Crash Log

[CrashDodson]

On 11/9/2015 at 3:02 PM, CrashDodson said:

 

I currently find myself lost at the range on my live fire days. I am working to put together and actual training program. Any tips/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Its funny and sad that this is my first log post 2 years ago...and still struggling with the same issue.  

[motosapiens]

i work on a lot of different things in live fire, but I usually pick only a couple to focus on in a particular session.

 

it makes sense to me to do some specific measured drills (classifiers work great for this), that you can set up repeatedly and track progress. el prez, diamond cutter, can you count, tick tock, and many others are simple to set up and some of them focus on specific things. include some SHO/WHO ones too.

 

Bill drills (or 4-5 shot drills if you are cheap like me, or shooting 8-10 round mags that just make it more convenient) on every imaginable target (partials, no-shoots, heads) at every imaginable distance, focusing on what it takes to get all alphas just about every time. For me this means not ripping the trigger as fast as i can, but learning to stop the gun more quickly so i can take the next accurate shot more quickly. This is something I'm just figuring out, and I think it is going to be a game-changer.

 

Stoeger's dot drills. 2" circles, try for 6 shots in the circle in 5 second par time. I started at 5 yards. Out of 6 circles on the page, I do the first one untimed. the 2nd one draw and 1 shot with no par time, and the other 4 circles i do draw and 6 shots in 5 second par time. When you get all 36 shots in/touching the circles within the par time, move back a yard. I'm still working on 6 yards but i'm getting closer to having to move back again.

 

group shooting/accuracy. I like the upper-a-zone at 15 yards. I finish every live fire session either with a page of dot drills or with 10-20 head shots.

 

then i add in some mini-stages, 8-10 rounds with some movement, usually at least 2 partials. The only thing I worry about here is shot-calling.

 

Add in some stuff to focus on accurate shooting while moving, going 1-1 on steel (plate racks at 25 yards, alternating from side to side, etc...), hard leans, kneeling, prone, low-ports, and 10-12 other things, and there you go.

[SCTaylor]

In a setup like your describing, how do you gauge success?  On the timer?  

 

My issue is say you run the drill 10 times.

1.cold baseline

2.faster

3. About the same as 2

4. slower than 1 (wtf?)

5. faster than 2

6. About the same as 1

...

 

How do you determine what you did better in run 2 and in run 5?  or determine what you did in run 4 that made you slow?  Are you videoing your practice?  

 

Using Anderson’s terms, I start in match mode for a few runs documenting total time, draw, splits, transitions, scores, and make notes.

 

Next how ever many, I go speed mode while still documenting everything.

 

Then finish the drill with a few back in match mode.

 

I wrote the notes to identify good things or outliers. For instance one run was 4.67 in speed mode which was slower and I tripped over my feet moving from target 3 to 4. That run was on par with my faster times (4.2ish) based on draw, transitions and splits. So I know why that was slower.

 

Video is really nice to have but I only do it half the time. Just lazy really.

 

 

 

Here’s a photo of the notes I take.

 

 

As I said before, I work classifier Drills on occasion but not often. Starting or ending a session l’ll run the dots, distance change up, heads or similar to specifically work on gun handling and trigger control.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CrashDodson]

Do you take notes like this when running mini stage type stuff thats not really repeatable on a later day?

[SCTaylor]

Yup. Every drill is logged. The overall scores and times are not really comparable across different scenarios but each skill can be evaluated and improved.

For instance I know how long a 12 yard mini popper, 25 and 15 yard open targets take from a draw. By itself, parlor tricks, but in the course of a stage I can evaluate how that specific target was engaged.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited October 6, 2017 by SCTaylor

[CrashDodson]

This weekend I shot the High Desert Classic.  The week prior I only got a few nights of dry fire in and one half-hearted live fire session.  

 

Looking at the stage diagrams and then walking the stages I was not really enthusiastic about the match.  It looked like a carnival match, literally with a roller coaster with two targets mounted on it.  

