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Camo Cowboy's performance analysis journal


Glock26Toter

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I went out and practiced today. I took my wife and worked with her to get her up to speed again. She used to shoot revo back in the day and with a bit of coaching she was back to understanding the full routine of commands and gun handling. It was a good time and I'm excited get her back on the range again. This time, with her shooting the spare Open gun it should more fun.

The one thing I've got to be careful of is over coaching. She's already pulling the "I'm so freakin' slow" routine and I'm trying to remind her that we ALL started out at D class and it's important to just enjoy the shooting. She'll do fine.

Meanwhile, I just did some speed drills. Focusing on very fast shooting at simple open targets I wanted to see if I thought the dot was A. Dimmer with one gun than the other and B. difficult to track.

Negative on both parts. I'm now positive that this "can't see the dot" thing and "it was in fact dim" is a bunch of horse shit made up by my unreliable nugget in an effort to explain shooting faster than I can see.

so I'm officially going to change "I couldn't see the dot" to "I shot faster than I could see" and run with that mentality for a while.

Who knows?... maybe I'll still shoot that fast, but see at the same speed one day. hehehe.

so another thing I did in order to increase the need to watch a very jumpy dot was to shoot a lot of one handed drills. Besides achieving that goal I verified something else about my stance... In the past I've previously subscribed to the notion that my stance should remain the same whether freestyle or one handed. The general public prefers to step back with the off-foot in order to better control recoil. So, recently I've been doing that (stepping back) and until today didn't feel it changed anything. I tried it both ways today and I did notice a slight difference in the actual ability to control recoil, but also noticed a huge difference in my first shot time. I never hunted with the step-back method, but with my stance staying the same I could not seem to get on target nearly as fast.

So I'm sold on the step back routine and will work at making it a subconscious act from here on out.

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Well, I just wrapped up another great weekend of shooting. I got to shoot two matches. One at Aurora Gun Club and the other down at Centennial gun club.

Since my performance reviewing has slipping a bit I made several videos out at Aurora and my wife joined me for her first match in around 12 years. She has taken nicely to shooting my spare open gun and does a great job at developing stage plans on her own or with other shooters in an effort to "leave me alone" (her words, not mine.) I greatly appreciate that and it sure did allow me to operate as needed to perform at my usual level while engaging her in a casual, stress free way. It was a hell of a good time.

so anyways, the match at AGC was a good one with a good variety of stages. there was one hoser stage, a pretty complex aimer, and a couple of simple ones.

The first positive that I see in the first video is my transitions. I like the way I very quickly whip over during the transition and quickly move my feet at the same time to maintain a valid cone of fire and stable platform. Those triangle shooting areas up front are close to 180 degrees of shooting and required three separate stances. I thought I did well at those. My areas for improvent don't show in the vid... they are aiming. I earned TWO Mikes on that stage and clearly didn't call every shot.

Next up was a fast stage for me, but again, earned a mike from shooting faster than I can see. The movement was quick, but the most obvious area for improvement was not going deep enough into the right-hand port. Another step or two would have allowed faster transitions and allowed me to engage the entire array without leaning back and forth.

The classifier! Well, I think I have reached the point in my shooting where I'm really going to have to step up the action during classifiers. At this M - going to - GM stage of the game I fail to see how there is any room for brakes while driving toward 95% or better scores. This was pointed out to me at Area 2 where I went balls-out and scored a 94%. (not quite GM, but the point remains that I got to that score by hauling ass faster than I thought possible.)

At AGC I didn't perform this very well and wound up shoving my old mag back into the gun with the new mag and by the time I figured out how to get the new mag out of the way to let the old mag drop... well, it was too late for anything but to see what happened if I went full-auto on the array. Several mikes and noshoots later it was the ZERO side of said "Hero or Zero."

So the following night I went to Centennial. Concentrating on running the clock and coaching new shooters, my performance at indoor matches is not something I concentrate on. Therefore, there are no vids to be had for reference and not much for performance analysis.

However, the classifier was a bit more on the Hero side of the spectrum and is worth reviewing. It was a simple turn and burn (Eye of the Tiger) and everything lined up nicely. A very aggressive turn and draw was followed by even more aggressive dot watching. This was a total moment of "as long as that static from the dot stays on target keep pulling the trigger as fast you can." I clearly called every shot and was able to perform in a truely subconcious manner. I love these moments and can only hope that more of them will lead to a GM classification one day. I walked away with a 98.9% on it.... 2.66 seconds and dropped 2 points. hehehehehe! THAT, is why we do this.

So, I can still see that "shooting faster than I can see" thing happening and can't decide whether I'm shooting faster or seeing slower recently. I'm hoping it's the former and that going forward, my seeing will catch up more often.

Goals:

See faster.

Edited by Glock26Toter
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You are in a frustrating point in your skill building, but keep at it. Figuring out how to call your shots "Faster" requires a lot of time running the gun beyond your current visual processing speed. This leads to a lot of shooting penalties, but shooting faster than you can see is required to get use to what that looks like. If it helps any, it took me about a year of shooting faster than I could see before it became "Normal" and I could call my shots while chainsawing rounds out as fast as humanly possible.

