B_RAD Range Diary

[B_RAD]

28 minutes ago, HoMiE said:

If your shooting 95%+ classifiers and sitting at 92% classification you have the speed. You need to give each shoot the attention it needs and not worry about HOA or results. It’s good to shoot with your competitors and better shooters, it helps you work on mental aspects and just focus on what you can do. 

Can't say I disagree with any of this!  Thanks for the input!  

 

I'll admit, I'm probably a little too hung up on my classification. 

[B_RAD]

I've been thinking about the match this last weekend and my post yesterday where I dissected my performance (as best I can with the knowledge I have at this point). 

 

I also listened to a podcast with Cha-lee.  He said something that really stuck out. He used the term baby GM's. Which are folks who have reached 95% classification but when they show up to majors they don't finish at 95%.  I didn't take that to mean paper GM. I took it to mean that they did make GM, not necessarily by grandbagging, and are baby GM's. Meaning the work has just begun. There's still another level or two before they're Supet Squad level. I'm probably not describing it correctly or maybe not even understanding what he meant but what I took from it was what I've said above. It's taken some self imposed pressure off me. I've got to realize or remember that I'm still new. I want to be preforming at the same as guys who've been GM level for twice as long as I've been shooting USPSA. I think because I made M as my initial classification, I've gotten this delusional since of well, shit it's been a year so I should be GM by now!  Which is kinda dumb now that I think about it.   Especially, since I've not put in the practice time like the folks I'm comparing myself too. 

 

So, I need cut myself some slack amd realize it's ok that I'm not top 16 at nats my second year shooting USPSA.  

 

[rowdyb]

Reminds me of when I was in BJJ. Every belt promotion I felt like I wasn't ready. But the promotion made me get ready. You rise to your own expectations. It isn't life ending to be 95.1% in a division and have M or even an A beat you.

 

I prefer to not squad with a group of people I know or direct competition unless we are very very friendly with each other and no ego is involved. When with direct competition I am not mentally strong enough yet to totally ignore them. As soon as you let the other person in your mind, their chance of reducing your performance is greater.

 

I liked shooting with you. I can't remember a single stage you shot though, so no help there.

 

I would agree that you're lacking a certain kind, or kinds, of disciplines or controls to get what you want.

 

As for speed I feel ya, I was 13 seconds slower for the match than the winner of Prod, Hopkins. But looking at it 9 seconds of that came from 2 stages, so I can live with the knowledge it was error and not that I'm just super slow.

 

You only had two stages out of the top 8 in your division. One of them was shooting prone, which you'd never ever done before. So you were great for 8 or 10 stages. Make your watch words "focus" and "discipline" and I think you'll soar. I think, maybe even know, that you can still be your kind of fast fast fast but also be disciplined in it.

Edited May 15, 2018 by rowdyb

[B_RAD]

33 minutes ago, rowdyb said:

Reminds me of when I was in BJJ. Every belt promotion I felt like I wasn't ready. But the promotion made me get ready. You rise to your own expectations. It isn't life ending to be 95.1% in a division and have M or even an A beat you.

 

I prefer to not squad with a group of people I know or direct competition unless we are very very friendly with each other and no ego is involved. When with direct competition I am not mentally strong enough yet to totally ignore them. As soon as you let the other person in your mind, their chance of reducing your performance is greater.

 

I liked shooting with you. I can't remember a single stage you shot though, so no help there.

 

I would agree that you're lacking a certain kind, or kinds, of disciplines or controls to get what you want.

 

As for speed I feel ya, I was 13 seconds slower for the match than the winner of Prod, Hopkins. But looking at it 9 seconds of that came from 2 stages, so I can live with the knowledge it was error and not that I'm just super slow.

 

You only had two stages out of the top 8 in your division. One of them was shooting prone, which you'd never ever done before. So you were great for 8 or 10 stages. Make your watch words "focus" and "discipline" and I think you'll soar. I think, maybe even know, that you can still be your kind of fast fast fast but also be disciplined in it.

Thanks for the input. We did have a good squad. Mostly

 

Yeah, the prone stage and the one whith the stomp box both got me because of how I shot/planned them. 

 

 

[B_RAD]

6/7/18 and know deep thoughts by Jack Handy.

 

I went out to the range before work for some live fire practice. It did not go well. The thought of "this is the worst training session I've ever had" and "s#!t, if I'm going to perform like this, I might as well quit!" crept up in my mind.  I'm really feeling like I've plateaued bad! In fact, I kinda feel like I've gotten worse!..........

