FTDMFR's Range Journal

[FTDMFR]

This is a really good journal. Good detail, goals, fact based analysis on areas to improve. The video's are good too.

Feels like you will reach your goals easily with this type of diligence and focus.

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback.

[FTDMFR]

TUESDAY 7/21/15

Dry Fire

• Practiced the match mode/shot calling drill, with detailed nvisualization, strong hand only, for about 45 minutes.
  • The added visualization while doing this drill is fun and challenging. I noticed that even in dry fire, I can't turn on match mode 100% of the time. And if I can't do it 100% in dry fire, then there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to do it 100% in live fire. I've clearly got some work to do.
  • I live in a pretty busy part of the city, so there's constant background noise from people walking around, ambulances (there's a hospital close by), music from the bar across the street, an insane homeless dude playing the trumpet, and another insane homeless dude screaming at nothing. So, if I can get to the point where I'm able to reliably turn on and stay in match mode while visualizing myself at a match, even with all that noise going on, then I think I'll be in a pretty good place.
  • More than once, I've forgotten to turn off my Pivotheads after shooting a stage, so I probably have close to an hour's worth of authentic match day background noise and chatter at my disposal. I wonder what would happen if I made an an .mp3 of all that noise and played it while practicing this drill.
• I also practiced Burkett reloads, while standing straight, leaning left and right, and side stepping.

Observations

• I need a new slide stop. Mine is now worn to the point where it's easy to drop the side by accident by lightly brushing against it with my trigger finger.

Edited July 22, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

TUESDAY 7/22/15

Dry Fire

• 60 minutes
• Trigger control microdrill, freestyle, SHO, and WHO
• Shot calling / match mode drill, WHO

Observations

• I'm pretty happy with my WHO accuracy in slow fire, but it tends to fall apart a bit under time pressure. Add WHO Bill Drills and Blake Drills to the list.
• This might sound stupid, but I think one of the things that's throwing my mental game off at matches is dicking around with my Pivotheads right before shooting (i.e. after LAMR and before Standby). So, I'm going to get into the habit of starting to record when I'm standing in the start box and the stage is still being reset.

Edited July 23, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

AAR, USPSA MATCH AT [REDACTED], 7/26/15

Stats

• Pending. Will be posted here.

The good

• For the most part, my stage execution went according to plan. I'm not saying that my stage plans were good, just that I executed them well.
• Accuracy was good, when it was good. More on this below.
• Footwork is coming along nicely. I'm getting into and out of positions faster and more efficiently than before.
• I'm keeping the gun up a lot more than I have been and aiming sooner during position entry.
• Transitions still coming along. There was one near-180 degree transition that I was pleasantly surprised with.
• Reloads were looking pretty good this match. The mag seemed to fly in to the magwell for some reason. I'll keep working on Burkett reloads this week to reinforce it.

The not-so-good

• Shooting on the move. I really need to stop trying to do this in matches until I've practiced it a lot more, in both dry fire and live fire. At my current skill level, it ends up eating up more time and throwing my accuracy out the window.
• Overly-creative stage planning. On a couple of matches, I've had stage plans that were a little different in an attempt to create a shorter movement path, but they usually end up increasing the target difficulty enough to cause more harm than good. I'm reasonably fast on my feet, so I should stop doing this for now and keep stage plans simple.
• On the stage where I was the first shooter, I blew a stage plan and shot an array out of order. It wasn't disasterous, but it cost a couple of seconds. I've noticed that I haven't been able to burn in stages well when I'm the first shooter up. I need to figure out a way to work on this.
• Stowing mags on the move was dogshit. This also hurt me at my last IDPA match. Work out a better technique in dry fire.
• I shot a wall. Twice.

The terrible bad

• I absolutely tanked the classifier (CM13-01) and got a 28%. I decided to shoot for the A zone in the headbox at 10 yards, which is not something I've done before or practiced, and I sent a couple of shots over the target. Keep practicing Blake Drills and 6-Reload-6 type of drills, with hard shots mixed in. Also, stop praticing new stuff on match day.
• On stages where my accuracy was off, it was waaaay off. Like 5 mikes in one stage off. Partially due to shooting targets on the move that were outside of my skill level.

