a standing reload anyway.

Stage 9:

This one is embarrassing. I just didn't think about shooting the last piece of steel. After shooting the bobber I took off not realizing I hadn't even engaged on of the pieces of steel.

Stage 10:

Just bad gun handling. Bad, bad gun handling.

Stage 11:

I finished ok, but I threw a miss on the last strong hand shot of the first string. Whoops.

Stage 12:

This is another one where the gun should have been up and I should have been shooting the instant my second foot was in the shooting area. Instead I took two or three steps into the shooting area before starting to shoot. I need to have the confidence to shoot Texas stars the fast way instead of the easy way, especially with a full mag. I need more work practicing reloading from a deep mag pouch.

[38SuperDub]

Great match last weekend - gonna miss you at DTC - save travels - see ya in a few weeks when training kicks in!

[justaute]

B...how much travel should Andy "save?"

Andy...is it too late to ask your sister to delay her weekend event? 9 GMs are shooting production at DTC. Of course, with your being gone, that means one fewer person will be kicking my a$$. Safe travel.

Great match last weekend - gonna miss you at DTC - save travels - see ya in a few weeks when training kicks in!