Richard C.

[CHA-LEE]

Do a profile or head on video of your dry fire sessions to see if your booger picker is in fact OUTSIDE of the trigger guard during reloads. Just because it doesn't drop the hammer during dry fire reloads does not mean your booger picker is in the correct place.

Edited September 21, 2015 by CHA-LEE

[Richc2048]

I've decided that since I have shot my last major match for the year that it is a great place to start from square one. I'll see how it goes this year and I may do this every year.

I am going to concentrate solely on my grip during the match. I am wanting to make the gun not rise as much as it is right now. I think that I may have relaxed this a bit during the year. I noticed a big difference in clearing plates when I took the extra time to get the grip where I wanted it. The sights tracked to the next plate faster and my hit ratio was better at speed during the practice match we had at centennial gun club.

I am still going to work on getting better in movement as far as coming in and leaving a spot getting shots off faster. I will make sure I do this at the local match Saturday and hopefully I see a difference in muzzle rise in my videos.

[Richc2048]

This weekend was full of shooting. I practiced with a buddy at a local outdoor range. We worked on transitions. Basically trying to make our splits the same as our transitions to close targets. We burned a lot of ammo doing this and saw improvement towards the end of the practice. I made some pretty good gains. I learned my splits were around .16-,20 hitting a's and close c's at about 7-10 yards. I got my transitions down to about .3 for ones about 3-4 yards apart and about .5-.6 on ones about 10 yards apart. Towards the end we added movement from box to box and say that when I combine running and getting the gun on target ect. it seemed to be slow again. I guess it's not built into the subconscious yet.

Saturday was a local match at the same range. I did well. I kind of played it safe and it payed off a little better than exclusively going for speed. I still tried to speed things up in the wrong spot. I was speeding in sight discipline which cost me a few points and penalties. I ended 3rd overall in production. I could have done better with a little more points on my side. These next few months are going to be about finding the balance and then stepping it up a few times to try and get better at knowing what pushing it feels like.

Sunday was an indoor match where I am a BOD. Dues to the constraints of when the bays are available to construct the stages I did not have a chance to walk anything. I was just getting done finishing the stage when the squad walked in and they were calling the order. I hurried back to where I was starting and was rushed to fill my mags and get my rig on. I'm glad it wasn't too bad as far as really needing to burn in the stage run. They were pretty simple to get ready for. I was very happy where I finished. I shot it clean and still had very good times. I hope to keep this up.

There are really great people in USPSA and I am very blessed to have found this sport. I feel very comfortable shooting with everyone and going to major matches with y'all is a hoot! Thanks for the good times!

[Richc2048]

This weekend I did a match on Saturday. For some reason I was very eager and excited to go shooting this weekend. I was with a very good squad and we had a great time.

One stage was especially brutal. It was two double swingers with headbox only shots. I made the mistake of looking for holes. I knew that there were not many points for the stage so getting a mike on any of them would almost zero the stage. I hit the steel activators and when it came time to track the headbox, the trouble came. I never practiced this so when aiming only at the head I noticed it was very difficult to track the headbox perfectly. I saw I was not going the same speed and arc of the swing and it kept messing with me. I kept shooting at it and didn't see any holes. It was one shot per target but I laid down about 5 or six rounds on each one because I did not see holes. when I was done I saw that nearly all my hits were on the head. I need to trust my sights. Better yet, I need to be confident in my hits. When I am tracking a full target there is brown in the gaps but with the headbox I kept seeing daylight one one side or the other so I didn't think I was getting them. I would definitely like to set this up on a practice and take just one or two per target and see if I am hitting them.

Many of the stages were high hit factor stages so it was very fun from a "feeling cool shooting it" perspective. I would like to find my balance of where my speed vs accuracy is. I seem to only concentrate on one or the other at this point. At one stage that I was going for speed I swear the the front sight looked like a fish tail. It was just flopping around everywhere. I truly believe it was only a matter of luck that all my hits were there. I treated the front sight like a red dot. When it was over the middle of the brown I fired. I guess I treated it like a red dot or something.

Baby number 4 is going to be due soon so my season is coming to an end. I'm also going to have a procedure done to myself so that will put me out for a while. I'm guessing that in total I will have a month or two of a break from shooting once my daughter is born. This will be a great time to try out the "break" everyone seems to talk about. I have been hitting it hard since I started a little over a year and a half ago. I don't have any other hobby, sport, or interest other than shooting and my family so this will be interesting.