Takeaways

• Despite tanking two stages, I was pretty happy with this match. I saw some improvements in a few key areas, and as long as I see some improvement, I'm happy.
• I should work on hauling ass more between positions. I'll run a few simple drills the next time I'm at the outdoor range.

Edited July 27, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

AAR, IDPA MATCH, 8/1/15

Results

Stats

• 118.61s, 39PD, 4 mikes, 1 HNT, 1 PE
• 2nd of 37 SSP
• 3rd of 64 Overall

The Bad

• I'll start with the bad this time.
• Four mikes. Three were missed headshots (1" low), one was from not taking enough shots at a target.
• Visualization. I didn't do enough visualization on one stage, which cost me 1 mike, 1 PE, 1 HNT. That's 10.5s.

The Good

• Even though this was one of the least clean matches I've shot in a long time, there was a lot of good stuff happening at this match.
• Shooting on the move was a lot faster and more accurate than I've shot before. I was able to call most of my shots, and most of them were 0s. Although I did miss two headshots on the move, they were very close misses (within .5" or so below the neckline), whereas a few months ago, I probably would have missed the target completely. I'll take the improvement.
• Mental game. Within two stages, I had racked up 3 mikes, 1 no-shoot, and 1 procedural. I knew by then I had lost high overall. However, instead of slacking off for the rest of the match, I got my head back in the game, refocused on the process, and ended up winning the last two stages.
• Raw speed was pretty good, especially with shooting one-handed and reloading with retention.
• Accuracy. Other than the three near misses on headshots, and the one miss from not firing enough rounds, my accuracy was pretty good, with no -3s, and only close -1s.

Key takeaways

• Even though I made some mistakes this match and didn't win high overall, I still saw signs of progress, which is what it's all about.

Edited August 3, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

MONDAY 8/3/15

Dry Fire

• I didn't have a lot of time to dry fire, so I just worked on trigger control at speed. Targets between 6 and 25 yards.
• At the last match, my point of aim was a little off on rotated targets, so I rotated my dry fire targets during this drill. I'll work on this all week.

[FTDMFR]

WEDNESDAY 8/5/15

I was going to dry fire, but the power went out, so I saw Ant-Man instead.

[FTDMFR]

WEDNESDAY 8/26

Although I've been practicing regulary, I've gotten pretty lazy about updating the journal. I'll be updating regularly from now on, especally as I prepare for IDPA Worlds over the next few weeks.

-------------

Random equipment-related epiphany:

For a while now, I've been struggling with inconsistency during reloads, mostly from missing the magwell ever so slightly.

I've had the feeling that the root cause was random variation in friction when yanking the mag out of the pouch, which causes random variation in how the mag is presented to the well. I've been assuming that the problem was friction between the mag and the pouch, and I've tried to fiddle with the pouch tension to improve things, but it hasn't worked so far.

However, tonight I discovered that the random variation in friction isn't between the mag and the inside pouch, but between my hand and the outside of the pouch. I put a light coat of silicone spray lube on the outside of the pouch, and holy shit balls the mags are flying into the well now.

I can't think of any downsides so far to lubing the outside the pouch, so I'm adding this to my regular equipment maintenance. I'll also lube the outside of the holster for good measure.

-------------

Tonight's dry fire practice: Accelerator

[FTDMFR]

With IDPA Worlds coming up in a few weeks, I'm going to work on the following things (in rough priority order):

Stage visualization / mental program

I'm going to shoot as many USPSA matches as possible before IDPA Worlds. I think it will be good visualization practice, since those matches usually have much smaller squads, which means less time to visualize, and the stages are infinitely more complex.

Partial targets / no-shoots / tight shots

I don't want to be surprised by a target presentation I've never seen before, so I watched a ton of videos from previous worlds / nationals championships and made note of all the unusual target arrays. I will be practicing these pretty heavily in dry fire and life fire to drill the proper sight picture for each target at all distances into my subconscious.

Shot difficulty change-ups

Headshots

I've missed way too many headshots lately at local matches.

Movers

Wide transitions

Wide transitions while slicing the pie

Need to work on shifting feet as fast as possible.

Drawing / reloading with my new vest

I just bought the lightweight version of the 5.11 vest. It's nice because it's so light, but it's also really slippery, and I've already whiffed a few draws at matches.

