Alma's Range Rant

[alma]

Introduction

After a long time off I feel like I am officially back and competing again.
My hope is that my range diary can not only help me to document progress and shortcomings along this next segment of my shooting career but that it can also be of some use for others who are also playing the game and looking to improve. Since this is out on a public forum I would welcome any feedback, or questions and will do my best to help others where possible.

My introduction into USPSA happened early in 2002, back when Production was still a novelty of sorts. I bought my first gun, a Glock 19, enrolled in a concealed carry class and learned through the instructor that the local range hosted an action pistol competition each month. I figured that since I then had a gun and a CCW license I might as well learn how to use it well. In April 2002, I arrived at my first USPSA match armed with my trusty Glock 19 in a thumb break leather Bianchi pancake holster and two Fobus double mag pouches. I honestly can't remember a lot about my first year's worth of shooting except that I was fortunate enough to meet several other dedicated new shooters that helped me out immensely as we all tried our best to master the game. The local clubs also had a few very knowledgeable and helpful shooters who had been there and tried that at all levels of competition and who were more than happy to help out new shooters along the way.

Within a few months I picked up a Glock 34 and retired the 19 to EDC duty. I made "C" class by the end of 2002 and was close to "B" class when I got an opportunity to shoot Production Nationals. I had no problem winning "C" class in Production which is not big achievement. What made the trip really worthwhile is that I traveled and shot with a shooting mentor of mine who was an "A" class at the time and I got to learn about how he approached a major match and how to really stage plan. By 2004 I was a high "A" I attended and won Area 1, beating out a well known "M" class shooter by the slimmest of margins (i.e. dumb luck). I was shooting well enough at club matches that even though the matches were small and dominated by Open and Limited shooters I would generally finish in the top 5 of all shooters combined, generally averaging between 80% and 95% of our local Limited GM's scores. I made "M" in early 2005 and made a conscious decision at the time to not push for "GM" because I didn't feel I had the extra time or capacity to devote to the additional practice and focus that I would need to go those last few percentage points.

I got married in 2004 and in 2005 I moved to another city to start grad school. This was the beginning of the end of the first phase of my shooting life. That was somewhat solidified as well when I finished school and took a job in Northern Virginia in 2007. Around 2007 I tried shooting a match or two and I can say I walked away fairly embarrassed. Previously I shot almost every weekend and sometimes a couple of times during the week but after two years of doing very little I was making a lot of errors that I considered embarrassing and on top of that my once trusty Glock 34 started giving me problems. I really didn't have time or energy to even troubleshoot what was going on so I set it aside knowing that shooting would always be there waiting for me when I decided to pick it up again. Since that time my wife and I were fortunate enough to have two sons who have further cut into shooting time and I have tried to always manage my priorities such that my family comes first.

I will relay some more details later about gear selection, making the change from Glocks to CZs, and my first few matches back in 2012 and how I feel more humble but more confident as a shooter now than I ever have before but for now I will say that I shot a few matches to get my toes in the water again in 2012 and 2013 but thankfully this year I have been able to attend at least one match a month which doesn't sounds like much but is a huge improvement on where I have been over the last 7 years. Part of the reason for this is that my boys are not quite as difficult as they once were so I don't have as much guilt when I sneak out to shoot a match. The second is that I saw one of my old shooting buddies running and gunning on the 3GN Pro series and decided that this year would be the year that I get serious again starting with 3 Gun competition. I will try to fill in more holes and background as I go with these posts but for now let's get into figuring out what the heck I am doing wrong...

Edited July 29, 2014 by alma

[alma]

Minimizing stage distractions where possible

I am an honest person and will do my best to give others my honest opinion when requested. I also know it is very important to be able to admit myself when I am making mistakes.
I have found videotaping my match performance to be invaluable to improving performance.
When the timer goes off I feel like I loose all perception of time. I am just focusing on executing my plan, getting in that reload, moving to the next target, settling the sights and shooting my shots.
It is amazing see yourself shooting. Things that you perceive as being very fast can be anything but; however, sometimes it takes an outside perspective to realize that. I like the various POV options that are out there now and I think you can learn some things from watching yourself on POV but you learn much more from an outside view of your shooting.