[Richc2048]

This weekend I did an outdoor match Saturday and an indoor match Sunday night. I collected a lot of "data" about my shooting but have no idea how to take it.

Saturday was a great day in overall performance. I am finally seeing small gains in my quest to see my sights faster. I felt overall my footwork was improving and shooting at speed was getting better hits. I am no longer getting the wild D hits. I definitely need to work on my 25 yard partial target shooting. I had a classifier that was 91% and although I didn't feel like I knew it was going to be great at the end of it, I think I saw my sights pretty well for those hits. Overall I had a great time and was happy with how I tackled every stage.

Sunday was a lot of up close and personal blasting which helped me further improve on my shooting speed and calling shots. I was able to finish stages in "personal record times" due to improved movement and learning to shoot at a faster speed while not sacrificing hits. I zeroed the classifier due to a mike, no shoot. I had one other mike that I called a miss but it was the last shot in the array and I was already thinking of the reload and getting into the next position.

I feel like I am gaining experience in calling shots but I am not able to do anything about it. I still find myself going with my plan of shooting two shots and moving on. So I guess I am able to see my sights but still lack the ability to process a miss and fire another shot. It seems that I can call my miss and make it up only 50% of the time. The rest of the time I know I missed it and I move on. I hope to read up on this and establish something that I can incorporate in training. I'm just not sure on how to work on this. I am wondering if it is just an experience thing. I feel I can't practice it because if I intentionally put out a bad shot I know it so I will obviously make it up. How do I surprise myself on a shot call and make it up?

Overall I feel great in my shooting and I feel great that there is still much to learn, practice, and deploy on stages. This years major matches were very interesting and I look forward to how I will do next year as I have learned so much from the difference in local and majors. 12-14 stage matches are a lot different than 5-6 stages. Deploying my skills vs. trying to keep up with others is also a great lesson I learned this year.

My own match skill will dictate where I place in the match. Not trying to keep up with others and hope I fall in line with them in the standings. This is a hard lesson to follow throughout a whole match. While I like to see how everyone else fared in time and points is helpful, I cannot let that dictate how I am going to try and do. I learned that my practice is helping me be more confident my time will be what it is and my points will be what it is. I just hope I can remember this going on. It is very easy to fall into the trap.

[CHA-LEE]

For me, the best way to "Force" the automatic shot calling process to work is to setup shooting drills that are just beyond my "Hose Fest" blasting comfort zone. Then shoot the drill at a speed that is beyond my comfort zone while maintaining solid visual observation of the sights. Before and during the drill set the only goal to make up any shot that has a sight picture that is even slightly marginal when the shot breaks.

Be prepared to burn through a CRAP TON of ammo while doing this drill.

[Richc2048]

So the drill could be two targets reload, move two targets? I seem to get caught up on the last shot of an array.

Yea. I can imagine it being a lot of ammo thinking about the fast shooting needed.

Thanks Panda.

Also. It's funny reading your posts about issues on Monday because it still looks bad ass fast when seen vs your description of events. I guess that's what makes you a true GM.

[CHA-LEE]

When I was doing the drill a lot I used 3 - 4 targets with varying distances or hardcover/no shoot blockage. That way there was a lot of blasting going on at the same time in one continuous string of fire.

I wouldn't suggest trying to build other skills into the drill like reloading, moving, or whatever else until you feel comfortable with simply doing the shooting portion by its self.

If your poor hits or misses are the last shot in the array that is 100% due to the lack of follow through of the current shot because you are in a "Hurry" to do the next thing as you are still shooting. You need to shoot, call the shot THEN do the next thing. You can also minimize this issue by NOT moving your head to the next position or target after the last shot in the array. If you keep your head, arms, hands, and upper body locked together, then it forces you to use your feet/legs to initiate the movement out of the position instead of driving the movement by steering your head in the direction where you want to go. Steering your head to where you want to go next is the second most common cause of crappy or no hits on the last shot in a string of fire.

Edited October 26, 2015 by CHA-LEE

[Richc2048]

It has been a long period of rest from guns for me. With the baby arriving on Thanksgiving night I stopped shooting matches that were far and or crappy cell phone reception in early November. My last match was on November 4th and I haven't dry fired or anything since then. I still have a few more weeks of rest and relaxation from shooting. So far it has been good for me. I am really enjoying taking a break from USPSA. It has been my life every weekend for over a year straight. Once I started shooting the matches I have not looked back since. I am hoping that this break will do good for me and get me super excited to shoot.

