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Mental prep before the timer.


e5young

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I agree, but one thing I'd like to add on this:

Still, those guys have all spent a couple days looking at the stages and strategizing during the staff match, so even a complicated stage should be pretty well dissected and understood I think.

The purpose of why I take my time during make ready isn't because the stage isn't well dissected or understood. It is the very last moment I have to deeply visualize what I am about to do. I've tested it enough to know for a fact my scores are better when I visualize one last time after make ready than if I don't.

I bet a dollar you're not taking that much time, not enough to annoy me anyway. I agree that last visualization can be helpful, but it doesn't (imho) take long enough to have an effect on the length of the match.

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My standard make ready routine:

Optic is on before the make ready

Draw to first target plus first transition

Adjust dot brightness if needed

Perhaps a 2nd draw to first target if I didn't like the first one

Load

One last Sight picture

Holster

Turn camera on if I'm filming the run

Visualize (if I mess something up in my visualization, I'll restart it)

A couple dry grips

Nod

The time all that takes varies on the stage. Sometimes it's shorter, sometimes it's longer. I've only had maybe one RO say something to me in 10-15 years and that didn't go over very well. To be bluntly honest, I don't care if my make ready routine annoys anyone. Until it is against the rules that is what I'm going to do. I'm not trying to take a lot of time or annoy someone, I'm trying to set myself up for the best performance I can muster. I also know for certain I am no where near the slowest out there and it doesn't bother me when someone takes more time than I do.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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My standard make ready routine:

Optic is on before the make ready

Draw to first target plus first transition

Adjust dot brightness if needed

Perhaps a 2nd draw to first target if I didn't like the first one

Load

One last Sight picture

Holster

Turn camera on if I'm filming the run

Visualize (if I mess something up in my visualization, I'll restart it)

A couple dry grips

Nod

The time all that takes varies on the stage. Sometimes it's shorter, sometimes it's longer. I've only had maybe one RO say something to me in 10-15 years and that didn't go over very well. To be bluntly honest, I don't care if my make ready routine annoys anyone. Until it is against the rules that is what I'm going to do. I'm not trying to take a lot of time or annoy someone, I'm trying to set myself up for the best performance I can muster. I also know for certain I am no where near the slowest out there and it doesn't bother me when someone takes more time than I do.

Well said Jake & you are not close to the slowest, not that it matters (Not a GM by accident!)

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My standard make ready routine:

Optic is on before the make ready

Draw to first target plus first transition

Adjust dot brightness if needed

Perhaps a 2nd draw to first target if I didn't like the first one

Load

One last Sight picture

Holster

Turn camera on if I'm filming the run

Visualize (if I mess something up in my visualization, I'll restart it)

A couple dry grips

Nod

The time all that takes varies on the stage. Sometimes it's shorter, sometimes it's longer. I've only had maybe one RO say something to me in 10-15 years and that didn't go over very well. To be bluntly honest, I don't care if my make ready routine annoys anyone. Until it is against the rules that is what I'm going to do. I'm not trying to take a lot of time or annoy someone, I'm trying to set myself up for the best performance I can muster. I also know for certain I am no where near the slowest out there and it doesn't bother me when someone takes more time than I do.

sounds about normal for a serious shooter. certainly wouldn't annoy me.... not that you care about that, lol.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We drive for hours and spend a lot of time and money practicing. We shoot our guns for maybe a minute in a local match, maybe 2-3 minutes in a major match? If a guy wants to stand in the box for a minute+ it doesn't bother me one bit. I expect the same courtesy when its my turn.

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This game is all about fun. If you feel pressured and don't do all the things in your personal routine to obtain your top performance you can get screwed. The screwed can be as little as loading an empty mag, or forgetting a target. It can also be as major as an AD and subsequent DQ.

Make your routine whatever you want, at your own pace.

I like all the "take your time... doesn't bother me" responses and encourage everyone to have that attitude. We all spend enough time at work all week worrying about how long stuff is taking. We don't need that at a match.

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I don't have a make ready process that takes forever but I do take my time to go through my routine. I don't allow the RO to hurry me and if they try I tell them flat out that I am not ready. There was only one instance at a major match when an RO was giving me an actual count down in seconds after the Make Ready command in how long I had to make ready that was only 10 seconds. By the time he got to "FIVE" I simply unloaded my Gun and held it open to him showing clear. Then holstered and requested a different RO. Some drama ensued and the RM ripped him a new ass for being a prick and a different RO was assigned to the stage. I was just surprised that the match was already half over and this guy had been doing it to every shooter before me but nobody stood up to him.