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Today I got to shoot the match at Aurora Gun Club. I was happy to get on a squad with an M shooter that I'm always trying to beat. He's just ahead of me in skill level and a very consistent shooter, so I can tell right away if I'm doing well by how my scores compare to his. He thinks I beat him today and I believe I edged him out on 1 or 2 stages, but I still think he stayed ahead of me. We shall see.

That's what I love about this sport. We can all be competitive yet freinds. I think most people know, at the end of the day it's how you performed all by yourself and relying on the competition to make mistakes is NOT how you win and therefore we can remain freinds. I'm sure there are some people out there without that attitude and relish in others failure but everyone I normally interface with doesn't even know the definition of Shadenfreude.

(on a side note, my brother raced in Moto-X and Enduro circuits most of my childhood and they were the same way. Maybe that's why I like these guys so much.)

So, looking at a vid of the first stage I shot, I can see a positive note in my draw that's pretty suble. I've been working on the "shrug" ala Steve Anderson. This is a slight "pre-loading" of my shoulders that keeps a bit of tension in the upper arm/shoulder area. This does two things. 1. Get's your hand a bit closer to your gun while still looking "relaxed at sides" and 2. removes an entire movement system out of the draw. Basically, the initial "hand on gun" motion is already half over before you even start. I'm watching this vid at .25 speed and there is no movement of my shoulder between "are you ready" and "beep." Good. (and on the following vids as well. Double-Good.) My movement out of positions is pretty darn quick although could be a bit more forceful per my old "Two large" goal. My last positive on this was the engagement order. I did a bit of a reverse order situation on both far sides so the shuttle around the barrel was done during engagement rather than having to move and then start engaging. Overall a smooth run with only small areas for improvement.

Next up, is a stage I designed. The obvious improvement area here was the TWO, that's right TWO MIKES. Just got a bit speedy in a couple of spots. The first was one of the headshots at position 5 (2nd array down the line on the left side) where there was a mess of no-shoots at odd angles with pretty much heads only. I called it, but was already out of the position by the time my eyes caught up to my brain. Ooops. Then when I entered the next position it was supposed to be about 3-4 steps and I was 5 in when my brain told my feet to STOP NOW! That led to the a clunky halt where I miked a wide open target. Watching the vid closely I can see myself on my toes trying to stop as I let that shot fly. At the end I'm looking over at that mike considering a makeup... but decided against it. Everytime you have to think about something that long, it's too late.

Finally my best stage of the day. All the positive things to remember from this stage you can't see in the vid. It was all through my sight. I was a dot-watching-shot-calling-son-of-a-bitch. This was a total moment of "that seemed slow," but was clearly a fast and smooth run. This is the kind of thing that we signed up for from the beginning. I vividly remember every shot and could pretty much tell you every hit before they called it. Fun stuff and when I can bring my consistency up and get more stages like this, it will lead me to GM.

Next I had some kick-ass angles with a cool gopro placement. Unfortunately I have a video of my talking about it before hand... followed by a video of my talking about it afterwards, but NO video of the stage. All thanks to pulling a "got the on mixed up with the off" dumb ass mistake. It would have a been a great teaching moment so I'm quite bummed I missed it. I tried to go balls-out on the classifier, but every movement seemed extrememly laborious and slow. This led to a string of shooting WAAAAY faster than I could see. I even took an extra shot, but had started to transition across a no-shoot so I got the joy of following up a penalty with a penalty.

The following stage didn't go much better from an aiming perspective but thanks to close targets I managed to come out of it with a decent score despite poor dot tracking.

I wrapped up the match on a low note, but with my high notes on all the highest scoring stages I think overall it was a good showing and I can't wait to see the results.

I succeeded in my goal of seeing faster if only for a stage or two. But that's a big step. You have to see and feel what something looks like before you can repeat it and then work on consistency.

Good times! Now I just drudge through another week of work until the next match.

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After boning another classifier with a sluggish, missed reload I decided I need to try to figure out what was going on. (Actually there were other problems, but the reload has boned me a few times recently so it was the one recurring problem)

I dry fired last night and set the timer for a 1.1 second par time with a random start delay of 3-4 seconds. Upon signal, I drew to a target and maintained a sight picture until the par time signal fired. (not long, only 1.1) At which time I performed a reload as absolutely fast as I could move. I also randomly transitioned to another target during the reload in order to try to step up the tension.

This led to a recreation of my fumbled reloads. I was happy to have felt exactly what I felt when these reloads failed.

I identified that I would change the angle of my thumb to a more natural, grip/fist action thus causing my thumb to actually slip off the bottom of the mag release button and touch my index finder just under the mag release.

After more analysis I figured out that it was actually way more comfortable and faster if I just allow this action every time. It's really the difference between just making a fist, and trying to hit a button with your thumb. Seems obvious now that if you just allow the fist making to happen to hit the button you reduce a conscious action to a subconscious one.

So I moved the angle of my mag release down so that my index finger almost touches it coming around the other side.