I also had a scare with some stuff in my gums that my dentist thought could be cancer so I went and had a biopsy screening of some of the stuff in my mouth. Those were a few scary weeks not knowing what the heck was going on. I am glad to say that it was pre cancerous cells and all is good. The good thing is I quit chewing tobacco that very day my dentist told me what he thinks it may have been "cold turkey". The bad new is I feel like poop and never realized how dependent my body was on that stuff. I read into it and I guess my body stopped creating and releasing it's own chemicals from the brain for my body so now without the tobacco I am a wreck. I find myself in a "fog" some days. I have driven past where I need to go by many miles before I realize what I have done. I even drove to my old house I lived in three years ago!

I've gained a few pounds since quitting but I'll take that any day over the alternative. I have started running these last few days to help me try and control my weight and mind. I think overall this will be a good thing for my life as well as shooting.

I will start picking up a gun again and dry firing in the next week or so. Right now I am just enjoying the family time I have. Hope to see you guys at the range sometime later this month.

[Glock26Toter]

Dude. I'm VERY GLAD to hear it's not the worst case scenario. Stay strong and make it through the fog and just think about being there for the family when the junk starts calling your name. I'm in your corner buddy!

See you at the range!

[CHA-LEE]

Congrats on the new little one!!!!

Also congrats on starting the process of kicking the chew habit. That is a hard journey but well worth it for your health. Your little ones need their papa for many years to come. Help make that happen with good life choices.

[Richc2048]

Thanks guys! It's been a long time coming quitting the nicotine. I forgot how fun it is having a super new baby in the house. I'll see you guys soon!

[Richc2048]

I attended the first match since my new daughter was born. I looked at my uspsa profile and found this is only the second match in 60 days. I dry fired very little and went to the range even less in those times. I wish I could have had more practice but family first.

I was a little bit rusty and nervous shooting this match. I was very excited to be shooting again. I finished high but I know that some of the heavy hitters were not there and everyone seemed to have some kind of issue or meltdown at some point. I was able to shoot a clean match with 2 D's and what I thought were fairly good times. I felt really slow in transitions. I caught myself thinking about what I was doing wrong as I was shooting the stage. It was almost like reviewing a first person video of someone shooting but criticizing what was going on. I would shoot a few rounds and tell myself that it was a horrible transition and i should pick it up. The funny thing is, I started doing it. So I know there were many wasted seconds just from the fact that I caught myself going slow.

I really need to practice more and get things going. One thing I really learned from my break is that I really, really, really, love shooting USPSA. It has become more than just a hobby. I love doing it, I love trying to improve, I love that I'm finding out new stuff about it, I love the atmosphere of matches, I love the people I shoot with, I love everything about it.

With Area 2 right around the corner I want to practice and get into a routine of dryfire and live practice to ensure I am performing the best I can at these matches. This is the year where I'm hoping the competitive side of me has a lot more fun than last year. I have learned a lot and hope I can keep it a close memory to not make the same mistakes and to see improvement from training.

[Richc2048]

With a cancelled match this weekend I was amazed to have practice sessions both Saturday and Sunday. The practice involved setting up stages. I like this kind of practice.

Saturday was all about swingers for me and I built some confidence in shooting them. Patience is key. I can hit them if I don't go crazy on them.

Sunday was about small steel and awkward entries into positions.

What I learned most is that I have plateaued in my learning and training over the last few months. I was just shooting matches and my performance was at a stalemate. This weekend really showed me I need to evaluate every practice, match, dry fire session, and thought I put into my performance. I have not been doing that and have been shooting the same "way" for many months.

I am very thankful for the opportunities and friends I have to help me along the way.

1. Dry fire sessions need to increase.

2. Movement and speed need to be on my mind constantly.

3. My plan of attack needs to be developed more in-depth and looked at from more a micro sense than macro.

4. Slow transitions are caused by lack of preparation before shooting. I need to know where every tenth of a second is going.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Richc2048

[Glock26Toter]

Nice goal list buddy.

I might suggest 3 and 4 can be one goal. The stage plan is what happens when all the transitions are linked together. This comes from DRIVING THE GUN through the stage and not following it. The guns path is what dictates your movement through the stage.

