Crash Log

[CrashDodson]

@Jake Di Vita I am definitely going to check out that mobility wod.  

 

This weekend I shot the Arkansas sectional.  It was hot and a lot more humid than I am used to.  I easily drank one bottle of water a stage plus a little extra.  From my cycling days I have some hammer nutrition electrolyte pills and I took one of those every few hours as well.  There was one point in the match were i started to get a flushed/tingling feeling.  I dunked a towel in the cooler and wrapped it around my neck and it seemed to provide some relief.  

 

I went into the match feeling good.  I had done a lot of practice since double tap on small steel and transition change ups from easy paper to hard steel.  I think during the time of my wrist injury and loss of strength I have created some problems with my grip.  On the first stage of the day which was a simple speed shoot I had some sort of malfunction, racked the slide and the mag fell out.  Same thing that happened at double tap.  I believe I am relaxing my grip and my hand is coming in contact with the mag release (which already has the smallest button possible and a high power spring).  This issue cost me about 6 seconds of time putting me 13th on the stage.   

 

On another stage there was an interesting activator sequence with several options.  One popper activated two swingers, with one swinger being considerably slower than the other.  I took the option I saw some salty open shooters take on the stage, and from others match video the common way to shoot the stage.  I had a mike on the slow swinger.  After shooting the swinger you would shuffle to the last position.  This was obviously rushing and not calling my shots.  

 

There was one quick stage with two walls angled to the inside of the stage (upside down V) with 6 square plates setup so that you had to create two positions to shoot them all, with paper on the outside of the stage.  I shot the right paper and first 3 plates as well as I could and then the 4th plate, before the movement to the next position, took 4 FOUR 1 2 3 4 shots to hit.  This was about a 4 second mistake.  This was beyond frustrating since it was specifically what I had been practicing the week before.  I adjusted my grip on the last shot and hit the plate.  This may go back to the weakness in my support hand from the wrist injury.  

  

There were 3 stages with plate racks and I did not shoot any of them clean.  

 

I had one stage win, the last stage of the day which was a big field course with a seated table start.  It had everything.  Long distance poppers, a plate rack, tight partials and a swinger.  I won this stage by almost 5% even with 2 makeup shots on the plate rack.    

 

I ended up 4th in limited, shooting 94% of the GM that won.  This week I am really focusing on my grip in dry fire.  I think I have been complacent with my grip since I got my cast off and I need to fix it.  I have got to find a way to correct my trouble shooting steel.  At this point I think its a combination of grip and patience but it has been an issue that comes and goes since I started shooting USPSA.   

Edited June 19, 2018 by CrashDodson

[CrashDodson]

Had a little eye opener tonight in dry fire which goes along with what @Jake Di Vita and @CHA-LEE were saying about my feet.   I got bit by something in Arkansas and I have red welts on my feet and legs that itch like crazy. Dry firing tonight and I was starting with simple draws to sight picture. My legs were itching like crazy so I rotated my leg a little on the ball of my foot being antsy with my itching. My sights started moving as I did that. I started playing with it and my sights would move as I moved my feet. Even though I had an aggressive bent knee stance.  I started playing with it and it was really difficult to keep the sights steady while rotating just one foot. Never would have noticed it if I was trying to shoot fast. This helped to reinforce the idea that I need a stable platform to shoot accurately and I need to work on that. 

[CrashDodson]

Shot a local match today, 5 stages with 91 round count.  Smallest match I have shot in a while.  I did not run into any issues with me pressing the mag button thankfully.  I did run into more issues hitting steel.  I am not having trouble shooting steel in practice, at this point Im at a loss as to how to fix it.  I ended up 2nd in limited behind my M class buddy shooting minor.  Fun squad full of goof balls.  I changed the magwell on the gun I shot today with the new limcat magwell.  It is heavier than my dawson but it seems impossible for the mag to not go in if you at least hit the magwell.  It also seems to produce a slightly tighter grip with the web of my strong hand firmly in the beaver tail.  