 

While I dont like gimmicky stuff the match was still pretty fun to shoot.  The stages were a mix of hose and difficult targets with several movers with activation sequences that could be timed to your benefit or leave you standing and waiting.  I got to shoot the match with @CHA-LEE.  Its always great having a GM on your squad to hold down and beat until they give up their stage plans.  Since Charlie is easily 6'4 I skipped the beating part and just hovered around instead.  A lot of the stages were straight forward but a few had options and Charlie really helped me make the best decisions.  

 

I ended up 5th overall and 3rd master in Limited.  My best major match performance to-date.  I shot 86% of Charlie who was the overall match winner.  I felt I shot the match pretty well and within my current skill level.  I shot the match more aggressively then I have been shooting this year, but not intentionally.  Charlie shot the match a little over 20 seconds faster than I did.  While there were a few seconds that I could have saved in a few places by not hesitating as much, he just flat out shoots faster than I can right now.  He shoots partials with the same confidence as open targets, and that is an area I need to work on.  

 

I walked away from the match with 3 mikes and 2 no shoots.  The 3 mikes all came on the same stage.  It was a memory type stage with targets that ranged from a few yards out to at least 30 yards.  There was a lot of hard cover targets at pretty far distances (USPSA far).  The first mike came from pulling off a target too soon, I rushed and it bit me.  The second was on a partial target with upper half of the target available at about 25 yards.  I called two acceptable shots on the target and ended up with a great group about 3 inches down into the hard cover.  Shooting partials at distance is something I am going to add into my training.  One no shoot was from the wobbly bridge, there were 4 mini poppers with no shoots behind them.  Broke the perf on one.  The other I took an unnecessary makeup shot on a max trap as the NS was coming up and nicked the head of the NS.  For whatever reason I shot steel at this match better than I ever have before.  Things just connected for me and I am not 100% sure what I was doing any different than any other match.  My head was really clear, I was just there to shoot.  In my video there are obvious times where I am still hesitating/over aiming.  On one stage I had a half loaded mag on my belt, a bone head mistake that I have not made before.   

 

Two stages had strong hand shooting.  While I practice strong hand dry fire, I rarely practice it live fire.  While i shot good points on these stages, I did so pretty slowly.  I need to throw one handed shooting into my training so that I have the confidence to do it quicker in a match.  I know I shot one handed pretty slowly due to just lack of confidence.  

 

I have a few weeks to put in a little more work before the Gator classic to finish up my year.  

 

 

[CHA-LEE]

It was fun shooting with you at the HDC this past weekend. Hopefully we can get a chance to shoot together again some time soon

[CrashDodson]

After high desert I did not touch my gun for a week.  Not sure why...just had no motivation.  I got back to dry firing this week and was surprised to start smashing par times right from the start.  Perhaps a break every now and then is a good thing.  I have only been dry firing once in the evening, hopefully getting back into my two a day routine next week after Gator.  I have not shot a live round since High desert.  Struggling to keep the home life in good shape while also pursuing this GM dream.  

 

For the last 6 days I have had crazy neck pain.  It just started one day and got to the point where I could hardly turn my head.  Ive been to the chiro twice and its getting better but still not 100%.  I turn 35 next month...I guess the wheels are starting to fall off.  

[StuckinMS]

Don't worry...the wheels eventually run you over lol.  Youth is to be cherished. 

[CHA-LEE]

If you start having numbness, tingling or strength loss in either arm/hand then your neck pain is likely a ruptured disk that is pushing on some nerves. 

 

I went though two separate ruptured neck disk events and they both sucked big time and took many months to recover from. I have permanent strength loss and numbness in both of my hands/arms from both rupture’s. 

 

Good luck with your neck pain. I hope it’s something simple and not serious.

[CrashDodson]

How was that diagnosed?  I dont know all the parts of the spine but my pain is right at the base of my neck level with the colar bone area.  He said it was inflamed but blamed most of it on my job where i sit for many hours a day.  Did you have xrays or a ct scan or something like that?

Edited October 27, 2017 by CrashDodson

[CHA-LEE]

They had to do an MRI both times to confirm that it was a disk rupture. The neck pain on both of mine was in the same base of neck even with the colar bones area. The first disk to blow out was C7 then about a year and a half later C6 let go. Both of these disk ruptures happened out of the blue. The first was simply waking up one morning with a mild neck ache then it progressively got worse through the day to the point that I couldn't even move. The second one happened much the same way as well. I wish I could correlate a significant physical trauma event with these disks failing like being in a car wreck and then its hurt right after that, but for me that isn't how it happened. I do spend most of my day on a computer with a posture that isn't the best, and my doctor said that is probably the primary contributor. 