This was stage one at the July Peacemaker National USPSA match. It was one of the stages where you had to shoot everything between a very narrow fault line.
My basic strategy was first, to ignore the faultlines as much as possible for movement. Stage gimmicks like narrow fault lines are designed to draw your attention away from shooting and focus it one some other aspect of the stage.
As much as possible you need to minimize those distractions or additional complications and just get to the shooting.

With this stage in particular started with some of fairly close targets covered in tight simulated hardcover or no-shoots, followed by four medium distance targets with two having no-shoots, and a final position with two open and very close targets followed by 3 longer distance targets with tight simulated hardcover.

My stageplan overall was to do my best to pretend the fault lines were not there. I switched out my cleats for my runnign shoes since I was planning on doing quite a bit of shooting from the wood, and I picked three spots in the course where I could separate and see all of the stage as three distinct target arrays. My plan was to take a few steps during the draw to set up for the first array, run to my second position while not worrying about staying within the lines, shoot, and run to the final position without worrying about the lines.
There is no question that if the fault lines were wider that shooting the first 5 targets and a few others on the move would have been the thing to do but with the tight shots and narrow fault lines I instead chose to find those good spot to plant to reduce the overall risks associated with negotiating that tight fault line on targets which were also tight shots.

My biggest regret shooting this stage will be obviously to see. I took my shots on the very first target which was a partial showing only about 3 inches of an A zone between two no-shoots and some hard cover, moved to the next target, and then decided to take a quick peak at the target I just shot and was moving from. Dumb move. My hits were right where I put them. I am going through some of Ben Stoeger books now and it is very obvious to me now that I need to gain a lot more confidence on taking tight shots (like upper A/B) quickly or while on the move. I don't frequently look for my hits and it is something I will certainly try my best to not repeat but gaining more confidence that I can hit on demand will help that greatly.

My second regret with this stage is just that I didn't go as fast as I shot have on the medium distance targets. Again, I think this is a confidence issue. Looking at results from previous matches I tend to do much better on field courses then standards. I have identified needing to improve speed getting to the 7 to 10 yard targets and getting my shots off faster on them as being another key area where I need to focus if I am going to advance in this sport.

I finished this stage 5th or 44 Production shooters with 24.22 seconds and 85.79% of the GM stage winner who finished it in 20.15 with 4 fewer points. Most of the other GMs or Ms were in the 22 or 23 range. Altogether, I am not unhappy with the performance but that still doesn't make it easy to watch the video. More to come later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_ktfmYGPlw&list=UUh6vnp0V06CfO1Jgyx5gZqw

Edited July 29, 2014 by alma

[MissionaryMike]

Alma, thanks so much for posting your "rant." As someone looking to get into competition shooting shortly, I really appreciate how raw you are in critiquing yourself. I very much look forward hearing more about how to establish a strategy any given stage, maybe technique advice, etc.

MM

[alma]

The draw: to scoop or not to scoop?

One of the local shooters who is working hard to master the game attended a practice session with another great shooter. From her conversation it a great deal of the session was devoted to assessing and improving her draw. Her draw did have a noticeable pause at the holster as well as a few inefficient motions when coming from the holster to getting the gun on target. Her draw did dramatically improve from that session but she sent me a message asking my take on scooping.

Essentially, there are two basic ways to grab the gun out of your holster. First, you can come down into your grip, pushing the palm of your hand into the grip tang before wrapping your fingers around the grip and then pulling your gun out of the holster and pushing it out to the target.

The second method is the scoop. With hands relaxed at sides you would use a single upwards motion using your fingers to first hook the front of grip of the gun and you establish your grip on the way up and out of the holster.

The scoop is just a bit faster (sorry that I don’t have exact numbers about how much faster it is) but comes with more risk. You are much more likely to “miss your grip” using the scooping method because you don’t have that positive pressure into the backstrap and tang of the gun that pushes your hand up and into where it needs to be. When you miss your grip then hits and speed could suffer on your stage as a result until you reload or otherwise readjust your grip. It’s also not unheard to end up throwing your gun down range in an attempt to quickly scoop it out of the holster.

I don’t scoop. The minor gains in speed just didn’t justify the added risk or grip inconsistencies that I experienced.