 

The stage with the swinger was a mess.  The plan was to shoot the two mini poppers, activator, popper then swinger.  Obviously that didnt go as planned.  

 

On the last stage the plate rack really went poorly.  There was also a 40 yard paper target that I had what I thought was two solid sight pictures on but ended up with alpha mike.  Looks like I pulled off the target early without calling my shot when transitioning to the last paper.  

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2018 by CrashDodson

[CrashDodson]

Not sure why I cant keep my log updated.  Ive been training at the range pretty hard.  I have access to a range only a few miles from my house now and have been shooting 2-3 times a week.  Have had a few issues with nerves the last few "major" matches and I have been working through that.  Went to area 4 recently and did not do as well as I had hoped.   Ended up 14/99 in limited and 6/12 Limited master.  I had two malfunctions, one was a round that didnt chamber correctly and the other was im guessing a tall primer.  That doesnt make up the time discrepancy between me and 1st place limited.  

 

My total time for the match was 197.  while first limited was 169.  28 seconds over 12 stages is hard to swallow.  I am not sure where I can gain that type of time.  2-3 seconds for the malfunctions and a few seconds for steel makeup shots.  I had one near fall on a stage that cost me a second, and another stage where I lost my footing.  There was a hole that had been created by the time we shot the stage and when I moved positions it felt almost like I had stepped out of bounds when instead i had put my foot in the hole. I had 3 mikes.  One was on a swinger and by the time it processed in my head I was already too far ahead in my stage plan to make it up.  Another was on another swinger in which there was a tricky activation sequence I tried to push to get an edge, and it didn't work out.  I did not see that miss but know I pulled off the target early.  I don't recall where miss #3 was.  

 

Here are a few videos from A4.  My video guy has since been fired, but I wasn't paying him much so...  

 

 

[CHA-LEE]

I see one significant area of time waste........... Look at your shooting position exit foot work and body movement. There are several times where you are doing a stutter drop step to get going or doing a slow lean at the waist back to straight before you can get going. The root cause of this is your stance being circumvented in the position to start off with. Your natural tendency is to stop the footwork where ever it is once you start the transition off of the first target within the array. This leads to a lot of shooting while one foot is up in a tippy toe position which kills your ability to transition to the next target with aggression. The basic mantra of "Whatever strange foot/body positions you get yourself into, you also have to get out of". Getting into and out of these funky foot/body positions all take extra time. Eliminate the wasted time by not allowing yourself to get into those strange positions in the first place. 

[CrashDodson]

 

Like this?

[CrashDodson]

[CrashDodson]

 

[CrashDodson]

 

Think i was doing it here too and after I had already come in more flat footed.  So I need to find a way to setup, maybe lower, so that I am not doing that?

 

I made a video of where I think some of the bad movements are...not 100% how to correct them.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by CrashDodson

[CHA-LEE]

32 minutes ago, CrashDodson said:

 

Like this?

 

Yes and look at how your cone of fire is NOT encompassing the targets you are engaging. You are pointing the gun way left past your effective cone of fire and doing the tippy toe is your way of dealing with that invalid overall foot placement within the position. Using a stance where all of the targets are within your cone of fire will eliminate the need to do the tippy toe to reach all of the targets.

[CHA-LEE]

There are a lot of instances in your videos, not just this match either, where you are "Reaching For" targets well outside of your effective cone of fire. Any time we do that it dramatically reduces our ability to manage the recoil, transition between targets, or exit the position with aggression.

 

You can use the natural point of your toes to define the reasonable limit of your effective cone of fire. When targets are outside the natural point of your toes they are likely beyond your effective cone of fire. Changing the width of the effective cone of fire is usually done by using a wider more crouched stance and setting your natural point of aim in the proper direction within the shooting position.

