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Brophy's Progress Journal


Brophy-J

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Dry fire has been continuing as normal. Matches have been highlighting several weaknesses for me to work on.

 

I got to go to a local USPSA match about a week ago and recorded some footage to review.

 

 

                     

 image.thumb.png.a24dbf7262c883e62fae83d1634a7e21.png

 

This match illustrates some glaring problems.

 

1. Movement, I'm slow as molasses still and I haven't been able to make any progress here. I think I will dedicate a few rage days to improving my movement in the near future.

2. Shooting pace, I'm shooting way to slow/safe most of the time. This is very noticeable in the last array of targets in stage one. I am capable of shooting at a faster pace but I need to be in the right state of mind.

3. Distance shooting, I just have not practiced this skill. No more excuses, I just need to practice.

 

 

 

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Here's a few things I noticed from your video.  

  1. Your slow to draw your gun.  Draw, run and as you enter the position, get the gun ready to fire as you enter the position. You're running to the position, stopping and then getting the gun ready wasting valuable time. 
  2. On the stage with the hallway, you were kind of skipping backwards.  Practice movement in your dry fire especially running backwards
  3. on your reloads, it looked like you were dropping the gun to reload.  keep the gun up at eye level and bring the mag to the gun not the gun to the mag. 
Edited by stick
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4 hours ago, stick said:

Here's a few things I noticed from your video.  

  1. Your slow to draw your gun.  Draw, run and as you enter the position, get the gun ready to fire as you enter the position. You're running to the position, stopping and then getting the gun ready wasting valuable time. 
  2. On the stage with the hallway, you were kind of skipping backwards.  Practice movement in your dry fire especially running backwards
  3. on your reloads, it looked like you were dropping the gun to reload.  keep the gun up at eye level and bring the mag to the gun not the gun to the mag. 

I agree with all of your points. The second stage felt very awkward trying to move backwards while preforming a reload and maintaining muzzle control. The reload thing is going to be a hard habit to break.

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38 minutes ago, Brophy-J said:

I agree with all of your points. The second stage felt very awkward trying to move backwards while preforming a reload and maintaining muzzle control. The reload thing is going to be a hard habit to break.

I handle goofy or potentially risky movement reloads one of two ways, reload before/while initiating movement or drop mag, grab a fresh and reload while I extend toward target/rebuild grip coming into position.

That uprange movement appeared to be enough to warrant turning and running.

Working through many of the same issues myself.

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1 hour ago, Beef15 said:

I handle goofy or potentially risky movement reloads one of two ways, reload before/while initiating movement or drop mag, grab a fresh and reload while I extend toward target/rebuild grip coming into position.

That uprange movement appeared to be enough to warrant turning and running.

Working through many of the same issues myself.

Great tip. Makes a lot of sense.

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I'm no master by any means.. a few little things...

On load and make ready use a stripper mag to load a round and put in pocket or rear of belt, grab a fresh mag and seat it ( have +1 now )

When moving backwards you can turn and run with firearm over shoulder or practice running backwards

Key note on start. You cant face the target to the left or right with your head if stage calls for face down range. and Ro can call you on it. Most wont

Call your shots. a lot of your misses are from rushing a shot to get out of position. be sure of the sights before you take the shot.. sometimes slowing down ends up being quicker on the clock and less points down.

Edited by Loudgp
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2 hours ago, Loudgp said:

I'm no master by any means.. a few little things...

On load and make ready use a stripper mag to load a round and put in pocket or rear of belt, grab a fresh mag and seat it ( have +1 now )

When moving backwards you can turn and run with firearm over shoulder or practice running backwards

Key note on start. You cant face the target to the left or right with your head if stage calls for face down range. and Ro can call you on it. Most wont

Call your shots. a lot of your misses are from rushing a shot to get out of position. be sure of the sights before you take the shot.. sometimes slowing down ends up being quicker on the clock and less points down.

I'm glad you said something about facing down range, I had no idea that was a rule. Dont want to make that mistake during a bigger match.

 

I shoot production which limits me to 11 rounds at the start and 10 in all other magazines.