 

From a pain perspective, my neck obviously had pain but there was also equal or worse pain in my arms due to the nerves being pinched by the ruptured disk. The combined pain in the neck and arm was monumental. Having arm or hand pain as well as neck pain depends on the direction of the disk rupture. If the disk rupture blows out in the direction of the nerve bundles on the sides of the vertebra then it will pinch the nerves and cause these arm/hand pain and numbness issues.

 

These neck injuries reset my understanding of what serious pain feels like. It absolutely sucked for a long time.

[Jake Di Vita]

2 hours ago, CHA-LEE said:

I do spend most of my day on a computer with a posture that isn't the best, and my doctor said that is probably the primary contributor. 

 

1000%. People don't appreciate how important posture is. It sounds funny, but sitting and standing in the best bio-mechanical positions are actually high skill activities. I knew a lady that had a horrible habit of running tons of miles with her head hanging down, then one day she sneezed and blew out two cervical discs. No history of problems before that. The body doesn't just fail like that for no reason, it likely takes years of abuse and neglect before something like this happens.
 

A DPT friend of mine told me once that 98% of injuries are preventable with unpreventable ones being 1% catastrophic (car crash, lineman rolling into your knee) and the other 1% being pathological (knee cancer, etc).

 

Here is a good explanation of what's going on with the sitting position and posture.

[CrashDodson]

Ive been doing a set of stretches the Chiro gave to me,  hitting ibuprofen pretty hard and icing my neck in the evening.  Im not 100% but it is much better at the moment.  I've been looking into stand up desk options for work.  

 

This weekend I made the 8 hour trek to the shreveport area for the Gator Classic.  I had second thoughts about going at the last minute because i really really really hate being cold.  The weather outlook for the first day was low 30's high 50's with similar on the second day.  I put my very warm big boy pants on and made the trip.  I got to walk all of the stages on friday, most everything was really fast and hoser style stages.  Very few no shoots, two swingers and one clam shell.  I got to meet and shoot with @SCTaylor which was cool.  Hes a great guy and great shooter and we traded film duties.  We had a great squad that fought over pasting targets all day.  Never had another squad so eager to paste before.  We had a diverse squad with every division but PCC represented.    

 

Stage 1 had a stomp plate activator for a swinger where the swinger was not visible while activating.  This is the first time I had come across this and decided there was no way to really try to time this and chose to play the stage conservative.  I ended up taking 3rd on that stage.  I think I shot the stage close to my current skill and dont think there is much more I could have done without being risky.  

 

Stage 2 had a GIANT popper so close I could have thrown a bullet at it faster then it took me too shoot it. There was also a clam shell that activated slow but once activated moved really fast with a no shoot in the center and the closed no shoot leaving head shots.  I chose to come in on the activator and wait on the clam, which felt like forever.  Beside the activator was a stacked target with a full presentation on the bottom and a half covered target above.  In hindsight I should have taken the bottom target then went to the clam.   

 

Stage 3 was where my first mike of the day reared its head.  It was coming in on a target while moving with a transition to a popper.  The target was easy enough I just wasn't patient enough.  This lack of patience cost me 10-12 spots on this stage.  

 

Stage 5 was my worst stage of the day.  Unloaded start and I didn't seat my mag properly a 3 second mistake.  I then took a mike on a target shot while moving right after a reload....patience grasshopper.  These mistakes were worth 25+ spots.  

 

Stage 6 was a bit frustrating for me.  There were two targets in the center split by a double stacked barrel.  I came into these targets and they had not been pasted.  This instantly caused weird things to happen in my head.  Targets were super close so the holes were easy to see and it messed with my head.  I took a mike on the second target or a perfect double, where the round went on this 5 yard target i don't know.  I had Troy come over and that's when I learned that it doesn't matter if they were not pasted if the previous shooter was shooting a different caliber.  I don't see how that is fair because while yes you can see the difference in the holes, I was not given clean pasted targets like everyone else.  If the target was 20 yards away it wouldn't have mattered, but with the targets so close it really messed with my head seeing the holes already in the target.  

