D class to GM

[BigHand]

3 hours ago, Obvious said:

Seems like the link might not have posted? I’d love to check out the video though! And yes I’ve made a good couple friends that are into the M range, I plan on talking to them more and going back and forth with them. But I don’t expect these folks to make time for me all the time when they have their own life to deal with. So once I identify what I need to work on, I’ll be able to do so by myself. 

 

Whoops... my bad. Here is a video on it --> 

 

 

 

Heres an article on it -->  https://www.runtastic.com/blog/en/running-form-tips/

[Obvious]

51 minutes ago, BigHand said:

 

Whoops... my bad. Here is a video on it --> 

 

 

 

Heres an article on it -->  https://www.runtastic.com/blog/en/running-form-tips/

Actually extremely helpful, thank you! I’ve been leading with my heel hitting first and then sort of just rolling through to the balls of my feet. This never really caused an issue when I was younger but I was also much healthier and weighed a good 100 pounds less. Im gonna have to look into more “proper” running form and see what feels best next time I hit the gym. Legs are feeling fine for now, we’ll see if that level of pain returns this week. 

[BigHand]

11 hours ago, Obvious said:

Actually extremely helpful, thank you! I’ve been leading with my heel hitting first and then sort of just rolling through to the balls of my feet. This never really caused an issue when I was younger but I was also much healthier and weighed a good 100 pounds less. Im gonna have to look into more “proper” running form and see what feels best next time I hit the gym. Legs are feeling fine for now, we’ll see if that level of pain returns this week. 

 

I'll admit, it takes a minute to get used to. When I changed my form, it felt like I was hopping like a bird lol. I felt embarrased almost haha. But once I saw myself on video, and got used to the form, it looks and feels much better. 

 

For me, my calves and achilles tendon took a serious beating. I would run 1-2 times week and they'd be sore for 2-3 days. But after a few weeks, I could run basically every day. I never used those muscles much running and my knees/back took the force of that. I've found that with running properly, I can walk and stand longer than I used to as well. Your feet/legs are like big springs, use them as such. 

 

I also recommend varying air squat forms and jump squats using your legs as suspension, not as a hard stop. 

[Obvious]

been a while so a bit of an update - managed to get my holster set up comfortably and have been practicing draws/reloads in dry fire. Homework and poor weather has kept me from shooting a match in quite a while, however on the 20th I'm going to try to go shoot the Alpha Mike match in San Antonio. Gym progress has been going decently, I wanted to run a mile by halloween and I definitely am in enough physical condition that I could have done so, however it would've hurt my shins more than I care to admit. I've been doing a lot more biking and am going to try swimming soon. I haven't seen the progress I wanted in the upper body that I would have liked, so i've swapped to doing more muscle isolation exercises there and think progress is slowly being made. I have a few more tweaks to make to my shooting rig, but I'm incredibly excited to be able to go shoot my first real match in months. Time to order some more bullets and get a fresh batch of reloads prepped for it. 

[crg]

I'll echo what the others have said and say definitely do not run if it hurts to do so. I made the mistake of thinking running was just a painful activity and it would go away with training, improving technique, etc. I was very wrong. You should definitely work on proper technique but if it still hurts then don't force it. If it keeps hurting then you may want to see a professional. You've got the right approach doing lower impact activities.

[Obvious]

Just now, crg said:

I'll echo what the others have said and say definitely do not run if it hurts to do so. I made the mistake of thinking running was just a painful activity and it would go away with training, improving technique, etc. I was very wrong. You should definitely work on proper technique but if it still hurts then don't force it. If it keeps hurting then you may want to see a professional. You've got the right approach doing lower impact activities.

That is absolutely the plan. Other folks have mentioned it here, but with the amount of pain I’ve experienced I think it’d be smart to talk to a doc/pt/sport specialist before I do any permanent damage. 

[CC3D]

1 minute ago, Obvious said:

That is absolutely the plan. Other folks have mentioned it here, but with the amount of pain I’ve experienced I think it’d be smart to talk to a doc/pt/sport specialist before I do any permanent damage. 

