Saibot's Performance Journal

[saibot]

Live fire (12.17.13)

I made it out to a local indoor range today for a little live fire. We had to buy our ammo from the range so it was pretty limited and I only shot a hundred rounds, but I made the most of it and fired as tight of groups as I could and pushed the targets out as far as they would go which was about 15 yards. The lighting was terrible so it next to impossible to see the little pasters I used so I'll use that as my excuse for the groups not being all in the pasters.

I used the G34 but put the factory recoil spring back in it since the range's ammo was pretty darn hot. I also used my stock G26 which is great to practice trigger control with since it doesn't have the nice light Vanek that the G34 has in it. I really have to squeeze the thing to keep it's sights coming back to a good sight picture. For 100 rounds, I really got the most out of it. Shot freestyle, stong hand only, and weak hand only. Also inhaled about a half a pound of lead fumes. Yikes.

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.18.13)

Another night of dry fire! I spent 1.5 hours on it tonight starting with the "benchmark" stages which were a little slower than they should be. I seem to have become a little slower for some reason lately but I'm just moving as fast as I can call my shots. I warmed up with the Stoeger A drills and then moved on to his book where I worked on the transition drill where you start with 3 targets edge to edge and establish a par time. Then you keep moving them apart while keeping the same par time. Great drill! I did it until I had no more room to expand them which was about the time I really couldn't keep to the par time. Did a little shooting on the move which seems like it has decayed a little from where I was a couple of weeks ago. It helps to have spent a couple of days of live fire shooting and moving during OAK's class. I finished up with my "benchmark" stages and did wind up speeding them back up quite a bit. My index seems a little off and I noticed that I was looking at the top of the lower A zone and drawing to the middle of the lower A zone. I also started rotating my thumb forward a little more than I normally do on my pre-draw position which helped get my pistol out a little quicker. Hmmm.

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.19.13)

I spent an hour doing my usual "benchmark" stages, then did a couple of drills from the Ben Stoeger dry fire book. Started with the Close Far Close drill and was really cooking tonight. Par time of 2.10 to draw from sides, hit the upper A zone of T1, lower A zone of T2, then upper of T3. Next I did the Far Close Far on was down to 2.5. Throwing in a reload I was just on either side of 3.3. Did a little 2 on 3, reload, 2 on 3. Then some shooting on the move, and wrapped up with my "benchmark" stages that were pretty close to the start times. I was lamenting to a friend that my warm times were getting longer and trying to figure out what I was doing and he made a good suggestion, that perhaps I was getting more precise, not slower, which after some analysis I do believe he's right. I'm really trying to be sure that I get perfect (acceptable) hits and calling/making up C's and D's (unacceptable).

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.21.13)

The good: Very little time to dry fire today. Did my "benchmark" stages for a little bit, but no other drills. I was pretty happy that cold I ran them faster than I normally do, more in line with my warm times.

The bad: Felt too bad to do a lot of practice today.

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.23.13)

Feeling better overall so I'm back at it. As usual, started with my "benchmark" stages which were a bit too slow. It's really insane how fast these skills decay, and just taking a day off is quantifiable. Sheesh! Next I hit Ben Stoeger's book and started with Paper Steel Paper which was quite a bit of fun. You really have to get on it for the paper and hit the brakes on the steel and call your shot. I really had to squeeze the heck out of the grip to get it to level out for me at that speed and to not push it off target while breaking the shot. My reloads on the other hand were just outstanding all evening.

Next it was on to the Shooting On The Move Easy drill which morphed over the next 30 minutes to six targets at various distances and to a full on stage with reloads peppered in just for fun.

Ended it with my "benchmarks" and played with those for a bit to see how I could change the time with more shooting on the move and reloading in different places. No drastic improvements any certain way I shot it.

I would have gone more than the hour but I strained the heck out of my achilles tendon last week and I was hurting too much to press on. Getting old...sucks.

[saibot]

And in case you guys are curious about my dry fire "range," it's part of my garage which I'm almost too embarrassed to show, but what the heck.

I took a panorama photo with my iPhone so it looks a little strange. I'm pretty lucky to have the distance that I do, although it's a bit narrow. At the very end of the tandem bay I have 3 full sized USPSA targets which you can kind of see plastered with no shoots. Smaller ones up close. Just a little before the end of the weight bench is 10 yards and I now have a shooting box (tape on the floor) there. I've integrated all of the crap in the way into my stages so it kind of works.

Need a dumpster!

