First Competition - Any Advice Appreciated

[DLester]

Helped with everything from setup to tear down and didn’t DQ, so reached my goals!  Now that I’m starting the path to mediocrity it would be awesome to have some (all if anyone has time) of the bad habits brought out to help me develop a practice plan.  Bug bit me bad, folks, bit me bad... Of course I want to post all the stages, but I’d bet the mistakes are the same throughout.  Got great advice at the match, tried to incorporate, but felt like it got more difficult as the day went on.  Could have been that 106 real feel, that’s a good excuse.

 

 

 

 

[B585]

Dry Fire.  Always pay attention to the what the sights do during dry fire.   That was my mistake....when I started I was slow and accurate but as I started to get faster, my trigger press got poor and I started missing a lot more.  Took me a while to figure out why.   
The draw on the last stage was pretty good but they were slow on the other 2.  There was a lot of wasted motion.  Eventually work on movement but trying not to DQ on your first match, that was fine.  It’s definitely addicting and your life will never be the same… For better or worse

[DKorn]

Not bad for your first match!

 

Biggest thing I see as low hanging fruit is movement. Explode out of position, move hard to the next position, and get the gun up early as you get into position so that you’re ready to shoot as soon as you get there.

[risingsun]

Congrats on your first match! It's always a good thing to have someone take a video of your shooting. It's useful to watch it, just like watching yourself swing a golf club and try to improve your swing.

 

My advice: pick 2 things from the videos of your first match that you want to improve, and work on those to get better on your next match. Baby steps!

 

Enjoy!

 

[B585]

49 minutes ago, risingsun said:

Congrats on your first match! It's always a good thing to have someone take a video of your shooting. It's useful to watch it, just like watching yourself swing a golf club and try to improve your swing.

 

My advice: pick 2 things from the videos of your first match that you want to improve, and work on those to get better on your next match. Baby steps!

 

Enjoy!

 

That’s a really good idea

[DLester]

Only two?!?!  That’s tough!  Thanks all.  Watching now, the  movement stands out to me too, and the draw looks really weird, shoulder coming way up.  While shooting the match I really noticed the importance of planning the stage and sticking to it, that was a piece of advice from the RO too, after seeing me struggling, and not walking them like I should.  The main takeaway that keeps coming back to me though, is that the shooting the target part seems like it will just come, keeping aware of that grip, front sight/target, trigger squeeze.  Getting up the speed though...  seems like a lot more to juggle.  Can’t say nobody warned me I wouldn’t be able to stop.  Need 9mm to get back to 0.18.  Am i way off on these impressions?  Everybody else impatient too?  That breaking improvement up into chunks does seem like really sound advice.  Like any other troubleshooting, one thing at a time!

[SGT_Schultz]

Looking good.

 

Some things to work on

 

1. Movement.  Only in the third video did your movement begin to start to approach what it needs to be.  Don't look down at the ground, head up looking a your next target and the feet will take care of themselves.  EXPLODE from one place to the next.  During movement, go as fast as you possibly can.

 

2. Smallish plates demand respect.  Trigger manipulation and sight alignment need to be flawless.  You will miss a lot if they're not.

 

3.  Gun up always in your field of view.  Move the gun in the horizontal plane to avoid violating the 180, but do not move it down away from your eyes.

 

4. Plan your reloads by location, not by round count.  Meaning, count rounds expended during walk through and figure out where you're running low then find a landmark that will remind you "RELOAD HERE" when you see it.

Edited July 19, 2020 by SGT_Schultz

[DLester]

11 hours ago, SGT_Schultz said:

Looking good.

 

Some things to work on

 

1. Movement.  Only in the third video did your movement begin to start to approach what it needs to be.  Don't look down at the ground, head up looking a your next target and the feet will take care of themselves.  EXPLODE from one place to the next.  During movement, go as fast as you possibly can.

 

2. Smallish plates demand respect.  Trigger manipulation and sight alignment need to be flawless.  You will miss a lot if they're not.

 

3.  Gun up always in your field of view.  Move the gun in the horizontal plane to avoid violating the 180, but do not move it down away from your eyes.

 

4. Plan your reloads by location, not by round count.  Meaning, count rounds expended during walk through and figure out where you're running low then find a landmark that will remind you "RELOAD HERE" when you see it.

Thanks, Sarge!  I really appreciate the specifics there, feel like these will help a lot.  Getting a plan together and executing didn’t happen even when I tried to stay conscious of it.  Hope it was just the first time jitters!

[risingsun]

11 hours ago, DLester said:

Only two?!?! 

 

For me, typically the time between 2 matches is 2 weeks, and I try to shoot 2 matches a month. In between matches, I would probably only have time to hit the range twice at most, as I can only go during the weekend. So combining the range visits, plus maybe 2-3 sessions of dry fire in the garage per week, I chose the magic number "2". Anymore than 2 things to work on, I would lose my focus.  

 

 

[stick]

Most have already mentioned all the low hanging fruit.  I would practice loading up before your draw.  The draw looked really slow in the first video.  And you didn't have your support hand ready to accept the gun.  

 

You're doing great!  just keep at it.  It doesn't happen overnight.

[WFargo]

That is indeed a 100% score, helping set up, helping tear down and not DQ'ing! 

 

So, not really commenting on your videos, but I just wanted to let you know that Atlas Gunworks has a few videos on their youtube channel of top shooters letting us know what they would have told themselves as starting shooters. 

The great ones I heard were:

- read some good books like the ones from Ben Stoeger.  From dry fire training to match mentality. He covers it all. 

- Find a good training partner of about your level who has sort of the same goals so you can push each other.. Plus it makes road trips and matches more fun. 

- dry fire dry fire dry fire.  And do it right, so read the books from Ben. 

- If you have good shooters at your club and you are able to shoot/train with them from time to time. That's gold. 

- If you can, take a class from one of the great shooters in your country. 

 

 

[18111811]

I just started earlier this year as well.  watch your videos, find flaws, make a training plan, and when training, focus on one or two specific things.  I have been improving quickly.  Key thing I need to remind myself is to slow down when shooting and haul ass when moving.  my mechanics need a lot of work as does multi tasking like moving and shooting, moving and reloading, moving backwards and drawing.  stoegers book and mini dry fire targets are worth every penny.  jumping rope and sprints have helped to relearn how to be lighter on my feet. Despite all of what I wrote, my two priorities remain being safe and having fun.