Revolver? Die on the vine?

[-JCN-]

Long day. 
 

Coworker was sick so they asked if I would do her job today. A number of other coworkers declined to do so.
 

She may be out tomorrow also, other members also declined to cover her work tomorrow too.

 

I said I would do it.

 

Today became a little bit longer of a day than it would have been. Instead of getting to the league night with enough time to walk stages, I got there with only a few minutes to spare because of traffic at the time that I was able to go.

 

I almost bailed on the match because I don’t like being underprepared. But I decided to go and just challenge myself.
 

I wasn’t feeling strong or fast so I just shot within my ability and didn’t push it. Shot a very clean match with a lot of alphas.

 

There was a movement classifier and I just shot it at match pace. It wound up being 84%. If I was feeling sharp, I could’ve pushed the index and the speed, but I just was feeling a little bit pokey. 
 

I was reasonably pleased that my reproducible match pace that I could do all day long is around where I wanted it to be.
 

As an added bonus, anything under 85% gets thrown out and doesn’t hurt me if I am trying to go for GM down the road.

 

 

Edited July 10 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Consistency, comfort zone and pushing to get better

 

I feel good about my comfort zone shooting. It's definitely at least A level and probably A+/M-.

 

But, if I want to get better, I will have to push outside my comfort zone and keep working my kinesthetic sense to get on target with less visual feedback and less visual confirmation.
 

That’s where my next level of speed will come from.

 

In addition, I have to keep working my trigger timing at speed to try and shrink those wobbles smaller and smaller.

 

I also have an issue with small steel trying to get the right balance of stability versus trigger press without overslowing.

 

That will be something to be able to work on the range with. Setting up a static small steel and working that as a drill in between paper. 
 

These are exactly the same things that V has to work on as well.

 

At the league match, it is interesting to observe other people’s results. 
 

For example, there is one guy who is a B class shooter. When he is on fire, he can hang with just about anyone. But other times, he dumpster fires no shoots and misses.
 

The external observation would be that he is inconsistent.
 

His self assessment is that “it just wasn’t his day.“
 

But my assessment is that he is actually extremely consistent… 

 

This is where engineering result data misses the granularity of the “how.”

 

My observation of his shooting is that he is extremely consistent in that he shoots almost all his doubles predictively just on kinesthetics.

 

This winds up being fairly fast and he can get away with it when the targets are open and close-to-medium range. Say about a 6 inch wobble at 7 yards. That scales to a 3 inch at 3.5 yards and 12 inches at 14…

 

But when tight partials, longer distance and no shoots come into play that same no-look double results in misses and no shoot hits.

 

So by results, it looks like he’s inconsistent, but his defect is actually consistent.. but it only shows up on certain stage design / target engagements.

 

The other extreme are people who rely on a lot of vision for every single hit and are slower, but more accurate.
 

The balance for growth is somewhere in between. Always working on improving the kinesthetic sense, but knowing when you need more vision.

For me, the tendency is to over-rely on vision, but I need to keep pushing that boundary as my kinesthetics improve.

This is where skills lab will be so valuable. The permission to experiment and make mistakes without a match on the line. 
 

 

.

Edited July 10 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Star Wars!

 

Daughter asked to watch Star Wars for the first time…

 

 

It was a favorite of mine growing up. 

[-JCN-]

Culture and “Keeping up with the Joneses”

 

Our local environment and clubs are not very classifier heavy. Especially in the climate of USPSA protesting and change to hit factor matches.

 

This makes for a little bit slower classification ascent. We have a number of people that are performing higher than their classification or who have higher classifications in other divisions that just haven’t had enough opportunities to update their current division classifications.

 

In our culture and in my opinion, our breakdown is as follows:

Unclassified: Mixed bag. People who haven’t classified yet versus people who don’t compete regularly.

 

Classification not listed: Usually a B or C class shooter with ego that thinks that they should be a higher classification so they don’t put anything.

 

D class: doesn’t practice, physically infirm or terminally clueless, but attends regularly.

 

C class: usually doesn’t dry fire, not aware of the non-shooting aspects of the sport, but attends regularly. Basically uses matches as practice but little commitment outside of attending. 
 

B class: in my opinion, this is the most heterogeneous group. In general, a pretty high level of aptitude compared to the general population, but could still hide imbalance or glaring weakness in one aspect or another. 
 

I think the easiest dichotomy to me is the B class shooter that has remained a B class shooter more than 2 years versus one that moves out. 
 

Terminal B class: somebody who does not dry fire practice much and lacks a certain amount of insight to work on their weaknesses. They tend to be people who pat themselves on the back for their relative strengths and have a blinder (usually due to ego) about their weaknesses. Age and infirmity can contribute to their ultimate peak achievement attained, but most people aren’t physically limited/excluded out of A class if they self assessed and practiced effectively. 
 