Maybe combine 3 and 4 into "Analyze the stage plan and develop the best way to drive the gun through each step"

Edited January 27, 2016 by Glock26Toter

[Richc2048]

Interesting. Driving the gun huh?

So look at it like what's the fastest this gun floating around in the air can do, then make a plan of what I need to be doing to move it that way?

If so.... My mind is blown. That's a bad ass way of looking at it.

[Glock26Toter]

You are learning grasshopper!

I can't remember if this a Brian Enos or Steve Anderson thing, but picture a bungee cord attached to the end of your muzzle and the target. The instant you are done with one, the bungee is now attached to the next... and so on. All you do is drive the gun.

[Richc2048]

Last night was the indoor CGC match that we put on. I tried to work on what Glock26toter said in the previous post but building the stages then being first up on a different stage was not a good combination. My plan was only finalized during the last minute of the walk through and not burned in at all. It went well for only having that limited time. It's kind of a good exercise to do once in a while I guess. It gets the brain going into stress mode really good when the buzzer goes off.

Cha-Lee also pulled me aside at the match and had me run a stage differently that my first run to see what it would look like. With minimal time to get everything memorized, I ran the 20 second stage 3.5 seconds faster and it felt smoother, better, and all around easier. The way to run it felt less choppy. I learned my stage planning has to be more broad in the beginning and not to just refine the first stage plan I recognize as doable. I need take more time finding the right path to take in shooting.

Another thing I worked on last night was fast transitions. I tried to make transitions my goal. It worked as far as letting me know that this is the next low hanging fruit I need to work on. I saw the benefit of this and need to work on making it natural to keep my posture and work it from the legs as much as possible and just practice it like crazy so I don't over swing. I really like that I am over my complacent shooting and trying to improve. I fell into the trap of "wow, I'm shooting better now so I'll just keep in this zone" I stopped pushing things for about 5 month and saw that while I was getting consistent, I was not improving at all.

Because of Area 2 coming up my goal for right now is to work on the transition flowing through stages but not so much that I won't be comfortable shooting Area 2 next month. Once that match is done I will push myself since the next major match is a couple months out from then. I am really excited for this major match. Last year I went for the experience but this year will be to see how much training really pushed me over the one year span. I know I could have trained waaay better but I would like to go into this with a plan and good training under my belt and see what is going on.

I have lost about 20 pounds since November so I am really motivated to make goals and attain them. I still have about 20 more to go. This has already helped my movement in stages somewhat. There is still much to be learned but moving 10% less weight is always going to be a better way to do things. Between quitting chewing and losing the weight both at the same time, I have a feeling of being able to accomplish things if I am determined to do so. Training is one more thing I want to add to my goals of improving my shooting. My mental game and dissecting my performance so I can improve for the next time and knowing what I need to bring into practice is something I really need to work on.

[CHA-LEE]

You need to fully understand the time a reload costs you verses coming up with a retarded stage plan to avoid doing an extra reload or even a standing reload. Even if it takes you 1.5 seconds to do a reload it does not take much "Stage Plan Retardedness" to burn up 1.5 seconds. You can also look at it this way. If a crazy stage plan that eliminates a reload causes one "Ray Charles" moment searching for targets, or 2 - 3 abnormal transitions that easily equals 1.5 seconds of wasted time, so you are in the same boat as just doing another reload. The other factor to think about is creating stage plans that are easier to execute because you have more ammo to work with. Shooting 10 rounds worth of targets every magazine isn't always the best plan given that most arrays of targets usually have 8 rounds of targets to engage.

[Richc2048]

I am finally realizing the effect of designing a stage plan where movement "must" happen for the sake of not doing a standing reload. The importance of stage plan efficiency first rather than my round count is going to be something I need to develop. I learned real quick last night that wide and awkward transitions cost me more time than I think. I had stupid movement for the sake of reloading on both large field courses. It would have been better served standing in the same spot because I could see everything from there anyways. I am beginning to realize that it is not always the case that there is a different stage plan for production or limited shooters.

[d_striker]

Sounds like all your problems would be solved with Production 15.

[Richc2048]

There we go. If I can't easily fix my problem. I shall push legislation to no longer make it a problem. I'm all in for p-15 division.

[Richc2048]

Here is something new I want to try for the sake of improvement. I want to post the videos of my match performance for feedback. I'm not looking for ANY feedback. Whether you see something I did wrong or notice something done right. There are many things done wrong I already see but would like feedback like "hey, you did x, and it's crappy.. try doing y.

