Camo Cowboy's performance analysis journal

[d_striker]

I watched your vid of the few stages you filmed at MHS.

Wow. I guess I haven't seen you shoot in a few months. Seemed like last winter you were right on the "verge" of taking it to the next level. It really seems like you have arrived. Looking forward to seeing you eek out that final 5% so I can say, "I know that guy."

It's crazy how stable you look while shooting on the move for as fast as you're moving. That reload on the barrel stage coming across to the right was sick. I had to watch that a few times.

Edited June 23, 2015 by d_striker

[Glock26Toter]

Well, I just got back from the Berry's Area1 Match in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The range was a very nice range and the staff did a great job at taking care of us.

The weather was hot and luckily we did an AM rotation for both days so by the time it started to get crazy hot, we were wrapping up.

I posted both days as well a recap of my best four stages on my YouTube channel.

I was the first shooter on the first stage and it was a double-mover stage that required some careful timing without a huge amount of skill when shooting. I executed it perfectly and only got 1 charlie on the stage and felt pretty good starting off the day.

Unfortunately that seemed to set the tone and I ran the remainder of the day in a very careful, deliberate mode that I just couldn't seem to get out of. I was very conciously watching the dot and not being very aggressive. I can see it in my split times and total times never matched up to what I thought it might be coming off the line. I think I took the "shoot all aphas and I'll be fast enough" to a new level and was just not moving aggressively.

By the end of the first day I think I had 1 mike, but it wasn't one of the "it was worth it" situations and I had already given up all the top spots for Master.

The second day I tried to move a bit better but the mood and excitement was just not there and I managed to rack up 3 more mikes and times that just weren't on par with a the top M crowd. There was one steel that I came in hard around a wall on and broke the shot instantly when I saw my dot on it. It litterally surprised me so much that I missed the next steel 2 times before moving on and making it up later, adding back any time saved by that bad-ass hit and then some.

In my effort to always come away with a positive note, I did have some very nice runs that scored me 6,7,7,9 in placement. Judging by the top 10 Open guys at that match I'm VERY happy with my ability to get there 4 times and it does prove to myself that I'm capable of getting into GM terriroty. I just need to take away these lessons and re-inforce them for the next time I'm up against these guys.

I also had a talk with the guys I was traveling with about my equipment and although I'm usually reluctant to change equipment I do feel that I'm missing something in maintaining upward momentum and I think it's time to make some significant changes. I shot a steel grip rig on one stage that had been kicked out and was amazed at how different the dot tracked. I've ordered a steel grip and will see if I can get my dot to settle down a bit, or otherwise bring a more aggressive shooting style. There are some other changes in store, but the first thing I want to try is that steel grip and concentrate on increasing my grip stength as I know that helps a lot.

So goals moving forward.

Analyze every step for efficiency.

Always push as hard as you can.

The A Zone is the only zone.

Grip hard on the gun.

[frunkenstein]

I think there was a Mile High haze on the shooters that shot and RO'd for 3 days. I didnt get to shoot saturday due to ammo problems but it looks like Panda and your self were in a fog.

[d_striker]

Mile High "Haze" sounds a little dubious. What exactly were the RO's doing at the safety briefing?

[frunkenstein]

Easy D man

[GunBugBit]

Great journal, I learned a bunch by scanning it. I'll be coming back to read it more thoroughly and watch some of your videos, etc. Cool!!

[Glock26Toter]

Ah, hahaha! Mile High Haze. That's good stuff. But aside from the pun I think you are correct. Maybe we'll smoke Area 3 like... oh... I mean. Maybe we'll do well at Area 3 in a month or so.

[Glock26Toter]

I went out to AGC today and practiced a bit. I wanted to work on watching the dot closely to see exactly how it tracks plus work on some movement.

I setup a 3 position stage, and just shot one target, moved to the next position, shot two more, and into a final position for a final target.

I was concentrating on getting out of the position with the "two large" steps that I seem to have forgotten recently. Cha-lee pointed out that he could see I was missing that in my videos.