 

I left the first day with more mikes in one match then I have ever had before.  I was down on myself a bit but I was able to come back and shoot a clean second day.  On the last stage of the day I had to visit with Troy again.  There was a target with a barrel that I glanced a round off of, this round impacted in the same spot as my first clean round, leaving a slug sized hole.  The original RO call was two mike.  I had him come back over, showed him a partial grease ring/radius and asked to see the hole in the barrel.  We could not find any new holes, just one scrape mark.  He changed the call to Charlie Mike and I asked for the Range Master.  Troy came over and quickly determined it was two hits, it took them a little while to make a call on the placement of the second hit but I walked away with two charlie.  My squad was very supportive and are the ones that encouraged me to have the range master look at the target.  I cant thank them enough.  This one call would have changed my match standing drastically.  

 

I ended up with a 6th place overall limited finish and 3rd Limited Master.  I had 8 hours of drive home to lick my wounds and contemplate my mistakes.  Im going to hit this off season with hard focused practice and see what I can make happen next year.   

 

 

 

[CrashDodson]

In an effort to improve my shot calling I bought a v4 rts2 from someone in the forums and ordered a cheely mount.  I slapped it on the gun last night, dont yet have long enough screws to also attach my thumb rest.  I messed with it briefly last night doing draws, it took about 5 minutes for me to start getting the dot every time.  Did some more dry fire this morning including weak/strong hand and I dont seem to be having any trouble with the dot just being there 95% of the time.  This is really surprising with the height of the dot and mount.  I dont understand the mechanics of why it works but it is just working without a lot of effort.  

 

I may have ruined the mount using the wrong RTS2 screws but I am not going to touch it unless it starts getting loose.  I will hopefully get to shoot it a little this week.  I briefly owned a p320RX in an attempt to better my shot calling but after one day at the range I was done with that.  Im spoiled with my 2011 trigger and wont ever be shooting anything else competitively. 

 

I call my new gun the LimDot.  

 

Greg at Peine Custom Firearms is building me a second gun just like this one so I will have a new fresh gun for 2018 and cycle this one as my backup.  I ran this season with borrowed backup guns at major matches but never had to use them.  The only trouble I had was with the PT ambi safeties I started building up a large callous on my strong hand index finger where the safety would push into.  It got so bad that I had trouble disengaging the safety.  I took a dremel to it, and as you can see scuffed it a bit.  I am sending Greg the dimensions of my safety mod so the new gun will fit my hand perfect.  

Edited November 7, 2017 by CrashDodson

[CHA-LEE]

Shot calling with a dot is quite different than with irons. Sure the dot makes you much more aware of what the gun is doing as its firing, but the actual shot calling process is much different given the dramatically different visual process involved. For example, if you are running a dot gun at the proper aggressive rate of fire it is rare that the dot is ever stationary. You need to learn how much dot movement or streaking equals a given hit quality at any given distance. Not to mention learning how to maintain a hard target focus and peripherally observe the dot scrambling around on the target. I am not saying that shooting a dot won't teach you something, as it will. But from a pure shot calling perspective verses irons its very different.

[Glock26Toter]

Hopefully this is a useful tool for you by adding diversity and hopefully more understanding.  Keep in mind that shot calling is not defined by what you see.  It's how well you see it and how quickly you can recognize it and react to it. 

[CrashDodson]

Ive been through several iterations of my Limdot gun now and found the only viable solution for this temporary experiment.  I ended up having to get a bomar mount for the RTS2 and remove the rear sight.  This puts the dot about as low to the bore as I think it can get, but will will be moving with the slide, we will see if it will survive a few months.  Hopefully I will have my new Peine Custom pistol soon and can still shoot local matches as limited without having to replace and re-zero sights on this gun.  

 

I have been dry firing with it and right off I can see how it could improve my patience on steel.  I have a few simulated poppers and this morning I was working on some small movement drills where I would come in on the popper and its really in your face how low you need to get to stabilize that dot.  This is something that is harder to see with irons, at least for me, and a problem I have had in the past.  It is very surprising how little time it has taken to get my index working with the dot.  