For sure. In the mean time, dont sleep on walking. If it doesn't hurt to do so, walking can be a great alternative to running. 

 

Glad to see you'll be getting back out there soon- been too long since r/competitionshooting has been graced by the jorts. 

[rowdyb]

On 11/12/2022 at 4:06 PM, Obvious said:

been a while so a bit of an update - managed to get my holster set up comfortably and have been practicing draws/reloads in dry fire. Homework and poor weather has kept me from shooting a match in quite a while, however on the 20th I'm going to try to go shoot the Alpha Mike match in San Antonio. Gym progress has been going decently, I wanted to run a mile by halloween and I definitely am in enough physical condition that I could have done so, however it would've hurt my shins more than I care to admit. I've been doing a lot more biking and am going to try swimming soon. I haven't seen the progress I wanted in the upper body that I would have liked, so i've swapped to doing more muscle isolation exercises there and think progress is slowly being made. I have a few more tweaks to make to my shooting rig, but I'm incredibly excited to be able to go shoot my first real match in months. Time to order some more bullets and get a fresh batch of reloads prepped for it. 

I will be at the alpha Mike match. Say hi.

[Obvious]

On 11/16/2022 at 12:07 PM, CC3D said:

For sure. In the mean time, dont sleep on walking. If it doesn't hurt to do so, walking can be a great alternative to running. 

 

Glad to see you'll be getting back out there soon- been too long since r/competitionshooting has been graced by the jorts. 

haha sometimes I forget that some folks here actually use reddit and remember me. Sadly texas got hit with the one cold front of the year and it rained all weekend, so both matches I was looking at going to were a no go. 

[Obvious]

On 11/16/2022 at 12:28 PM, rowdyb said:

I will be at the alpha Mike match. Say hi.

Sadly it seems weather wasn't in our favor. I'm assuming the match got canceled due to the rain, but even if it didn't I'm not sure I would've wanted to shoot it on a wet range. 

[Obvious]

Alright! I wrapped up one HELL of a semester in December. Nearly done with school though, and I'm finally able to start shooting more. Had my first match in months at a local club, ended up 4/8. Not many shooters so stats aren't great, but I know a big problem for me was addressing a proper sight picture. I had 3 mikes across a 5 stage match, and that alone kept me from 3rd place. It seems I need to slow down my exits/entries, all my mikes were on targets i was rushing to hit as i would come into or leave a position. However, I wasn't able to call those hits, so i need to spend more time behind the trigger determining how fast I can push it and what exactly "acceptable" is for these sights. Going to clean my gear pretty well tomorrow, load up some ammo, and do some dry fire in prep for the river city match this coming sunday. First match back i shot was penalty free, however I'm not as happy with my score as I'd like to be. I'm going to try to slow it down a bit at river city and shoot it penalty free, as well as no mikes. 

[Obvious]

Finally got out to a “big” match that wasn’t local to me this past weekend. I did better than I expected, and at the same time not as well as I would’ve liked. 
 

https://practiscore.com/results/new/192260

 

ended up placing 58/80 with just below 50%. This would put me solidly in C class, but I’m not currently a USPSA member until I decide to go to matches with more classifiers. I’m at a sort of a cross roads currently, do I keep pushing faster and just try to adapt and shoot better at a higher cadence, or do I slow it down and hopefully build my way up to faster shooting? The first half of this match I sent 3 mikes because I was shooting too fast, the second half I forced myself to slow down and I got my hits, but time suffered. I also had to make suboptimal stage plans to deal with swingers I wasn’t comfortable shooting very fast. 
 

finally getting a membership to the outdoor range here, and I’m very much so looking forward to being able to practice more. I had a lot of deltas from shooting too fast and not confirming sight picture, I’d like to work on my grip and doubles more to see if I can tighten that into the C zone at least while staying at the same speed. Also need to work on figuring out what’s an acceptable sight picture with my TSO. I feel like I had that figured out with my 1911, but just haven’t had enough practice with my TSO to be able to assess that at speed yet. 
 