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.24.13)

Morning session - I started with my "benchmark" stages and although I did them all, I had to end the movement drills there since my achilles tendon was just too unhappy to continue. I didn't want to not practice so I worked on my draw and reloads with the Stoeger A drills. Overall rating of meh.

Evening session - Just staying stationary for now so I busted out my Steve Anderson book to see what kind of times I could get logged. I probably did a hundred or so draws and noticed that if I flag my thumb when establishing my grip on the pistol, I can sort of press the pistol into the proper place every time I build my grip. It seems to really help me get the perfect grip/index most of the time. I'll have to play with that a bit more tomorrow and see if it is still working for me. I worked on the first few drills and blew most of my dry fire time tonight on that.

Now off to wrap presents...

Merry Christmas everyone!

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.26.13)

I spent about 45 minutes running a couple of dry fire stages tonight. A little hit and miss at first, but pretty quick after a little warm up. Moved on to the Anderson drills for a bit until I was interrupted and had to stop. Hoping to get some live fire in tomorrow!

[saibot]

I was reflecting a little on last night's dry fire session and something I noticed about my draw. I normally aggressively go for the pistol, then pull it and start to get it on target. I was experimenting with my draw and noticed something interesting that I'll try my best to describe. If I slowly/smoothly get my hand to the pistol, I can then "snap" the gun towards the target. It's a small thing but creates an entirely different draw/presentation. It "feels" more controlled overall and I bet I'd have less flubbed grips. I'll have to experiment with it more to see how it works out. The time doesn't seem to be any different like this.

Anyone ever notice this?

[saibot]

Live fire (12.27.13)

I went out to the range today for a little live fire practice with a friend of mine who shoots IDPA. He was gracious enough to run me through the classifier to show me what to expect. The first few shots were a little shaky and I pulled the first headshot just outside of the perf. Whoops. It's been a while since I did any live fire so the gun jumping caught me off guard and it took me a second to start tracking the sights. After that, I did pretty well. I would have shot master but that missed headshot pushed me down to expert for stage 1.

Stage 2 went pretty well, too and I shot a master time on it.

Stage 3 is where the wheels came off. It's hard to practice real trigger control in dry fire and even though the targets were only 20 yards I pulled enough shots to 7 o'clock that it really tanked my time. I also did a few bonehead things with my reloads since I'm just so used to USPSA. I should have easily made expert but all of those 7 o'clocks just tanked me and pushed me down just below expert with a 122.0.

I was great to take a crack at it see where I'd place if I actually shot it. Looks like I need to work on my long range accuracy. I shot groups at 20 yards and easily kept all of the rounds in the -0, so I know it's just me pulling the trigger.

Great to get out and send sound rounds downrange.

[Quag]

In IDPA we say Stage 3 seperates the men from the boys (I'm in the boys). If you shot a 122 and you have not done many classifiers, I think you are doing great. I have heard that the hardest jump is from Sharpshooter to Expert. I shot the Stage 3 in practice and thought I had it down. Recently in a classifier I had 2 misses in Stage 3 and it sunk me. Another time I shot Stage 3 very slowly and I was one of the most accurate in the squad (-7 raw score). Problem was it took me 76 seconds so ended up with a terrible score. Next time I shot it 25 sec faster and had 2 misses. Same old thing accuracy vs speed.

Also Stage 1 can jump up and bite you. I can shoot those head shots all day long with a good time in practice, however when I'm in a classifier and that buzzer goes off I swear my IQ drops 100 points and I'll get a flier. I have seen many Expert Class shooters miss a head shot on Stage 1.

[saibot]

Good call, Quag. I think my error was lack of live fire and not seeing the sights on the missed head (for stage 1). Stage 2 is just bad trigger control and the rapid decay of accurate shooting, especially at distance.

This was my first time trying out the classifier and I wanted to identify my weak point before attempting it officially. So I now know where I need to spend my time!

Ya, I hear you about the timer switching you to "doofus mode." I've had that happen, too. I really think all of the practice has really helped. It's not quite apparent in my scores yet, but I feel very confident in my abilities now and know what I'm capable of doing with a fair degree of accuracy. I've taken the "safe route" in matches where if I had known my capabilities I could have shot it a specific way that would have resulted in a much higher score, but opted for the safe way which is slow. Like running to the forward shooting area instead of engaging from the rear starting box.

Since you seem to know a lot about IDPA, do you know if a G19 is acceptable for a BUG stage?