To properly use the grip first technique without spending too much time at the holster I recommended using more of a deliberate snapping motion to get my grip and get the gun out versus going down, grabbing, and coming back up. I quickly did the video below to give her an idea of what I was talking about. One helpful tool that I have found is that YouTube videos viewed at a desktop or laptop incorporate slow motion setting in case you want to see a bit better exactly what is going on.

I find demonstration to be more more effective than written explanation alone so here is the video that I quickly put together on the topic.

[alma]

First DOT drill

I think tonight could count as my first actual live fire practice. Back when I shot USPSA match almost every weekend and a 22 caliber match a couple of times during the week I didn't really have a lot of time or feel as strong need to practice. I did the occasional dry fire focused in on single draw and click or mag change. Those were always without using a timer and were never very involved or regular.
I am paying for that neglect now. It feels like my skills had gotten good enough to get me by well enough on full sized targets on average field courses. I think that is particularly of the reason for my stress on tight shots or upper A/Bs. I can hit them but not with the type of confidence that I need to progress to the next level.
Tonight I stepped in for a quick 30 minute live fire session at my local in door range.
After sighting in for a new load I did a few draws and some general plugging away at a fully sized target from 7 yards (what I pretty much used to always do during range time.
I finally settled down to do an actual drill, Frank Garcia's dot drill.
Ben Stoeger has some explanations about this drill on his website along with a page that you can print out with 8 2 inch dots
http://www.benstoeger.com/index.php/drills/30-frank-garcia-s-dots

The drill his you firing 6 shots into each circle with a par time of 5 seconds. It's amazing how short of a time that 5 seconds can actually be.
I set the target at 5 yards and had perhaps 1/3 of my hit inside their circles. Generally I was pulling my shots low in an attempt to keep a cadence requires to hey all of my shots in under the par time. It really kicked my butt. A I way leaving the range the light bulb came on that I wasn't paying almost no attention to my trigger pull aside from overall finger placement.
When I go home I looked again at Ben's page and of course he talks about the importance of trigger control with that being the central focus of the drill.
It was a learning experience but will have to want untie next time for me to really see if I learned anything from it.
As Ben suggest next to me I will try first next time without a part time to ensure I can put all the hits where they need to be

Edited July 29, 2014 by alma

[alma]

Dry-fire draw improvements

About two months ago I picked up one of the more popular dryfire books, purchased a ShotMaxx timer, and started to follow some of the recommended drills and par times in the book.

One of the first drills that I worked was a basic draw from the holster and getting a sight picture with a par time listed as "intermediate" at 0.90. It took me a little while to feel comfortable with this time and when I did get there I was just hitting the par time with no real time to spare. I continued for a few weeks to practice with this par time feeling like I was just hitting it without time to spare and then as I began reading more that said that for where I want to be it should be lower, I set my par time for .70. Amazingly after only a short amount of time I found myself able to hit this par time. After that going back to .90 seemed to leave me with a lot of extra time in my draw that I previously never felt that I had.

One nice thing about the ShotMaxx is that if I set it to a sensitivity of "airsoft" and put it facing inside on my left arm it will pick up my dry-fire hammer falls. Last week I was cranking off some low .8s and the occasional mid .7. A few days past without practicing when last night I went down stairs to dry-fire and was constantly cranking out mid .6s with my lowest being a .62. I have never approached this speed on a draw, especially when getting the gun fully up to my line of sight. Other than practice and trying to stay relaxed I was trying to visualize really getting my gun up to the target quickly from the holster in a way that I had not previously done.

While I was ecstatic about this progress it isn't something that gave me automatic parody during live fire so much more work is required. In live fire at 7 yards I was still between .9 and 1.10 for a first shot with my follow up shots usually leaving my with times between 1.15 and 1.25. I think the slow down during live fire is a combination of additional tension, additional pressure from expectations and being watched by others, the fact that I was swinging around a gun with live ammo, and a poorly lit indoor range where I have much more difficulty finding my sights. I learned long ago that no matter what the excuse the result is still the same so I will continue to work at getting my live fire times more consistent and lower even in less than ideal situations.

If there is a moral to this story is that even if you feel you are at your best pushing your par time lower and raising your expectations can make a significant difference in helping you progress towards where you need to be.