After more practice I'm confident that this new angle will eliminate my missed reloads and allow me to move more smoothly and therefore faster.

Bring on a mandatory reload classifier so I can test this theory!!

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I went out and got some practice today. I was concerned with some fast reloads but quickly found myself doing some dumb things and getting too many mikes... even for not worrying about accuracy. I changed gears and slowed way down in order to shoot alphas. It helped a bunch as I was able to get better hits and I just did some simple standing reloads and a few reloads moving to another box.

I wasn't feeling super productive and didn't stay long, but now that I'm reviewing a couple of vids, I do like a couple of my reloads and think my movement was good.

By the end of the day I had received my new DAA Belt. Previously I had a COM belt and have been running that belt for a loooong time now thanks to a gift certificate way back when. I stuck all my gear onto this new belt and I'm shocked at how much better this belt is than my old one. This thing really does hold the gear more rigidly and that translates into a totally different feeling with my draw. Quite a bit more feedback from the equipment means a better understanding of each micro movement and I believe this can only lead to better movement.

This is a bit like changing out the street suspension of your car for a racing one. Maybe you did just fine racing on the old suspension, pushing it to it's limit, but once you upgraded you noticed that every bump in the road told you valuable information you've been waiting for in order to drive just a tad faster.

I'll always recommend quality equipment to people who want to get even a little bit serious... in the last several months I've gone from "my first" in many pieces of equipment to top notch DAA equipment and I can totally see the benefits.

I'm sure there are plenty of good brands out there, but for me this recent upgrade to a brand that clearly fits me and my current ability is paying off big time.

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I shot the PPPS Match this weekend. A ton of fun, as always and the stages were challenging and fun. There was one illegal stage and as usual I'm impressed with Panda's ability to spot them so quickly. He knows the rules very well and I'm always sticking my nose in the rulebook in order to gain even a percentage of the knowledge he has. I'll get there and I've been keeping my ear close to the ground for an opportunity for a CRO class as I believe that will boost my goal of better understanding the rules.

I screwed up the classifier due to a high primer. The reason I kept the video was for the beginning. In analyzing the start, I'm watching my draw and first shot movements. I can see that I take a bit of dip with my head... something I've always worked to avoid. I'm willing to let it go this time due to the position and low stance desired in order make the shift to the other side of the barricade. The positive point of the stage would definately be the draw and the movement after the click. It points out that I was ready to move immediately after the final shot on the array and that I was also able to quickly realize I needed to stay on that target and not overcommit, and completely break my stance.

The area for improvement... more reloading details. I went back home and check all my pre-loaded rounds and found many high primers. I fixed them all and adjusted my primer depth so this won't happen again. It seems to me, that the only reason the primer depth adjustment even exists is to get out of adjutment once a year to keep us on our toes. boooo!

The other negative was that I basically sandbagged the rest of the stage. I wish that I wouldn't have done that and it was far out of character for me. I can't remember ever doing it before. Once I knew it was screwed, I show slow and basically strolled up to the front barricade. Had my head stayed in the game I would have easily gone 2-3 seconds faster and not allowed a malfunction to cost me more match points than neccessary. I'll work on not doing that in the future.

My remaining stages were pretty strong and although I had mixed feelings about my performance I placed 2nd overall and took top Open. I'm still not jumping up and down as it's not about the results but rather how I feel I performed.

There were some moments of clarity and dot tracking at an M level for sure, but there were other moments of missed stage plans and movement errors. Overall I think it was another day of reminders that I still have quite a bit of work to do before I can gain the consistency needed for a GM ranking.

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  • 2 weeks later...

After a dull weekend last week not getting any shooting in, my trigger finger was down right burning to get out today! I shot a local match at the Aurora Gun Club. As always, we did pretty good out there considering many restrictions on the target placement.

I had to start on the classifier (99-12) and managed to score very well dispite negative feelings right off the bat. I thought it was a Virginia count stage and fired an extra shot for no reason whatsoever, other than I was already thinking about the NEXT stage that was a 3 Shot per paper stage. Looking at the video I'm still a bit shocked that I scored an 89%. I like the initial grip and draw. I landed right on the gun and drew smoothly to the first target. A good thing too since I fired an extra shot at it. Obivously transitioning went well, but I was thrown off by the fact I was in the "I just screwed the pooch" mode from the extra shot, and didn't really push too hard after that. The reload was relatively smooth, but I think my arm dropped too low and I was into it pretty late causing a clear pause to complete it before engaging the first Right-Hand target. I was on the dot pretty good and scored nicely on the targets... I think that's what got me into the M level percentage. This is a good lesson to keep your cool and not freak out over the mistakes.

The next stage worth looking at was full of the same type of thing... some decent shooting but plenty of mistakes as well. I nail the first popper without issue and then make a large movement error. I waited for the body to shift weight and completely nix any posibility for explosive movement. After I lumber over to the port I'm clearly in the 2-shot mode and wind up putting 2 alphas on the first target and fire my third shot in mid-transition. I do the SAME THING on the left target as I'm transitioning back for the makeup shot. This causes me to have to fire two makeup shots and execute two extra transitions before I'm back in business. It felt like crap, but where I clearly made up for all that lost time was the one-for-one on the steel and the 5 Alphas down range. This underscores the importance of shooting steel with your eyes and not your ears. Also, a second lesson about keeping cool.

