Trudging The Road To "C" Class

[Carmoney]

Im not sure what Matt griffin is getting at or if its a joke or not? I sure hope so. Shooting is for everyone. I encourage everyone I meet to come shoot club matches with me. Or just screw around in the yard. Alot of people do come and enjoy it alot. But that doesnt mean that they all go home and practice dry firing for 6 hours in the mirror while wearing a beanie.

FYI, Matt Griffin does not wear a beanie during his 6-hour dry-fire sessions. He wears one of these:

[Lifeislarge]

Im not sure what Matt griffin is getting at or if its a joke or not? I sure hope so. Shooting is for everyone. I encourage everyone I meet to come shoot club matches with me. Or just screw around in the yard. Alot of people do come and enjoy it alot. But that doesnt mean that they all go home and practice dry firing for 6 hours in the mirror while wearing a beanie.

FYI, Matt Griffin does not wear a beanie during his 6-hour dry-fire sessions. He wears one of these:

Damn it!!! Now I need to figure out what type of headwear to get??? You just opened up a whole new can of AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!

[mattwaage]

FYI, Matt Griffin does not wear a beanie during his 6-hour dry-fire sessions. He wears one of these:

CLASSY!

[Lifeislarge]

Well, I did it. I finally practiced today. Went to the range with a friend and competitor and shot a couple hundred rounds of structured drills. Had a different setup in my gun (heavier recoil spring) and although the gun shot faster, recoil was more severe. Not sure I like it. the good news is that I've learned that I have absolutely no moving and shooting skills. My sights were bobbing around like a dinghy in a hurricane. So I suppose I WILL be running around the house shooting light switches. Did a lot of draw drills, not necessarily for speed, but to be accurate with the first shot after the beep. I really need to start reloading as I know I won't be able to afford to compete and practice as much as I'd like unless I can either make more money, or save more money. Damn, when I was making a ton of money I had no time, now I have time and no money It was good to get out and shoot though, and the rest of the day was pretty cool.

[Lifeislarge]

F@#king Texas Star.

[Anopsis]

I feel ya. Never met one that I liked.

[Shadowrider]

Texas stars are easy. Just wait until you shoot a polish plate rack. You'll see the light on those stars and learn to love them. lol

[Lifeislarge]

Nope. They're like dating a stripper. All cool and full of promise, but at the end I've spent way too much and am left completely unfulfilled. Took me almost 40 rounds to clear it yesterday. It's like the clown hole on Happy Gilmore. Every shot, just sits there mocking me. If I'd had a golf club instead of a gun in my hand I would've beaten the daylights out of it and gone home. Luckily it was the 2nd last stage and didn't ruin my experience completely. I'd started out the match with the goal of having no mikes, no no shoots, no penalties. Got through the 1st stage fine, a 32 shot COF with which required one to shoot the 2nd half walking backwards. Really easy to break 180 on that one but I managed just fine. 2nd stage I had 1 mike and it all went downhill from there. I think I'm going to spend less time shooting matches and more time at the range. I know I'm not seeing my sights, and I'm not even looking half the time to see If I even hit the target. Although I love the experience of shooting matches, it just doesn't make sense to keep shooting dollars down the pipe for no benefit other than enjoyment.

I have to reevaluate everything. I need to take a class, slow down and start as if I'd never shot a match before. My fundamentals are good. Grip, safe handling, stance etc. I can hit a target at 50 yards just fine if I want to. It's the rest of the required skills that are eluding me. I may have to accept the fact that I don't have the coordination and mental skills to excel at this game. I never took up gymnastics because I'm the least flexible dude out there. Accepted. I'm not going to quit, but I'm also smart enough to know when all evidence points to natural inability. I figure I'll give it another couple of months of actual practice, and go from there. What's beating me up now is that even if I do by some miracle make it to C class, will I be happy languishing there for another year or two? I'm a very competitive guy and it hurts to suck. Trust me, I'm not feeling sorry for myself, just trying to take a realistic look at the odds of success. I do have to admit though, after my dismal performance on the Texas Star, the first thing that flashed through the anger and frustration was a dollar figure on what I could realistically sell all my gear for. Nice to know that if I ever do say f#$K it, I can walk away with the means to do something else.