 

 

So, let me think about that last one. Have I gotten worse?  Honestly, I don't know!  I really don’t think I’m getting better but even with that, it's hard to tell! What has happened in the last month or two is I've become more aware of some things.  For instance, I'm aware my transitions are not at the level they need to be. At least in my mind. I feel this is one area I'm losing to the higher-level M/GM's. I'm also aware that my support hand grip is lacking sometimes. I'm also aware that on the draw my front sight is not where it needs to be in the rear notch somtimes. Which tells me that I'm probably a little inconsistent on the grip/draw.  Another thing I've think I've noticed is my sight picture. I thought I was mostly getting a target focus. Especially at 10-12 yds. and in.  Well, this morning I think I realized that I may just be blankly staring in the general direction of each target. At least I was today.  I don't think I was doing target focus or sight focus (I know I wasn't focusing on the front sight). So, the target was blurry and the front sight was blurry. I was aware of the FO rod but it was only in the peripheral of my view. All this has made me realize just how bad my dry fire practice actually was. I was just slinging the gun around and racing the par times.  I'm surprised on how well I was able to shoot up to this point!  So, back to the question. Have I gotten worse?  Probably not. I think I'm feeling like I'm doing worse is because I'm trying to make improvements and I'm now self aware or more self aware. I know how to but I'm still not able to connect the dots. I know I'm getting a poor sight pic but I'm having trouble changing that or making myself focus on the target or sight as required. The word discipline keeps coming to mind. I don't have it. At least not to the level I need to!

 

 

 

Now, let me be fair to myself. I think I'm also learning how to practice. Which is unlearning or retraining to quit doing what I’m currently doing wrong and learn how to practice correctly. That requires the discipline I'm lacking at the moment. What I did this morning and what I've been doing mostly up to this point is not practicing. It's been going thru the motions. So, what did I do wrong this morning? First off, I tried to sneak in a practice session before work. Which isn't a bad thing but I was a little rushed and I think that's not a good thing.  I could have had targets already stapled to sticks and the bases in the truck. I should have had all my gear in the truck. I should have gotten out there a little earlier. Second, I need to work on one thing and be totally focused on what that is. I didn't try to practice every aspect of shooting but I did try to work on transitions and should have just focused on that. Instead I also worried about the draw time. Then I tried doing the same target array (similar to Blake drill) with a turn and draw making it like an el prez. Not that that’s not a bad thing but I went from trying to get good hits/time on my transitions to consciously thinking about my draw speed and turn and draw times. By the end of my session I was just doing turn and draw with one shot. I felt like I need to break that down since it wasn't going like I wanted to. If you can't get a good hit with a good time, then transitioning doesn't matter. That's what I told myself so I switched to doing that.  Third, I was somewhat aware that my sight pic was all blur (target and sights just blur) but could not force myself to do it properly.  The targets were at 10 yds so I should have been looking to the spot on the targets but just couldn't stop doing it the wrong way.  The lighting was poor which didn't help. The sun was out but not over the hill I was shooting against so, the lighting was overcast.

 

 

Usually I'm able to meet the goal times with mostly A's for drills out of Stoegers books but connecting everything together is still a challenge. It's hard to see improvements now. They take more work over longer periods of time!  This sucks! Ha ha.

 

I've read With Winning in Mind and I'm now probably back to focusing on the results and not the process. Not just with the results of making the par time but also making GM.  Getting back to the process being the focus may help!

[SCTaylor]

13 minutes ago, B_RAD said:

6/7/18 and know deep thoughts by Jack Handy.

 

I went out to the range before work for some live fire practice. It did not go well. The thought of "this is the worst training session I've ever had" and "s#!t, if I'm going to perform like this, I might as well quit!" crept up in my mind.  I'm really feeling like I've plateaued bad! In fact, I kinda feel like I've gotten worse!..........

 

 ...

 

Now, let me be fair to myself. I think I'm also learning how to practice. Which is unlearning or retraining to quit doing what I’m currently doing wrong and learn how to practice correctly. 

 

I know exactly how you feel. It seems to be the curse of learning and self diagnosis. You start to see more, recognizing deficiencies that you did not previously. It will only make you better if you keep working at it.

[B_RAD]

41 minutes ago, SCTaylor said:

 

I know exactly how you feel. It seems to be the curse of learning and self diagnosis. You start to see more, recognizing deficiencies that you did not previously. It will only make you better if you keep working at it.

Yeah, I'm also the most harsh critic of my performance. Overly critical probably. 

 

It will make us better. 

[B_RAD]

My morning live fire session performance really bugged me all day at work. So, in decided I was going to go back after work and have a productive practice session. I did nothing but singles to 3 targets out of skills and drills. Much better!  I focused on what I was working on. What the goal of the drill was. I didn't add anything to it. Just draw and fire 1 shot to 3 targets at 10yds. I made the par time just about everytime. I did have some mikes but I called them. I focused on see the spot on the target. 