Here's one where everything went well for me. With a bit of relaxing banter prior to the start signal I went into this totally relaxed. This is a good lesson in offloading the previous stages and just shooting in the moment. This is imperitive for a good match. We will never have a perfect match and if we ever do it's impossible to do consistently, so leaving the mistakes behind is all we have left. I was able to do that and the only shot where I wasn't focused on the dot was the first shot on the last target. 4 shots on it to make sure, but when you are shooting that close a point shot or two can land where needed. I had 4 hits on it, and can't remember what it was, but what I do know is that I only got 3 Charlies on that stage and was rewarded with a 15.6 HF and a stage win. It made the whole match a positive experience for me and I was glad I kept it together for that stage.

There were not a lot of points to be had on my good stages so I finished #5 overall (last M) but actually there were some very valuable lessons learned or reinforced today and I had a hell of a good time dispite finishing lower than usual.

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After a dull weekend last week not getting any shooting in, my trigger finger was down right burning to get out today! I shot a local match at the Aurora Gun Club. As always, we did pretty good out there considering many restrictions on the target placement.

I had to start on the classifier (99-12) and managed to score very well dispite negative feelings right off the bat. I thought it was a Virginia count stage and fired an extra shot for no reason whatsoever, other than I was already thinking about the NEXT stage that was a 3 Shot per paper stage. Looking at the video I'm still a bit shocked that I scored an 89%. I like the initial grip and draw. I landed right on the gun and drew smoothly to the first target. A good thing too since I fired an extra shot at it. Obivously transitioning went well, but I was thrown off by the fact I was in the "I just screwed the pooch" mode from the extra shot, and didn't really push too hard after that. The reload was relatively smooth, but I think my arm dropped too low and I was into it pretty late causing a clear pause to complete it before engaging the first Right-Hand target. I was on the dot pretty good and scored nicely on the targets... I think that's what got me into the M level percentage. This is a good lesson to keep your cool and not freak out over the mistakes.

The next stage worth looking at was full of the same type of thing... some decent shooting but plenty of mistakes as well. I nail the first popper without issue and then make a large movement error. I waited for the body to shift weight and completely nix any posibility for explosive movement. After I lumber over to the port I'm clearly in the 2-shot mode and wind up putting 2 alphas on the first target and fire my third shot in mid-transition. I do the SAME THING on the left target as I'm transitioning back for the makeup shot. This causes me to have to fire two makeup shots and execute two extra transitions before I'm back in business. It felt like crap, but where I clearly made up for all that lost time was the one-for-one on the steel and the 5 Alphas down range. This underscores the importance of shooting steel with your eyes and not your ears. Also, a second lesson about keeping cool.

Here's one where everything went well for me. With a bit of relaxing banter prior to the start signal I went into this totally relaxed. This is a good lesson in offloading the previous stages and just shooting in the moment. This is imperitive for a good match. We will never have a perfect match and if we ever do it's impossible to do consistently, so leaving the mistakes behind is all we have left. I was able to do that and the only shot where I wasn't focused on the dot was the first shot on the last target. 4 shots on it to make sure, but when you are shooting that close a point shot or two can land where needed. I had 4 hits on it, and can't remember what it was, but what I do know is that I only got 3 Charlies on that stage and was rewarded with a 15.6 HF and a stage win. It made the whole match a positive experience for me and I was glad I kept it together for that stage.

There were not a lot of points to be had on my good stages so I finished #5 overall (last M) but actually there were some very valuable lessons learned or reinforced today and I had a hell of a good time dispite finishing lower than usual.

Any footage of the field courses?

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I went to AGC today to practice. There was a dude on my usual berm, and my jaw dropped as I watched him finish shooting and turn around, point his gun directly UP Range to unload. I considered going and talking with him and by the time I got out of my truck and said Hi to a couple friends he was just finishing his 2nd magazine, and DID IT AGAIN. I went down and had a quick chat with him about where his damn gun needs to be pointed AT ALL TIMES, and felt a bit better.

So I setup a port wall, 3 targets at about 25ft and some fault line. The idea was that I would have lean pretty hard to get the outside targets and shoot the middle one through the port.

I ran some drills where I started in the center of the wall and went, right - middle - left with a reload on each movement. I was shooting strictly for accuracy and was happy to get past that drill with only a couple of C's. I noticed, that I could start engaging the target quite a bit sooner than normal and the instant I saw the sight land on target I could break the shot. This created a shot that was very close the wall... quite a bit closer than normal, but I think saved a bunch of time. I need to work on engaging the targets WAY before I can see them, and basically, engage the edge of the wall and just wait for the target to appear. something to work on.

I also did those same drills the opposite direction and did a bunch of strong/weak hand drills.

A very interesting drill was to shoot Left only first, then freestyle in the center, over to right only. This created a complete rebuild of the grip needed to go from left to freestyle. Something I can't remember doing in a match. Maybe I'll stick it in a stage plan somehow.