I was happy with what I saw and was able to get that feeling back of pushing hard with both initial steps to get that momentum up quickly.

I also realized that I'm not seeing what I used to describe as static and I am watching the dot track. When I'm really in the zone this "static" will stay in the A-Zone, or darn near it and I really feel like I'm controlling the recoil. I saw it during the RM300 shoot off also. It's the "wow, the dot stays there no matter how fast I pull the trigger" feeling that I wish I had all the time.

The issue I'm seeing now is that I can see a track, but it's not predictable. I'm seeing some movement in my body causing me to have to fight to get the dot back. It moves up, then down in an arc to the left or right and down past the target (into the D Zone) then bounces back on target and I'm correcting left or right depending on how it came down. Not a huge left/right margin, but a delta is waiting for me if I don't get that sucker back into an up/down motion or into the "static zone."

This reinforces what I thought about trying some equipment changes and maybe modifying my stance a bit to be lower and more aggressively leaning into the gun. I think this will help recoil control and make sure that my head or body isn't what's adding this movement in.

I also ran a bunch of one handed drills and I'm convinced now, that moving the opposite leg back slightly DOES HELP with recoil control. I was doubting it and talked with Cha-lee about it while at the Area 1 match. He doesn't see a need for it, but I can clearly track the dot better and was able to shave about .5-.8 seconds off my time while maintaining good hits with a step back while drawing. I'll keep doing it. Of course this will require lots of practice to make certain that the draw and step remain coincidental and even more important, to make sure it's automatic.

So, no match this weekend but I'll likely get a bit more practice in to prepare for the Great Plains Sectional next weekend. I'm excited to get another opportunity to hit a big match and remember to kick some ass this time!

[CHA-LEE]

Time to ditch the "Bent Arms" open gun please do the work for me grip / arm position........

[Glock26Toter]

Hmmm. That's the 2nd time you've mentioned that. If you've mentioned it before it whizzed by me.

So I watched several videos and thought about what I saw and how I hold my arms. This is something I've never identified as a problem. (well, until I was watching my latest training vids mentioned above)

Let me see if I'm on the right track.

So really it's pretty subtle what you are talking about but you basically lock your arms, Not too rigid, but quite a bit more rigid or closer to having locked arms than I've ever gotten.

In a degree estimation, it looks like maybe you are at 179 where as I'm more like 170. I've never been of the opinion that arms should be rigidly locked and maybe you'll correct me here, but I need to be a hell of a lot closer to locked arms than I'm getting?

In the video's that these come from I can see you actually do bump up to full, locked extension just before this frame was snapped. You bounce back slightly but not much and remain pretty darn straight-armed except for the head shot where that lean doesn't allow it.

I know for sure that I loosened up quite a bit during my rally bad tennis elbow days as the more I bent my arms, the less they hurt after the match. Now that I'm over that shit it's time to make some changes. I had never really thought about that as detrimental.

Yes???

[drewbeck]

John if your arms are 10% bent, you are probably losing out on 90% of the benefit you could be getting from using more of a "nutcracker" type grip. The last little bit of extension is where you gain huge amounts of tension as you build the grip.

When they are bent you have to rely a lot more on chest muscle engagement and hand strength to squeeze the gun. To really see the potential benefit, try interlocking your hands and fingers and grip the gun. As you go to full extension you'll see how much tension and squeezing builds on the grip without squeezing with your hands at all.

Very few do it as well as panda and even where he is at, I think this is something he regularly works at improving because of the benefits. He probably also has a lot more to add as well.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[CHA-LEE]

Come and practice with me tomorrow and I will show you what I am talking about.

[Glock26Toter]

Well, I did go practice with Panda a few others. What a great time we had. My wife Heather came too and did a great job and reminded me to remind her how much fun she has next time she tries to bone out of a match.

We ran a pretty complex 32 round stage several times and I ran it a few different ways and was happy with how I reinforced some break down issues to find the best way to run it.