---------------

Yesterday, I went to the range for 6 hours and shot 1000 rounds. Lots of 6-round type drills, at different distances, with lots of reps. This session, the focus was on accuracy and shot calling, not time. I'm pretty happy with my raw time right now, and I think the low hanging fruit is dropping fewer points.

Here are my key takeaways:

Bill Drills

​I'm getting major trigger freeze at close range (3-5 yards). Will continue to work on this in upcoming live fire sessions.

Also, at 5 yards, I need to exercise more visual patience than I thought. Just point shooting and pulling the trigger as fast as I can gives me far -1s and some -3s.

Headshots

I'm pushing headshots low, especially on the draw. Will work on this in dry fire this week and see how it looks next week at the range.

25 yard groups

When I do my part, I can hold 4-6" 6-shot groups. There's room for improvement, but it's still a huge improvement over two years ago, when I could barely keep it in the -1 zone. Will shoot groups every live fire session.

Criss cross

I'm really liking this drill. I shot a ton of these at 10 and 15 yards. Lots of missed heads at first, but it got a lot better better with more reps. I think I'll keep working on this drill for a while. I'd love to be able to reliably shoot this drill clean at 25 yards.

Hardcover

I practiced on a hardcover array at 15 yards. Center target was a tuxedo target, and the outer targets were half-covered in vertical hard cover. Blake Drills on this array were especially interesting, since I really had to bring the gun to a hard stop on the center target. I shot drills on this array surprisingly well. It's nice to feel confident about hitting a half -0 zone at 10-15 yards.

I'll practice some more hardcover arrays in dry fire this week and shoot them in live fire on Sunday.

Distance changeup

I set up two open targets at 2 yards, and a tuxedo target at 15 yards in between. Again, I was pleasantly surprised at my visual patience and accuracy on the tuxedo target.

Edited August 31, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

AAR, IDPA MATCH, 9/5/15

Video

Results

Stats

• 104.44s
• 24 PD (avg 3 per stage)
• 1 reeeeeally close mike (missed headshot, barely off the perf), no -3s, no penalties
• 2nd of 46 SSP
• 2nd of 77 Overall
• Fastest raw time

The good

• Stage execution: This might be the first match I've ever shot where every single stage went exactly according to plan. I made a conscious effort to rehearse each stage multiple (10+) times in my head, and I ran my mental program to get into match mode during LAMR. I never felt like I was rushing or hurrying at any point during the match, despite having the fastest raw time.
• Stage planning: There were a couple of times where detailed stage planning really helped me out:
  • Stage 4: I spent a lot of time planning how to engage the targets behind the swinger. Instead of trying to draw on the right target and beat the swinger, I decided to draw on the left target. It meant that the time to the first shot was longer, but it set me up to shoot the entire array faster without ever really having to worry about beating the swinger. I could have been even more aggressive and shot it half a swing faster, but I was still pretty happy with how my plan worked out.
  • Stage 6: On this stage, you had to shoot all the targets while moving backwards, and the last shot had to be taken behind a stick that was 5 yards or so back. I gamed this stage a bit by sprinting backwards during the reload to get closer to the end position.
• Accuracy / shot calling on partial targets: In my last live fire practice session, I spent a ton of time working on partials at 10 and 15 yards, and it really came in handy on this stage with hardcover and this stage with no-shoots. I was able to call my shots with confidence and take necessary make up shots without having to look at the targets. Definitely a vast improvement over a year ago when I would blast away and hope for the best.
• Overall accuracy: Met my goal of a maximum 3 PD average per stage. Let's see if I can get this down to two without sacrificing speed.

The bad

• Missed headshots: I'm fine at 7 yards in, but at 10+ yards, it gets iffy. I had an uncalled (close) miss, and I took two make ups that I didn't need.
• REALLY unecessary extra shots: I've noticed I have a terrible habit of taking an extra shot at the last target in a stage for no reason whatsoever. I think this is a leftover habit from before my shot calling days where I would rush to finish a stage and not call my shots on the last target or two and take an extra shot for security. It's time to let this habit die.
• Dropped points on close targets: I hosed a little too fast on close (<5 yd) targets and had too many near -1s. There's no reason for me to drop ANY points on open targets 10 yards and in. I need to remember to see what I need to see even on the close targets. Every point counts.