 

I really have figured out that previously I've been transitioning like a tank turret. I wasn't looking to the spot first. I was just swing my eniter upper body all together..  

 

Glad I went back out today.

 

Going forward I'm going to concentrate on snapping my eyes to the spot.  

[B_RAD]

2018 AR section review

 

This was my 5th lv2 or higher match.  Stages were great, at least I thought.  Staff was amazing.

 

It was probably the hottest weather I've shot in. I tried to drink as much water and Gatorade as I could. I tried to stay in the shade as much as I could. I still think the heat got to me around the last two stages. The extra 60lbs I'm carrying definitely is helping!

 

The first 5 stages went decently for me. First three were a tad slow but not bad. The next two went pretty well even though I did have a miss on a stage right before lunch. I had already started moving when I fired the last shot from that position. I hit a wall. When I processed the miss(from seeing pvc fly, not from calling it) I chose not to go back and make it up since I was already turned and moving. 

 

The last half of the match after lunch did not go well for me. On the first stage after lunch I had a malfunction where the hammer dropped to half cock. Then when I racked the slide the live round in the chamber got stuck in the ejection port so I had to rack the slide again.  The half cock issue was due to the super light trigger in the gun. It's been happening when I really try to split fast. I've added a little more tension on the left leg of the three leaf spring and that seems to have solved the problem.

 

The other issues I had were due to pointing vs aiming. Mainly at steel.  I had two stages that were what I'd consider catastrophic.  I've been fairly lucky\successful with barely aiming at steel to this point. However, it ate my lunch this match!  I went into one position with 12 rounds and only had to hit 1 open metric at about 8 yds and a plate rack at about 12 yds. I had 4 misses and went dry with 2 pieces of steel left up. Again, I chose to leave those as mikes and went to the next position. One another stage, I had 5 make ups on 2 steel plates on stands.  This was all due to just flat out not aiming and continuing to fire.  I'm glad it happened so badly. I needed to learn this lesson!

 

I also got my first procedural. The RO dinged me for one shot out of six for a foot fault.  I'm usually pretty good at knowing my foot is over but this happened on one of my bad performance stages, so I was probably so focused on how bad the train was derailing, I didn't even notice the foot fault.  Though, I know I don't remember moving my foot to un-fault so, not sure?  Oh well….. 

 

I had a few other small issues that weren't as damaging that are just due to inexperience.

 

I learned a ton from this match! 

 

 

Reliable gear is way better!

Holy crap…. Aim when you have to!  Know when that is!  It's always faster to do it correctly once!

Shoot more matches. I need more experience! 

Call shots!

Edited June 20, 2018 by B_RAD

[MemphisMechanic]

On 5/15/2018 at 7:08 PM, B_RAD said:

...The prone stage and the one whith the stomp box both got me because of how I shot/planned them. 

 

You have to give yourself a little more slack with these issues at majors, as they’re direct results of only having shot the sport for 1-2 years. Experience is the greatest teacher, and most of our skill at breaking down future stages comes from failing to find all the targets, or see the most efficient path, or choose the optimum engagement order... etc...

 

If you seriously think about it, you’re making similar mental mistakes as most of the guys who are 1-2 years in. You’re just beating yourself up because those C class guys are supposed to make these mistakes, whereas an M/near-GM is supposed to be beyond them.

 

I’m not saying to accept them; work hard to slaughter them. All I’m saying is... don’t be so discouraged at their existence in the first place, because it’s an inexperience thing. And you will defintely gain that experience.

 

Edited June 21, 2018 by MemphisMechanic

[B_RAD]

8 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

 

You have to give yourself a little more slack with these issues at majors, as they’re direct results of only having shot the sport for 1-2 years. Experience is the greatest teacher, and most of our skill at breaking down future stages comes from failing to find all the targets, or see the most efficient path, or choose the optimum engagement order... etc...

 

If you seriously think about it, you’re making similar mental mistakes as most of the guys who are 1-2 years in. You’re just beating yourself up because those C class guys are supposed to make these mistakes, whereas an M/near-GM is supposed to be beyond them.

 

I’m not saying to accept them; work hard to slaughter them. All I’m saying is... don’t be so discouraged at their existence in the first place, because it’s an inexperience thing. And you will defintely gain that experience.

 

Thanks man!  Great point!  