So during the left/only shooting I found that basically the stronger I grip, the better my control is.

I ditched the wall for some real testing of this and was able to get 4 Alphas, 2 Charlies in 3.6 seconds with weak hand only on that array. I gripped so tightly that I injured my damn elbow, but that was the fastest and most accurate I think I've ever seen with weak hand only shooting.

I've been working the hell out of my grip over the past few months (since the elbow quit hurting afer acupuncture) and they are doing better than ever. I think this new stronger grip strength thing is a key and will continue to work on the grip strength. I think the elbow thing is just a bit of a strain and certainly hope it's not the return of tennis elbow after all this work.

I'm ready for a match tomorrow!

Edited by Glock26Toter
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I shot a match this weekend at Aurora Gun Club. The stages were fun but surprisingly similar. Funny how all the designers sometimes have the same idea. There was not much steel at all, and only about 3 no-shoots total. Also, on almost every stage an up range movement was required. All rare items for us at AGC so it was funny that we all did it simultaneously. I had a great time and although there were a couple minor mistakes I mostly performed up to my ability.

The first stage I shot had a pretty clunky stage plan initially and after thinking about it, I landed on an idea that felt more comfortable to me. I think I did some pretty good shooting and generally called my shots on most of the targets and don't think there was a delta anywhere on the stage. I still didn't do as well as I would have liked due to errors. My errors were some slow shooting through the front port, both in misses on the steel and slow-splits on the paper. This coupled with a complete botch on the reload made this a slower plan than Panda ran it, but had I not made these mistakes I think the plan would have been a wash.

Next stage was a back-and -forth situation and I feel pretty good about the accuracy and movement. However, there are two things I feel really slowed me down. One was the initial shot. I don't remember what happened but the pause before I start shooting is way too long for what I'm capable of. I'll bet that's a full 2 second draw and fire on a no-risk target. Next was the transition from the left side to the target in front of the walls. I think I was originally going to shoot the entire right side first and then shoot left and move. This somehow got changed to an extra transition. The only real problem with that was that I strung out that transition engaging that left-front target way too soon. Next was the target in front of those walls. I shot it once, then there’s a pause as I was like “what am I doing engaging that target now?” I shot it two more times (needlessly) and then moved on. The entire time I suffered overall slow shooting because I just hadn't really married the stage plan and that showed in a clunky execution. My wife watch the vid and was like “you are shooting slowly for what you are capable of. Look how close those targets are.”

The next two stages were the classifier 99-10 and a speed shoot. These, I have no qualms about. I like the way that I ran that speed shoot and remember really pushing on the movement there. The classifier was more of the same. I shot super fast splits and then exploded out of that box and ran as fast as possible to the next box. I hadn’t quite settled enough when my first shot broke. I called it a C, but it was a D. When the score came back as a 96% I was a bit surprised. I just didn’t think there was any room for even 1 D on a classifier that GM’s have been burning down for years. But I sure feel good now that I can say I’m one of the ones burning it down. Hehehehe. The obvious improvement here would be a tad more visual patience and earn way more alphas without pushing so hard on speed. Had I added a full second to my time, but turned that D and a couple of the C’s into A’s, I would have made 100% on it.

So I have no particular goals still. I just need to keep on tracking that dot and trying to see faster and do everything a tad better.

Edited by Glock26Toter
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The weather has been terrible lately. Constant rain has really put a damper on the shooting. Luckily Boulder Rifle Club still had an indoor match. There's not a lot to this match. Only 3 stages in a pretty restricted, low lit range where the stages have a tendency to lean toward awkward movement and noshoots everywhere in order to bring the challenge level up. I personally like shooting it just as much as any other indoor match. I beats the hell out of Not Shooting!

I shot the classifier first and it was "Nuevo El Presidente." I hesitated right out of the gate and this translated into too much rushing during the shooting. I miked and deltad my way to a very poor score. But the positive was the reload. The other Master (GM Limited/M Prod) shooter just shrugged his shoulders when I asked him if he remembered seeing my reload. This tells me that it was very smooth, as I don't really remember doing it, and neither does he. Smooth and unmemorable I suppose is a good thing.

The next stage was a stage that you needed to keep moving on to get it done efficiently. I liked the shooting OK, and scored a LOT of Alphas on it, including 2 on the swinger. The timing was tight and I fell short on that big time. I ran out of shooting window and ended up leaning way over as my feet just went beyond the window. So the last shot was very slow since I had to come to a complete stop and aim in a position I never should have been in. I went into the next window and basically, the same thing happened. The final position I did the opposite. I started engaging way too early and was shooting head shots while stepping on an activator pad. After making the headshots up I cleaned things up nicely but when I looked over at the RO he asked "what the hell was that?" I answered with the truth... "my feet were doing one plan and my eyes were doing another!" hahaha!