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I don't have a make ready process that takes forever but I do take my time to go through my routine.

I've RO'd you a couple times. Your routine is totally unremarkable and doesn't take long at all.

Your story on dealing with an RO trying to push you is a good one. I can't believe no one else spoke up about it.

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I don't have a make ready process that takes forever but I do take my time to go through my routine. I don't allow the RO to hurry me and if they try I tell them flat out that I am not ready. There was only one instance at a major match when an RO was giving me an actual count down in seconds after the Make Ready command in how long I had to make ready that was only 10 seconds. By the time he got to "FIVE" I simply unloaded my Gun and held it open to him showing clear. Then holstered and requested a different RO. Some drama ensued and the RM ripped him a new ass for being a prick and a different RO was assigned to the stage. I was just surprised that the match was already half over and this guy had been doing it to every shooter before me but nobody stood up to him.[/quote

Couldn't have been in A6. Lol

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It might be too obvious to merit mention, but mental prep should include knowing the stage requirements; e.g., start position (normal, surrender, hands on table/wall, seated not standing, etc.), gun and mags on table, loaded or unloaded, or in holster/pouches, number of shots required on paper (might be something other than 2, like 1 or 3 or 4 or 6), whether you have the option to start in one box or another or must start in a specific box, whether there are mandatory reloads and where those are, shot-limited or not, must shoot all paper before steel, or vice versa, or engage targets in any order, etc etc.

ROs, don't waste everyone's time with "Do you understand the course of fire?" when "Are you ready?" covers everything. I haven't done this yet but one of these times I'm going to answer, "Do you understand the course of fire?...and could you just please ask if I'm ready..."

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I don't have a make ready process that takes forever but I do take my time to go through my routine. I don't allow the RO to hurry me and if they try I tell them flat out that I am not ready. There was only one instance at a major match when an RO was giving me an actual count down in seconds after the Make Ready command in how long I had to make ready that was only 10 seconds. By the time he got to "FIVE" I simply unloaded my Gun and held it open to him showing clear. Then holstered and requested a different RO. Some drama ensued and the RM ripped him a new ass for being a prick and a different RO was assigned to the stage. I was just surprised that the match was already half over and this guy had been doing it to every shooter before me but nobody stood up to him.

Wow. That's amazing. Completely unprofessional on the RO's part.

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It might be too obvious to merit mention, but mental prep should include knowing the stage requirements; e.g., start position (normal, surrender, hands on table/wall, seated not standing, etc.), gun and mags on table, loaded or unloaded, or in holster/pouches, number of shots required on paper (might be something other than 2, like 1 or 3 or 4 or 6), whether you have the option to start in one box or another or must start in a specific box, whether there are mandatory reloads and where those are, shot-limited or not, must shoot all paper before steel, or vice versa, or engage targets in any order, etc etc.

ROs, don't waste everyone's time with "Do you understand the course of fire?" when "Are you ready?" covers everything. I haven't done this yet but one of these times I'm going to answer, "Do you understand the course of fire?...and could you just please ask if I'm ready..."

They should probably repeat the RO course as there is no command "Do you understand the course of fire?" The first command given to a shooter when they come to the line to shoot is: "Make Ready" ... Not "go ahead and make ready", or 'why don't you make ready" or "please proceed to make ready when you are ready" or the many other things I hear ...

The commands are pretty simply:

Make ready

Are you ready

Stand-by

"Beep"

If you are finished, unload & show clear

If clear, hammer down, holster

Range is clear

.... One of my pet peeves as a MD .......

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The commands are pretty simply:

Make ready

Are you ready

Stand-by

"Beep"

If you are finished, unload & show clear

If clear, hammer down, holster

Range is clear

.... One of my pet peeves as a MD .......

The "nod" thing from some of the earlier posts was bugging me.

It is actually distracting when I hear an RO tell me to give a nod or some such thing. I don't nod normally, I stand perfectly still when my make ready routine is done. This is as per the rules. And, per those same rules those commands listed above are it, nothing else should come out of the RO's mouth unless it's the word "stop".

With that said, when I am an RO, I don't mind being nodded at by a competitor. But NEVER, under any circumstance, should the RO instigate that "nod" conversation with the competitor.

Edited by Chris iliff
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yeah I'm not down with the nod or saying 'ready' etc.

I shoot to IPSC rules so there is a limit on what you can do in make ready time (cannot aim at targets or dry fire, but can take a sight picture on the ground and can do most other stuff).

