XRe Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 Shooting the Waco match today, after no matches and only one practice since the Open Nationals... and 5 hours of sleep following a week long trip to the west coast on business. This outing is purely for entertainment purposes But it'll be fun to shoot a match. Goals for '07 to follow soon - a compressed season this year, with the Nationals coming up in June. Perhaps the Nationals won't be the only peaking point this year, and I'll, say, make A2 for the first time or something.... Anyhow, FL Open, Double Tap, SSC, Open Nats is my major match calendar for next year, so far - plenty to prepare for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwmiket Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Dave, You didn't do too shabby for 5 hours sleep..... you won every stage. I watched you shoot a couple-movement was solid, flowed well. Now about that 8 minute dot.... Good seein' ya! -Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 17, 2006 Author Share Posted December 17, 2006 Thanks, Mike The 6 MOA dot just ain't hackin' it in the bright sun. Time to go 8... But, Mike, the stage I shot the best points on was the one where I could hardly see the dot... go figure And, the outing was definitely entertaining today... Points done well - nailed all my reloads, shot on the move well, visualized the stages fairly well. Points to work on - focus on seeing the dot in the target, and calling the shot more positively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 17, 2006 Author Share Posted December 17, 2006 Note to self... its a bad idea to take a total hiatus for very long... physical fitness levels drop dramatically fast... then you get to be in pain the day after doing anything serious... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 now if you could just stop looking at Bryans wide rear.....sight. Good to see you yesterday, sometimes a little break is very good for the soul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 20, 2006 Author Share Posted December 20, 2006 Dry Fire tonight... Worked a lot on simply being smooth and getting the gun out to the target without any bounce or jiggle at the end of the "push". Did this at close range w/ no timer, RAS and WAS. Then did reloads, again working somewhat slowly using the Burkett drill, then full reloads, and then up to speed. Had to back off from max speed, as I noticed I was not using proper form - was not getting a good look into the magwell, and then found myself craning my head down when I noticed the first bit. Had to correct that... Then worked some El Pres drills w/ the timer, on Classic targets (all practice, for now, is on Classics - I lost a lot of points in the C and D zones at the Nats, mainly because I'm not as familiar w/ the scoring zones on these targets, and was calling shots wrong...). I ended w/ three runs that I called flat out all As on running in the 3.8 neighborhood Previously (like, right before Nats), the quickest I could manage on Metrics was 4.5.... Somewhere, I've shaved 7 tenths off, and I haven't had a conscious effort to do so.... Hmmm.... Me likeee...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 21, 2006 Author Share Posted December 21, 2006 Dry fire on reloads, tonight, after working the draw slow to warm up. Limited time, so tight focus. Running around 1.1 in dry fire - and I noticed tonight that the slow part right now seems to be getting the weak hand back on the gun and pointed into the A-zone. I get the load part done pretty quick - doing Burkett drills at .6 - and taking another half second to get the dot in the A-zone... so I have a focus area there... I want to be doing those in .8, dry fire... On every classifier w/ a mandatory reload, I'm losing a good 2-3 tenths right now on the reload, so this will make a huge difference towards the GM card in the classifiers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 23, 2006 Author Share Posted December 23, 2006 Rain make XRe grumpy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted January 8, 2007 Author Share Posted January 8, 2007 Had a rained out match yesterday. Dagnabbit... Dry fired today. Been a while, due to handing various issues and taking a trip through the holidays. I'm unburied again, though. Everything was rusty and sloppy today, especially reloads. That's ok - the idea will be to improve over the next couple of days again. Normal stuff for not really handling the gun for a couple of weeks... Not the way I want to go into the season, but it'll work itself out. Time to get on my goals and start working a regular practice schedule... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 Dry fired past two nights. Not much to say - working on finishing those reloads sharp. Over the past two days, I've dry fired enough that my QUADS are sore from being in a shooting stance for that long... sheesh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Same same, although the shoulders are sore. Switched to your angle of mag and reloads improved big time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 Its amazing how much tweaking an equipment position will affect things, isn't it?? Glad you learned more than holster position from those pics, Anders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket35 Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 (edited) Dry fired past two nights. Not much to say - working on finishing those reloads sharp. Over the past two days, I've dry fired enough that my QUADS are sore from being in a shooting stance for that long... sheesh... I know what ya mean Dave. I have added a barricade to my dryfire routine today, and I was feeling it! What ever doesn't kill us only makes us stronger! Edited January 12, 2007 by Rocket35 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted January 14, 2007 Author Share Posted January 14, 2007 So, three people have asked about the "never shoot flat footed" thing I mentioned on Catfish's thread, so I guess I'll detail