Finally was a doorway stage and when I opened the door it didn't open. We aren't sure what happened but after fighting the door I thought the RO said stop and I turned around to see. He stopped me then and said that someone had yelled something like "you dumb shit" or something that I thought was possibly a stop. In retrospect there's no reason he should have given me a reshoot, but to make everyone feel better I caught the door on my toe while opening it so the net effect was the EXACT same start as the first time. This time I didn't have any excuses and just kept going. I earned a mike on this stage, but the rest of the hits were good. Again, lots of alphas. Including two on the clamshell behind that door. I very calmly shot the alphas like it was an open target even though I had just botched the door so I was happy for that.

The overall lesson for the match was "must have smooth movement."

Edited by Glock26Toter
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  • 3 weeks later...

I was able to shoot a match this weekend. The weather held out nicely and my squad was done shooting as the first rain drops hit the ground. I stuck around to help the last squad run their final shooters and clean up, so in the end it was a cold, wet ride home. But the match was fun. We had a nice mix of stages this time and one stage had a bunch of different ways to run it. Something that's hard to do at AGC.

I was overall happy with the shooting and only boned the classifer slightly... but got a second chance at it, and boned that run too. times like that you can only laugh about and just move on.

The first run I shot a no-shoot right in the center, then pulled a makeup shot. The scorekeepers had a problem and I wound up with a reshoot. That time I missed the magwell on the reload and my mag went flying. I reloaded and then just crapped out and miked one.

I'm going to skip any links here and just wrap up this entry by saying... I'm still working on the same goals. Do everything just a tad faster, keep watching that dot and I'll add that it's imperative to always be moving as fast as possible. That means that even for an instant you can't forget to be doing whatever you are doing as fast you can possibly muster. it's not enough just to be in a hurry... you need to be pushing as fast as you can move.

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I was able to shoot a match this weekend. The weather held out nicely and my squad was done shooting as the first rain drops hit the ground. I stuck around to help the last squad run their final shooters and clean up, so in the end it was a cold, wet ride home. But the match was fun. We had a nice mix of stages this time and one stage had a bunch of different ways to run it. Something that's hard to do at AGC.

I was overall happy with the shooting and only boned the classifer slightly... but got a second chance at it, and boned that run too. times like that you can only laugh about and just move on.

The first run I shot a no-shoot right in the center, then pulled a makeup shot. The scorekeepers had a problem and I wound up with a reshoot. That time I missed the magwell on the reload and my mag went flying. I reloaded and then just crapped out and miked one.

I'm going to skip any links here and just wrap up this entry by saying... I'm still working on the same goals. Do everything just a tad faster, keep watching that dot and I'll add that it's imperative to always be moving as fast as possible. That means that even for an instant you can't forget to be doing whatever you are doing as fast you can possibly muster. it's not enough just to be in a hurry... you need to be pushing as fast as you can move.

What are the limitations to stage design at AGC?

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Lots of target placement issues. We can only put targets against berms, steel can only be engaged from directly in front of and perpendicular to the back berm. Angles of engagement to side berms are limited, along with table start restrictions. The list is fairly long of stuff we can't do that we CAN do at every other range in Colorado.

We try hard to overcome them and I can only hope that I continue the tradition of making stages that are creative enough that nobody even notices how restricted we really are. well... except Big Panda. He notices everything. (that's a compliment BTW)

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Lots of target placement issues. We can only put targets against berms, steel can only be engaged from directly in front of and perpendicular to the back berm. Angles of engagement to side berms are limited, along with table start restrictions. The list is fairly long of stuff we can't do that we CAN do at every other range in Colorado.

We try hard to overcome them and I can only hope that I continue the tradition of making stages that are creative enough that nobody even notices how restricted we really are. well... except Big Panda. He notices everything. (that's a compliment BTW)

I'd say you guys do a great job with what you have.

I never really noticed.

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Well, a hell of a weekend was had. This is the match that has always put a mile on my face for a while and this year was no different. On Friday, it rained on us a few times, but nothing major. Saturday and Sunday was nice and warm.

I was an RO at my first major match. I'm going to be WAY MORE thankful of the RO's at the big matches now. That's a hell of a lot of work and I was surprised how the all day routine of standing right next to shooters takes it's toll on your body. I swore that my teeth were loosening up by the final shooter.

Now, on to the performance review. I was very happy with my performance and I really believe that I shot at the top of my ability for the entire match. I watched the videos over and over again and I'm not able to identify an instance where I should have or could have moved faster. (nothing individually linked, but Youtube channel here.) Each time I left a shooting position I didn't forget to do it as fast as I could. The stage plans were solid (not too challenging and in almost all cases the most obvious was the best plan)

I only lost track of my dot for a few shots and obviously could have picked up some more points had that not happened, but when each stage is 60 rounds I think I can afford to give myself a bit of a break.

Could I find something to improve on?... YES. BUT, in order to maintain the positive reinforcement aspect of this journal and match performance I'm just not going to do it. I feel good right now and would encourage anyone that when you do feel good about your performance ride the wave. You don't always have to find areas for improvement. If you had fun, and landed somewhere you've been setting a goal for forget about the negative and just enjoy. Whether that's to have simply placed, or got first, or just shot a clean match but landed at 50% doesn't really matter. If you've made something happen that makes you feel good than enjoying it can only lead to more fun.

