Skill like a GM; Confidence like a B-Class

[45 Raven]

11 hours ago, -JCN- said:

It’s no different with any sport. There’s a window of physical peak and then just atrophy. But you have to find the joy in the doing rather than the achieving. Just ask 99% of the senior age golfers out there. 

This may be one of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard for a competitive shooter.

[Dazhi]

On 10/13/2021 at 7:32 PM, llamasabound said:

 

Oh, let’s do division next! Two years ago, a forty something with dedication and work ethic could have crept into the top 20 of CO. Now with the absolute abundance of skill and youth. Well, that moment passed. If you aren’t already there, you probably aren’t making it.

 

 

This is not true.  I am going 47.  I started USPSA at age 40. 

[CClassForLife]

I've talked to @Reds_Dot about this topic offline.

 

I agree that a person's physical peak is somewhere in their 20s. Does this mean that once this physical peak is passed that all of a sudden it is unreasonable to pursue one's potential? What's the point if you can't ever reach your best anymore?

 

This line of thinking assumes one thing - that you are already at your peak. Odds are that you aren't anywhere close to this peak. As long as people see improvement in their game beyond their physical peak, then it can be reasoned that they were nowhere near it to begin with.

 

I attached a quick diagram of what I'm trying to describe. People who get into this game late can decide on the green line, orange line, or somewhere in between. Regardless, everyone is playing catchup to their perfect self with the understanding that they already lost. It's in that pursuit to see a glimpse of what's possible that people end up achieving far beyond what they originally thought.

 

Also, congrats @Dazhi!

[IHAVEGAS]

19 minutes ago, CClassForLife said:

I agree that a person's physical peak is somewhere in their 20s. Does this mean that once this physical peak is passed that all of a sudden it is unreasonable to pursue one's potential? What's the point if you can't ever reach your best anymore?

 

When the point is something outside of just having fun with good friends:

1. Those with good vision/health/reflexes/drive make it to gm, and spend a lot of time and money doing it. The "I'm getting better and this is fun" stage.

2. 90+% (guess based on observation) get burned out with all of the time/money involved to maintain their level of performance & either quit or adjust their goals more towards that of a casual shooter.

 

For what it is worth. The biggest shooting challenge seems to be keeping shooting fun and worth the money and effort in the long term. 

[llamasabound]

On 10/22/2021 at 10:22 AM, Dazhi said:

 

This is not true.  I am going 47.  I started USPSA at age 40. 

you, and Jason Bradley, and a few others are the exception that proves the rule. Generally there are hard limits, especially in iron sighted divisions.

 

also, to be clear, you were already there.

Edited October 23, 2021 by llamasabound

[llamasabound]

On 10/22/2021 at 11:15 AM, CClassForLife said:

I've talked to @Reds_Dot about this topic offline.

 

I agree that a person's physical peak is somewhere in their 20s. Does this mean that once this physical peak is passed that all of a sudden it is unreasonable to pursue one's potential? What's the point if you can't ever reach your best anymore?

 

This line of thinking assumes one thing - that you are already at your peak. Odds are that you aren't anywhere close to this peak. As long as people see improvement in their game beyond their physical peak, then it can be reasoned that they were nowhere near it to begin with.

 

I attached a quick diagram of what I'm trying to describe. People who get into this game late can decide on the green line, orange line, or somewhere in between. Regardless, everyone is playing catchup to their perfect self with the understanding that they already lost. It's in that pursuit to see a glimpse of what's possible that people end up achieving far beyond what they originally thought.

 

Also, congrats @Dazhi!

Very lucid explanation! 
 

Not at all carving out excuses on the basis of age. Mostly empathizing with @Reds_Dot explanation of limitations. Negotiating constraints is essential to skill development, age and physical ability only being one such constraint.

 

Personally, the greatest limitations on my development are a) lack of insight into process; b) lack of time (maybe 15 hours/week to shooting in total); c) inept practice; d) physical decrepitude, in that order.