[Quag]

I know more about IDPA than USPSA and that means almost next to nothing about both. IDPA was/is my first action pistol sport.I am only a Marksman but I'm still pretty new to IDPA.

I had an opportunity to participate in the 2103 BUG Nationals at S&W in Springfield MA but declined due to my lack of experience. My carry gun is a Walther P99AS compact. 3.5 inch barrel. Sweet gun. its all factory and no modifications and I'm keeping it that way. The guys running the nationals told me its ok. I sold my G19 (to buy the Walther) I believe the G19 has a 4 inch barrel. I think the BUG limit is 3.5 inches.

BUG matches are suddenly becoming popular. The nationals had a great turnout. Our local club Metro West Tactical is going to host a BUG match this year. Of course a number of us shoot our BUG guns in club matches for the hell of it. That way if we do not score well we have a built in excuse!

[saibot]

I know more about IDPA than USPSA and that means almost next to nothing about both. IDPA was/is my first action pistol sport.I am only a Marksman but I'm still pretty new to IDPA.

I had an opportunity to participate in the 2103 BUG Nationals at S&W in Springfield MA but declined due to my lack of experience. My carry gun is a Walther P99AS compact. 3.5 inch barrel. Sweet gun. its all factory and no modifications and I'm keeping it that way. The guys running the nationals told me its ok. I sold my G19 (to buy the Walther) I believe the G19 has a 4 inch barrel. I think the BUG limit is 3.5 inches.

BUG matches are suddenly becoming popular. The nationals had a great turnout. Our local club Metro West Tactical is going to host a BUG match this year. Of course a number of us shoot our BUG guns in club matches for the hell of it. That way if we do not score well we have a built in excuse!

At the IDPA match I shot there was a couple of BUG stages that I shot with a G26. It was fun to try out a little BUG to see what I could do with it. I think they are going to put on a BUG match sometime and since it's just a club match I think I'll try it out if I can make it. And good point on having a built in excuse!

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.28.13)

I spent about 1.5 hours dry firing tonight getting some current par times by all of the drills from Steve Anderson's R&R book since I have a Dry Fire Tune Up scheduled with him on Monday! I'm hoping that he can identify my inefficiencies and errors so I can speed up my game and start kicking more butt. I watched a youtube video of him tuning up someone and it looked pretty amazing. I'm hoping for that kind of improvement.

I'll post an AAR from it once I've gone though it.

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.29.13)

I had a really good night of dry fire tonight. My cold times on the "benchmark" stages were pretty good and I beat my par times. I then worked on about a half dozen of the Steve Anderson R&R drills, again, getting ready for my dry fire tune up (which looks like it's going to get pushed to Wednesday). I also worked on shooting on the move, weak hand shooting, and reloads while moving. I finished up with another round of my benchmark stages and probably had the best times I've ever had. Very fast!

[saibot]

Dry fire (12.30.13)

I spent about an hour dry firing tonight, starting with my "benchmark" stages. I have closed the gap between cold and warm performance it would seem. My cold times were well below my par times and actually just a hair faster than my warm times. I attribute that to most likely being tired from all of the drills tonight. I hit the Steve Anderson R&R book again tonight and really tried to be in acceptable sight picture mode while being fast. I laid down some blazing fast times (for me) and I'm sure my shots were A zone hits, some on the perf, but A zone none the less. I'm really hoping that I can connect with Steve on Wednesday. I finished up with a little shooting/reloading on the move and my "benchies." Good night of practice. Looking forward to getting some live fire and match time one of these days.

[saibot]

Dry Fire Tune Up with Steve Anderson (1.1.2014)

I received a Dry Fire Tune Up with Steve Anderson today and I have to say, it was probably the best money I've ever spent on training. The guy knows his stuff and got my times down significantly in very little time. There was just too much to try and post here tonight so I'm working on a blog post with more details and picture. I'll circle back and post the link when I finish up. It was a lot of fun and Steve is an outstanding coach. Looking forward to more training with him.

[saibot]

Sorry for the delay. Here is the link to my Dry Fire Tune Up with Steve Anderson:

http://www.recoilsports.com/2014/01/dry-fire-tune-up-with-steve-anderson/

[saibot]

Dry fire (1.2.14)

I spent about an hour dry firing, starting with my "benchmark" stages which I blew the doors off of my normal cold times. Then I worked on building upon what Steve and I went over yesterday, trying to remember all of the little things he identified that I needed to do. Really trying to get back into that mode and recall the "feel" for lack of a better term. I got back to some nice draw times of .8 to the lower A zone. One thing I change with most of the drills I do is to make them harder than they actually are by increasing the distance and/or using smaller targets. I also will use the heads instead of the lower A for many of the drills to make up for the lack of feedback of dry fire. I always thought that I would be giving up something to increase my speed, but when I remove all of the inefficiencies and NOT TENSE UP, fast happens. I actually find my sights are rock solid when I go faster if I'm not tensing up.

