Nimitz Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 (edited) Been shooting with Ben Stoeger from this past Saturday through Tues working first through his 'Fundamentals' class and then his 'Skills & Drills' class. Pretty eye-opening for me since I haven't done any USPSA style training in 13 months and this was the first time running an open gun in USPSA. Saturday & most of Sunday was a train wreck as I was shooting like I had a Production gun. Once I started to figure that out things started to improve (mostly because I got tired of Ben yelling at me . As an example, Ben starts out his 'Fundamentals' class with setting up a stage, giving everyone 5 mins for walk through & then calls the first shooter to the line. Somehow I always seem to be the first shooter ..... my run was a ridiculous 27 secs ..... by the end of the day I had managed a 14.85 sec run with the other 3 runs in the 18 sec range. There were a couple of Limited A class shooters running it in around 20 secs & the Production folks were 22 secs & up. By comparison Ben ran the stage slightly above 15 secs. I've uploaded one of the runs from Tues on my YouTube channel if you want a good laugh ... All in all I was pretty happy with how rapidly I figured how to run an open gun on a stage since I'd never done that and accounting for the fact that I'd done exactly zero USPSA training in the last year I was happy with how I was shooting most of the drills. My main goal was to come away with the major things I needed to focus on and an individual training plan to accomplish them which I did. We also spent some time discussing specific changes to my Steel Challenge training since I still plan to focus on that for most of 2016 .... I'm looking forward to see what a difference they will make in my progression. Got out yesterday to shoot Speed Option and apply the new training methods Ben & I talked about and I was pretty happy with the results ... at one point I had six 5/5 runs in a row of 2.24/2.16/2.19/2.11/2.12 & 2.07 secs. Decided to give my weak hand wrist a break after shooting 2,000 rds over 4 days and not shoot any 9mm during the session. I also broke my press Saturday night & can't make any more ammo so I wanted to ensure I have enough to shoot my match this Saturday ... Edited February 4, 2016 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 7, 2016 Author Share Posted February 7, 2016 (edited) Yesterday was the monthly SC match for which I'm MD. We could only run 6 stages due to upgrades going on in our AA so we ran everything but Outer Limits & Roundabout, which we'll run next month. My rimfire pistol match time was 65.23 & my main match time was 88.53. You always hear that as MD you can expect a 10% drop in your performance ... Don't know if that's true or not but certainly there is some drop in performance since there are lots of things you need to worry about during the day which take away from your performance .... So if I apply that math my 'none-MD' scores would have put me right at my personal best 6-stage time for rimfire. For open centerfire I actually had a new personal best match time which also pushed me to 'A' class .... Finally. So, I'm sitting at 83.52 right now. As far as the match went I had 2 stages which were pretty close to my normal times but for the others I could only manage 3 normal string times & then some baffoonery would occur on the other two. Mostly a lack of concentration on my part. For example, on Smoke & Hope my runs were: 2.08, 2.05, 2.08 with a miss, 2.77 & 2.03. I also decided to setup Showdown with a flag in front of each shooting box since this is the way it is shot at the US Nationals which are coming up in Mar. April I'll return to the 'one flag in the center of the array' like the rulebook calls for ... This was one of the stages I shot well so obviously the different order doesn't really matter to me .... This is actually a very interesting point since this was THE major theme from Ben's Skills & Drills class - namely that for the most part, how you decide to shoot a stage doesn't end up mattering very much - assuming you have developed all your skills so that you don't have to select stage plans which work around your weaknesses. During the class he forced us to shoot the same stage differently every time we shot it and times ended up basically the same for me. This is exactly what happened on Showdown for me as having a flag in front of each box let's me shoot the stage differently but my times ended up the same ... Lots of people tend to think that people who shoot SC well do it because they simply practice the same stage over & over when in fact the reason is because they have developed their fundamental action shooting skills. You could mandate a random order for a SC stage when a good shooter stepped into the box and they would still shoot it fairly close the the times for the order for which they have practiced. The major difference would be the inefficiencies in whatever shooting order was selected, not their shooting ability. Edited February 7, 2016 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Funny you setup two flags for Showdown. Last month we switched from two flags to just one and that's how I plan to run it from now on. Congrats on making A Class! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 7, 2016 Author Share Posted February 7, 2016 I'm just doing it because of the US Nationals ... we get a lot of people at our March match because it is right before Nationals but the rest of the year we follow the current SCSA rulebook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 (edited) Got out on Monday to start putting into practice some of the new training methodology Ben & I discussed while he was here ... the big change is that he said some of what I've been doing is not sophisticated enough ... it's no longer ok to just simply try and go faster ... there needs to be more to it if I expect to continue to see gains. The session started with a cold stage run for score as usual ... this puts some match type pressure on me & enables me to track my cold shooting which most closely correlates to matches. I decided to run 5 To Go since I had a little trouble with it at Saturday's match. Following that, instead of doing Accuracy Mode, Speed Mode & Shot Calling mode I selected a Par time and attempted to shoot it going 5/5. My first Par time was 2.5 secs since I have not yet broken the 10 sec stage time in a match. My first run was a 5/5 2.32 sec run so I clearly needed to change the goal time. I dropped it to 2.2 secs & then did 10 more runs, 7 of which were 5/5. Ave time for the 5/5 runs was 2.23 secs. I've also started to track transition times to see if there are obvious places I need to work on. Ave times were: .57/.39/.40/.41/.38. Among other things this is telling me I executing the long transitions at the same pace as the close ones which is not a bad thing. lots of people start this stage fast & then slow down as they get to the 15 yd & 18 yds & then try to sped up on the stop plate. however, when I watched the super squad shoot it that's not how they did it. their transitions between each target were basically the same ... this tells me I'm shooting the stage in the right manner, I just need to continually work on seeing faster ... After the par time runs the next drill consisted of 'push' runs were I was trying to go until the wheels came off so I could see where my issues were & then go after fixing them. Ave for the runs was 1.99 secs with all runs going 4/5 & one run (1.74 secs) 3/5. I finished up the session with a 2-shot drill with goal times of under 1 sec. 7 of the 10 runs ended up at sub 1 sec. the other big change to my live fire is that for the time being I'm only going to do stage training 1x/week & the other 2 sessions will be devoted to transition & draw training exclusively. In dryfire I can continue to do what I'm doing now which is mostly stage training with draw & transitions included for variety ... in 2 months I'll reassess where I am and see if additional changes will be required ... I'm also discussing with Max about some one-on-one training some time this year as well .... Edited February 10, 2016 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerBaron Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 you stage vid actually looked pretty good considering your time out of IPSC. If I had to pick one thing I noticed immediately that would help you it would be movement. You have a bit of what I like to call super mario syndrome. You are moving fast but your legs are taking tiny little steps. it means many steps to get anywhere. big, wide strides will cut time out of your on stage movement for sure. Otherwise there was lots of good stuff too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 yeah agreed .... Ben made similar comments ... every day ... for 4 days ... lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 (edited) Just returned from the monthly 8-stage match I shoot. Weather finally warmed up to the low 70s by mid morning so it turned out to be a nice day to shoot. Official scores won't be posted for a couple of days since they haven't switched over just yet to electronic scoring but if I did my math right I shot a 78.8 sec match. Had new personal bests on Showdown (7.92) & 5 To Go (9.84) a s well as 1.82 & 1.78 sec runs on Smoke & Hope. The big change this match was I was finally able to relax my shoulders using the new techniques I developed since shooting with Ben & what a difference it made. The shooting felt effortless and my consistency between runs reflected this... total time difference between the best & worse runs for each of the 8 stages was: .1, .28, .27, .09, .34, .16. .09 & .75 (Outer Limits). I also had only 2 M/U shots over the 195 rd course of fire. My 'unofficial classification is now at 100.3% for the current stages used & 99.1% for all 8. Also, making A class in open centerfire put me right at a ranking of 200 .... my score on Outer Limits is still dragging me down so hopefully I'll make some end roads on that at next month's match ... Back to regular training tomorrow where I'm going to focus a harder on Pendulum, Speed Option & Outer Limits since I still haven't broken 10 secs & 12 secs respectively on those & that will be mandatory to reach my sub 75 ave goal ... I'm shooting them a lot more consistently I just to now get the speed up a bit ... Edited February 13, 2016 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerBaron Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 awesome. I bet that 1.78 on S+H felt good. amazing consistency between best and worst runs too. you are a world class rimfire steel challenge competitor now. Not bad considering the short time you've been at it. Now you just need to bring those centrefire skills up and you'll be right at the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 15, 2016 Author Share Posted February 15, 2016 (edited) Thx, I don't know about that but it's true there certainly doesn't appear to be any competition at the Tier 1 match level ... And because of that I'm going to be doing some things at local matches that will probably affect my score in the short term but should pay big dividends at Majors ... Funny thing about that 1.78 run is it immediately followed the 1.82 run and didn't feel as fast as the 1.82 run .. However, I was totally relaxed and had been working on consciously relying my shoulders ... With pretty dramatic results. I've known for some time that the tension in my shoulders was holding me back but it wasn't until the 4 days with Ben did I really get to see what happens when I am relaxed and THAT has caused me to be 100% focused on fixing that issue ... It's not subconscious yet but it's getting there. I decided to run Accelerator this morning since I had a little trouble with it at the match ... I think I actually had an uncalled Mike on a run that the RO didn't catch ... Anyway, I had another epifiniy today about shooting Accelerator which should