Takaways

• I was very happy with my performance this match. Although I didn't take the overall win, I was less than two seconds behind one of the best IDPA shooters in the area, so I think I'm headed in the right direction.
• I'm feeling much better about getting into and staying in match mode for extended periods of time. I'll continue to work on this all week.
• I'm feeling confident going into IDPA Worlds next week.

Edited September 8, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

AAR, IPSC MATCH, 9/6/15

Video

Results

Stats

• Production: 3rd of 20 (93.40% of winner)
• Combined: 11th of 81 (74.62% of winner)
• 78A 2B 22C 1D 1M 1NS

The good

• Stage execution: Pretty good, for the most part. I did do a totally unnecessary reload on on stage, but I'll chalk that up to being the first shooter on the first stage of the day.
• SHO / WHO shooting: I never thought I'd say this, but on the classifier stage, it really paid off to be an IDPA shooter. SHO / WHO at 10 yards with a no shoot in front of the targets. I shot this one pretty well, although I did clip the no shoot with a WHO shot (although I did get credit for the shoot through). Although it's lame to say, if I hadn't shot the no shoot, it would have been an M classifier score. I'll get there one day.
• Accuracy with partials: I had good runs on both the classifier stage and on this stage. I'm getting a lot more confident about my shot calling, and I don't get that stressed out anymore about targets being plastered with no shoots.

The not so good

• Footwork: It's looking a little better, but it's sinking in that USPSA stages require much more precise foot placement than IDPA. I need to plan and rehearse my foot placement in much, much greater detail. It's also time for me to start working on position entry and exit in live fire.
• Target engagement order: Sometimes I'll engage an array in a really wonky order. I think I'm starting to geta handle on how to figure out the fastest order, though. I think it might be one of those things that will come with experience.
• Accuracy: Decent, but too many Cs, and one uncalled M.
• Transitions: The transitions in a typical USPSA stage are about a mile longer than in IDPA. It's time to spread out my dry fire targets.
• Falling steel: I should probably check steel ahead of time to see if it falls forward or backward...

The bad

• Totally unnecessary extra shots: Just like in the last IDPA match, I took an extra "security shot" at the end of every Comstock stage. Such a huge waste of time. The good thing is I should be able to break this habit pretty quickly now that I'm aware of it.

Takeaways

• I'm slowly starting to get a handle on the sport. I'm looking forward to shooting much more USPSA after the IDPA season is over.

Edited September 8, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

AAR, IDPA 2015 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Video

Results

Stats

• Score: 274.25s
• Accuracy: 62 PD. 1 Mike (headshot barely off perf), maybe four -3s.
• Penalties: 1 PE for cover. No HNTs, FTNs.
• Overall: 50th of 416
• SSP: 16th of 144
• SSP EX: 4th of 36
• EX: 8th of 112

The Good

• Accuracy: I've been practicing a ton of headshots and other tight shots, and it paid off at this match. There were a ton of headshots, and I only missed one, and it was barely off the perf.
• Stage planning: Overall, I'm happy with my stage plans at this match. There was one case when I got a little aggressive (engaging a target while waiting for a drop turner to activate) and it didn't quite pay off.

The Bad

• Visualization: I'm still plagued by inconsistent stage rehearsal. I think I could have knocked 15 seconds off my match score if I had done a better job at this. I'll work on this daily, even if it's just for 10 minutes
• Footwork: I'm taking too many steps here and there and losing a ton of time. I'm pretty happy with my stand and shoot skills for now, so I'm going to start practicing field course skills more heavily. Better visualization will help here too.

Takeaways

• I got my match bump! I'm now an SSP MA.
• I have a long ways to go in terms of stage visualization and consistency, but I'm sure I'll get there.
• I have two state matches coming up. To prepare for them, I'm going to focus less on speed development and more on match mode / shot calling drills.

Edited September 24, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

MONDAY 10/26/15

I've been super lazy about updating this, so here's a quick recap:

2015 West Coast IDPA Championship

• 1st person video, 3rd person video
• Placed 2nd SSP, 4th Overall
• Went into the match with the goal of moving more explosively than I did at IDPA Worlds, and it seemed to work out.
• Had some aggressive stage plans that worked out.
• Was within striking distance of SSP DC, but I gave it away by shooting a bunch of no-shoots (not to take anything away from the guy who won DC).
• I'm still working on trusting my match mode. I went into a couple of stages with the mindset of shooting fast, and it hurt me pretty bad.
• I went super gamer on a stage and took the stage win!