[TheChewycookie]

3 hours ago, llamasabound said:

you, and Jason Bradley, and a few others are the exception that proves the rule. Generally there are hard limits, especially in iron sighted divisions.

 

also, to be clear, you were already there.

That feels like underselling their focused accomplishments by calling them exceptions. 

 

Look at someone like Rob Leatham. He's still winning Single Stack national championships despite being over 60, has double knee replacements, and is due for another set of bionic knees. Is he an exception? No, he is a focused and experienced person doing what he's capable of.

[SGT_Schultz]

4 hours ago, TheChewycookie said:

That feels like underselling their focused accomplishments by calling them exceptions. 

 

Look at someone like Rob Leatham. He's still winning Single Stack national championships despite being over 60, has double knee replacements, and is due for another set of bionic knees. Is he an exception? No, he is a focused and experienced person doing what he's capable of.

 

100% agree

[llamasabound]

5 hours ago, TheChewycookie said:

That feels like underselling their focused accomplishments by calling them exceptions. 

 

Look at someone like Rob Leatham. He's still winning Single Stack national championships despite being over 60, has double knee replacements, and is due for another set of bionic knees. Is he an exception? No, he is a focused and experienced person doing what he's capable of.

 Rob Leatham is a living exception. Calling someone exceptional is the opposite of underselling their accomplishments, but we will just have to disagree here.

[IHAVEGAS]

20 hours ago, TheChewycookie said:

That feels like underselling their focused accomplishments by calling them exceptions. 

 

Look at someone like Rob Leatham. He's still winning Single Stack national championships despite being over 60, has double knee replacements, and is due for another set of bionic knees. Is he an exception? No, he is a focused and experienced person doing what he's capable of.

Leatham was/is an unusually gifted natural athlete who was looking at a basketball scholarship prior to injuring his knee. It would be nice if everyone had a high i.q. and excellent vision-reflexes-general health etc but it is just a fact that most of us do not have the God given abilities to compete with Einstein or Micheal Jordan or TGO. 

If God built you to be a jockey but you think you can be a great NBA center or rocket scientist you will just make yourself miserable. 

Not implying that many can not compete well if they work hard at it. 

[Reds_Dot]

On 8/31/2021 at 5:36 PM, TheChewycookie said:

What I think is happening is similar to my short "burnouts" throughout this year's shooting season. 

 

-Process and mental calm, not hasty desired results.

 

TL;DR at the end of this post.

 

This last year was harder fought than even the year previous. It was almost all mental I made some amazing breakthroughs and had some epic fails too. My personality is not one of being "zen". Is that to say that I can't do it? No. However, I am gonna fail along the way. It's rare for a drug addict not to have a relapse. This isn't that much different. What is an established core nature is difficult to change. It doesn't happen overnight or even over a year. I have never pushed for "hasty desired results". I am not a neutral emotion guy naturally. I need to work at it. 

 

 

On 10/22/2021 at 9:22 AM, Dazhi said:

 

This is not true.  I am going 47.  I started USPSA at age 40. 

 

Thanks. I needed to be kicked while I am down.

 

Also, congrats for your performance at CO Nats. That was amazing. I was rooting for you to beat JJ. 

 

On 10/22/2021 at 10:15 AM, CClassForLife said:

I've talked to @Reds_Dot about this topic offline.

 

I agree that a person's physical peak is somewhere in their 20s. Does this mean that once this physical peak is passed that all of a sudden it is unreasonable to pursue one's potential? What's the point if you can't ever reach your best anymore?

 

This line of thinking assumes one thing - that you are already at your peak. Odds are that you aren't anywhere close to this peak. As long as people see improvement in their game beyond their physical peak, then it can be reasoned that they were nowhere near it to begin with.