Panda let me shoot a few stages with my attempt to fix my arm extension issue on my own. I was just extending more and it felt "pretty good."

Then he showed me the mechanics of why it's important to get those arms locked out and how that does make it easier and more comfortable to increase grip strength at the same time. (like drewbeck said) Concentrating on a hard left hand grip makes the entire grip way stronger and evens out the grip big time for me.

I shot my last stage with dot tracking like I rarely see, and it was clear to me now what I need to do to take my splits to the next level.

I sure could feel it in my elbows (just a feeling, not pain) and can see why when I was having lots of tennis elbow pain why I let my arms get more and more bent to make this "10% bend" the norm. I'm not sure that's what happened, and maybe the bent arms is what made the tennis elbow in the first place. Either way... Now I have a new goal to work on and really feel good about moving forward.

So here's the new goal list.

Analyze every step for efficiency.

Always push as hard as you can.

The A Zone is the only zone.

Arms EXTENDED and strong grip. (Especially hard with the left hand.)

[CHA-LEE]

Horse successfully lead to the water

[drewbeck]

But will he drink!?

[Glock26Toter]

I went to the Great Plain Sectional this past weekend. Oh man was it a scorcher. It was soooo hot, that I had to keep my ammo in the cooler to keep it from detonating. There are some vids on my Youtube channel.

I was unable to do any practice during the week and this week will likely be the same unfortunately, but I'm going to change that. I was eager to see what I could do in the way of working on changing my arm extension and grip. Well, I think it will take lots practice to try to sink that one in. I really did try, and during my walkthroughs I made sure to practice this. However, in reviewing the videos there is no sign that I've changed at all. Maybe... just maybe in a few instances I look a bit more extended but maybe I'm just saying that to make myself feel better.

I felt really good about a few runs, but overall I made some significant mistakes that cost me the kind of finish that I know I'm capable of when I'm firing on all cylinders.

Panda dubbed Stage 2, "the where's Waldo stage." What really messed me up on that stage was that I entered the wrong port on the start signal. After that my plan just went to hell. It was a tough stage anyways and I watched shooter after shooter have a similar experience. However, for me there was one point in which I actually just stood there, for what seemed like 2-3 seconds thinking back to the port I had just shot through. And not still looking through it mind you. I just stood there thinking "Did you do everything just then... are you sure... are you sure you're sure?" Finally my legs just took off and the rest of my body tried to enter auto-pilot as I entered the next port, but it didn't go much better for the rest of the stage. I was completely in the dark during scoring and just waited for the FTE's to roll in. Shockingly, I finished 4th on the stage and can't help but wonder what would have happened if I had caught a glimpse of Waldo at some point during the run.

Also, the GoPro overheated on that stage and I didn't get it on video. The Gopro stayed overheated for several stages after that but some of the runs are on my Youtube channel.

So despite a so-so finish and some obvious mistakes, I do need to look at some good things about this match. There were some stages that I liked my plan on and executed them well. Also, there were a few successful shots that were very difficult. One was a headshot that I was very happy to hit on the Where's Waldo stage, and another headshot-makeup that I did without even thinking about it. Just took it, and made it. So really, thinking about a few other long ones I would say that I was very happy with my accuracy. I only got a few Deltas and they were all on targets that I was blowing by, and not long shots. There were some wicked swingers and a down right evil windmill target that I got 2-A/A-C on.

So, accuracy has been improving and I believe that if I buckle down and do some practice I should be able to get my curve headed back in the right direction.

Goals:

Analyze every step for efficiency.

Push as hard as you can for every movement.

The A-Zone is the ONLY zone.

Arms extended, strong grip.

[Glock26Toter]

This weekends match was at Weld County so Heather and I headed up for great day shooting. The weather was hot, but stayed partly cloudy all day so it wasn't too brutal when it came to sunshine.