 

All of this stuff is explained really well in my book Path of Focused Effort............  You may have heard of it

Edited September 26, 2018 by CHA-LEE

[CrashDodson]

1 hour ago, CHA-LEE said:

 

All of this stuff is explained really well in my book Path of Focused Effort............  You may have heard of it

I may already have it

 

Need to re read.  Thanks Charlie. 

[CrashDodson]

Went to the range this morning, we already had some stages setup from a previous match.  I forgot my gun and belt.  So I did some dry runs and noticed that I will come into a position and tend to drag my trailing foot which then leads to the reaching tippy toe thing.  It just happens.  I guess its something that will have to be deprogrammed at this point. 

[CHA-LEE]

Just like the GI Joe cartoon use to say........ "Knowing is half the battle".

[CrashDodson]

Shot the high desert classic in Alburqueue this weekend.  Ended up 3rd limited master and 7th overall in limited.  I had 7 mikes.   Hell I had 3 on the first stage of the match.  It was a memory stage with poor morning lighting but still...Obvious lack of shot calling.  There was one stage with two swingers activated by poppers.  I had alpha mike on both.  Perhaps something there that deserves some attention in practice.  Going to just focus on accuracy and shot calling until nationals.  

 

I swear the more I practice the worse I perform.  Makes me rethink some life choices.  I dont have any video edited yet, just here to vent,  there were a couple of stages were I shot really well and the rest I just gave up too many points. 

One stage had a roller coaster prop like last year.  I felt crazy slow shooting the stage, and even look slow on video, but ended up 2nd place and 95% of the GM limited winner of that stage and overall match winner.  There is something to take away from that in that I need to shoot more in control.  I need to get this mental stuff figured out.      

[B_RAD]

3 hours ago, CrashDodson said:

Shot the high desert classic in Alburqueue this weekend.  Ended up 3rd limited master and 7th overall in limited.  I had 7 mikes.   Hell I had 3 on the first stage of the match.  It was a memory stage with poor morning lighting but still...Obvious lack of shot calling.  There was one stage with two swingers activated by poppers.  I had alpha mike on both.  Perhaps something there that deserves some attention in practice.  Going to just focus on accuracy and shot calling until nationals.  

 

I swear the more I practice the worse I perform.  Makes me rethink some life choices.  I dont have any video edited yet, just here to vent,  there were a couple of stages were I shot really well and the rest I just gave up too many points. 

One stage had a roller coaster prop like last year.  I felt crazy slow shooting the stage, and even look slow on video, but ended up 2nd place and 95% of the GM limited winner of that stage and overall match winner.  There is something to take away from that in that I need to shoot more in control.  I need to get this mental stuff figured out.      

Did what Ben say on pstg about nerves help? Assuming what your thing about here is nerves?

 

I read his answer to your question the night before A4 and focused on that and it really helped me. 

 

 

[CrashDodson]

I didnt have nerves as bad as usual.  I also am trying some medicine to help with it.  I talked to Ben a bit and he said part of the problem is as you train harder and improve you start expecting more of yourself.  I think sometimes at matches I tend to "over try" if thats the right way to describe it.  During my make ready I have started telling myself to relax.  Ive tried to make it a point to focus on exactly where on the target I intend to shoot in the walk through vs just where the targets are and the order I will shoot them.   

 

I dont think that I get intimidated by the major match stages.  Not in that I think there is a challenge I am not cable of.  I am there to try and do well and I think pushing the speed is causing me to drop too many points and not see everything that I need to see.  Sometimes I tend to push certain things like activator sequences and I am just shooting at the swinger rather than shooting at a specific spot on the target.  I also think my brain is on the next thing too soon rather than watching the sight picture and making an assessment of the shot.  There were times at the match where I had the thought/feeling that I had a bad shot, but by that time it was too late and would have been worse to take the makeup shot rather than just leave it.  

Edited October 9, 2018 by CrashDodson

[Furrly]

It sounds like your decribing me.. Thanks for sharing, so frustrated with my match results lately. 