 

I attached a quick diagram of what I'm trying to describe. People who get into this game late can decide on the green line, orange line, or somewhere in between. Regardless, everyone is playing catchup to their perfect self with the understanding that they already lost. It's in that pursuit to see a glimpse of what's possible that people end up achieving far beyond what they originally thought.

 

Also, congrats @Dazhi!

 

This was an interesting discussion I had with @CClassForLife. I both agree and disagree with it. Not all of us age the same way. Genetically I am on the short-end of the stick there. I look like I'm 60 and I'm only 41. I haven't reached my full potential in the sport though. So my physical decline is faster and more aggressive than others so that point at which I will reach a hard limit is approaching faster for me than most others. Regardless my discussion and subsequent practices with @CClassForLife lead me to a couple self-realizations:

 

1) I do find joy in the process of training and getting better. I like dry fire. I love life fire. It's enjoyable and the small "ah-has" and general improvement I see are rewarding all on their own.

2) I enjoy the friendship and competition of the sport. Shooting matches is fun because I am usually with friends. It's fun to compete and it's even more fun to be good. This reverts to idea 1. 

3) Setting goals is my enemy. This may be contrary to popular belief but I am one of those terrible "task-oriented" people. For some reason the idea of being task-oriented has generated this wholly negative connotation of making someone stupid or useless. Not sure why. If I keep my world small and just work on improving one or two things with my shooting. Then, I accomplish those tasks I get better and I don't have to care about some ultimate goal I'm not making. 

4) This is fun; don't make it suck. Bad days on the range happen. If it's a match I will endeavor to just chalk it up to that and carry on. If it's practice I will try to re-focus. If I can't, I pack it up for the day. Nothing wrong with that. No sense in going through the motions and tossing ammo down-range for no reason. 

 

Having those revelations I went and shot Area 4 and had a great time. It was far from a stellar match for me. In fact, it was a pretty terrible performance in retrospect. For my emotional and physical state it was much better. I was able to just let my performance be what it was and enjoy the day, the squad the pleasure of the match. A4 was a tough match BTW. Very enjoyable and challenging but definitely tough. 

 

A week later I shot North Texas Open and had one of the best showings at a major I have ever had. I placed 2nd in CO-M and 3rd overall. I was focused and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Frankly, this too was not my "best match" as there were three stages that had major issues which cost me some serious %. It wouldn't have been enough to change the overall placement though. I enjoyed it though. It was a good experience . 

 

Two weeks later I had a train-wreck at PCC/CO Nationals. In a effort to quell the pain in my foot (plantar fasciitis) I got a prescription for Methyl-Prednisone. Not knowing side effects included: 

-Mood Lability: agitation, indifference, tearfulness, irritability

-Anxiety: restlessness, worry, fear, agitation

-Insomnia: restlessness

-Depression: lethargy, suicidality

-Memory: cognitive impairments, distractibility, confusion

 

I found a couple things affected my performance: Insomnia was number 1: I slept like crap the entire week. In fast before day 2 where we shot in the morning I got 3 hours of sleep. Memory was the other. I couldn't keep a stage-plan in my head very well, if at all. At the end of day 1 I zero'd a speed shoot because I literally got confused and didn't know what to do other than just ULSC. I could have shot SOME POINTS but my brain just couldn't grasp that at the time. Needless to say, I basically gave-up on trying by the third day.

 

I did take some lessons away from this: 1) Advil and ice afterwards is JUST FINE for shooting matches and keeping my brain together. No more prednisone. 2) I don't have what it takes to be a real GM. I am nowhere near that level of performance. I was squadded with a bunch of awesome GMs. They were shooting a different match from me. I could make it in classification but then I am just the GM all the A-class guys beat. 3) Time for me to quit going to "serious" majors. Area matches and Nationals are no place for me. I have zero right to be there competing with real competitors. I am just taking a slot away from people who deserve to be there. 4) It's time to shoot for fun. (see my previously mentioned revelations). 