I have seen guys rock up to the line, chuck in a mag and away they go. then there are guys that will step up, basically dry fire the whole stage from the start box (just using their hands in a shooting grip), then do a couple of draws, then insert all of their 5 mags into the gun one and a time, drop them out, check they're loaded etc.

my routine is fairly simple but deliberate and I would say takes less than 30 seconds.

this is for open:

step to the line,

draw the pistol and turn on optic, take a read of the dot brightness somewhere and adjust if needed

rack the slide (gun still empty) - let's me feel everything is ok with the gun

chuck in my last mag and rack one into the chamber.

drop mag, chamber check then flick up safety.

insert my start mag

check my mags on my belt are full and firmly in their pouches

now with my strong hand still on the holstered gun I do my stage visualisation

when I'm ready is when my hand comes off the gun and I assume whatever the start position is.

I don't nod or say ready. it's just one more thing to break my concentration. my indication that I'm ready to start is me assuming the start position AND taking my hand off the gun. further confirmation is my lack of response to the question "are you ready".... some RO's treat this as a command not a question and say something like 'shooter ready' or similar but the whole point is the RO is asking if the shooter is ready. after receiving either a nod/yes OR no response they now know the shooter is ready and then can commence 'stand by' and then the start signal.

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fair enough. I guess programming to 'nod' when you are ready is no different to me 'remove strong hand from gun' when ready. I suppose part of the reason I don't nod is I'm looking at the first target I'm going to shoot (assuming there's a target to shoot from the start position) eyes focused on the A zone and don't want to move my head. I'm sure if I programmed it into my routine it would be fine.

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The commands are pretty simply:

Make ready

Are you ready

Stand-by

"Beep"

If you are finished, unload & show clear

If clear, hammer down, holster

Range is clear

.... One of my pet peeves as a MD .......

The "nod" thing from some of the earlier posts was bugging me.

It is actually distracting when I hear an RO tell me to give a nod or some such thing. I don't nod normally, I stand perfectly still when my make ready routine is done. This is as per the rules. And, per those same rules those commands listed above are it, nothing else should come out of the RO's mouth unless it's the word "stop".

With that said, when I am an RO, I don't mind being nodded at by a competitor. But NEVER, under any circumstance, should the RO instigate that "nod" conversation with the competitor.

Exactly ...

I have developed a nod as part of my routine so that the ROs know I'm ready ... It came out of the fact that there seemed to be a lot newbie type ROs at Steel Challenge matches and after having several give me the "are you ready" command after first pointing my gundown range to start a dryfire run (which is part of my normal mental prep) because they are not looking at my gun And therefore have not seen I haven't loaded a mag yet, I started including the head nod .... But as you say, the "give me a nod when you're ready" stuff is a no-no ... Period.

Edited by Nimitz
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The "you have to take your hand off the gun" comments really throw me off or "hands at your side"..."hands at your side". I hear this in IDPA more than uspsa matches. I say, I know....its part of my process. Then I have to start over. Do any of you discuss this with your RO before your run? I RO local IDPA and 3 gun matches and stick to the basic commands, but others at our club do not.

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Hmm. I either get impatient RO'S or they just assume I don't know what I'm doing because I can't count how many times I've had an RO say, "you have a make ready" or "I did say make ready" or "face down range" or "it's hands at side".... I am purposefully not in start position so they don't try and say "are you ready" prematurely. I was still moving and have had someone say "are you ready?" I had to verbally say no and then practically yell "no, wait!" Because they continued with "Standby." I was super paranoid for a long time after that and couldn't relax during make ready for fear they'd start me before I was actually ready. I barely took time at all either! Recently I've taken more time so I can focus better, but it's still not very long. And if an RO rushes me... it takes me an extra long time to focus ;) My regular ROS are fine - they know when a person is ready!

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yeah I must be lucky I would say better than 99% of the time the RO gives something that at least approximates the correct commands and also allows me to make ready in my own time and understands that once I assume the start position OR if hands by sides if I remove strong hand from the gun he knows I'm ready to go. but again if for some reason I wasn't ready I simply need to say "not ready" when he asks. it is a question after all.

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I'm pretty easy going at Tier I matches, except for the proper range commands ... I don't have any tolerance for that. I see it almost every match I shoot that is not the one I'm MD for and on the first stage I take a second to talk them through the proper commands. Some times I get the "well we just do this for fun" type comments but after I'm done shooting the first stage they usually try pretty hard to get the commands right .... :)

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  • 1 month later...

I am not a trained ro, but I help out at our local matches and try to do a good job. The one group of shooters that give me trouble at make ready are the rimfire open guys. I have a hard time deciding if they are trying to find their dot or if they are really ready. I usually give them a generous pause before I give them the "are you ready?". Once the day gets on, I can usually tell better.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

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