it here.... First, I'll set up the situation - if you read in Derrick's thread, you'll see that he mentions standing flat footed and straight up, and then tends to get pushed backwards onto his heels after the reload. He doesn't have this problem while shooting a field course. The answer is simple - he's shooting from a different stance.... Ok, that's easy, but how does that translate into "move... even when not moving". Its probably 90% mental. However, the physical setup is also important. There's a tendency in approaching speed shoots and standards that we approach them more non-chalantly, or that we're more focused on the speed of hosing up those targets from this static position, and we don't pay attention to the stance that we're getting into, and the form we're taking in commencing with the shooting. And, therefore, we tend to lose our recoil control, and then gun tracks all over the place, and we ask the RO, "Where am I? And why am I in this handbasket????" To counter that tendency, I set up the same for every stage, for starters. Weight on the balls of my feet, but balanced. Knees slightly bent, slightly forward posture with a feel of positive forward pressure in it, and body set up generally in a good shooting position. For odd start positions, I do what it takes to get as close to that as possible - for me, that usually involves getting into that position where I'm trying to shoot from first, and then moving into the start position - this sometimes requires modifying the stance a bit to get into the start position... anyway, YMMV... So, my stance is attempting to be exactly the same, all the time. Stance is so important to recoil control, gun tracking, etc - you can't compromise here. Do what it takes to always be in a good shooting stance!!! Now, the mental part. I want to feel as if I'm about to explode out of that shooting box, just as if I had a 10 yard sprint to the first shooting position. Its definitely a feeling of dynamic tension in my whole body. I tell myself I'm going to be moving - without moving (maybe not in those words... but that's the feel). I feel the weight on my feet as if my feet were highly tensioned springs about to be released. When the beep sounds, I'm the hell out of there - but I don't move a step. That further cements the stance into being a dynamic, living thing, that doesn't get pushed around by the gun. It also helps correct any lazy tendencies towards starts or focus on stand-and-shoots. Note - importantly - that I did not say that I get tense. On the contrary, I clear my mind, relax my shoulders, breath slowly, and fully, and focus on the first thing to do. Learning to be calm and focused, and still be in a state of dynamic tension took some time, but its worth working on. Being tense implies axiety, worry, fear... to me. I'm not feeling any of those things when I shoot. What I do feel is anticipation, excitement, and adrenaline - also things that get the body moving, but in a completely different way. Anyhow, hope that helps someone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38supPat Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 Great post! Clearer now. I wasn't sure what you had meant as it sounded like a stand and shoot stage. Now it makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 it works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 Let's see - since last post, we got iced in, I got sick, all the matches in the area have gotten canceled, except one, and the range I tend to practice on has been too wet... Gaaaaaaahhhhh.... I've done some dry fire, but frankly, being sick, I had a hard time staying motivated to do anything. Shot the Blackhawk match yesterday w/ shred and AustinMike. We ended up squadded w/ 2 noobs and 1 experienced shooter who wasn't experienced w/ running a squad. So, only two ROs for six shooters - that's a tough day, trying to get mentally prepared to hit the stages. I ended up having a funny sort of day - much flailing and unfocused hosing, and my first ever squib (costing me 155 match points... d'oh). There was one full on memory stage (our first stage of the day) and one quasi-memory stage (which I shot ok, if short some points). I shot the last two stages reasonably well - finally felt like I remembered how to shoot again on those.... I suspect that Jamie Foote (AlamoShooter) won the match, if he didn't have any huge unforced errors. Roy and I gave him a bunch of room to play with (me much more so than Roy, too....). Unfortunately, no classifier at this match - but that's probably a blessing in disguise, cause God knows how I'd have done yesterday I'm still a bit unsettled after the squib. This wasn't recently loaded ammo, so I don't recall any breaks in the process... The bigger concern was that we didn't hear anything at all when it popped (even listened back to the video tape....). Both Roy (who was RO'ing) and I thought it was a dud. Thank God the next round wouldn't chamber - nor the one after that, or the one on top of the next mag, or.... scary s***.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted February 4, 2007 Author Share Posted February 4, 2007 I know I'm not keeping up w/ this like some... I haven't had time to post a whole bunch, but... that's not much of an excuse Truth is, I've been a bit slack, so... Dry fired three times during last week. Tension has crept in to everything, so I've been working primarily on letting it go, and just being smooth. Some video of a dry fire session revealed a small head movement in my draw, so I've been working that, as well. Most of my focus has been on draw and reload, though I did run some El Pres drills. Got up early and set up the ALSPPC match yesterday (I'm pres of the club, so... I kinda have to...). Shot the match, and won the match. Shot what looks like a 90% on El Pres - we were shooting in sub-optimal soil conditions, so the turn and draw was a bit interesting. Here's the interesting bit - if I'd have shot it clean, I'd have "hun'ed" it (as dirtypool40 likes to say). Down a few points... 