 

With all that said: I have swapped to Limited-Major for the 2022 season to have fun and try a division that I have always wanted to. Have fun in it with zero expectations of performance. I can just practice my little bits of things and get better as I go. I will still be velocitizing to get used to the iron sights at speed because this feels like an all new experience shooting iron-sights again. I will have videos put up on YouTube and I still have an IG but it's going to be more low-key than it has been in the past. 

 

TL;DR : I am an emotional guy trying to keep that under control. I am gonna focus on the fun parts of shooting. I am not a GM-level shooter no matter how much I want to be. I am gonna shoot Lim-Major in 2022. 

Edited January 12, 2022 by Reds_Dot
typos

[rowdyb]

Your self awareness and insight is impressive. And that you work on making peace with all the internal and external conflicts and contradictions for someone doing what you're doing. Impressed.

[Reds_Dot]

Range trip today was... Enlightening. I was planning on rolling a 20 aces drill, cold, then going into shooting on the move and partials. 

 

The 20 aces drill went... Poorly. There are a bunch of reasons why but I am gonna keep that to a minimum: lack of sleep, lack of calories, and no caffeine, along with the elevation of the sight being low for 25 yards.

 

I decided to try the drill again after a re-check of zero. It went a bit better but it presented me with info regarding my sight travel. i.e. Not up and down. The front sight is deviating to the left on the lift.

 

During the drill I discovered magazine #1 didn't work. It's having feed issues. It got parked.  I was also having issues with my index on the draw being way off and trigger freeze on splits.

 

At this point I was getting angry and then depressed. I considered swapping back to CO and parking the limited gun. I thought about how it's gonna suck to shoot a match and get my ass kicked and "look stupid." I have two matches next weekend.... Etc etc....

 

I recognized what was happening. I was in a negative spiral and letting my negative emotional state drive decisions. I stopped myself and asked a few key questions:

 

- Why did I switch to the CZ and Limited-Major? Because I wanted to for fun. So far, has been fun.

 

- Is it reasonable to ask that I be on equal level with my CO gun in three months using a totally new gun and back to iron sights? No, not remotely. That's nuts to expect that of myself. It will come with time and I want to get more time on the gun in practice anyway.

 

- What does it matter what anyone else expects at a match? It doesn't. Frankly no one will remember and they won't much care in the moment. I am not trying to perform for them. I am learning for me.

 

So, I stopped the spiral. I realized I could troubleshoot the bad magazine. I checked the magazine guts by swapping and determined that something is off with the mag body so now I have something to check. I decided I will also go back to the range and re-check zero just to make myself feel better and remove that doubt on the sights.

 

I will work more on fundamentals as well (grip/draw/index). I was trying to run before I could walk so to speak. I need to spend time on those since I am learning a new gun. It's gonna take time to get my hand adjusted to the new gat and, frankly, I haven't been spending enough time in dryfire and in live fire with it to be comfortable. 

 

That range session was tough but was a win for me in the end. Tonight I am gonna work on my grip at the draw and index. That needs work. It's not exciting but it will pay dividends once it gets solidified. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Reds_Dot
Clipped paragraph

[shred]

1 hour ago, Reds_Dot said:

 

- What does it matter what anyone else expects at a match? It doesn't. Frankly no one will remember and they won't much care in the moment. I am not trying to perform for them. I am learning for me.

This.  It's a hard trap to get out of.  Everyone fears "looking bad", some more than others, especially if there are internal or external expectations of success, but the truth is what you recognized.

 

It was a slow (and at times difficult) progression for me the mental change towards "soul shooter" mode.  The frustration of shooting poorly or making mistakes remains even so.

[llamasabound]

@Reds_Dot

 

still right there with you. I think Cha-Lee said, “everybody just looks at the results until they find their name.” Sometimes we don’t have to read many (any) names. And sometimes we have to read a lot. It’s a rare bird that reads past their own. Looking forward to updates from iron sights.