2015 Lone Star IDPA Championship

• Placed 4th SSP, 13th Overall
• Fairly happy with my movement speed at this match.
• Did not do a great job at planning/visualizing a couple of stages and paid for it.
• Overall, not a great match performance for me. But it was still a really fun match.

Ben Stoeger Class

• Took a two-day private class. Day one was Fundamentals, day two was Skills and Drills.
• Really great class. There were only four students, so I got a ton of trigger time (1300 rounds) and individual coaching.
• Takeaways:
  • I've been practicing trigger control wrong for an entire year! I've been practicing riding the reset, when I should be practicing pulling through the entire trigger press. Ben thinks that's why I might be shooting low when shooting at speed. Kind of a bummer, but at least I know how to correct it.
  • Trigger mechanics aside, my accuracy can be spotty. It's good when I'm doing my part, but I tend to lose discipline when trying to move through a stage at 100% speed. I will work on being more visually patient, in ALL conditions.
  • The class really helped my position exit / entry. In live fire, I will start focusing more on movement and less on stand-and-shoot skills.
  • I was advised to rework my reload technique, particularly the angle I hold the gun when I'm inserting the mag. I'll start practicing this daily.
  • I need to remember to run when it's time to run. I'm pretty fast on my feet when I want to be, so I just need to practice turning it on, especially while reloading.

-------------

Since I'm starting to get burned out a little bit, I've decided to take a break until the new year. Not a complete break, but I'll scale it down a ton. I want to shift focus towards physical conditioning for the next couple of months.

For dry fire, I'm going to reduce it down to maintenance, plus reworking some fundamental techniques:

• Trigger press: Practicing pulling through the entire trigger break, against a variety of target distances, partials, etc.
• Reloads: Holding the gun at a different angle. Reloading while moving at full speed, in all directions.

For live fire, I'm going to work on accuracy, mostly at the static indoor range, to verify my new trigger press technique.

• Dot drills: Goal - 36/36 at 7 yards
• Pairs on partials

I'll also scale back club matches to maybe one every two weeks.

I'm hoping that after taking a couple of months off, I'll be ready to jump back into it in January, with 100% focus, and 20 lbs lighter.

---------------

GOALS FOR 2016

• IDPA ESP MA, CCP MA by 12/31/16.
• USPSA Production GM by 7/1/16.
  • This one sounds pretty crazy, but someone I trust convinced me that it's attainable, so that's the goal.

Edited October 27, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

SUNDAY 11/3/15

Went to the indoor range for a little trigger control practice. I've been practicing slapping the trigger in dry fire for a couple of weeks, so I wanted to see how I'd do in live fire.

I ran a modified dot drill: 3" splatter targets at 5 yards, no time pressure (this range has a 1 shot/second rule). First run was 32/26, second was 35/36. I'll keep running it at 5 yards until I can pass it consistently, and then I'll step it back to 7 yards.

Overall, I think my trigger press technique is coming along. I'll keep working on it daily during my break.

Edited November 3, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

TUESDAY 11/3/15

Before I forget during my off-season, this is a list of all the stuff I want to work on, in rough priority order:

• Trigger control at speed (currently pulling shots low)
• Visual patience (having enough patience in ALL situations, giving each target its due respect, not dropping easy points on open / near targets)
• Stage visualization / mental program (currently not applying consistently to all stages)
• Reload technique (find better angle for gun when inserting mag)
• Position entry (low, knees bent, sights steady, ready to shoot)
• Running faster between positions
• Transitions (wide, mixed narrow and wide, mixed target difficulty / risk)
• Accuray on partials, 10-15 yards (ingrain what acceptable sight picture looks like for any type of partial, at any distance)
• Shot difficulty change ups (related to visual patience)
• Keeping gun up and extended during short transitons / movements
• SHO / WHO accuracy with multiple shots, Bill Drills, etc. (related to visual patience)
• Experiment with target focus at <10 yards (currently using hard front sight focus for everything but movers)
• Reloading when exiting positions / moving at full speed