I also forgot to include, I found this longer match much more bearable than I have in the past. I made sure to stay well hydrated, had good shoes, and a small snack and found myself not nearly as grumpy after 4 hours as I have in the past. I did get incredibly sunburnt but that’s healing now and I have since learned my lesson about overcast days.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Obvious

[Obvious]

Been a minute since i've posted. Sunburn thankfully all healed, that was a nasty couple days. Back to practicing, have been focusing on grip a lot lately. I swapped the recoil spring for a lighter one as i was noticing the gun diving as it went back into battery. Not sure how "hard" everyone else is gripping the gun, but for me to get an all alpha bill drill I'm gripping it so tightly I'm starting to lose skin on my fingers. I'll keep working on this in dry fire and probably buy a grip trainer, as of right now I'm not sure I can maintain that level of grip through an entire stage without fatiguing. Now that I can shoot outdoors I'll be buying a shot timer soon and start working on drills with reloads and transitions. If the grip I've found is repeatable, it almost feels like a cheat code. 

[CC3D]

33 minutes ago, Obvious said:

Not sure how "hard" everyone else is gripping the gun, but for me to get an all alpha bill drill I'm gripping it so tightly I'm starting to lose skin on my fingers.

Jeez man. Which hand is losing the skin? You may be gripping too hard with your firing hand, if thats the case ease up a bit and apply that same force with your support hand. 
 

Also what grips are you using? The gun may be moving around in your hands if you’re using the stock ones. It may be counter intuitive but more aggressive grips might be easier on your hands.

 

I’m not a very big buy but I apply pretty middle of the road grip strength and get fairly good recoil control. I’m gripping firm don't get me wrong but it’s more of a tight handshake than a tear the skin off your hands type grip. Body mechanics are important too-  it’s not just about squeezing the gun to death

[Obvious]

1 hour ago, CC3D said:

Jeez man. Which hand is losing the skin? You may be gripping too hard with your firing hand, if thats the case ease up a bit and apply that same force with your support hand. 
 

Also what grips are you using? The gun may be moving around in your hands if you’re using the stock ones. It may be counter intuitive but more aggressive grips might be easier on your hands.

 

I’m not a very big buy but I apply pretty middle of the road grip strength and get fairly good recoil control. I’m gripping firm don't get me wrong but it’s more of a tight handshake than a tear the skin off your hands type grip. Body mechanics are important too-  it’s not just about squeezing the gun to death

Yep, it’s my strong hand (right hand) that’s losing small bits of skin at the joints in my fingers where they dig into front strap. Now that I’ve changed my spring rate I’ll play with grip a little more and see what’s actually necessary. I ordered more liquid chalk today to aid in dry hands and better grip. Currently I’m using the stock aluminum grips that came with the TSO as I haven’t felt the need to swap them, although I do kinda of want to try some palm swell grips because I have big hands. 

[Scotty_JR]

I've only pulled off skin on the back of my strong hand from the grip of my support hand plus more chalk than I probably needed. On the top of my middle finger mainly. A good test Hwansik Kim uses to find the right amount of firing hand pressure to start with is shooting with the strong hand only and backing of the pressure until the grip actually moves around in your hand. It might be a lot lower than you think depending on your starting grip pressure. Once it starts to move in your hand, just increase it a little. 

 

I would avoid the grip trainers. Dryfiring like you should, you'll get all the grip strength workout you need. Hands should be fatigued after 10-20 minutes if you're just starting out. 

 

Using Trigger Control at Speed will tell you a lot about your grip. When you get your shot timer, set it on random and aim at a small point such as a paster at 3 or 5 yards and smash the trigger like you would in a match as SOON as you hear the beep. Should be a .2-.25 reaction time. See what your sights do and feel what your hands do. 