[sfinney]

On 11/10/2020 at 3:12 PM, Reds_Dot said:

Stated Goals for 2021: Make GM in Carry Optics; Learn to Shoot like a GM at matches (this will be defined by major match performance and my ability to finish at 90% or better in the division consistently)

 

REVISED: Stated Goals for 2021: Make GM in Carry Optics; Learn to Shoot at my highest repeatable capability at matches on field courses and classifiers, on demand (this will be defined by major match performance and my ability to finish at 90% or better in the division consistently)

 

Do this and your classification won't matter. Good to have goals, but match performance as a stated goal is fine as long as it's measured by yourself, vs. your best self.

 

And take it from me, nothing worse than getting that high classification on paper to bolster your "self image" but unable to produce it on demand in major matches.  Let your classification be the result, not the goal. 

 

Just my two cents. I could be wrong, and often am.

[Reds_Dot]

On 1/17/2022 at 8:27 PM, shred said:

This.  It's a hard trap to get out of.  Everyone fears "looking bad", some more than others, especially if there are internal or external expectations of success, but the truth is what you recognized.

 

It was a slow (and at times difficult) progression for me the mental change towards "soul shooter" mode.  The frustration of shooting poorly or making mistakes remains even so.

 

Yeah, that has been the truth that my head has recognized but I still wrestle with my ego over it. In the end, I am in this for me. 

 

As far as the frustration of shooting poorly I don't think that will ever go away. You and I care too much about our performance to not have a reaction to a bad day. However, as I am learning and trying to do better, it's a matter of looking at that frustration and turning it into something productive versus just being PO'd in my case.

 

On 1/17/2022 at 8:53 PM, llamasabound said:

@Reds_Dot

 

still right there with you. I think Cha-Lee said, “everybody just looks at the results until they find their name.” Sometimes we don’t have to read many (any) names. And sometimes we have to read a lot. It’s a rare bird that reads past their own. Looking forward to updates from iron sights.

 

Yeah, I also realize that there are people that actually do care how I finish here locally. The ones that matter don't care that I "did poorly" they ask me what I learned and get excited for me going forward. I need to focus on that. They are a positive group (that's why I hang with them) and it will help keep me positive motivated.

 

On 1/18/2022 at 8:27 AM, sfinney said:

 

REVISED: Stated Goals for 2021: Make GM in Carry Optics; Learn to Shoot at my highest repeatable capability at matches on field courses and classifiers, on demand (this will be defined by major match performance and my ability to finish at 90% or better in the division consistently)

 

Do this and your classification won't matter. Good to have goals, but match performance as a stated goal is fine as long as it's measured by yourself, vs. your best self.

 

And take it from me, nothing worse than getting that high classification on paper to bolster your "self image" but unable to produce it on demand in major matches.  Let your classification be the result, not the goal. 

 

Just my two cents. I could be wrong, and often am.

 

Yeah, I'm not even going to set that goal. I am just gonna practice and perform. When I see a deficiency I will work to improve/fix it. Focus on the tasks required and get better. I'm not trying to be a grand-bagger and I also know that I'm over-classified as it is. 

 

I am working very hard on fundamentals (grip, draw, index, reloads, transitions) because they are all VERY different from running my Glock 17 CO gun. Once I feel like I have a better grasp on those I can work more on other things like entries, exits and shooting on the move which I have some good transferrable skills already but they can't be fully utilized until those fundamentals are solid. I suspect that once I get those fundamentals more solid my overall match performance will improve fairly quickly after that. 

[Halen]

7 hours ago, Reds_Dot said:

Yeah, I'm not even going to set that goal. I am just gonna practice and perform. When I see a deficiency I will work to improve/fix it. Focus on the tasks required and get better.

 

Words to live by...totally appreciate your thoughts and agree.