[Jadeslade]

This is pretty cool. I like your analysis. I've had some surgery and basically am starting over. I know what to do, but I need to go through dry fire to get all the muscle memory back. Keep it up if you can. It helps.

[alma]

Shooting on the move found its time and place

Thanks for the encouragement.

It seems to me that shooting on the move is often overemphasized on this forum. I have even seen some suggest that you should always be shooting on the move. The fact is that shooting on the move is usually a tool that should come out for particular stages with close or medium range targets that happen to conveniently be along the path that you need to follow anyway. Other than that I think the most important incarnation of shooting on the move is to smooth out entering and exiting positions. Second to that is minimizing the overall number of positions or set ups that you have to take.

I shot a match on Saturday and did fairly will on most stages.

As soon as it have time I will be posting some thoughts on trigger control. Right now I am seeing this as the most significant speed bump in my way. It is showing up on dot drills and plate racks. I am busy trying to reposition my trigger finger based on dry fire feedback but more on that later.

I won a couple of stages outright among a field that included 1 GM(who was having a bad day) 3 Ms, and a few high As.

It's the first stage on the video below. What is interesting to see when comparing video of the video of some other shooting is that my splits where not nearly as fast as many of the other shooters but using a relaxed pace to shoot on the move, shooting while getting into position, choose positions where I can minimize the number of set ups. It also helped to be tell enough to make a shot over the shoulder of the no-shoot that was obscuring targets at the last port.

I way also taking full advantage of shooting on the move on the last stage on this video. Almost everyone else on my squad started shooting from the start position taking 5 targets before moving forward, walked closely past 3 of the targets which were just shot and eventually moving into a position very close to a 4th that was being shot at the start position.

Even with stopping for that first hard shot shooting on the move bought me a few seconds and I endeavor up with a bettor time that all but one Production shooter on my squad.

One big problem that I noticed is that when I am coming into the second position my splits need to speeds up when I am planted at those closer targets.

There were several stages with a lot of steel and I found myself having to refocus on trigger control to knock them down reliably. One of these stages a messed up pretty bad, moving to a new position leaving one target standing, and then taking almost 4 seconds to come back for it. Taking this mission would have left me with a higher hit factor.

One more mention, there was one long stage where the video is cut into two sections. In that stage there is a long run followed by a plate rack and 4 paper targets. The big question is when to stop for that plate rack. It might be a bit hard to see because it's also about where the RO drops his gun but I chose to shoot the first paper target before the plate rack. This allowed me to start shooting on that target while I was slowing down and getting into position for the plate rack.

On the last target array on that stage I intend to shoot the high target first on the move coming into position but I didn't get my reload in fast enough.

I finished second place at 95.611% in my division which consisted of 30 Production shooters.

Edited August 4, 2014 by alma

[BeerBaron]

great vids alma and great progress.

best of luck on the move up the charts.

[MissionaryMike]

Thanks, again, Alma. Please continue to share the "rant" and the videos. For a newcomer to the start, I appreciate having the visual assistance.

[Moltke]

Dude, keep this thread going!

[alma]

Practice for Area 8 - Transition Time

Area 8 is coming up at the end of this month so, like most, as soon as I got the match book I went looking for unique things that should be a focus for practice between now and then.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/ba4119_f0219809505648a6a5e34e53d35da09d.docx?dn=%222014_Area_8_Match_Book_2_AUG.docx%22

A few stages stand out. Although Stage 3 is not unusual persay it looks like it will be a high risk stage and may be very difficult depending on the distances involved.

This prompted me to take some of the 1/3 scale USPSA targets from Ben Stoeger's Pro shop and mock up one of the arrays. I have been using this in dry fire practice by shooting it from the back of my laundry room, reloading, and advancing into a box near the middle of the room to engage a second time from the opposite direction. Some shooters will no doubt be going for only the upper A/B to avoid hitting a No-Shoot but for Production I think you would drop too many points on B hits but still risk misses using that strategy so I plan to man up and shoot between the No-shoots.

Again, although the risk factor is high on the stage it isn't nearly as strange as Stage 6 and even Stage 8 which were both designed by Todd Jarrett.