[CC3D]

18 hours ago, Obvious said:

Yep, it’s my strong hand (right hand) that’s losing small bits of skin at the joints in my fingers where they dig into front strap. Now that I’ve changed my spring rate I’ll play with grip a little more and see what’s actually necessary. I ordered more liquid chalk today to aid in dry hands and better grip. Currently I’m using the stock aluminum grips that came with the TSO as I haven’t felt the need to swap them, although I do kinda of want to try some palm swell grips because I have big hands. 

Definitly don't hesitate to get the palm swell's from LOK. I use the palm swell bogies (for the shadow 2, they fit the TSO and look a bit better than the 75 series ones IMO) and they're a huge step up. I find the stock cz grips to be pretty slick, but I like a really aggressive texture. 

[Obvious]

15 minutes ago, CC3D said:

Definitly don't hesitate to get the palm swell's from LOK. I use the palm swell bogies (for the shadow 2, they fit the TSO and look a bit better than the 75 series ones IMO) and they're a huge step up. I find the stock cz grips to be pretty slick, but I like a really aggressive texture. 

What I’ve done in the past is just jb weld/silicon carbide the original grips. Not a big deal with guns that have removable/replaceable grips. I might try that first as a free alternative, I’ve had pretty good success with it before. 

[crg]

On 2/22/2023 at 5:29 PM, Obvious said:

Been a minute since i've posted. Sunburn thankfully all healed, that was a nasty couple days. Back to practicing, have been focusing on grip a lot lately. I swapped the recoil spring for a lighter one as i was noticing the gun diving as it went back into battery. Not sure how "hard" everyone else is gripping the gun, but for me to get an all alpha bill drill I'm gripping it so tightly I'm starting to lose skin on my fingers. I'll keep working on this in dry fire and probably buy a grip trainer, as of right now I'm not sure I can maintain that level of grip through an entire stage without fatiguing. Now that I can shoot outdoors I'll be buying a shot timer soon and start working on drills with reloads and transitions. If the grip I've found is repeatable, it almost feels like a cheat code. 

 

Keep in mind the amount of time you will actually have an established grip during a stage is relatively small and will be broken up by movement between positions. I find a 15 minute dryfire session is much harder on my hands than any match I've shot.

[VeilAndrew]

On 2/23/2023 at 1:25 PM, CC3D said:

Definitly don't hesitate to get the palm swell's from LOK. I use the palm swell bogies (for the shadow 2, they fit the TSO and look a bit better than the 75 series ones IMO) and they're a huge step up. I find the stock cz grips to be pretty slick, but I like a really aggressive texture. 

Once your LOKs wear out, I would highly recommend the Patriot Defense grips. The palm swell profile is a little different, but the texture is a lot more aggressive. LOKs are pretty smooth in comparison. I have the brass grips from them and they're pretty awesome.

[Obvious]

Holy crap what a turn of events. I've finally graduated from college, will be starting my actual engineering job soon. However I have a small tear in my LCL, and have had to slow down on basically everything. Waiting on an orthopedic surgeon to schedule a time for a consultation on what my path forward is, but for probably the next few months I won't be shooting any matches. Going to be focusing on reloading to build up my stockpile so I can shoot more when I'm fully rehabbed, and potentially building a polymer 80 glock 17 size gun into a carry optics setup. Other than that, I guess I got plenty of time to dry fire now. Not sure what else I'll be doing moving forward. Feels weird having free time but not being to spend it out on the range...

[CC3D]

On 5/28/2023 at 3:24 PM, Obvious said:

Going to be focusing on reloading to build up my stockpile so I can shoot more when I'm fully rehabbed,

Load up some .40 minor while you're at it and join the other TSO limited guys in LO

[SufferInSilence]

Did you make GM?  

[Obvious]

On 6/2/2023 at 4:16 PM, SufferInSilence said:

Did you make GM?  

Lol nope, having to take a break

[Obvious]

Well been working my ass off in PT and have come to a spot where the muscle strength is where it needs to be but theres still consistent pain. Having surgery in December to replace my ACL and repair the meniscus. Looks like matches have been put on hold for another year or so. PLENTY of time for dry fire and to reload ammo and stash it deep so I won't have to worry about that when I get cleared for matches again.