I forgot the SD Card in my Gopro so no videos. In case you are wondering why I never use my phone. I'm always scared it will ring or I'll read an email that will distract me, so no phones during matches and I like it that way. Everything can wait a few hours until I'm done shooting.

I was very happy with my stage plans, except for one. I did well on the stage, but was so focused on timing a swinger that I failed to really break down each spot. (there were only TWO) This caused me to stick myself in a corner rather than engage the targets in a manner that would allow some movement. This movement would have gotten me down range during engagement and shaved off critical time. It showed when the next M Open shooter took me by about .5 seconds. The stage winner got me by almost exactly 1 second. The only positive from this stage breakdown breakdown is that I saw it immediately after I ran the stage and it did not have it pointed out to me. Hopefully I'll see it sooner in the future.

I'll stand behind all my other plans, but made too many mistakes to get ahead of everyone else and wound up 2nd Open for the match. I'm pretty close in ability to the top shooter that day so I don't feel bad at all.

The classifier was a bit frustrating (Ironsides 03-12) It's a symmetrical port setup with 2 paper/2 popper in each port. I was moving and shooting well enough to get into M/GM territory (I think) but I screwed myself up by hitting the first steel two times. I called the shot, but just fired a second round at it because I was unsure. This led to rushing just a tad on the following target and I wound up with a Mike/No-shoot. Looking at my time, had that round met it's target I would have been in good shape. That's the positive from this one. I did most things well, so next time when I remove that one mistake I'll be in good shape.

Clearly I still have a lot of work to do on my goals. I made up a lot of shots that weren't necessary, but in most cases it was making up a Charlie or Delta with an Alpha. I think this means I'm concentrating pretty hard on the "Alpha is the only zone" goal and if I can just tighten that up a bit my makeup's will go down while my score goes up.

I also tried really hard to extend my arms and grip hard, but without video I really can't tell if I'm very effective at that one. I know for SURE on my final stage that I accomplished that. The stage was a bit of a hose-fest as long as you had a solid plan that you didn't have to think about. My plan was solid, so the only thing I had to concentrate on was arm extension. I believe this helped me get through the two, obscured plate racks with only a single makeup shot and I was rewarded with a time that was 3 seconds faster than 2nd place.

So it's back to getting some dry-fire in to reinforce the arm extension and grip until next week.

Next week the full goal list is:

Analyze every step for efficiency.

Push as hard as you can for every movement

The A-Zone is the Only Zone.

Arms extended, strong grip.

[Glock26Toter]

I did some dry fire last night. I've really got to get back to doing this a couple nights per week. It's really important since I'm trying to change something.

I noticed a couple of things.

First, it's way more work to get on that dot in the final few inches of the draw. At first I felt like I added a bunch of time to the first shot because of the "hard landing" at the end of the draw, rather than a soft one. By the end of a 20 minute session I think I was hitting an acceptable sight picture at the same time as my old way about 80% of the time. I've certainly got some work to do in order to get consistency up with the new full extension technique.

Secondly, I did some static reloads and noticed that my reload from said "full extension" was actually better, and stayed up high. Makes sense right? If the gun is farther out to start with it doesn't make it as far back before the magazine shows up in the left hand. This means, less auxiliary movement and smoother.

More practice.

[CHA-LEE]

Hulk Smash!!!

[Glock26Toter]

I shot a match at Aurora Gun Club yesterday. It was a great day weather wise. Slightly breezy and didn't really start getting hot until we were wrapping things up.

My Gopro still didn't work for the match and would shut off after about 10 seconds of recording. I've fixed it since, but didn't get any video except one that my buddy Josh took from a drone.

So the first stage went really well, and I wish I had video of it. I was sure that I was extending my arms and had a good grip and it showed in my score and time. I was able to track the dot very well, and my split times and target acquisition seemed to just flow from one to another. It was really one of those moments where you do something for the first time and are like "OH, That's what that feels like!." I was 2 seconds faster than Ron Avery on that stage, and had very few charlies.