[CHA-LEE]

The disconnect you are experiencing is most likely due to dry firing or visualizing the stage run in a different manner versus what happens in reality. I challenge you to perform this assessment the next time you attend a match. Once you have your stage plan figured out and dry fired enough have a squad mate video a full stage dry fire run. Then video your live fire stage run. Compare what you are doing differently between both runs. Any variation between the two is a sign of doing something wrong in your dry fire process.

 

when I do this I like to use a shot timer in par time mode so I can have a start and stop signal during the dry fire run. Don’t try to “chase” a specific time either. Simply tune the par time to match whatever the dry fire run ends up being consistently. 

 

My goal is to have a dry fire time that is within half a second of my live fire time on large field courses. The shorter the stage the closer the times should be between dry and live.

[jnr88]

Don't know what Bill is taking but PHD are a no no in most sports. Amatuer or professional.

[jnr88]

Steve Anderson just posted this Crash. You may find this helpful. 10 ways to handle match stress.

 

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/5/7/4/5743ba0e48a84525/mmAM0004.mp3?c_id=23885314&cs_id=23885314&expiration=1539362027&hwt=7e45cb161a377436d162c2608e040508

[arkadi]

I resolved all my mental problems with Lanny Bassham book With Winning in Mind and consuming about half-a-year worth or Steve Anderson podcast. Steve talks over and over about same typical shooter's issues, which includes expectations, rushing, trying. After about 1 month - which is like 10 hours of listening - it starts to repeat itself, but I just keep listening to reinforce my attitude. It's also funny if you like the style, and I like it.

 

When it's my turn to shoot, I know what to do, what is my sequence. I know who I'm and what I can do. I know, nothing could I invent on the line will help with the score - contrary, conflicting directives (trying) will introduce de-automatization into my skills and thus errors. The heartbeat stays the same, the world behind my back doesn't exist. I know I can win an SHO stage from a world-class Open GM (and I do) and destroy anyone on a WHO. It doesn't change my attitude or introduce any expectation into the process. If I train wreck it (and I do) - that's fine too.

 

There is no struggle anymore. Everything - dry fire, live fire, and matches became total enjoyment.

Edited October 12, 2018 by arkadi

[CrashDodson]

Ive read all of Lanny's books multiple times.  As well as numerous other self help type books on sports performance.  They have yet to have a drastic input on my match day self.  

[B_RAD]

On 10/8/2018 at 10:16 PM, CrashDodson said:

I didnt have nerves as bad as usual.  I also am trying some medicine to help with it.  I talked to Ben a bit and he said part of the problem is as you train harder and improve you start expecting more of yourself.  I think sometimes at matches I tend to "over try" if thats the right way to describe it.  During my make ready I have started telling myself to relax.  Ive tried to make it a point to focus on exactly where on the target I intend to shoot in the walk through vs just where the targets are and the order I will shoot them.   

 

I dont think that I get intimidated by the major match stages.  Not in that I think there is a challenge I am not cable of.  I am there to try and do well and I think pushing the speed is causing me to drop too many points and not see everything that I need to see.  Sometimes I tend to push certain things like activator sequences and I am just shooting at the swinger rather than shooting at a specific spot on the target.  I also think my brain is on the next thing too soon rather than watching the sight picture and making an assessment of the shot.  There were times at the match where I had the thought/feeling that I had a bad shot, but by that time it was too late and would have been worse to take the makeup shot rather than just leave it.  

 

I know I expect more as I get better. I actually have to tell myself sometimes that I'm being unrealistic in what I'm expecting from my performance. I want to shoot super squad level but don't have the experience and haven't put in the time to build my skill to that level. 

 

All that stuff in the 2nd paragraph sounds like normal obstacles to me. Stuff that I'd think the top guys had to overcome. I feel like I'm working on those same issues too!

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by B_RAD