Edited November 4, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

TUESDAY 11/3/15

DRY FIRE

• Trigger control drill
  • Freestyle, strong-hand, and weak-hand
  • Mostly looking good. I still pull left occasionally.
  • Whenever doing this drill, I'm also working on a couple of other things at the same time:
    • Wide stance, knees bent: Feels weird, but also more stable. Looking over my match videos from the last year, I'm shooting too much on my toes and upright.
    • Hard grip: I'm trying to be more conscious of using the same grip pressure in dry fire as I do in live fire.
• Reloads
  • Burkett reloads
  • Practiced w/o the timer. Mostly experimenting with the angle of the gun when inserting the mag. Super slow reps for now.
  • I'm going to abandon the "look at the inside of the magwell" technique. It tends to cause the mag to bind in the well.

Edited November 4, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

WEDNESDAY 11/4/15

Dry Fire

• 1 hour
• Tonight I worked on shot difficulty change ups by practicing CM03-08 (Madness).
• Started off at 12.0s, and worked down to 8.6s. This is the fastest time where I can successfully call all A's 50% of the time, which I think is the sweet spot for practicing.
• In the future, when I've hit the point where I can no longer call all A's, then I'll open up my hits to A's and C's and keep dropping the par time further to work on just raw speed.
• A couple things I noticed during practice:
  • I need to be better about calling the last shot before a reload. I caught myself rushing the last shot or two and throwing some D's.
  • I want to break the habit of immediately UASC after each rep. It's not a big deal in terms of competition, but my inner Timmy thinks it's a horrible habit.
  • I noticed that I shoot a LOT better if I amp myself up more before a run. I'm pretty laid back, so right now it's hard for me to do that on demand. I'll work on figuring out a way to do that consistently and then incorporate that into my mental program.

Edited November 5, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

AAR, IDPA MATCH, 11/7/15

Stats

• Placement: 2nd of 72 Overall, 2nd of 43 SSP
• Accuracy: 41 PD (5.2 PD / stage), (3) mikes, (1) -3, a shit ton of close -1s

The Bad

• Accuracy
  • Pretty bad this match. I shot around 5 PD per stage, but my usual is 2 PD.
  • 3 mikes. Very close mikes, but still mikes.
  • Way too many close -1. Still had a lot of low mikes on sideways targets. I need to practice on sideways (and upside-down) targets more in dry fire.
  • I think my accuracy was off partially because I was consciously focused on other things during the match (see below).
• Stage rehearsal / mental game
  • Spotty. Didn't rehearse nearly enough. Didn't use my mental program much, either.
  • I was focusing a little too much on speed and keeping up with my GM buddy instead of calling my shots.

The Good

• Position entry / movement
  • This is what I wanted to work on most this match, since it was highlighted as a big hole in my game in the Ben Stoeger class. Entering positions with a wide stance, gun up, ready to shoot. Keeping both hands on gun and gun up when moving to a nearby position.
  • All in all, it looked MUCH better this match than in previous matches. There were a couple of positions where I was definitely .5 to 1s faster than how I would have shot it in the past.

Takeaways

• I shouldn't work on new techniques at the match! I should work on these things in practice until I can do them subconsciously, and then focus on shot calling 100% at the match. (Exception - it's okay to practice at a club match occasionally, if I go into the match ahead of time knowing that it's just practice and I adjust my expectations accordingly).
• Even though my accuracy was way off, I was happy with my gains in raw speed.
• I will work on the position entry / exit and movement stuff more in dry fire at the house.
• Although I lost the match, I won high overall at picking up free brass.

Edited November 9, 2015 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

MONDAY 11/9/2015

Dry fire plan for this week

• Daily maintenance (10-15 mins)
  • Trigger control drill
    • 10/15 yard partials
    • 8/10 yard sideways targets
    • Add some leans as well.
  • Burkett reloads
    • ​Work on new technique (angle of gun)
    • Slow, controlled, 100% perfect reps for now. Speed and movement later.
  • Match mode drill on various target arrays.
• Monday
  • Position exit / entry drills
    • Short distance.
    • Focus on keeping stance wide and low and knees bent, and gun up.
• Tuesday
  • Shot difficulty change ups
    • ​Practice using some USPSA classifiers with partials / no-shoots mixed with open targets.
    • Prioritize arrays with required headshots.
• Wednesday
  • Transitions
    • ​​​SHO / WHO, open targets, 10 yards
    • FS, open targets, 10 yards, wide.
• Thursday
  • None (live fire)
• Friday
  • Transitions
    • FS, from cover. Near- and mid-range targets.
    • Mix leaning and stepping in same array.
    • Open targets for now, to focus just on stance and transitions speed. Partials / change-ups will come later.