Stage 6 requires you to engage the upper A/B zone of 25 targets with one shot only. Stage 8 is a bit more tame as you get to shoot 8 steel and 8 classic targets requiring one shot only.

I am really not comfortable with A/B zone shots. This is something that I desperately need to make some time to practice more in live fire to gain confidence to get one good shot on each.

I don't doubt that many shooters will fire two shots on each A/B on purpose to make sure they are getting their hits but I don't think that is exactly a winning strategy. Again, this one is high risk because it's a smaller target which you could easily miss and you are going to have to take one shot, feel confident with that shot, and move on to the next one. Also, this stage is going to be a slow one and a low Hit Factor because of the number of targets. On low HF stage points are going to be relatively more important than speed. For a Production shooter that means that not only do you have to hit the head, it has to be an A. So if you are headed to A8, figure out what you need to see and do to confidently hit upper As.

When practicing for this scenario using various scale targets around my basement I noticed that with the type of sight focus I was getting to hit the upper A zone I was tending to follow my sights all the way over to the next target. It was really, really slow and I usually couldn't find what I was looking for within a decent amount of time. As I am sure you know, as soon as you finish shooting one target, your eyes need to lead the way to the next target. Immediately move your eyes, and head to find the next target and let your gun catch up. If you follow your sight's to the next target then it will be slower and you have much more of a chance of overswinging the target. It seems like having only one shot on each accentuates errors with your target transitions. With a bit of dry fire practice focusing on finding the next target with my eyes first I was able to shave around 2 seconds off of a 6 target array of upper A/B shots.

P.S. if you look carefully at Stage 6 you see that one of the targets towards the back of the stage actually has 4 headshots arranged like a four pointed Texas star. I doubt it moves but it still should be interesting to shoot.

Edited August 6, 2014 by alma

[Esther]

Dude, keep this thread going!

+1

[alma]

Just range diary or is it useful to cover techniques and other USPSA 101 topics? Hope all is going well, Esther.

[Esther]

Both, please! You too, Alma.

[Moltke]

All of it.

[alma]

Multiple Target Drills for Indoor Ranges

I was able to get out to the local indoor shooting range tonight to do a bit of practicing.

Earlier this year I sold my old CED 6000 and picked up a ShotMaxx timer.

The ShotMaxx is nice because it has an accelerometer in addition to the microphone. For indoor ranges that means that when you have it on your arm it works to only detect your shots without interference from any other shooters. Luckily the indoor range is USPSA friendly and has a lot of employees who shoot matches. It allows drawing from a holster and rapid shooting as long as you are capable of hitting what you are shooting at.

As I said before I feel like I need to focus on being more accurate at speed. My default range session prior to this new effort was usually setting up a single target. and unloading into the A zone at various speeds. I have no problem knocking a hole out of the center of the target but consistency with speed was never were I would like it to be.

I have brought a timer in the past but rarely used it. Being honest I just really didn't like what I saw on the timer so it was easier to be casual. I am doing my best to turn that around by being realistic with where I am and how I need to improve, even though I don't like it.

After a couple of draws at 7 yards with some uninspiring times (around 1.10 to 1.26 first shot and 17-20 splits).

Then I got into more 5 yard Dot Drills. Shooting each dot seemed easier this time even with the 5 second par time. I found myself shooting the dots in around 4 seconds whereas last time I was struggling to get my shots in with 5. I have changed my loads since last time and I am now running 147gr instead of 124gr bullets so that could have been a variable in favor of quicker follow up shots. The first shot out of the holster, the double action one, remains the most difficult. My times for first shot were around 1.5 for those 3 inch circles but I could easily shoot as late as 1.8 and still make the par time with the rest of the shots in Single Action. Garcia's dot drill is pass or fail and even at 5 yards I failed. I would say about 65% were inside the circles but the good news is that the others were not off by much.

I started a second sheet of dot drills feeling much more confident which is why I pulled 5 of 6 of the shots on my second dot low, just under the dot. Change of pace; I stopped using the timer for the remainder of the drill just to make sure I understood what it felt like to break my shots well enough to get them into the circles. Counterintuitively the break of the trigger had much more to do with hitting the dot than the alignment of the sights ever seemed to. I like this drill a lot now and look forward to working this more next time.