 

I agree, a good number of my miss are on the last target of an array. I must be rushing myself to start moving to the next position.

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On ‎1‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 4:37 PM, Brophy-J said:

...Ive been trying to imitate Jerry Miculek...

Great choice!  Looks like you're off to an excellent start.

 

saibot gave good advice on the surrender start position.  I had been given advice to do my reloads higher by a forum member, and took that to heart and now that's how I practice and it's what I do in matches.  I also work on having my gun up and pointed at the next target as I enter a shooting position.

 

I don't see that anyone has mentioned this so I'll comment on the last portion of your draw.  Maybe you've ironed this out by now, but in the first video I watched, it looked like you had a pause just before you brought the gun up on target.  Maybe that's where you're starting to pick up your sights.  Anyway it would save you some time if you punch that gun out faster, which maybe you are already doing by now.

 

You are doing exactly the right things by dry firing, video-recording yourself, asking for feedback, processing the input, and all the rest.  You will advance quickly if you keep this up.

 

Good for you!

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GunBugBit hit the nail on the head, you're doing the right things to progress quickly!
Being new is hard because there is a lot to improve. But it's easy as well, because improvement comes fast and easy at this level. My only advice for you is to not try to boil the ocean. You know the major things to work on, so get focused and work on very specific skills in isolation. Pick the biggest weak area and work it until it's better, rinse and repeat.

If I were to build a training program for you, I'd have you dry fire every night starting with the first 12 drill from Steve Anderson's Refinement and Repetition book. Those skills are tablesteaks that you'll need to master, and following his process is effective. After a bit of work on the "basic 12", work on the ONE thing you need to improve. For example, entering a shooting box quickly. Don't try to mix in ANYTHING else while you're doing that one specific drill. Figure out how to have your gun on the target, ready to break the shot the instant you're in the box.

Once you have that skill at an acceptable level, work on leaving a box as soon as you can. Then work on hitting a plate/target as you're moving forward, then back, then lateral, etc.

Anyway, just an example, but the PROCESS is what I'd have you follow. Work on each skill in isolation, and if it's not a marksmanship drill, don't worry about accuracy while working on those things, in practice of course. 

This is kind of the "macro" overview of a effective training program, but I think you get the drift. 

Good luck and train hard. You're going to move up very quickly!

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I really appreciate all of you taking the time to help me out, it really means a lot.

 

@GunBugBit Ive been making slight improvements to my draw. I hope to get some footage of next weeks steel challenge to visually see what it looks like now. It would probably be a good idea for me to start logging some basic par times during live fire practice. That way I can track my progress.

 

@saibot I will pick up Steve's book next chance I get. This weekend I am going to make some PVC boxes and start working on entering the position.

 

Again, thank you all.

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17 hours ago, Brophy-J said:

I really appreciate all of you taking the time to help me out, it really means a lot.

 

@GunBugBit Ive been making slight improvements to my draw. I hope to get some footage of next weeks steel challenge to visually see what it looks like now. It would probably be a good idea for me to start logging some basic par times during live fire practice. That way I can track my progress.

 

@saibot I will pick up Steve's book next chance I get. This weekend I am going to make some PVC boxes and start working on entering the position.

 

Again, thank you all.

Track your par times during dry fire too.  Steve's book is good in the sense that it has you do 3 reps with no par time, 3 reps slightly above and below your baseline and 3 reps at your baseline.  Remember perfect form outweighs pure speed.  do each drill with perfect form, not to race the clock.  as you progress, you'll see your live fire times drop too.  

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Got my first local IDPA match win! Overall I shot really well, one miss on the last stage was the only real mistake. Unfortunately I didn't get any footage but I'm confident that my movement is getting better. This match had some hard leans that defiantly slowed me down a bit. I need to do more dry fire while leaning.

 

Steel is coming up this Saturday. Draws and transitions are going to be my main focus in practice.

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Steel Challenge 2-10-18

The windy/dusty Steel Challenge is over and I'm very happy with how I shot. I ended up with a match win and showed huge improvement.