[B_RAD]

I just realized that I have not practiced much this year. I've not dry fired in the last month and haven't done much at all this year. Maybe an average of 3 times a week between February thru May.   I've live fire practiced once in the last month and probably only 10 times all year. That includes the Stoeger class.  I know that may be more than regular folks but that's not much for people shooting competition and are trying to to improve. Or for people who think they want to improve.  Wanting to do and doing are not the same thing. 

 

I guess it like starting to work out/go to the gym. You know,  "I'm gonna start come Monday"!    Next thing you know it's 3,6, 12 months later. Seems this year has flown by!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by B_RAD

[B_RAD]

Areas to improve this off season.

 

1. More alphas.

• weak hand grip. Too much causing hits to go left?
• eye speed
• smaller spot

 

2. Seeing sights/dot

• thru recoil

 

3. Shooting on the move.

 

4. Transitions.

 

5. Efficient movement

 

6. Discipline/patience/consistency 

Edited September 17, 2018 by B_RAD

[B_RAD]

And now, deep thoughts.

 

By Jack Handy

 

 

AREA 4

 

This was a good match. It was fun and challenging. There was a decent amount of small steel (my self-imposed nemesis), several swingers and a few other movers. It was 12 stages but stage 1 got thrown out. It was hot and humid as usual for this time of year in Ft. Smith, AR. Which is always 5 degrees hotter than NW AR. I shot it over 2 days (my first time doing a 2-day format).

 

I had a good first day (8 stages) and a not so good second day (4 stages). Shooting all 12 stages would have been difficult due to the heat but I had issues on Sunday. So, still not sure about shooting majors all in one day or splitting them up into 2 days when I have the choice? On Saturday I did a pretty good job of just focusing on performance and not outcome of ranking.  I planned on not looking at scores that night. I didn't want to let that get in my head. I felt good about my performance over all for the day.  Then I saw on facebook that a stage had got thrown out so, I looked to see which one. Then, I ended up looking at the ones I had shot to see how I ended up.  I did a little math in my head and figured I was behind about 35 match points from the leader. (It was really 43 pts). I think that was a mistake.  I started getting nervous with thoughts of at least a 2^nd place finish behind Hwansik Kim. I even thought, maybe if I rail on the remaining 4 stages, I might edge out a win. Could I make up 35 pts on him over 4 stages?  I figured he did well and that me making up 35 pts over the last 4 stages could be possible but not probable since he's at least one big step of a level above me! If not two! Though, that just made me think about it all night. How bad arse would it be if I beat him? Obviously, this didn't help me sleep.  Going into this match, I did have the goal of finishing within 90% of HK . Which was kind of dumb and unrealistic since I really hadn’t been practicing much prior to about a month out. I also switched from a 2011 in Limited to a G34 in CO around 8/1. I still wanted to finish well even if it was a little far fetched!

 

I tried to get rid of the tension of what could be, but I really couldn't.  I then just tried to deal with it and still perform.  Which is something I want to work on in the future. I realize that not knowing the results will probably not be the most likely scenario since someone came up to me and told me I was in 2^nd place with just 4 stages left. I wasn't mad since I knew it was bound to happen. Out of the last 4 stages, I shot one pretty good except for losing my dot on the first target. That had to have cost me 3 sec. I only dropped 1C on it so that felt good!  Out of the other three, two of them were ok and what 1 was what I would call marginal. None of the 12 stages were awful. Just had a few small segments with a bump or two. I did a good job of getting back on plan!

 

Overall this is the best match I've shot. Not just in outcome but in performing at my level of skill. I didn't find myself at any point shooting beyond my control. My mistakes came from moving a little clunky in spots and missing steel a little more than I should or other small aspects. I'm pretty sure I'm either not stopping on steel and/or moving off when I'm pulling the trigger. I did drop more points than I should. I shot 90% of the available but I think that needs to be 93% with an optic.

 

I ended up 3^rd overall in the Division and 92% of HK. I learned a lot.

Edited September 17, 2018 by B_RAD

[B_RAD]

Area 4 video. Stage 1 thrown out. Stage 2 (my best stage) didn't get recorded. 

 

Would like to clean up a lot. 

1. I rushed shots on ststic targets before going to moving targets. So, I dropped a few more points on static targets.

 

2. From the video, it appears there's a slight lag in me leaving some positions. I'm pretty sure it's not from looking at the holes but not sure what's the cause?

 

3. Work on prioritizing reloads/movement based on distance to next position/target. 

 

4. Shooting better on the move. 

 

5. Hard partials

 

6. Setting up stance for positions. Sometimes setting up for two arrays from the same position. 

 

7. Got real close to breaking 180. I tried programming for that specific reload but in the future be more cautious and ask if there's another spot to do reload that's not even close to breaking. There was no benefit to doing that relaod there!  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by B_RAD