[Reds_Dot]

So in an odd twist of perspective I am excited to run the CO Glock a a local hoser  match this coming weekend. It's high round-count and I don't have the .40 ammo to spare on a 60-rd/stage match. That ammo is better used in practice. So I have plenty of 9mm for my CO gun (G17). I am gonna spend all my dryfire this week working on it. I grabbed the G17s out of the safe and they felt good. Everything but my weak hand index was solid and my gun manipulations were right on point.

 

I am really enjoying the challenge and lack of expectation tied into the CZ TSO and shooting Limited Major. It's fun to shoot and figure out where I need to rock-'n'-roll and where I need to refine. 

 

There is something very different about shooting the TSO versus the G17. The TSO feels more mechanical than the G17 with operation of the safety, the weight and recoil. Stages feel more viceral and aggressive. I know I am not going as fast as I normally do in CO but I have this sensation of always hanging onto the edge of control. It feels good.

 

I wish there was time to practice both guns though. The Glock feels softer and more like home so it's still enjoyable to shoot. I need to devote most of my training to the CZ because I have way more learning to do with it still. I want to put in the time to get good at it and fully enjoy the platform. All of this to say: It was a good call to swap to the CZ TSO and Lim Major this year. It's already making me appreciate the G17 CO guns. 

[Reds_Dot]

So a month, a busted thumb, and common realization later.....

I am gonna park the CZ. I am enjoying the experience of Limited-Major but I find myself frustrated by the hang-ups I have just from lack of familiarity with the platform.  can shoot it fine enough to be a decent A-class shooter but there is a bunch of potential being held at bay just because I am so ingrained with shooting Glocks. My frustration has outweighed my patience to try and learn the new gun. Plus I have managed to get a lousy grip twice in two weeks and battered my thumb on the slide-racker. I have a bruised thumb an a cracked thumb-nail as a reminder. 

 

So my curse or "blessing" as @CClassForLife calls it with guns other than Glocks continues. 

 

In training news I have made some discoveries that are really interesting and have helped me drastically improve my skill with iron-sights. 

 

Visualize "the bracket": I am gonna make a bold statement that will get me some heat on here for sure. Most top instructors teaching irons (and red-dots) for our sport aren't doing a good job. The use vague terms like: attack/control targets, or level 1/2/3 confirmations, or easy/moderate/tight target, etc.... When questioned to define them they often give loose terms, or worse, specific terms to describe them like 0-5yard open targets, 7-15 yard open or 5 yard partial, etc. While these instructors are doing their best to describe the type of target they are over complicating the process for the mind and vision of the shooter. They have developed a sense for these targets over time through experience and they are now trying to go back a describe reasoning behind what is now almost 100% intuition and they aren't sure how to fuctionally describe what is happening when they look at a target. 

 

It's all a matter of perception and relative distance. One of the things I developed a notion of early-on with red dots is that if the dot is wobbling/spinning/stable it doesn't really matter as long as it's doing those things inside whatever the acceptable shooting area is. It doesn't matter if it's a 5 yard open target, a 35 yard mini popper, or a 15 yard cut-off IPSC target. It's the same strategy: Is the dot staying within the confines of my acceptable target area? Awesome, pull the trigger. I will clarify "acceptable shooting area" in a bit but for now just think of it as the area where you want the rounds to hit on the target. 

 