[OpenDot]

F@#king Texas Star.

Easy stuff...just remember:

Head, arms then legs

Edited September 24, 2012 by OpenDot

[Lifeislarge]

So I decided to take a bit of a break from shooting after my last match. That was about ten days ago and I have to admit that it's been refreshing to not be thinking and obsessing about results and sights and shots and everything else associated with the USPSA experience. After about day 5 I finally stopped reading threads about performance, training and tips. On Saturday, instead of heading out first thing to a match, I went yard saleing with my girlfriend. I have to admit that my thoughts were infused that morning with the idea that I could be missing my breakout match, but then I just tried to focus on the fact that it was too late, and tried to enjoy the rest of the day. It's now Wednesday and I have a pretty clear head. Lately I've been so obsessed by my lack of progress that I'll lay in bed at night replaying stages, and dissecting the game tape in my head. In my mind I can always shoot them flawlessly, as if I already know how to shoot like a GM, but can't translate that into my physical being. I can't believe that I'm the only one doing this, and I really think that this mini break will be good for me in the long run. I will probably shoot again in the next couple weeks, and I'm hoping I can go into it with a clearer mind and a more relaxed spirit.

I watch the guys at matches who are just starting out, and the super seniors who've been shooting the game for decades, and both groups, while distinctive, have one thing in common.... They are having fun. I'm so hard on myself that I can easily ruin a perfectly good day at a match by the end of the first stage. I read the diaries of some of the guys on here that have attained great success, and I wonder where they get the drive and the discipline to do what they do every single day. Here I am self-employed and at home by myself most days, without too much going on to keep me busy all day, yet my gun sits in the safe day after day. The real truth is that practicing at home is BORING. there is absolutely nothing about it that engages me. No bang, no recoil, no hole in the paper or clang from the steel. I can't afford to be a range rat and shoot a thousand rounds a week, so what's a guy to do?

At my last match I places 25th out of 43. Most of the guys I beat were Seniors and Super Seniors (a rather dense demographic at this particular match) and It really didn't please me too much to see that result. I'm young, fit, and have good equipment. What is holding me back? Discipline.

Guess I'll return to my mini hiatus and see if I eventually miss it enough to actually acquire some discipline, or just say screw it and go out and shoot recreationally at matches and not care about results. Either way, I think I may be standing at a precipice.

[Chris iliff]

Where are you located? Are you close to Indiana?

Try this. Go to the range with 100 rounds and some goals.

10 yard A hit in 1.20?

As an example

Set this up and run it dry. Get your par time to your goal. Good solid A hit at 10 yards in 1.20. Next, after many dry runs, run it live once or twice. Switch back and forth from dryfire to livefire trying to reconcile the times to each other.

You will not spend nearly as much on ammo, yet you will

Learn tons with this method.

Do it with any drill you can think of. First dry, recording good par that you can meet with A hits, then live recording the actual time. Then work on matching those times up.

This works with short movement drills too. ... Move from box 3 yards engage a popper and two paper from around a wall.

This method is very instructive for balancing dryfire par times and keeping us honest about our dryfire. Plus, it lets us practice realistically with minimum $$ invested in rounds.

IMHO

[lumpygravy]

...

I watch the guys at matches who are just starting out, and the super seniors who've been shooting the game for decades, and both groups, while distinctive, have one thing in common.... They are having fun. I'm so hard on myself that I can easily ruin a perfectly good day at a match by the end of the first stage. I read the diaries of some of the guys on here that have attained great success, and I wonder where they get the drive and the discipline to do what they do every single day.

...

I think you're on to something here. This is a game - by definition, games are played to have fun.

...