The next couple stages didn't go as well, but they were difficult runs for everyone. The classifier I'm OK with. Even with a mike/noshoot I was happy with my time and I literally missed a GM score on that one by 1/4 inch. At this level there's no room for conservative shooting on a classifier. The only way I'm getting to GM is to go balls out and either hero or zero. The most important thing to look at is whether I really gave it a true effort to attempt a hero run. I feel like I did on the last couple and next time it will work out better.

Here's the one stage that I have video of. I like the progress I've made on the extended arms goal so far. Even though I was going into low ports where it's most difficult to keep arms extended, I can see that I'm way farther out than I've been before. That's all I'm after right now so I'm happy with that.

My other goals are still in my mind's forefront and I feel like I had solid stage plans all day yesterday. There were a couple of spots where you had to get low and I managed to come up with a plan that kept me low after spending the time to get there. This falls under my "analyze for efficiency" goal. I've also started using a bit of a new term for me. I've started looking at some targets as "bridge targets." and I applied this thought process to a few engagements that I feel helped move me along a bit faster or more smoothly than without it. To me, a bridge target is one that's a low-risk engagement that's an obvious "on the move" scenario. This can be used to move you into another position while engaging said bridge target. I feel this can help with those 1 or 2 step movements that might line you up with something or get you past a wall. While this is not a new concept by any means, the use of the term and extra effort to point these spots out seems to have helped a bit and especially makes me ask the question of whether to do that bridge as defined or lump it in with a different array.

Overall, I had a great match and was rewarded with an HOA and when the likes of Ron Avery and Big Panda are in the same match, that's an accomplishment.

Granted, they were not at the top of their game yesterday, but the mistakes they need to make to let me by are getting smaller and smaller.

So on to more goal work and I'm going to dry fire at least 2 times this week to get ready for the Area 3 match this weekend.

Goal List:

Analyze every step for efficiency.

Push as hard as you can for every movement

The A-Zone is the Only Zone.

Arms extended, strong grip.

[WYgunner]

Two things,

1) The drone sounds like a pissed off hornets' nest.

2) "The A-zone is the only zone." I would almost go as far to say that the top 1/3rd of the A-zone is the only zone. Granted, it isn't always available, but that is what we should be shooting at as often as possible. As I'm sure you have realized, it takes just a slightly different mental focus/attention to shoot for the A-zone and not just the target. I caught myself in the middle of a stage just shooting at an indiscernible portion of the target rather than the A-zone itself.

[Glock26Toter]

This weekend I went to the Area 3 match in Grand Island Nebraska. Wow, it was a hell of a good time. I was on an afternoon squad full of friends from Colorado so it was a relaxed and fun environment. We got really lucky with the weather. I mean REALLY lucky. It rained like hell in the AM on Day 1 and by the time we started shooting in the afternoon it was just breezy and partly cloudy. In the late afternoon when we were having to look directly into the sun, facing west, a huge cloud bank showed up and blocked the sun. Nice work Mother Nature! Day 2 was quite a bit hotter, but nothing like that Great Plains Sectional a few weeks back.

I really enjoyed each stage and loved the unique challenges that the designers had for us. Nothing too crazy and many stages had a lot of options making for some intense strategy discussions among the competitors. The only thing that I would say that was lacking was no-shoots. There were only a couple scattered around and they were so sparse that I don't think more than two got hit the entire match.

My first stage was a design that I’ve really grown to like a lot. Untimeable swingers. (is that a word?) I like untimeable swingers because they do what I think swingers are meant to do and challenge your shooting as opposed to challenge your timing. The stage was clunky as you might expect with 5 swingers and best 3-Per scoring, but looking at the overall results I was happy to have survived it without a disaster. On one target my left hand left the gun and I was going for the mag release when I realized I had a mike and put the final shot strong hand only just before dropping the mag. Between those clunky swingers and even clunkier shooting on the static targets I didn't exactly start off strong.