Rising B class: typically people who recently started the sport, possibly without much gaming background and are working through some of the game-specific aspects. Generally, they tend to practice, have healthy respect of dry fire and actively work on their weaknesses, but just need more time and repetitions to get where they are going. These people tend to spend less than one year in the class but that’s dependent on their access to classifier stages.

 

A class: at least locally since we are not a heavy classifier region, this represents somebody who is pretty good. They may be inconsistent in their performance and mental focus, but they have an understanding and level of achievement that is very solid.

 

M class: this is our bread and butter “good“ level locally. It’s a high-level of achievement and usually represents somebody who is pretty invested in their growth and improvement. 
 

GM class: we don’t have a local GM factory. People who achieve this in our region have to travel for classifier matches and see it as a separate game. They are usually our best shooters, but there is quite a bit of overlap with our best M as it should be.

[-JCN-]

On ego and bulls#!t online. 
 

This is why AI scraping unvetted information at face value is going to dilute information. 
 

People have egos and often mislead others through omission. It then becomes an internet thing. 
 

Take the ACEVR thingy. 
 

Sure, for people who require entertainment to practice or to practice non-shooting parts of the sport. 
 

But for actual gun handling and latency free fundamentals… it’s going to be hard to beat your actual race gun with a red dot. 
 

So anyone who claims vast improvement immediately gets my critical eye.
 

1. Are you overselling your improvement because you have no comparative context?

 

2. Would you have improved more had you used your actual competition gun over this facsimile?

 

There was this post:

 

 

The lack of detail smells funny. Smells like ego. 
 

AI would pull that as “ACEVR helps people go from C to M.”

If you looked up the actual classification performance for such a claim, what would you expect to see…

 

When said like that, I would expect steady improvement from C class runs into a smattering of A and M class official runs.

 

Right?

 

 

That is not the reality. In the past two months, not a single official M class run.

 

And only one low A class run. 
 

Most of the recent classifiers (including the last 30 days) are barely B class. 
 

So even though the online claim is that someone started at C class and is now putting down M class runs in live fire…

 

The vetted data suggests that using ACEVR got this individual from C class to a low – mid B class. 
 

From my experience and in training V, that is not better than traditional dry fire training. 
 

I personally would expect the benefit of the ACEVR to be limited to non shooting aspects of the sport (like stage planning and execution) and not be beneficial for index and transition precision past A class levels. 

 

 

[-JCN-]

Actually now that I think about it, dry fire would be better for working the footwork than virtual reality. I doubt that the software has the depth and fidelity programmed in for every step and partial step of the foot. 
 

Entry and exit stability is something that absolutely can and should be practiced in dry fire. I just don’t see that being faithful in virtual reality.
 

How I shift my weight and how I place my foot absolutely affects my stability in dry fire and live fire. I doubt that is faithful in this simulation.

 

[-JCN-]

Tax stamp approved…

 

I ordered from Silencer Shop 6/25/24. 
 

It then went over on a transfer to the local shop before the Form 4 gets submitted. It arrived 7/5/24 to the shop. 
 

The Form 4 was submitted 7/6/24. 
 

Tax stamp was approved today, 7/11/24. 
 

Just a little over two weeks from start to finish. 

[-JCN-]

Handstand bridge kickover

 

My daughter does gymnastics but like everything, it requires practice and self study to improve. You can’t just count on the one hour per week during class.
 

I started USPSA in 2019 and shot my first handgun in December 2015. 
 

She was born mid 2017 so she’s grown up watching daddy “practice” at home. 
 

I’m established in my career and in my marriage so she never had the benefit of watching the struggles and perseverance required in our younger lives.

 

Rather than hiding the sport from her, I wanted it to be a demonstration of how to be not good at something but work and then become good at it.

 

It’s THE most important life lesson (besides how to be a good friend), IMO. 

 

A lot of young people think that just because they aren’t good at something, they can’t be good at something and they quit early.

 

Or they think just because they put effort into some thing and “tried hard” or “wanted it badly” that somehow has some bearing on their objective success. 
 

Both are delusional ego protections.

 

We have been working the one skill she needed to check off before passing to the next level at home together. We hadn’t quite figured it out even as recently as this morning before her test.
 

My wife let me know that during the class today, she rocked it and absolutely executed flawlessly!

 

I took a break from work and FaceTimed after class to give her the congratulations and reinforce how proud I was of her for digging deep and executing!

 

The confident smile on her face was worth millions of dollars. It’s that same face that I see in the mirror when I crush a hundo or rock a standardized test. 
 

Life lessons start early. Setting up my daughter to learn how to learn and learn how to execute… I couldn’t be prouder today. 

[-JCN-]

Got this from V today. 
 

 

We are working recoil to trigger timing hard because that’s her weakest area and the part that needs improvement to get to A class on demand. 
 