 

https://practiscore.com/results/html/42794a1d-13e6-4296-a58f-a7da8678d360?page=scsaMain

image.thumb.png.cc19740ffd1b9f3b4b0b2576cc6b03cb.png

 

Here are my Smoke and hope times from just two months ago.

image.thumb.png.7772fccd38acb98bcbcb462700035723.png

From 16.12 to 12.49. Very happy with the progress here.

 

I feel like my stance and starting position have improved along with my draw speed. From surrender position my draw and shoot one times are 1.2-1.3 on a target that requires some aiming.

 

 

As always, please take a look, any advice is appreciated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

USPSA on Saturday went well but had at least one issue on nearly each of the stages. Stage 1 missed reload, stage 2 missed reload and stage 3 missed a steel hiding behind a lager popper. I thought I had good reloads planned out but just forgot them with the buzzer went off. Missing the steel was just a lack of attention to detail.  Aside from that I was first in production and 10th overall. Minus the missed reload I'm happy with the way I shot stage 2. I was at a full sprint between boxes and the shooting was quick for my abilities.

 

I'm a bit unsure on the best way to approach stage 3. Should I just run straight to one side an work my way across? Is there benefits to shooting the middle sections first?

 

 

image.thumb.png.e1e4f6cac34f1adb3f57328f1b7f3fa9.png

 

No match this coming weekend, so just practice.

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You're doing great.  Keep up the good work. 

 

For reloads, try the "partial insertion'' drill. 

1. Set a par timer of about 2 seconds with random start of 2-4 seconds or so.  (tune it as needed after a few reps) 

2. Push start, draw and get a sight pic.

3. First beep, drop the hammer, then reload, but stop at the magwell. Stare at it, and hold it aligned while waiting for the 2nd beep.

4. Second beep, complete the reload and regain your sight pic and squeeze 2 more shots. 

 

This really reinforces "looking the mag in'' along with proper positioning.  

 

Also, From the video while going through the door you got VERY lucky not to sweep yourself or break the 180.  I had to slow the video down to really see what was what.

You didn't, but only by dropping your gun so low that you may have broken the 180 at the low point.   The only reason I bring this up is because I want to give you the tip that when you are manipulating doors keep the gun WAY up.. like have it at eye level.  This keeps you from sweeping and pointing where you're looking while reaching for the knob (i.e. your hand) and it's up in your line of sight when you do start looking through the door at your next target. 

Had you drawn way early, like within the first few inches of movement and had the gun up at your face level while going through the door, you would have been smoother through it, less risk, and been on target much sooner.  

 

Also, on stage 3,  in my opinion.  For the most part, I would move to the side position and shoot everything I could see.  That stage looked like basically 2 positions to me.  While allowing for some movement across the middle arrays with such sideways awkward movement (plus the high risk targets) I would not "shoot my way across" those.  Again, not there but that's my initial advice on that.   Different shooting ability would of course dictate how much movement was possible.  The idea being slow down enough that YOU can get the hits.  Sometimes that's stopped, sometimes that's moving pretty fast.  In this case it would appear to me that it would be closer to the stopped side of the spectrum.  In either case, I personally would not have started on either middle array.  

 

Have fun!

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Thanks for the feedback, ill be sure to try the reload drill.

 

For the door, my goal was to get a good grip but not draw the pistol while opening the door. Once the door was open and out of the way that's when I drew. To me this felt OK but looking at the video my week hand could have potentially gotten swept if I wasn't careful. In this situation it might have been better to wait until my body rotated a bit more. Regardless, at some point I'm going to need to open a door with a drawn pistol, when that happens ill try to remember your advice and keep it high.

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Got a nice live fire practice day in over the weekend. I got a good baseline of times to track progress. All of these are on a 2/3 IPSC torso at 12 yards.

 

Feb 2018

Draw 1 shot, hands at sides; Fastest 1.1, average 1.25

Draw 1 shot, surrender; Fastest 1.15 average 1.2

Draw 2 shots; ~1.5 with ~.30 splits

Bill drill (6 shots?): ~2.75 with .25 to .30 splits

Reload splits are about 1.5

SHO doubles 2.06 to 2.50 with .6 to .7 splits

WHO from 45deg doubles are 1.90 to 2.2 with .8 to 1 splits

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Local IDPA match this past Saturday. Shot pretty well, took 1st overall. Got to do the x5 classifier. Time was 19.42 with +5 down putting me into expert, previously was Sharp Shooter. I failed to charge the pistol on one of the strings, costing me 2-3 seconds. It feels like this new classifier is much easier then the standard one or it could be because I've improved a lot. Master is defiantly reachable, just need to clean a few things up.