One of my strongest stages I didn't get on video. I wish I had put a hat-cam on for it, because it involved smashing through a steel door (no knob) and I was planning on making up some accuracy shots with pure speed and HULK SMASH technique. I actually put a knee pad on my elbow so I could give that door a proper smashing. I had some good shots to start things off, threw a reload and headed for the door. BOOM! The door gave way with such little resistance that the remainder of the run was really just me trying to slow down for the position. I headed into the final target with about 15-16 second run and then proceeded to miss it 2 times… then hit it with a delayed makeup shot causing me to post an 18 second run. I was bummed, and still am that I failed to execute that final position properly but an 18 second run on that stage puts me way in the top so it’s definitely still on the positive list.

So, I posted a bunch of videos on my Youtube channel, and I'm going to avoid reviewing them by each video and try to summarize where I think I'm at based on the collection. First the positive point is that I did wind up wining the top Master spot for the match. I finished at 88% and for the first time since hitting all the major matches I can handle I can say that my performance was as strong as I'm capable of right now.

In the review of all the videos I can see a marked improvement in my arm position and it's helped me greatly in my hits. The only times I managed to get deltas or mikes were the times I allowed my arms to get bent into their old position. I'm not too worried about that as I know it can take a while to sink in, but the times I was able to keep them straightened out I was having a great time getting alphas.

I moved absolutely as fast as I was able to move and I can't think of a single instance that I wasn't pushing as hard as possible. My whole body aches now so I know I pushed harder than normal for every movement.

As far as improvement there are some times where I was guilty of overthinking for sure and there were at least two times that I allowed myself to either get totally distracted or not think like a GM and just went along with the same plan that lower level shooters had chosen costing me time. I only had two stages that I would consider a total screw up and that's not bad at all for my level right now.

Moving forward I think I'll leave my goal list the same for now.

Analyze every step for efficiency. (but not overthink them)

Push as hard as you can for every movement

The A-Zone is the Only Zone. (Seriously... stop getting deltas!)

Arms extended, strong grip. (keep training)

[Glock26Toter]

I was only able to shoot one match this weekend. I made it to the PPPS match in Pueblo. The weather was great and never got very windy or hot for the entire match.

They had some especially good stages this time that required a bit of discussion among the shooters to determine the best plan.

Stage 3 seemed pretty cut and dry for my ability, but another couple of shooters proved that it was closer than I thought. The choice was one of the "aim or run" scenarios in which you could shoot slower from a single shooting area or move to TWO additional areas and hose like crazy. The distance seemed way to far to rely on the hosing method and I shot it based on accuracy. The other shooters who chose the run method both had mishaps to answer the question definitively, but then again. I didn't have any mishaps with my plan. hmmmm?

Stage 2 has two vids. One from a drone and one from the ground. The drone cam is just for fun. I was very happy with this run with the exception of my missed reload. It was a good lesson in pace. With the wide open targets and 3-per engagement when I landed on the partial hard cover targets I really had to apply some serious visual patience. The sense of "dot's in the A - dot's in the black - dot's in the A - dot's in the black" was almost overwhelming as I had to wait until I was actually aiming at what was left of the A-Zone in comparison to the previous targets. Had I not waited I would have watched in horror as I shot black with the same pace I just shot alphas. I also had a "arms extended" moment as at one point during the run I realized they were bent and pushed the gun out toward the targets in front of me. A triumph toward making that automatic for sure.

So what do I see in the way of goal progress?

Analyze every step; I feel I found the best plan for all stages. Even if they weren't I felt good about them all and will stand behind them all. For example on Stage 3, first array. The engagement order played a key role. I had to do a far-right > far-left > left (start moving out) > right (move out) routine. This ensured I didn't make an extra lean anywhere or trap myself in that spot for the entire engagement.

Push as hard as you can; I think I moved as fast as possible. Looking at the vids I can see hard pushing with both feet in leaving my positions.