I know, I will try and have video that's not POV next time too. Maybe the people that were there can chime in with what they witnessed.

Here is my critique of the match.

Stage 1.

My reloads were taking way too long. I think I am doing everything in one speed. I am reaching for the mag at a speed like I am trying to line up the mag and gun. I KNOW I should be fast at that part, put on the brakes for a bit to line up the mag, then seat it with authority. That did not happen. Also, this is the stage Cha-Lee gave me advice on after my run. We were backed up on the next stage so when I ran it again I shaved 3 seconds off and it felt smoother.

Stage 2.

I had a double miss on the lower double target that was right of the swinger. I think what happened is the swinger came in view and I focused on that before I broke my shots. I felt that with a little more discipline and timing things, I would have had a solid plan and not taken the swinger just because I saw it come in view.

Stage 3

Classifier "more disaster factor" 13-08 I had a miss on one of the upper targets. Simply not being patient. To be honest I am surprised it was my only miss on that.

Stage 4

This was the stage we started on and I was first up. I am a BOD for this match so I was building a stage most of the time before the match. I had a good 5 minutes but it was not enough time to burn anything in. I was being a "Ray Charles" at almost every position. I wish I would have done better at this stage. I had a crap ton of misses.

All in all, I had a very crappy match. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Here is the match video. I hope you can see the video

https://youtu.be/2R6p9a1DBRY

[CHA-LEE]

Reloads - You tend to keep the gun pointed at or in the same direction as the previous shooting position. This creates a very inconsistent placement of the gun to receive the new magazine. You need to bring the gun back to the same "Parking Place" in front of your face no matter which direction you are moving. Doing this will produce a consistent receiving point for the next magazine allowing you to aggressively slap down and bring back up the next magazine to go into the gun. Bring the gun back to your face also eliminates the need to tip your head down to look for the gun/magwell during the reload. Wasted movement is wasted movement. You shouldn't need to tip your head down to complete a reload when you can simply keep the gun high and get it done in front of your face. Watch your video, every reload your head is tipping down to the gun.

Stage 2 with the swinger. Your stage plan was flawed because you tried to cram in the reload after pulling the rope then engage the swinger on the first pass. If I was shooting production on that stage I would have engaged the left most double stack of targets, stuck the reload, pulled the rope then engaged the swinger, right double stack, then finish on the two open targets in the middle. Doing this would allow me to control the timing of the swinger so I could engage it on the first pass and also allow me to shoot the whole time after the reload. Any time you can "Control" the first exposure and engagement of an activated target it will end up in a much better execution because its movement is planned and predictable. I can stick reloads pretty fast and there is no way I would have risked trying to reload AFTER pulling the rope and also engage the swinger on the first pass.

Stage 4 looks like you are simply double tapping at all of the targets with the same cadence of shooting verses seeing every shot. This double tapping is probably what caused the majority of your misses verses treating each shot as its own separate event. As for not being ready to shoot you need to own up to that. I ROed you on that stage and seen "Ray Charles" lurking while you were doing a frantic walk through right before shooting the stage. I asked you several times if you were REALLY ready to shoot the stage. You said yes every time I asked so I let you wallow in the disaster situation that you allowed to happen. Everyone knows that Match Staff have very little time to actually look at the stages and figure them out before the match. You need to give yourself some slack and simply tell the RO or even the whole squad that you are NOT ready and need more time. Nobody will care if you want to be put further down in the shooting order to be given more time to figure out the stage and burn in your plan, especially when you are the one running around with your head cut off before the match setting up the stages.

[Richc2048]

Thank you. Very good point on the reload. I definitely agree that my lack of consistency is what is fumbling my reloads. I need to do what I said a few posts back and start over. I think I've made bad habits or inefficient routines I need to stamp out. My statement of why my dry fire sessions are not being shown in matches may be just that. I practice one way but do it differently at matches because of movement changing the direction of my gun every time.

I totally forgot about having the option of being a couple shooters back on that stage. I was just going with the flow and didn't want to say no to anyone. HAHA. I need to learn the most efficient way to do stages faster so I have more time to burn them in. Right now I just kind of find any way of shooting it and go with that. Or if I do spend time trying to find different ways, I don't burn one plan in. I'm still literally deciding which of the options I figured out are going to be executed.