I knew that aiming with irons was going to be more difficult. You have three visual planes to align and two will always be a bit out of focus. For me it will always be the sights. If the target is in focus I can "aim the blur" of my iron sights consistently enough to get acceptable hits. However, how much confirmation of the sights has been where I was falling down. Hesitating on 10 yard partials wondering if I have a refined enough sight picture for the target at hand. Intuitively I knew there had to be some rule of thumb that could accelerate my visual recognition of what the right amount of sight refinement needed was. In the end its still just a matter of relative angles and perceived size. Then while messing around with the sights on a dryfire target it hit me. If the rear sight channel (notch) width is visually smaller than the acceptable shooting area then the front sight only needs to be somewhere in the rear notch and you will score a good hit. You can pin the sight to one side or the other and it will still land in an acceptable area. If the rear notch is wider visually then the degree to which the target area is smaller defines the amount of deviation you can have in the front sight from the perfect equal-height/equal-light alignment. The rear sight becomes a "bracket" to judge needed sight pictures. Obviously a 5 yard USPSA A-zone doesn't even require a sight picture but anything where you deem needing the sights teach yourself to judge the targets with the rear sight notch as your bracket just like you would refine dot streaks, down to a wobble, and eventually a still sight. 

 

Sight travel isn't as important as you think: So I was hyper-focused on trying to get the front sight to travel straight up and down. No matter what I did I had this tendency to let the front sight up and slightly left. It traveled in that path consistently and returned to a centered aiming point. I was tweaking my grip in a funny way just to try and get that consistent up-down motion with no deviation. I finally gave up trying to keep the sight travelling straight up and down and decided to test it with a target and a timer. Running 0.14-0.18s splits I could keep my hits inside an IPSC a-zone at 10 yards 80% of the time. Especially shooting limited major I am very comfortable with that level of accuracy in this sport and removed my concerns around sight travel. Now, to qualify this my sight isn't wobbling all over the place every time. It's travelling a few degrees left while also travelling up. So as opposed to 6 o'clock to 12 o'clock travel it was 6 o'clock to halfway between 10 and 11 o'clock. It was super-consistent though. If your front sight is all over the place during recoil you need to work on getting your grip more solid.

 

Acceptable Shooting Area: this is concept that gets used WIDELY in practical shooting sports. This is defined as the area of the target where hits will result in the maximum potential HIT FACTOR (not points) for the target during a course of fire. This can be a tad subjective but a good general guideline is the old "middle of brown". Aim for the central area of the target. On partials that might be an A/C line which is still okay if you aren't dwelling on the target. Hit factor is points/time so if you can gather 2 fewer points in half the time then you are ahead of the game and getting a better hit factor on that target.

 

So there is my brain dump. Feel free to respond. Perhaps I have missed something in my analysis. I am just an M-class nobody. 

[Reds_Dot]

Struggle and Accomplishment versus Fun Factor

 

So I had a couple interesting experiences in the last few weeks. For some reason my local clubs have all had multiple un-loaded starts per match. In the last month + I have shot 4 matches with 6 stages each match. That's 24 stages. I have had 11 unloaded starts. Not quite half but close enough. The CZ TSO has an inherent issue that the slide is narrower that the frame. Thus, the unloaded starts are difficult since I can't just reach over the top (like I am used to with a Glock; this is important later). I went to a local gunsmith and had a slide-racker installed. The second set of matches the unloaded starts theme continued. The slide-racker was a HUGE help.... Until it wasn't. I managed to bash my shooting hand thumb because it popped-up on a stage because of a bad grip. That was a painful lesson. The following week the same thing happened and further injured my thumb. I couldn't finish shooting the match. Flicking off the safety and hitting the mag release hurt too much. 

 

The pain made me start to consider what was going on with me shooting the CZ TSO. I like the gun but it's so far removed from the Glocks I am used to shooting, I would hesitate shooting targets that were even wide-open at 7 yards. I wasn't sure of my grip/index/trigger control. I was frustrated shooting the gun because I KNEW I was losing time. I also know that training/reps/time would eventually solve that problem. However, I considered that I was playing in Lim-Major for fun. This sort of fundaments drilling didn't sound fun. So Patience < Desire to Train the TSO.