[FTDMFR]

MONDAY 1/18/16

After a 2-1/2 month break, I'm back at it.

During the break, I dry fired fairly regularly, with a few main goals in mind:

• Rework my trigger technique by practicing trigger presses NOT from the reset, but by pulling all the way through.
• Use a lower, wider stance to enter and exit positions more quickly and to be more stable
• Grip the gun harder - WAY harder - for better recoil control
• Angle the gun differently for reloads so I don't keep crashing into the mag well.

This all seems to have helped quite a bit. More on this below.

LIVE FIRE

• ~600 rounds, 4 hours
• Focused mostly on trigger control, standard drills at 10 yards, and position entry
• Trigger Control
  • Started off with Stoeger's trigger control at speed drill, at 7, 10, 15, and 20 yards.
  • Freestyle, I'm hitting all As at these distances, very consistently. Huge improvement from before the break.
  • I'm also hitting the headbox very consistently out to 15 yards. Next, I'll work on keeping it in the upper A at 15.
  • SHO and WHO are also coming along nicely. I'm keeping it in the A zone for both SHO and WHO out to 15. I still have the occasional flyer with WHO, but it's still a huge improvement. I'm even hitting the headbox SHO at 15 yards, which was unheard of for me a few months ago. Next live fire session, I'll work on multiple shot SHO/WHO drills.
• Doubles, 10 yards
  • Consistently hitting 1.35-1.40s, all As. Improvement over my last recorded data point of 1.90s on 6/29/15.
• Bill Drill, 10 yards
  • Running around 2.40-2.60 with all As. Last recorded data point was an average of 2.42s down 2pts on 7/3/15. Not a huge improvement, but my accuracy is more consistent now. To get down to 2.20s, I think I'll have to shave time off of my draw.
• Blake Drill, 10 yards
  • Averaged 2.30-2.50, almost all As. Last recorded data point was 3.10s, down 1.2pts on 7/3/15. I'd say that's a pretty huge improvement. Looking at the data, my biggest improvement is definitely in my transitions. Last year they were in the .40-.60s range. Today they're the same as my splits, around the .20-.25s range. It looks like all those metronome drills have been paying off.
  • Also, gripping the gun a lot harder in dry fire has helped my recoil control tremendously. The sights are returning noticeably faster than before.
• El Presidente, 10 yards
  • Ran it three times:
    • 5.86s 54pts = 9.21 HF = 89.76% Prod
    • 5.86s 58pts = 9.90 HF = 96.48% Prod
    • 5.37s 54pts = 10.01 HF = 97.55% Prod
  • Those are my first-ever GM classifier runs!
  • To improve, I'm going to have to work on my reload. Getting the mag into the well isn't the problem. Today I seemed to freeze up and not drop the mag quickly, probably from too much tension, like trigger freeze.
  • I want to be able to hit sub 5.00s runs with 56+ points consistently by the end of the year.
• Position Entry
  • Last year I worked on stand-and-shoot skills almost exclusively. This year, I'm going to work on field course skills heavily.
  • Today I worked on entering positions from the left and the right. First, on an open target at 7 yards, and then on a target at 10 yards with a no-shoot covering the lower half of the -0 body zone.
  • I didn't record times for this drill. I was mostly doing the drills to get a qualitative feel for entering the position low and ready to shoot. For live fire sessions going forward, I'll create some standard drills so I can track progress better.
  • Mostly, the drills felt pretty good. Entering low and with my knees bent really helps me to get stable enough to start shooting while I'm still decelerating. Much better than my previous approach of sprinting to the box, dropping anchor, getting up on my tip toes, pushing out, and then shooting.
  • I was pretty happy with my patience when entering the box on the partial target. Out of 32 rounds fired at the target, I only grazed the no-shoot once.
  • I'm still a little to conscious of my feet during the drill. I'll continue to work on this in every live fire session for a while until it becomes more second nature.
  • Here's some video of the easy position entry drill:
• Takeaways
  • Spending a couple of months refining some fundamental techniques was totally worth it.
  • Working on field course skills is going to be a lot of fun.
  • GM seems within grasp! A year or two ago, I never would have even considered the possibility.
  • My draws were spotty today. I need to remember to oil the outside of my holster.
  • I'm going to start tracking my drills more carefully. I'm less concerned about personal bests and more concerned about averages, trends, and consistency, so I'm going to put on my manufacturing engineer hat and track my drills using control charts.