finally get me to the sub 2 sec realm. I'll detail it more when I post about this morning's session but my last run of the session was a 1.98 run that felt effortless ... Once I get my draw sorted out I expect to see faster gains on the centerfire side as well ... This morning I was running 1.4 draws with stage times in the 3.2s ... The benchmark is that your draw should be no more then about 1/3 of your run time and mine is still upwards of 45%+. ... Not good .... Edited February 15, 2016 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 (edited) uploaded video from this past weekend's match .... Smoke & Hope and Showdown ... Decided to work on Accelerator yesterday due some issues I had with this stage at the match ... and I'm glad I did as I finally figured out what it was has been keeping me from getting anywhere near 8 sec stage times. In addition to run times I've started to track individual transition times between targets to see anything jumped out and what I discovered was that on Accelerator, my time from target # 5 to #4 was basically the same as my transition time from #2 to #5. This shouldn't be the case as the transition distance from 2-5 is basically 7 yds & includes going from a close to a far target while the lateral distance from 5-4 is much shorter and the targets are at the same distance (20 yds). therefore my transition time should be less. Once I realized this I worked on not stopping once I got to #5 & was able to significantly reduce that transition. add to that an aggressive 1st shot in the mid to upper .5 range and I was able to push my ave run time down around 2.10 with several runs at sub 2.05. I also managed a glimpse of what I'm currently capable of with my last run of the day being a 1.98 sec run with transitions of: .56/.28/.43/.38/.33 On the centerfire side my run ave was 3.15. .75 secs of that is my pathetic draw and the other .3 was spread over transitions 3-5. Now that I know what the barrier on Accelerator was I can hit that hard in dry fire. I'm still running a full .7-.8 secs slower in live fire over dry fire on Outer Limits so that's the next thing I need to figure out. I currently run 3.5-3.6 secs all day long in dry fire but live it's been extremely difficult to break the 4 sec mark. I've only managed it once at a match. So that's what's up for tomorrow & hopefully I can at least start to figure out what is holding me back there ... Edited February 16, 2016 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 28, 2016 Author Share Posted February 28, 2016 (edited) So after not doing any training since the 17th to try and give my wrist a break in hopes of not making my cartilage tear any worse I went out and shot an 8-stage sanctioned tier 1 match this morning. After struggling a bit on the first 2 stages I managed to get on track and finished the match with an 85.68 sec time. I actually had 3 sub 8-sec stages but ate a penalty on the 1st stage of the match & also had 2 ammo related jams that costa bunch of time ... I decided to bring my practice ammo to this match since I wasn't really expecting a whole lot and need to manage my match ammo somewhat with all the majors I plan to shoot this year. However, I shot Outer Limits & 5 To Go well in addition. I plan to be back at my normal training schedule tomorrow and will have to decide how much I shoot my open gun since that will put a lot more strain on my wrist then my 22. Also, our Club has recently authorized a Thurs evening weekly 'organized Steel Challenge practice" from 4-6pm. Due to the time I can't run this or shoot it very often since it would require me to leave work at 3pm. However, with Nationals coming up in Mar I'll probably take some leave & try to make the next couple to get in a few more stages than I normally would ... Also, over the next couple of weeks I'll probably not be posting too much to avoid too many distractions prior to Nationals ... March should be a great month ... Edited February 28, 2016 by Nimitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 5, 2016 Author Share Posted March 5, 2016 Shot the local SC match that I'm MD for this morning .... shot an 85.58 for the 8-stage match but the first 2 stages were just annoying ... I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that the first 2 stages are going to be ugly in this match since I'm still dealing with all sorts of match issues when it comes my turn to shoot .... on the bright side I shot Outer Limits really well again with another sub 4 sec string (3.78 secs) in rimfire & in open I knocked off over 3.5 secs on my stage time. This Saturday will be my last match before the Nationals & on the 16th I visit my orthopedic surgeon again to hopefully discuss a 'non-surgery' option for my wrists ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glock26Toter Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 YES. Just accept any issues that cause you to be unable to perform at 100% for a match. That is when you still may not perform 100% but at least you can enjoy it 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 Absolutely ... I still get a little frustrated but get over it .... it's one of my internal mechanisms to push myself to do better. tThat is also why I added a 2nd Tier 1 match to my regular schedule so I could just go shoot and use that to measure my progress ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEuropa Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Nimitz, I'm a newbie, but have you read Lanny Bassham's book With Winning in Mind? I'm not typically one for "self-help" type books, but this one is pretty damn good. And it's written by a multiple time Olympic and World rifle champion. - Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 absolutely ..... it's what enabled me to secure my 1st state championship title after a disastrous National Championship 5 months earlier. It completely transformed my mental toughness program. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with that ... it's just all the distractions of being a MD make it virtually impossible to focus on shooting during the first 1/2 hr of the match. Once the match is underway and executing and I can just focus on shooting I'm fine ... and my performance reflects this ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEuropa Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Gotcha. However, May I humbly submit that it appears that you're establishing a dangerously negative Self-Image regarding the following quote: I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that the first 2 stages are going to be ugly in this match since I'm still dealing with all sorts of match issues when it comes my turn to shoot .... Conversely, this seems be to the positives you can focus on instead. And maybe during the first couple of stages just set a goal of calling your shots and driving the gun during transitions? on the bright side I shot Outer Limits really well again with another sub 4 sec string (3.78 secs) in rimfire & in open I knocked off over 3.5 secs on my stage time. I apologize if this is unwanted advice, it's just an observation from an outsider looking in. - Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 8, 2016 Author Share Posted March 8, 2016 no worries ... it's all good. the difficulty with doing what you suggest is that's exactly what I'm always supposed to be focusing on when shooting. I don't think it's a matter of not focusing on the right thing but rather the necessity as MD of focusing on match issues first instead of just shooting. Unfortunately I can only focus on one thing at a time and as a MD my priority has to be first & foremost ensuring the match runs smoothly so that the shooters all have a positive experience. If I were to do as you suggest, which is to focus on my shooting first, there are match things which would not run well. When I took over last year we were averaging around 30 shooters/match... we are now averaging in the mid 50s, which I attribute at least in part to the fact that the word is getting around that we run a great match. That only happens when you make executing the match your first priority. I actually think it shows that my mental toughness program is working because I can get on top of it fairly quickly and get back to just shooting well ... even though I'm still the MD, with all the responsibilities that entails throughout the entire day ... I know it probably sounds like I'm just rationalizing but I can assure you I'm hyper aware of what's happening to me at a match and this is nothing more than verbalizing realization so that I don't beat myself up over something in appropriately. If I were having these same issues at matches where I was just a participant then I'd agree with you that there was a problem that needed fixing. I also think that negative self image issues arise when you do things and don't realize what the effect on you mentally will be. I recognize exactly what is going on and take steps to not let it affect me. When finished shooting a stage; good, bad or ugly; first stage or last I don't dwell on it. What's done is done & I get prepped for the next stage. This is why I never look at my times during a match ... there is nothing I can do about them after shooting the stage so why look at them? There was a time not too long ago when if I had 1 or 2 bad stages I believed I had trashed the entire match and would basically give up mentally with predictable results .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Any chance you could get to the range early and shoot the stages before the match. I have considered doing this at my monthly match. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 8, 2016 Author Share Posted March 8, 2016 Unfortunately I already get there at 7am to do all the pre match stuff and am lucky to be ready for the mandatory shooter's brief at 8:45am to start shooting at 9am ..... Getting there earlier to shoot won't work becuase we're still doing last minute setup things during that time ... I have been talking with one of the guys who helps me and he would like to take-over the check-in and registration process which would decrease my workload considerably which may help me to do less 'running around' first thing ... Right now I do match check-in followed by the shooters brief followed by getting all the Nooks ready .... This serial process is part of the problem and making some things happen in parallel should help quite a bit .... That's my new theory for next month's match anyway .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Our official start time is 10:00 but we'll start shooting as soon as everyone that's pre-registered signs in. Getting some help will make things go easier for you that's for sure. Good luck at the Nats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 yeah, thx. I've been doing everything pretty much myself because I didn't have someone who could commit to always doing it ... now that he plans to take over registration, sign-in & Nook download from the master Ipad once registration closes, things will be a lot less hectic for me .... I'd love to start at 10am but due to the heat here from June - August we need to start as early as possible .... this also ensures I'm usually heading out the gate by around 12:30 and on the way to lunch & Bass Pro to look for 22lr .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 We tried switching to 9:00 start for the summer months but some people can't seem to make it. During those months as soon as I have enough for a squad I sent them out and have them start shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1gcountry Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I wonder if got couldn't (as MD) catch up with your squad on stage 2. Skip the first stage, and go back to make it up with the squad in front of you after your squad finishes shooting their last stage Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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