It’s also the hardest part (IMO) for women to get to consistently perhaps due to less forearm and arm muscle mass… it takes impeccable technique akin to a small LPGA woman driving 250 yards to get everything out of their frame.
 

 

.

 

Edited July 12 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Grow grass, grow!

 

[-JCN-]

LARPing

 

Picked up the new can and swapped off the Omega 9k i had on before.

 

 

 

New can is titanium. Quieter and low blow back. 
 

But it’s not so much the overall weight as much as it’s the weight distribution. 
 

 

Without the steel muzzle device, it’s pretty dang light.

 

 

So my LARP home setup. Suppressed 11.5” 223 with Holosun red dot / IR. 
 

In real life I’d probably just grab a 9mm pistol lol. 

[-JCN-]

I got a chance to talk to my daughter about the gymnastics test. 
 

She said that during the test she kept saying to herself “Emily doesn’t quit, Emily doesn’t quit!”

 

I am very happy with her determination coupled with her learning how to learn and understanding that practice and self-assessment is required in addition to tenacity. 

It’s my main criticism of the book “With Winning in Mind.”

 

I feel like the book underplays the most critical part of it: smart practice to actually have the skills.
 

This was common in autocross. You would have somebody who was the equivalent of a B class shooter that would have the attitude that they could win…. today. 

 

The problem with that is that it short circuited their brain and prevented them from being curious and open to how they could get better and improve their skill in order to be in position to win.

 

 

[-JCN-]

Skills lab and injured reserve. 
 

V tweaked her back when we were setting up in the morning. She was basically unable to do much except sit in the car all day. 
 

It’ll likely sideline her for a couple weeks. 
 

I set up stuff and shot today while she rested. 
 

Made a pee shelter. 
 

 

Grass is growing. 
 

 

Set up THS Short Course. 

 

[-JCN-]

I have improved

 

I ran a couple classifiers and figured out my match+ pace.

 

I miss that kind of clarity 18-09: I decided to just run It fully after working some component parts. Was just a whiff careful in my visual confirmation and it was a little slower than my peaks, but this is a comfortable pace for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I moved over to THS Short Course 23-01 and shot it cold, paying attention to footwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ran it a few more times after that and I got a little tight. My normal kind of pace is around a 6.15s with one Charlie for a 97.8%. I did that a couple times in a row. If I don't really commit to pushing transitions and to good footwork, the time creeps away.

 

 

Then ran the Six in Six 09-01

 

I still tend to rush the strong hand and sometimes the hits get away from me on that string, but felt good overall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, a pretty good test of a variety of USPSA classifier skills. Index, recoil control, accuracy, strong / weak hand, reloads, movement, etc.

 

I was pleased that my bad runs were M and my good runs were GM.

[-JCN-]

One of my primary motivating reasons to get better is to help others. 
 

The reason why I enjoy my job so much is because I get to help others. I am on salary, so for me doing a good job doesn’t mean more money… it means more effective communication and improving my skills to be more effective at my job. 
 

When V hurt her back at the range, I did what I had set out to do from a practice standpoint, but it was way less enjoyable and felt more like a grind than my usual joy when we shoot together.

 

I was missing the usual enjoyment that I get helping her improve and helping her get better.
 

I am probably shooting, moving and executing better than I ever have before. It’s because I want to be able to help V get better and in order to do that I have to actually understand what I am talking about. 
 

Because bad advice from a trusted coach can be extremely damaging to progress.

 

When in a one on one mentor/mentee relationship, the mentee tends to adopt the style of the mentor and if there are fundamental flaws in judgment or execution in the mentor, that’s the plateau that the mentee levels at.

 

If the mentor has B class index and recoil to trigger timing, the mentee has a difficult time getting past that and they tend to start to plateau at and near that level.

 

Often times it’s because of the ego of the mentor downplaying the importance of a fundamental skill they lack the ability or mental capacity to master.

 

So in order to keep the same trajectory of improvement for her, I need to keep improving… I want to keep improving.

 

If I’m only shooting at an A class level, it would be awfully hard for me to really understand and give good advice on how to perform at an A class level. 
 

I find that generally you have to be one or two full steps past the point in order to really understand what went into it. To flesh out the assumptions in order to make sure they were valid.

My improvement has been a pleasant collateral benefit of being there for her in the most effective way.

 

It is similar to trying to be a good father to my daughter. In order to help her become a confident, smart, effective human being, I need to have my s#!t together.  

Coming from immigrant parents, there are some holes and defects in my American cultural knowledge base and social execution.

 

I’ve been working to try to improve that in order to help my daughter. How to make casual friends and make new relationships… I’m a little bit weak in that.

 

So I have been trying to work on improving my relationships with people that may not be my favorite type, but in a way that is harmonious and adaptive.