 

That line of thought brought me to concept that is often pushed by motivational speakers and "life coaches". Working through the difficult things will leave you more satisfied and happier in life. I can say there is some truth to this. Working on difficult things and accomplishing a goal is very satisfying. However there is a missing portion to this: Do you want to accomplish the goal to start with? If you are internally motivated to accomplish a goal then you will find that satisfaction when you get there. If you aren't internally motivated then completing the goal will be a frustrating process that results in a sense of relief but not joy or accomplishment at the end. An example would be say a high school class. Think about a subject you disliked and didn't need for your life path that you had to take. When you got through the class you didn't really feel joy. You were relieved that you were done and you immediately moved on. In this vein, I could train the CZ to the point where I get rid of the hesitations, grip issues, and index issues. I'll only feel relieved. Not accomplished. If I can run a Glock and remove the obstacle of learning the new platform then I can focus on the interesting goal of learning how to shoot irons well. I am internally motivated to do that. The whole process of learning iron-sigh shooting is motivating. I even when it "goes wrong" I am still motivated to keep working on it. When I can get the point of shooting irons with actual proficiency I will feel joy and satisfaction. So, time to dump the CZ and roll back to the old standby: Glock.

 

 

[UpYoursPal]

Are you feeling some vindication after the new IDPA rules dropped?

[Reds_Dot]

16 hours ago, UpYoursPal said:

Are you feeling some vindication after the new IDPA rules dropped?

I have previously been told not to discuss this particular topic on these forums. Also, this range diary is meant to document my training journey not discuss rule sets of particular sports. I would be more than happy to share my thoughts on the whole thing with you over a DM though.  

[Reds_Dot]

Well four matches later I feel quite vindicated making the gun switch. I picked up a G22 Gen5. The Glock was 100% the right call and it has allowed me to jump right into velocitization(speed mode).

 

Lesson learned: Stick to what you know. Removing the extra complexity of learning a separate platform has allowed me to see deficiency in my stage negotiation techniques. There are items I want to work on heavily focused on "awkward" movements. I bleed time not being able to set-up and engage as fast as I would like. 

 

To my surprise recoil hasn't been that much of a hindrance. To be fair I can't split the .40 quite as fast as the 9 but we are talking 0.13s compared to 0.17s in a match. 4 one-hundreths of a second is an acceptable max split differential. Any pace slower than that I can shoot at the same clip. 

 

My rear-sight "bracket" method works very well for determining the level of refined sight picture needed. However, my Charlie ratio is a bit too high. I am running about a 2:1 A to C ratio. The top guys run closer to a 3:1 ratio. I will eventually need to look into refining sight pictures after I get more comfortable at speed. Not gonna slow down. I am gonna catch my vision up.

That tension bug has grabbed me on my first shot off my draw. My consistent match draw time of 0.80s (CO) has dropped back to 1.10s (Lim-Maj) times. It doesn't seem like much but a couple of courses that have fast engagements (and classifiers)  and I have given up as much as 2 seconds at local matches to that failing. For the next little bit I will focus on pushing the stress of the first draw away from my arms/shoulders/back and keep it in my hands. Both in live and dryfire. That should clear up the issues.

 

I have noticed mid-stage tension creeps in and my shots go high. The front sight climbs a bit out of the notch and I sail rounds high. Training plan: Work on inducing stress in live-fire mini-stages (fast partials, steel at distance, etc) and give myself only one opportunity to create the stress then look to recognize the muscle tension as well as seeing the front post climbing as it's happening. Then work to eliminate the reaction.

 

Wide focus versus narrow for fast arrays and "easier" targets.  I will continue to work using a wider field of view to attack an array of targets in both live and dryfire to see if I can make effective use of the technique which leaves me with a "loose" visual focus over a grouped array. 

 

Now comes the fun part. Match videos! 

 

River City Shootout 2022:

 

 

 

APSC April 2022:

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Reds_Dot

[TheChewycookie]

1 hour ago, Reds_Dot said:

My rear-sight "bracket" method works very well for determining the level of refined sight picture needed.

Define this bracket. If I guessing, you may be using a similar method to Tim Herron's "anchoring the rear sight"