Some things of note that I feel really helped me in my "thinking like a GM" goal.

Stage 2. Unloaded start. Every other shooter that I saw, loaded and engaged some steel, then crouched to shoot through a port, then stood up to shoot next to the port. So what I did, was to combine my loading time with my crouching time. I loaded and crouched into the port. When I was already low with my legs spread wide, it was a slight lean and transition to the targets next to the port. Then, a slight lean the other way (putting my weight on the outside leg) was the ticket to get me into shooting the steel. After that I again combined my standing up movement with leaving the position. This went especially well since my weight was already on my trailing leg. I the exact opposite on the other side of the stage. The net gain was 4 seconds faster than the GM that won the stage. I pulled 2 mikes in the middle section somewhere and still got 2nd place on the stage. I was very happy with my thinking like a GM on that one.

Another spot where I did a similar time saver was on the all steel stage (stage 5... no video). I'll bet the GM's did this, but only saw 2-3 shooters do it while ROing that stage all day Saturday. There was a starting array that had you stuck in a single position and then a 180 turn for the second array that took you downrange quite a bit. I was careful to back out of the first position slightly while wrapping up the first few targets so that when I turned I could change direction to a downrange angle (clearing a wall) and shoot the second array on the move. This put me 1-2 steps away from position #3. Shooters that didn't move during that 2nd array were 5-6 steps from position #3.

What saved me even more time, putting that run into territory that I could hardly believe was some "in the zone" moments that I'll forever try to duplicate. On the first Texas star I accidentally shot the 3:00 plate first. In a moment of panic, I just said "quick! Shoot it before it moves" and was able to clear it before the star moved. Then, I did it again on the other star. I went into the final array clean and by this time, as you can image, was slightly amp'd up. I missed twice on it, but made them up quickly. This meant my time only included 2 extra shots and some movement that didn't leave anything to waste.

So, to wrap up this review I'll say that while there are some things I could find to improve upon, I'll choose instead to focus on duplicating what it felt like to beat that star up like it stole my lunch money.

The goals are simple to say... hard to do.

Think like a GM. Haul Ass. Don't lose the dot.

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I got to shoot a match at Aurora Gun Club today. The weather held out nicely and considering that by 7:00pm my street was a river and had people's trashcans floating down the middle of it I'd say we got damn lucky.

I've been having much less issues with my stage plans of late and I'm confident that my "thinking like a GM" is starting to become a bit more achievable. I stand by them all today and in one case was able to pick what I thought was a better plan and many agreed after they saw it. Even if someone didn't agree my confidence and opinion that it was the best plan is what meets the goal.

I put the entire match into a single video and added a canned theme to it just for fun.

Today, nothing spectacular happened and well, I guess that's the victory. I didn't do anything particularly well, but by the same token nothing went horribly wrong either. I can't argue with the fact that if my "normal" routine can earn me an HOA than I must be making progress.

I got a single mike on the classifier (where else?) and considering how hard I'm pushing those classifiers I'll just file that one under the "zero" category. It was 09-14 "Eye of the Tiger." A simple, turn and draw routine with all head shots. I spent a lot of time visualizing my hits on the headshots and it just didn't work out for me. I shot the thing in 2.75 seconds and the mike was almost an overlay call so it's not like a total disaster.

There were a couple of times, like on the First Stage where I didn't move quite as fast as I could have. Another stage had me suffering a bit of trigger freeze reminding me that there are always area of improvement to be identified.

I also lost the dot a couple of times and is especially evident on the final stage of the video where I had several makeup shots and it really caused some disruption in my flow.

In summary, I was reminded that having a great match like at the RM300 last week doesn't mean that anything changes when it comes to the work. Despite a good result, I still failed to meet my goals today and I can't let them go just yet. I've been very light on practice lately and need to start adjusting my work schedule to carve out a bit of time at least once a month.

Until then, it's dry fire practice and keep up my performance analysis journal.

Goals:

Think like a GM.

Haul Ass.

Don't lose the dot.

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I shot a local match at Pueblo West Sportsman's club this weekend. It was the only match available since the Saturday match was cancelled due to rain. Not to mention it was a super classifier and I'm not interested in that at this time. The weather turned out great for the match and only the first few drops of rain started falling as we were driving away from the match.

The stages were fun but not too challenging as most were pretty low risk targets and I couldn't identify very many ways to shoot them. I still had a great time and even ran the "optional" stage as did my entire squad. The "optional" stage came about because it was thrown out as illegal. When we got to it I tried to spot why it was illegal and I don't know for sure. I thought I knew why but have not consulted the rules as yet to see if I'm correct. I think the discussion will need to be in another thread so I'm leaving the details out. The reason I'm worrying about is because I'm going to take a CRO class soon and need to be able to notice these things faster.