 

I hosted an RO class at our range this weekend and its the first time I have shot live with the dot.  Without zeroing it I was able to hit alphas at 10 yards without any trouble.  The dot moves quite a bit on this limited gun but seems to be tracking fairly consistent up-right (having only shot maybe 32 rounds). I am hoping to get some live fire practice in with the dot, its just difficult right now with the silly time change, holiday season and my wife and I trying to start a business.  I've really slacked the last two weeks on my dry fire, only picking up the gun a few times.  I could tell the time off has hurt me in drills such as 6 reload 6 reload 6....You have to be a robot to hit that drill in a smoking time and I was off my normal pace by 3-4 tenths at first.  Working to re-ignite my focus and intensity....and it starts with dragging my ass out of bed on these colder mornings and into a colder garage.  GM in 2018.

[CrashDodson]

Due to the time change, winter weather and my whole family getting the flu I have not been able to get out and practice live like I had planned with my dot experiment.  I have dry fired a bit with the dot, besides maybe first shots being slightly faster I am not noticing much speed difference in dry fire with the dot.  

 

I have shot 3 matches with the dot and after getting used to how much the dot moves I took second overall at our local match yesterday shooting 98.5 percent of a local open GM.  I have found you are able to shoot sooner when you transition between targets since there is not really any sight picture refinement that has to be done, just watch the dot and shoot.  Shooting steel has become faster, though at first the dot was very distracting for me on steel.  It is a lot faster shooting longer distance targets.  I shot good points with only 2 D's, scoring targets I saw that I had makeups on some D's and some close C's.  There were also two mikes that I made up.  One was on the Virginia count classifier, I shot early on a transition and instantly made it up, taking the extra shot penalty.  I was definitely more excited about the makeup then I was upset about the penalty.  I found shooting weak/strong accurately with the dot is A LOT easier than with irons.   

 

Overall it has been fun.  I have found that it is easier to process calling the shot when all you have to be concerned with is where that dot was when the shot breaks.  Not having to process the relationship between the notch and the front sight makes shot calling faster and easier.  I find a lot of times when I have called a bad shot in limited I have already transitioned off of the target by the time im registering the bad shot.  I am then wasting time returning to that target for the makeup. 

 

I am taking a class with JJ in two weeks so I am taking the dot off, and i likely wont put it back on until the mid year break in majors.  To better call my shots in limited I am going to have to find a way to pay more attention to the sight alignment, while not slowing down, and make that sight picture more important.  

 

 

[Jake Di Vita]

Why would you take the dot off for JJ's class? I feel like you haven't put in enough hours behind the dot for it to have taught you very much yet. It's still only February. If I were you I would keep working with the dot at least until April or May (I don't know your match schedule obviously). It won't be as hard as you think to switch back to irons.

 

You've taken quite a few classes now haven't you? Remember the class isn't what makes you better. Applying what you learned from the class in practice is. You can obviously do whatever you want, but as someone that's been helping you from afar for awhile, I think your time, money, and effort would be much better spent in practice rather than instruction at this point. You already possess most of the knowledge you need, now it's just a matter of experience and training age....hours behind the gun. 

 

What does your major match schedule look like this year?

Edited February 5, 2018 by Jake Di Vita

[CrashDodson]

I'm taking the class with JJ again solely because I am the one that organized the class for our club so I get a comped slot.  I could definitely leave the dot on, I suppose that wouldn't really change anything as far as the class goes and that would be 1500+ rounds more behind the dot.  The bigger reason behind thinking about taking it off was the space city challenge at the end of February.  I am not yet 100% set on going because the match is only half full 3 weeks out and cant see paying $150 to shoot a half full level two match.  

 

I agree 100% on needing to apply whats being learned vs taking more classes.   