I did find myself getting really sloppy trying to go too fast tonight and had to focus on staying loose and getting perfect A zone hits. Once I reeled it in just a wee bit I was doing great. My turn and draw from surrender was not what it was yesterday since I'm trying to remember all of the things he had me doing. Of everything I was doing, the turn and draw was the thing he changed the most and it's going to take me some time to perfect it and get it back to unconscious competence. Not a big deal, still .5 second faster than my best times prior to the Tune Up.

I practiced a ton of reloads really trying to get index on the magazine perfect. When I land on the mag correctly I nail the reload. If not, it's about 50/50. Did a bunch of El Prez's, shooting on the move, reloading and shooting on the move and finally the draw and transfer to the weak hand. Steve completely changed the way I did that, too. Way faster now, but I keep wearing the skin off of my weak hand thumb knuckle and bleeding all over the gun so with that, I called it a night.

[Quag]

Brain Enos has a nice discussion in his Practical Shooting Book of impact of "tensing up" while shooting and the importance of shooting with focus but staying loose. While I understand what he is saying training your body to stay loose when that buzzer goes off is easier siad than done. I swear my IQ drops about 100 points in a match when the buzzer goes off! I really do some stupid ......

[saibot]

Brain Enos has a nice discussion in his Practical Shooting Book of impact of "tensing up" while shooting and the importance of shooting with focus but staying loose. While I understand what he is saying training your body to stay loose when that buzzer goes off is easier siad than done. I swear my IQ drops about 100 points in a match when the buzzer goes off! I really do some stupid ......

Good reference, Quag. I forgot about that and revisited that from his book. Funny how that happens to us all when the buzzer goes off!

[saibot]

Dry fire (1.4.14)

I got so much out of Steve Anderson's Tune Up that I hosted one for a friend of mine today. It was really cool to watch my buddy go through the same thing and knock a bunch of time off of his drills.

I did my usual drills tonight and just got right up on a target and started drawing to the head. It took a little while to get my grip and NPA to index perfectly again but I had a nice breakthrough building off of my Tune Up with Steve. It's hard to describe, but I "slowly" and smoothly get my hand on the grip, then I "snap" it up and out of the holster to the index point on the target, and OMG it's smoking fast!!! I was consistently drawing to a PERFECT A zone sight picture in .7!!! Hot damn!

/must remember the feeling...

[saibot]

Live fire (1.5.14)

I made it out to the range today for some live fire practice today and to try out a G19 as well. I started out shooting groups with the G19 just to check for functionality and to warm up a little. Tried a little strong hand/weak hand shooting, went back to the G34 and did the Frank Garcia Dot Drill which is a butt kicker, some 20 yard practice on steel plates, and then practiced the IDPA classifier. I had a few screw ups and my shooting on the move has decayed a little more than I liked. And even though the sights just weren't tracking too well for me today from lack of live fire, I did beat my old time from the other time I tried the classifier. Today I shot it in 115.88 which I believe would make Expert. The 25 yard barricade shots just have me messing up my trigger pull and I have bunch of hits in the 7 o'clock area. I'm pretty happy with my time since I haven't shot much at all lately and assumed that I would shoot slower. My SHO/WHO shots were a mess, but luckily my speed was there and saved me on the rest of the strings. I also noticed that I really needed to squeeze the heck out of the gun with my support hand to get the sights to track correctly and it really tightened up my groups.

And one other neat note; Me and a friend were on Steve Anderson's "That Shooting Show" today to talk about the FaceTime Dry Fire Tune Up. That Podcast should already be available, if not, in the morning.

[saibot]

Dry fire (1.6.14)

I had a really good 1.5 hours dry firing tonight, just having fun. I've been hitting pretty hard lately and it was starting to feel a little bit like work, so I did some of my favorite drills from the Ben Stoeger A and B drill pages. Lots of shooting on the move and just experimenting with stance and keeping the gun up high. Times were generally pretty good but it was more about just having fun. Looking forward to actually making a match this weekend! It's been too darn long.