From here I transitioned to working on headshots in preparation for Area 8. As I mentioned above, one stage has only upper A/B targets which will require one hit each. One array in particular has four heads facing up, down, left, and right. Since the shooting range was out of USPSA targets and I wouldn't have been able to hang four anyway I resorted to using 3/5 post-it notes that I picked up from the dollar store to simulate upper A/B zones. The stickies make it really easy to patch holes as well wince you can just put new one on there.

I shot this one quite a bit with one shot in each. I usually started on the bottom sticky and went around counter clockwise. My worst hits were consistently on the top target. It was your basic sweeping problem, the tendency to not get two good hits on a middle target of a three target array. In this case I just wasn't bringing the gun all the way up while going left to right. Realizing that helped. Times on this for 4 shots started in the fours but I was into the low 3s by the end of the practice. A good first shot and hit from the holster was about 1.25.

Finally I set up two nine inch paper plates on the target and put it back to 9 yards to practice basic classifier skills: draw and put two hits on each. I use basic masking tape to patch the holes so I can see what I am hitting and to hang the plates. For not being able to set up multiple targets this seems to work very well. Of course now that I take a picture of the target set up this way it kind of looks like I am just shooting it in the boobs.

Nothing special to report on shooting 4. Draws around 1.10 +-.15. splits around .20. Not 100% hitting those plates but of course actually looking at the sites seemed to help without really adding more time.

Edited August 9, 2014 by alma

[alma]

Weak Hand Grip (IPSC 101)

This is an old topic that I have commented on enough in the past that I wanted to document it here as I see this as a big problem for new shooters or shooters who have not learned the proper techniques.

Getting a strong-hand grip on your pistol is pretty intuitive. Just make sure you are as high in the grip tang/beavertail as possible (so there is no gap) and you are likely doing it right.

Getting a good weak-hand grip, however, seems far less natural and more elusive.

Worst examples are people who use cup and saucer methods but even when your weak-hand is actually on the gun if it is riding too much no your strong hand and not enough in the grip it will be less effective and can even have a tendency to shift while the gun is recoiling. Getting your weak-hand grip high enough while not interfering with the slide stop can also be a challenge.

Just getting a grip with your strong hand and letting your weak hand deal what what is left over doesn't work; you give your weak hand priority placement on your weakside grip and then bring your strong hand palm in afterwards to lock it in if you want your grip to be as effective as possible in managing recoil.

I recorded the video below to try to explain and demonstrate this to another Enos user who was having difficulty with getting his front sight to "track" straight up and down and return to being one target.

[alma]

Texas Star, Balance on hard leans, and finding your shooting positions

I shot a match today at the Quantico Shooting Club. I have really enjoyed shooting at this club lately. It’s close to home, features some good stage design, and generally wraps up around noon instead of taking all day to shoot.

The competitors included 4 Production Masters and one very solid A shooting among others.

I was not overly pleased with my performance and felt I had several mental shortcomings on stages that I will describe below. I finished third in Production with a 93% which is better than I should have done given some of the errors today.

Texas Star

My squad started on Stage 2 which prominently featured a Texas star and a hard lean over a fault line among other things. This Texas Star has been set up for the last few months and even though it was close today I shot it worse than I have at this club to date. Mentally I feel like I just wanted to blaze through on it since I had done so well on it in earlier matches and I wasn't giving each shot the attention that it required. Luckily I didn't drop enough shots to force me into a static reload but it cost me a lot of time.

There are two main ways to shoot a Texas Star. Regardless of which method you choose you should never ever start shooting from the bottom as doing so will really start the thing moving fast. Always start on the topmost plate.

After taking the top plate you can chase the next highest plate and after shooting that down transition to the other side of the star to get the next highest plate which should be swinging up and about at its apex by the time you get there. Shoot that one and move to the other side for the next highest one, etc. The advantage of this method is that by taking the highest plate before gravity pulls is down the remaining plates will not be swinging as fast and should be easier to shoot.

The second method, the one I usually use, is after shooting the top plate take out the next plate that is moving up and continue down on that side shooting the next plates as they swing into your line of sight. I find it much easier than chasing the other plates around the star since they come to you but the negative is that it can get the plates spinning much faster and it doesn't work as well if you don’t knock them off one after the other.