So for the first stage to review, there was quite a bit of movement and I saw no benefit to moving first, but did practice starting to enter shooting position #2 during the 2nd target engagement. Target #3 was a high risk head shot so I knew I would not want to be either A. Still in position 1 since it was out of my initial index or B. moving. I stepped over and re-indexed on it during the #2 engagement and despite launching one over the top I scored 2 Alphas on it with a makeup. Score one for a stable platform. The next spot I liked was the step pad position where I engaged the drop-out target with perfect timing. I knew I needed to be stepping and engaging the wide open target simultaneously and practiced that many times. I executed that well and then moved into the port to clean things up. I don't see too much for areas of improvement except maybe a few more carefully placed Alpha hits. I think I had too many charlies.

The next stage is what cost me the #1 spot over The Big Panda. (well and a mike on an un-reviewed stage) I just flat missed my grip. I can see an unnatural upper body position the instant my hand gets the gun out and I'm thinking about fixing it, but not doing anything about it for the entire first part of the stage. I fixed it during the reload and by then the damage is done dropping me to 5th or 6th place for the stage. The only positive to bring away from this one is that I nailed that high risk steel (backed with no-shoots) with a good cadence and called each shot without hesitation.

The classifier was Fluffy's Revenge 2 CM 06-05. I really tried not to overthink this one and just "go for it." I think I forgot to push extra hard on it and performed well within my ability. Not too shabby at 86% and I do feel good about making a Master level score. However, in my current game there's no room for "just doing" a classifier. I would rather have seen a GM score or a 32% on it. Next time I'll have to try to not think about the stage, but think about my mindset and let that baby rip. Angry Hulk shooting next classifier!

So, I'm going to break my current goals down a bit. This way they are more clearly defined as exactly what I need to work on.

I'll change;

"Think like a GM" to "keep analyzing every step for the most efficient way to execute it."

"haul ass" to "Always be pushing as hard as you can for every movement."

"don't lose the dot" to "Track it all the way into the A Zone. The Alpha Zone is the ONLY TARGET."

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Stage 1 was thrown out because the WSB showed the scoring type as Comstock and it should have been changed to Virgina Count. The MD explained in the walk through that the stage was suppose to be changed to Virgina Count, but the first squad on that stage didn't pay attention and shot it using Comstock scoring because that is what was listed on the WSB. The whole issue could have been avoided if the WSB was updated to replace Comstock with Virgina Count BEFORE the start of the match.

My squad was the second one to get to the stage and the whole first squad had already shot it wrong. So that is when the MD decided to throw it out because there was no extra time to make the first squad reshoot it. This is the second month in a row where they have an illegal stage, get told about it before the start of the match, but then fail to deploy a solution before the start of the match. I guess some lessons are harder to learn than others. In both instances I pointed out the issue and offered valid solutions well before the start of the match. If the Match Staff fails to deploy a solution that is already spoon fed to them there isn't much more than I can do. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't force them to drink.

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Another great time this weekend shooting the Mile High Showdown at BLGC. The weather cooperated nicely and it was sunny the entire time. I shot the entire match on Friday and it was a very tiring day.

The stages were challenging in many respects but once again I found myself without much issue when trying to come up with the best plan. I'm starting to think that I'm actually starting to get some skills in this area and have more confidence than ever that I'm running MY best stage plan rather than guessing or waiting to hear what someone else is doing. I'm still all ears and consider that more of a strategy than a crutch now. My next match is the Area 1 match in Idaho so that should really put my skills to the test to see if I'm full of shit or not.

I've posted a video on my channel of a few runs, but didn't get much on vid. Paul Clark Jr, was using some big ass shade umbrella and completely blocked my view on one stage, I didn't bother to set the camera up on a couple more and then left the damn thing on over lunch and the battery was deader than hell for the afternoon.

I'm not too heartbroken since my journal here is relying less and less on video and more about just taking the time to think about what went well and making sure I'm still on the path to improvement in tiny increments. That's the biggest overall change in tune that I'm seeing recently. Not only are the skill improvements at this level very tiny, but they are largely in my head or not really noticeable on video unless you were there shooting.

For instance, my time on many of the stages was the same as the GM's and several instances I beat them on time, but dropped on points. This means that all the things you can see on a video are a positive aspect. I'm moving quickly, easing into positions, and not wasting time with extra motion. What I'm not doing is waiting for the sight to get into the alpha zone, or sticking around for that second shot. I racked up a good number of Deltas for this match and although I was rewarded for shooting better than quite a few Master shooters, I can see what needs to happen if I want to get into GMville.

I can say without hesitation that by far, the biggest thing that I think has gotten me this far, and will take me over the bridge to said GMville is focusing on the positive aspect of my shooting and keeping my eyes focused on the GM's. The attitude of "hey 'GM', I almost got past you today!" not only makes the GM's I know root for me but makes it even more of a possibility. It's the same way that rehearsing and visualizing a stage works.

I can make a list a mile long of people that would do exactly the opposite and say "damn 'GM', I'm not worthy. You gave me the beat down AGAIN... I suck!"

So, anyways. I like what's been happening and will continue to strive for improvement.

Goals to continue working on:

keep analyzing every step for the most efficient way to execute it.

Always be pushing as hard as you can for every movement.

Track the dot all the way into the A Zone. It's the ONLY zone.

Edited by Glock26Toter
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