Here I am self-employed and at home by myself most days, without too much going on to keep me busy all day, yet my gun sits in the safe day after day. The real truth is that practicing at home is BORING. there is absolutely nothing about it that engages me. No bang, no recoil, no hole in the paper or clang from the steel. I can't afford to be a range rat and shoot a thousand rounds a week, so what's a guy to do?

...

Practicing - you state you want to make improvements. Practice is required. You don't have to like it, you just have to do it.

There are a ton of drills out there that are challenging and there in lies the secret to making dry fire practice interesting. Instead of seeing them as BORING, change your mind set to see them as challenging and if you do them correctly and diligently, know there will be a payoff at the range.

You may also consider a temporary re-assessment of your shooting goals.

Many years ago I was dry firing nightly for at least an hour. I moved up one class over the space of a year and a half. I got toasted and the shooting stopped being fun. I quit. That was in the late 1990's.

I came back late 2010 and now I dry fire only occasionally (once a month if I'm really on it) knowing that I am foregoing speedier improvement at the range. I don't shoot every practice nor every match and I'm OK with that. At this point, I don't even check results. I don't really care where I place relative to other shooters in my division/class. I am satisfied if I shoot clean even if I post glacial times. I'll say this: I am sure having a lot of fun.

Once you get back to having fun, maybe you can introduce a structured dry fire practice once or twice a week. If you find that helps and you want to improve then you know what to do. There are many nuances to the game, but no secrets.

Good Luck

[Lifeislarge]

...

I watch the guys at matches who are just starting out, and the super seniors who've been shooting the game for decades, and both groups, while distinctive, have one thing in common.... They are having fun. I'm so hard on myself that I can easily ruin a perfectly good day at a match by the end of the first stage. I read the diaries of some of the guys on here that have attained great success, and I wonder where they get the drive and the discipline to do what they do every single day.

...

I think you're on to something here. This is a game - by definition, games are played to have fun.

...

Here I am self-employed and at home by myself most days, without too much going on to keep me busy all day, yet my gun sits in the safe day after day. The real truth is that practicing at home is BORING. there is absolutely nothing about it that engages me. No bang, no recoil, no hole in the paper or clang from the steel. I can't afford to be a range rat and shoot a thousand rounds a week, so what's a guy to do?

...

Practicing - you state you want to make improvements. Practice is required. You don't have to like it, you just have to do it.

There are a ton of drills out there that are challenging and there in lies the secret to making dry fire practice interesting. Instead of seeing them as BORING, change your mind set to see them as challenging and if you do them correctly and diligently, know there will be a payoff at the range.

You may also consider a temporary re-assessment of your shooting goals.

Many years ago I was dry firing nightly for at least an hour. I moved up one class over the space of a year and a half. I got toasted and the shooting stopped being fun. I quit. That was in the late 1990's.

I came back late 2010 and now I dry fire only occasionally (once a month if I'm really on it) knowing that I am foregoing speedier improvement at the range. I don't shoot every practice nor every match and I'm OK with that. At this point, I don't even check results. I don't really care where I place relative to other shooters in my division/class. I am satisfied if I shoot clean even if I post glacial times. I'll say this: I am sure having a lot of fun.

Once you get back to having fun, maybe you can introduce a structured dry fire practice once or twice a week. If you find that helps and you want to improve then you know what to do. There are many nuances to the game, but no secrets.

Good Luck

This afternoon I decided after some reflection, that I am going to go shoot my next regular match, and go as slow as it takes to shoot 100%. Alphas only. If there's a classifier with a par time, then I'll get what alphas I can get within the time. Maybe if I continue to take this approach I can build up speed over time. I'll make it a game within a game.

Thanks for the support

[Lifeislarge]

Just got my my C card in the mail. Now for the B. Problem is, I just started a new job a few weeks ago and have to work every Saturday. Haven't shot a match in a month. Haven't shot anything in a month. Bugger. Oh well, at least we can close this thread....