 

Schedule so far looks like this:

 

 Feb 23  Space city challenge (Maybe)

April 27th Texas State Open

May 11th Oklahoma Sectional

June 09 Double Tap

Sep 08 New Mexico Sectional

Sep 13 Area 4

Oct 04 Oilfield Classic (Maybe)

Oct 26-28 Limited Nationals

 

High Desert (Not released)

Gator Classic (not released)

Cowtown (not released)

[Jake Di Vita]

14 minutes ago, CrashDodson said:

I'm taking the class with JJ again solely because I am the one that organized the class for our club so I get a comped slot.  I could definitely leave the dot on, I suppose that wouldn't really change anything as far as the class goes and that would be 1500+ rounds more behind the dot.  The bigger reason behind thinking about taking it off was the space city challenge at the end of February.  I am not yet 100% set on going because the match is only half full 3 weeks out and cant see paying $150 to shoot a half full level two match.  

 

Cool. Good stuff. Since you are on the fence about it and it is so close, I would say skip Space City and work the dot til April 1, then go full back to Limited. That gives you almost 4 weeks to readjust, which I think you'll find to be more than enough.

 

I think the two things you focus on for the next 2 months with the dot is shot calling and shooting on the move. I think the dot is uniquely valuable to those two skills and you'll probably get the most out of your time if you practice with a bias towards them. The month you'd have before Texas State Open would then be spent applying what you learned to irons.

 

Just my suggestion.

[CrashDodson]

This sounds like a good plan.  I have JJ's class this thursday/friday and will run the dot for the class.  Was going to try to get some live practice in this weekend but it just didnt happen.  I might try to get to and indoor range this week and run some dot drills.  

[CrashDodson]

JJ's class was really good.  This was his "level 2" class and really focused on movement and changing gears.  We worked a lot on shooting on the move, entering and exiting positions, shooting sooner and leaving sooner.  He setup drills for us that him and Eric used in preparation for world shoot.  I am walking away from the training with several good drills to work on.

 

I had trouble coming into a position and shooting small steel, which has always been a problem.  During the class it was a mix of trigger control, tumbling bullets and my dot moving.  I had to re-tighten my bomar mount for the rts2 multiple times during the class, even though it was loctited when I originally installed it.  I guess I didn't use the correct loctite or its just going to be an issue.  On the second day I might have also consumed a little too much monster and gotten a little of the shakes.  .  I feel like I really learned a lot about how to properly come into positions and turn static positions into shooting on the move opportunities.  I learned that I can shoot relatively accurately while moving faster then I ever thought possible. 

 

Shot calling is becoming more of a reality with the dot.  There were many times were I saw the dot dip low and made it up quick.  Or fired a quick makeup and JJ asked what I saw or felt and sometimes all I could say was I dont know where the shot went so I shot again.  JJ talked about shot calling like more of a feeling than knowing exactly where the bad shot went, for him just feeling that it was a bad shot was enough.  Either feeling a bad trigger pull or seeing something in the sights that made you feel the shot was bad.  This is similar to how Ben has talked about shot calling in his classes.  I will say its a lot easier to call shots bad with the dot, I dont know if this will carry over to irons or not but hopefully I will be getting something out of it.  

[Jake Di Vita]

24 minutes ago, CrashDodson said:

JJ talked about shot calling like more of a feeling than knowing exactly where the bad shot went, for him just feeling that it was a bad shot was enough.  Either feeling a bad trigger pull or seeing something in the sights that made you feel the shot was bad.  This is similar to how Ben has talked about shot calling in his classes. 

 

There's a lot to unpack here. On the face this seems weird that you can execute a visual process (shot calling) by feel instead of vision.

 

I think this is true but it's not something that you try to do. It's a consequence of thousands of hours of work. You don't just go from seeing nothing to shot calling nirvana. The literal aspect of shot calling, meaning what you actually see the sights do, provides more input than just visual. When you're really seeing what's going on in front of you with the gun, you're able to develop kind of a neurological road map where you'll intuitively know how the gun is performing by how it feels because you'll have the data bank of what you're feeling means visually from the thousands of reps you have seen in the past. 

 

In my view, the only way you can learn to call shots by feel is to call tens of thousands of shots by vision and connect what you're seeing to what you're feeling at the same time. In other words, keep focusing on vision and there's a good chance this is what your shot calling will morph into when you master it, as Ben and JJ clearly have.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Jake Di Vita