I missed my first shot and a few others but likely since I had most of the plates above the axes knocked down already it didn't get moving too fast. A partial win on this part of the stage is having enough rounds left over to take the longer range static target without having to do a static reload. That left me at slide lock but slide lock reloads are no slower for me than a standard reload so it wasn't a problem.

Balance on Hard Leans

Immediately after the Texas Star and the first target there were two targets around a wall that could not be engaged without getting right on the fault line and leaning way over the fault line to shoot the near target. It’s possible that everybody does this and it’s just a natural thing but I like to make sure I have my leg on the opposite side of the lean working to balance me by “flagging” or sticking it out opposite of my lean to try to offset the lean and keep my balance centered as much as possible. I am pretty sure I picked this up from a short-lived rock climbing hobby phase in college but it absolutely works well on a lot of courses where it isn't only important to be able to shoot in a hard lean but you need to then quickly get back out of those positions to get back to shooting another part of the course. In this case I did put one round in the wood and leaned a bit too far so you notice me off side leg up in the air trying to get my balance centered and out of that position. It looks silly but it seems to work pretty well to get my momentum moving in the right direction.

The next two targets were a bit tricky as well. If you waited too long to engage the inside target then it would have required another hard lean over the fault line so I tried to shoot it on the move, before getting to far down range. I did put one more round squarely in the wood giving me my only “Mike” for the day.

I missed a mag grab on the magazine on my way to the last position. It kind of looks like I was going for the first pouch. I need to make sure that dry fire practice includes more reaching to the pouches other than just my first.

Notice on my very last shot the leg coming up again to balance me as I leaned around the barrel. Again, I understand it looks stupid and awkward as heck but it works well for me and it’s not something that a consciously think about.

The best time on this was 18.64. I ended up at 22.07 with one Mike. Disappointing way to start the match.

Phil Strader shot Limited at the match today and his time on this stage was 14.80.

Finding Your Shooting Positions

Stage 3 challenging because it had two layers of staggered walls and it made you work to find just the right place to stop and shoot each of targets. Since the targets were moderate distance and the shots through the walls were tight none of the positions lent themselves to shooting on the move which would have been preferred. Having multiple set ups for one target here or two targets there quickly add up and stage times suffer dramatically. What is even worse is when you have to “hunt” for your shot if you aren't lined up exactly right when you stop to set up.

With tight setups I generally try to find some type of visual mark on the ground that can move to where I know I will be set up to shoot the required targets. On this stage I was able to use the spikes on the forward fault line as my visual indicators. For the first move I needed to put my left foot just behind the first set of spikes and on the next two positions I needed to put my right foot just behind the next sets of spikes. I am happy with how it turned out. I was able to get set up in the positions and shoot without having to move around much to find and shoot at the targets.

The only thing I would fault myself on is getting back out of those positions and starting moving towards the next. I think that during my walk through I was so focused on getting into the correct positions that I wasn't paying attention to starting my momentum for a smooth exit from those positions. It is especially evident on that last mag change going into the last position where it almost looks like I am doing an IDPA Flat Footed Reload before I move into position. Still, I was finishing my reload and came into the next position ready to shoot so it wasn't too bad. The plate rack on this stage was giving most shooters on my stage a hard time. It was set at some good distance so I was trying to focus on trigger control to ensure that I could get them down and avoid a static reload in this position.

My time on this was 23.68 and I had good hits for a 96% to the winning time of 21.02. Better exits and going one for one with the plate rack is what I would have needed to take this stage.

Phil's time was 16.84.

Classifier

The classifier was CM 99-13, “Quicky II.”

I got my hits but really need to speed up with both the freestyle shots and the strong/weak hand shooting. My times were around 7+ and 10. I am not proud of that but it looks better than the last time when I shot this in 2005 when I had 19.09 and 102 points. Not much progress but progress nonetheless.

http://www.classifiercalc.com/ is a great resource if you want to figure out how fast you need to shoot to have a good run for your target classification. On this one it looks like 13-14 seconds dropping a few Charlies is in the GM range. Phil's time was 11.42.

When shooting strong hand and weak hand I prefer to shoot strong hand arrays right to left and weak hand arrays left to right because it's easier to pull the in towards your body than it is to push it away.