The A Zone is the only zone; Stage 2, was a good one for this. With the wide open targets and 3-per engagement when I landed on the partial hard cover targets I really had to apply some serious visual patience. The sense of "dot's in the A - dot's in the black - dot's in the A - dot's in the black" was almost overwhelming as I had to wait until I was actually aiming at what was left of the A-Zone in comparison to the previous targets. Had I not waited I would have watched in horror as I shot black with the same pace I just shot alphas.

Arms extended; I also had some "arms extended" moments. During a couple of runs I realized they were bent and pushed the gun out toward the targets in front of me. A triumph toward making that automatic for sure.

Maybe not a perfect match, but screw the mistakes. Progress in my goals was had and that's a good match.

[Glock26Toter]

I was able to shoot a local match on Saturday at the Ben Lomond gun club. The weather was hot, but not crazy and I had a hell of a good time. Seems like the matches were I just plain have a bunch of fun are my best ones and this one was no exception. I was able to sneak past the Big Panda to score HOA for the match.

In reviewing a few videos I'm able to identify some movement items that I'm very happy with regarding my progress. On this first stage, we had to start ourselves by pushing two buttons. The movement strikes me as smooth and deliberate, translating into fast. There was no fumbling or trying to overthink the micro-movements. I just plopped my mags down on one barrel, plopped my gun on the other and moved with all the urgency I could. The key was that I didn't try to do anything any faster than my limits. It worked well and that was a stage win.

The very next stage brings out something that I'll make a point to show anyone reading this. Notice how my palm keeps the same angle and position when I rotate it up from my gun? I think this greatly helps my consistency in surrender draws. The arc of my hand/arm is exactly the same in either direction. I believe it's a fairly unique movement item. There may be a lot of people that think this is a waste of time to concentrate on, but I believe it's helped my surrender draws a LOT. The stage went pretty well for me, but I allowed some doubt to creep in during discussion with other shooters and wound up changing my plan slightly just before I shot. This is obvious in the front shooting position as I was in hurry mode and missed the steel quite a bit. I also had to engage the double-swinger on the left twice with several extra shots due to rushing that engagement. I should have stuck to my original plan that was only going to engage one of the double swinger targets per pass.

The next stage was very unique and threw a lot of shooters off their game. Looking at the results there were big time penalties for well over half of the shooters. This stage was all about visual patience and it was very difficult to tell the rest of your body that it had to wait for the shot before it ran you away to the next array. I was able to survive it, but did lose track of the proper visual patience for several targets but got lucky. There was one target that I had to go back and makeup and that cost me quite a few points. I also got confused and shot some things up front in the wrong order. Overall, there were more things to be learned on this stage about what visual patience really means than positive things to say about how I shot it. I want to design some stages like this to keep that training level up. It was a growing experience.

Overall, I had a great time and performed well. Things are getting CRAZY in my life as we are about to move in two weeks and that's why I have only been able to make one match per weekend these days. This schedule will continue and I'm even going to have to miss a few weekends altogether due to this life change. Eventually I'll get back on track.

for now, same goals:

Analyze every step for efficiency. (but not overthink them)

Push as hard as you can for every movement

The A-Zone is the Only Zone. (Seriously... stop getting deltas!)

Arms extended, strong grip. (keep training)

[Glock26Toter]

With several fumbled reloads lately I decided to do some dry fire practice last night on standing reloads to see of something has changed. It has. I determined that my magazine grabbing angle is different than before. I believe now, with my arms fully extended my hand comes down from way farther in front of me than before when it slaps down at the magazine. This is making two things happen.

First, it's causing my gun to stay more in front of, and higher than before. That's good news.

Secondly, it's causing my angle of snagging to be steeper... i.e., I'm lifting UP on the magazine in relation to my belt as opposed to BACK like before. Another bit of good news actually.

Why would I want to introduce a movement in any direction that was not either directly away from, or directly toward the gun during reload?

so, I changed the angle of my mag pouch and with the new angle I'm much more comfortable reloading. Now it's just about burning that in and see if my reload times improve.