 

Takeaways from the match: twice I failed to intentionally dump a 3rd round into a target to setup a reload. I need to improve my focus and stop missing these little details I setup in my stage plan. I execute the plan in my head over and over but when the buzzer goes of I still miss things.

 

Steel Challenge is this Saturday. Ive been reading Ken Verderame's (aka @Nimitz ) book, as well as listening to his podcast. Ive picked up a lot of good information and hope to begin applying it this week. I have also been considering picking up a set of steel shoot dry fire training banners, also Ken's product. I first saw these on @stick 's range journal and they seem like a great way to practice.

 

My goal this week is to grind down my draw time as much as I can. I am going to be doing lots of high speed reps to build up the muscle memory at that speed.

 

Edited by Brophy-J
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23 hours ago, Brophy-J said:

Local IDPA match this past Saturday. Shot pretty well, took 1st overall. Got to do the x5 classifier. Time was 19.42 with +5 down putting me into expert, previously was Sharp Shooter. I failed to charge the pistol on one of the strings, costing me 2-3 seconds. It feels like this new classifier is much easier then the standard one or it could be because I've improved a lot. Master is defiantly reachable, just need to clean a few things up.

 

Takeaways from the match: twice I failed to intentionally dump a 3rd round into a target to setup a reload. I need to improve my focus and stop missing these little details I setup in my stage plan. I execute the plan in my head over and over but when the buzzer goes of I still miss things.

 

Steel Challenge is this Saturday. Ive been reading Ken Verderame's (aka @Nimitz ) book, as well as listening to his podcast. Ive picked up a lot of good information and hope to begin applying it this week. I have also been considering picking up a set of steel shoot dry fire training banners, also Ken's product. I first saw these on @stick 's range journal and they seem like a great way to practice.

 

My goal this week is to grind down my draw time as much as I can. I am going to be doing lots of high speed reps to build up the muscle memory at that speed.

 

Keep practicing.  The time will drop the more you practice.

Watch out Steel challenge is addicting.  Keep following Ken @Nimitz  I know him personally and he is a  great guy and a wealth of knowledge.  His banners are the best training system around for Steel Challenge.

Edited by stick
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Saturdays Steel Challenge went OK. I shot the traditional stages well but the wildcard stage ate my lunch and dinner. We had to clear a plate rack SHO, WHO, freestyle and freestyle outside in. Strong hand took me over 15 seconds and for week hand I 30ed out. This is a bit disappointing because I have consistently been working on week hand only shooting in my dry fire. There is obviously some disconnect between the practice and execution. I plan to dedicate live fire time to improve this weakness.

 

image.png.f9a5fbb49a91662eb72685851bc2f22c.png

 

Accelerator is the only stage I've shot before.

Accelerator 2-10-18 image.png.92cf4eec14c20833a628654fba79f91f.png

Accelerator 3-10-18 image.png.36cbda49a18da06f1bb79b1386caa362.png

 

Total time actually went up. Oh well.

 

USPSA coming soon...  

image.png

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  • 3 months later...

Its been a long time since Ive posted anything here but rest assured, I am still training hard every day. Progress is starting to show.

 

I shot my second Major match, the Central New Mexico Scorcher (IDPA). I had some great stages but a couple of dumpster fires as well. I ended in 28th place overall, but I feel it could have gone a lot better had I not dropped 33 seconds worth of misses one a single stage. It cost me, but I will force myself to learn the lesson at least. For at least he next few months every live fire practice I do will have long range precision shooting (30-50 yards).

 

My next major isn't until September but I do have a class with Elias Frangoulis in July that I'm looking forward to. Until then its just more practice and local matches.

 

Here is a clip from my local USPSA match. As always, any advice or constructive criticism is welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Brophy-J
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