 

I still can’t bring myself to be around super selfish ego-defensive people voluntarily though, it takes a lot of energy to keep the smiles and shields up.

I’m proud to say that my daughter is much better at it than I am.

 

She has not been able to spend much time with her besties as they are in a different summer program for part of the week. She told me that she felt a little lonely that they were drifting apart.
 

So yesterday I messaged their parents and we are going to the science museum today with one of the girls in order to improve bonding and meaningful time together.
 

I would much rather do that than just grind at the range for myself.
 

Before her injury, V was starting to break through into the next level of recoil to trigger timing. She was really excited to burn it in. 
 

I’m making mental notes of what advice I gave her prior to her breakthrough in order to recall that when she is able to get back to training.

 

Circling back to yesterday, I am feeling good that my overall skills are pretty well balanced and well developed.

 

I am more confident that transition to more and more kinesthetics over vision is what leads to the efficiency of timing and movement. Obviously more difficult shots still require more vision than simpler ones, but the improvement in kinesthetics is what drives the lack of visual correction delay.

 

It gives the feeling of “trust” in the movement and timing, but you can only have that “trust” if you have developed the skills. Otherwise it’s delusion.

.

Edited July 14 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

AAC upgrade

 

I had a bunch a AAC cans from before the company went bankrupt. 
 

They were bought out and brought back to life. 
 

The M4-2000 I had was way overbuilt for what I would ever use it for. 
 

I had them “restore” it where they cut off the label and basically make a new can. 
 

It’s a Ranger Mini build now. 
 

Still overbuilt and heavier than I “need” for light duty. 
 

 

As sacrilegious as it is, one of my favorite balancing suppressed guns is a Keltec…

 

 

16” barrel bullpup. 
 

Not for heavy duty but I might try goofing with it for recreational 2 gun…

[-JCN-]

Goals for the end of 2025...

 

Since V is out of commission for a while, it might be time to look at next year's goals.

 

I was pleasantly surprised with my skills check performance on the classifiers. I think I'm rehabbed back to a solid M.

 

My field coursework and movement have improved. My stage planning and execution have improved.

 

I'm able to Hundo on movement classifiers. I've done well at local matches.

 

Sooooo.....

 

Maybe bona fide GM could be a goal before I turn 50 years old next year.

 

I'm a double paper GM (CO/PCC) but mainly on the strength of reloads and stand / shoot heroing.

 

Adding the match performance is new to me, but the focus and effort I've put into that this year seem to be paying off.

 

And there is skills lab...

 

So here are our stretch goals for the end of 2025:

 

JCN: Make LO GM and be able to back it up at matches before I turn 50 years old.

V: Make LO M and be able to back it up at matches.

 

If we fall short of our stretch goals, solid M and solid A are pretty respectable.

 

There, I put it out there. That's the new goal. I have very little interest in Steel Challenge or other side goals right now.

 

As long as my body holds up, I'm going to try and make some more ground in USPSA.

[-JCN-]

Training to make a classification versus training to be a classification. 
 

They are both valid but different.
 

For example, if somebody was training to gain credibility for their shooting school… It would be a reasonable marketing strategy to try and make M or GM even if they never competed in a single USPSA match or classifier after achieving it.

 

For somebody whose goal is to achieve success in the sport, however… you would think someone would want to be able to be a classification rather than attain a classification.

 

That’s not always the case, because ego.
 

V is successful because she doesn’t have ego limiting her progress. 
 

[-JCN-]

Also…

 

Grow grass grow!

 

[-JCN-]

Effort versus value

 

Teaching my 7 year old the value of money and opportunity cost. 
 

I think it’s important to reiterate that how “hard” you work (or feel that you’re working) is somewhat independent of the value you provide to others (or yourself). 
 

It’s an underappreciated distinction and I see the disconnect in many young adults and adults.
 

 

[-JCN-]

Just a reminder for ROs that the final trigger pull is a good safety check for broken extractor if the visual check fails. 
 

 

[Farmer]

4 hours ago, -JCN- said:

Just a reminder for ROs that the final trigger pull is a good safety check for broken extractor if the visual check fails. 
 

 

That’s what happens when people get in a hurry and don’t pay attention. Didn’t notice once him actually LOOKING in the chamber. 

[-JCN-]

 

Set up some props today. 
 

 

 

[-JCN-]

One thing I really don’t like about the Alien is how the recoil timing changes when dirty. 
 

I knew it would be that way from when I shot the MPX. I really dislike that aspect of it though. 
 

Anyway. I need to get back to a practice regimen. I’ve been slacking on dry. 

[perttime]

I don't remember if you've mentioned what bullets you are using in the Alien. A local Alien guy says that his is cleanest with a bullet that is totally enclosed with copper. Especially the base. He is also enthusiastic about using Vihtavuori N340 for powder. I was surprised that he chose such a slow burning powder for his Alien at Minor PF.