For stage 1 I had the fastest time despite missing a shot on the steel. I racked up 3 Deltas which hurt my score enough to drop me into 3rd on the stage at 93%. Those three Deltas cost me a loss of 12 points so it's just a bit worse than hitting a no-shoot. I should not be shooting Deltas at that range. I was just focused too much at getting in and out and not enough on making sure my hits were where they needed to be too.

Phil shot it 4 seconds faster (15.11 vs 19.10).

Edited August 10, 2014 by alma

[cnote]

..

Edited August 12, 2014 by cnote

[alma]

Focusing on Process Rather than Outcome

I shot several matches in a row where I came away feeling very good about my performance; however, my last match left me disappointed because I was sloppy for lack of a better term.

When commenting about match performance on another forum I observed that, "I feel like I shoot my best when I shoot as if I have nothing to gain or lose. When I can just shoot the stage, shot by shot for what it is and not get caught up by my last stage or that extra shot on the steel, and etc. I see a lot of very competent shooters who seem to be their own worst enemies. They pressure themselves to perform and when something minor goes wrong they spiral out of control. I think to perform your best you need to come up to the line with no baggage, just a programmed stage plan and the confidence to trust seeing what you need to see and nothing more for each shot. Shoot each stage with no short term memory. Once you shoot and call your shots you move to your next position and next shot with no regrets."

Looking back on that match I showed up believing that I had the skill to beat the 3 other Master Production class shooters who were in attendance and I took several things for granted. The perfect example is the Texas Star. The previous 2 matches at this club featured the same star and each time I quickly cleared it in 6 or 7 shots. This time I took shooting the star quickly mentally as a given and I didn't put enough effort on getting a good sight picture and trigger pull when engaging plates. The final stage from that match was also done poorly. I was so concerned about getting in and out of the ports and getting my shots off quickly that I really wasn't focused on my front sight like a should have been. Targets that close can be shot with a target focus and seeing the gun over the spot you need to hit but where possible I like to pretend that my fiber optic rod in my front sight is a red dot and I just put it on whatever I need to hit.

To my comments above one shooter shared a thought from the book "With Winning in Mind," by Lanny Bassham. This book was also recommended by several other shooters for overcoming mental barriers. He commented that the failure above was likely caused by focusing on outcome rather than process. I was envisioning and visualizing what I wanted to happen instead of what I needed to actually do to make it happen.

I have also been rereading Brian Enos' book and one principle that he stresses early on is that, " the only shot that matters is the one you're firing right now. Make sure that it's the one in which your awareness and focused are peaked."

I often help organizations with strategic planning and while it's important to have that strategic view of how you will approach a stage I need to assure that mentally that it doesn't get in the way of my tactical implementation of seeing what I need to see and doing what I need to do for each and every shot and at each position. In this case the trees, not the forest, are what I should strive to see.

[alma]

TJ on Natural Point of Aim

I have nothing to add to this but found it interesting

[alma]

Excerpts from a book I am reading, "With winning in mind," by Lanny Bassham

"I find it interesting that champions who were consciously trying to win while competing rarely do."

"I suggested that instead of setting a goal to win Ben should goal set to make the process of playing well his primary focus. Process is Primary became a theme for the year. Bens job while playing was to think about executing his mental and technical systems and not think about winning. Scoring is a function of great

execution, and winning is the result, but thinking about winning can pull your focus off of proper execution in a competition. Thinking about process is the answer."

"When we think about winning while performing, we become outcome-oriented instead of performance-oriented and normally over-trying is the result. Over-trying has caused more good competitors to lose competitions than any other form of mental error. "

Thinking about the above and thinking about my own performance I feel like this could be part of my overall challenge with Classifier stages. I have generally performed poorly on classifiers versus other stages in a match and mentally those are generally the stages where I wanted my best performance. I had identified technical shortcomings for classifiers but now I add some mental shortcomings to the list.

Edited August 23, 2014 by alma

[zhunter]

Lanny's book is fantastic, and can be applied to a lot more than just shooting

[ZackJones]

TJ's drill is very interesting. I'm going to try that at the range tomorrow. Thanks for sharing it.