GOALS FOR 2016

• IDPA Division Champion at a Tier 2 or higher match (up from 2nd place, my best out of all of last year's sanctioned matches)
• Top 25 finish at IDPA National Championship (up from 50th at last year's Worlds)
• USPSA Production GM by 12/31/16

Edited January 19, 2016 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

MONDAY 2/1/16

I was a little lax about dry fire in January, but I'm back at it.

My training schedule:

• Dry fire 3X a week
• Match on Saturdays
• Live fire on Sundays

Dry Fire

• Warm up, trigger control at speed, FS/SHO/WHO (10 mins)
• Draw to a blank wall and break trigger (10 mins, got down to 1.0s)
• Draws on IDPA partials at 10 yards (5 mins)
• Match mode / shot calling drill on IDPA partials (10 mins, 10-24 seconds)
• Draws on Classic partials at 15 yards (10 mins)

Here are the arrays I'm practicing on this week:

Edited February 3, 2016 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

TUESDAY 2/9/16

Dry Fire

• 30 mins
• I set up a little drill to work on 1) keeping the gun up while moving short distances, and 2) aiming through vision barriers and breaking the shot as soon as I have a good sight picture.
• I'll keep this drill set up for a few days and run it in speed mode: anything on brown is good. Then I'll rein it in and shoot it at my regular match pace.

[FTDMFR]

MONDAY 2/15/16

Dry Fire

• 1.5 hours
• I got an M&P SIRT and LASR software! It's been super fun so far.
• Warmed up with some Bill Drills and Blake Drills at 7 yards, freesytle, SHO, and WHO. Having a resetting trigger is really helping with multiple shot drills SHO and WHO.
• Also ran El Presidente a few times. I managed a 5.38s clean (109% HF). (I know it's just dry fire, but it still felt pretty good.)
• Main drill for tonight: distance changeups on 15 yard USPSA Classic partial targets. I'm working on calling good hits on the partials, as well as transitioning off the partials as fast as possible.

Edited February 17, 2016 by FTDMFR

[FTDMFR]

TUESDAY 2/16/16

Dry Fire

• 30 mins
• More draws and distance changeup drills on 15 yard Classic partials

[FTDMFR]

MONDAY 2/22/16

This week's training plan

After dissecting 3rd person video from two different USPSA matches, I'm going to focus on the following this week:

• Reloads: Moving while reloading. I still tend to forget to move my feet while dropping the mag and reaching for the new mag. This week I'll practice reloading while moving short distances (2-3 steps). Once that's coming along, I'll work on reloading while sprinting out of position.
• Wide transitions: One 90 and 180 degree transitions, I'm a little sluggish. I'll focus on transitioning aggressively after calling the last shot before the transition, and for 180 degree transitions, I'll play around with my footwork to see what works the best.
• Steel: Way, way too many makeup shots. To work on going one-for-one on steel, I'll set up a Pro-Am style forest of steel and practice shot calling using the SIRT and LASR software.
• Position exit on partials: I need more discipline on the last shot in an array before moving. I'll work on drills this week using partials at 10 yards.
• SHO / WHO accuracy on partials: I'm great with single-shot drills, but my patience falls apart on 6-reload-6 one-handed type drills. I'll work on this using partials at 10 yards.

That covers the bad. Here's the good stuff I noticed in the videos:

• Accuracy / speed on partials: Practicing on a bunch of different hard cover patterns is really paying off. In arrays with hard cover targets mixed in, I don't need to consciously think about where to aim nearly as much as before, which has really sped up my transitions through these arrays
• Stance: My stance is way lower and wider than before, and my weight is more on my heels than on my toes, so I'm shifting my feet much, much less, especially when shooting a wide array through a port.

Edited February 22, 2016 by FTDMFR