90%. I had the speed on the first string, but coming back after the reload, I lost my indexes - because my conscious mind started talking after the first string - "Wow, that was awesome across those targets....". If I have to have self talk during a performance, I'd like it to be that sort of self talk, at least But, its still disruptive. What it essentially means is that I'm exploring a new performance level, and I was surprised by it, and my expectations got in the way.... Interesting sensation, and it left me with that "I coulda been a contendah!!!" feeling.... Planning to head to the range for a nice practice session today. Weather is beautiful, if slightly chilly - no where near as bad as north TX, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 glad to see you back at the range - you've got a big match to get ready for!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted February 5, 2007 Author Share Posted February 5, 2007 I can't tell you how happy I am to get some rounds down range Had a practice w/ some ups and downs yesterday. I was dead tired from running the match on Saturday - physically, and somewhat mentally, as well. I drank more coffee than I usually do, just trying to wake up and whatnot - didn't sleep late, cause I'm shifting my sleep schedule forward for FL Open. I usually dry fire a bit when I first strap the gun on at a match or practice, just to get things settled. I put the gun up on a 50 yard Classic target, and the dot is just going all over the place. Couldn't hold it steady for anything. It took me a bit, with some controlled breathing and whatnot, to finally get it to settle down a little bit, but it was still unsteady. I shot the Ronin drill pretty poorly - mainly because of the long range stuff. I found myself smacking the trigger (mentally tired) and watching the dot go just everywhere (the physical tiredness in my arms, and the caffeine and sleep deprivation...). Shot a 532/625 on Classic targets (modified drill to account for no head box...), or 85%. My best score on this drill w/ Metric targets, shooting a 600 point version of the drill is 570, or 95%. Following that, I worked a drill for timing the gun at long range, and decreasing my splits on long range targets (one of the focus areas I uncovered in my Open Nats footage) - as the first part of working on it, I used a Steel Challenge rectangle (18x24" target) at 50 yards, and essentially just started putting rounds on it - first at 1 second pace, and gradually speeding up, allowing my body to adjust my timing, grip, etc. After 100 rounds or so of that, I was consistently being able to maintain .25 splits on the target - that's a big target, of course, but... Next step will be to work that one some more, then move to a smaller steel target (12" plate), and then onto paper.... That's all I had time for yesterday... I was pretty happy with how I improved trigger control in the long range timing drill - felt like I shook off the stuff that plagued me in the first two strings of the Ronin drill I shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 You should try the new drill Bryan W came up with - it's post #31 in my range diary. Similar to Ronin with a little twist. Are you planning to shoot in Houston on Sunday?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted February 6, 2007 Author Share Posted February 6, 2007 Planning on shooting Impact, yes I've already got it Can't easily shoot it right now - cause I'm shooting all Classic targets for the accuracy work, and to get used to that target. Another weakness I uncovered at the Nats.... Actually, I have a new standards I wrote up - should be entertaining. Same target setup as the other two, but w/ Classics. A little borrowed from each of the others, plus some of my secret sauce thrown in there for good measure.... Classic Standards String 1: 50 yards 1 shot on A, standing - 4.0 sec - 3x 1 shot on A, below table - 5.0 sec - 3x 2 shots on B - 5.5 sec - 3x 6 shots on C - 10 sec - 1x 2 shots on A, B, C - 10 sec - 1x Total hits: A=8, B=8, C=8 Rounds/Points: 24 / 120 String 2: 35 yards 1 shot, reload, 1 shot on A - 5.5 sec - 3x 3 shots on B - 5.5 sec - 2x 1 shot on C - 3.0 sec - 6x Total hits: A=6, B=6, C=6 Rounds/Points: 18 / 90 String 3: 25 yards 1 shot on A - 2.3 sec - 3x 2 shots on B, hands clasped - 3.0 sec - 3x behind back 6 shots on C - 5.0 sec - 1x 2 shots on A, B, C - 6.0 sec - 1x Total hits: A=5, B=8, C=8 Rounds/Points: 21 / 105 String 4: 15 yards 1 shot, reload, 1 shot, reload, - 5.5 sec - 2x 1 shot on A, B, C 1 shot weak hand on B, C, A - 5.5 sec - 1x 1 shot weak hand on C, A, B - 5.5 sec - 1x 2 shots each on A, B, C strong - 6.0 sec - 1x hand only Total hits: A=6, B=6, C=6 Rounds/Points: 18 / 90 String 5: 10 yards El Presidente - 7.0 sec - 2x 2 shots on C - 1.5 sec - 3x Total hits: A=8, B=8, C=14 Rounds/Points: 30 / 150 String 6: 7 yards 1 shot on A - 1.1 sec - 6x 2 shots on B - 1.3 sec - 3x 1 shot, reload, 1 shot, reload, - 4.5 sec - 2x 1 shot on C 2 shots, reload, 2 shots, - 5.0 sec - 1x reload, 2 shots on A, B, C Total hits: A=8, B=8, C=8 Rounds/Points: 24 / 120 String 7: 3 yards 6 shots, reload, 6 shots, - 8.0 sec - 1x reload, 6 shots on A, B, C 2 shots each on A, B, C - 2.5 sec - 1x 1 shot on A, B, C, reload, - 4.0 sec - 1x 1 shot on A, B, C Total hits: A=10, B=10, C=10 Rounds/Points: 30 / 150 Totals: 165 Rounds, 825 points Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted February 8, 2007 Author Share Posted February 8, 2007 (edited) Had a "day of meetings" yesterday, so didn't get to handle the gun Bah.... Anyhow... some secret sauce for the diary readers - descriptions of the three standards drills Derrick, Bryan, and I have been talking about, along with scoresheets for each (suitable for use in a performance diary binder, or something). I'm planning to work up score sheets and drill descriptions for each of the drills I do, and also generic diary sheets. I'm giving up on finding a half size binder, and I'm just going to get a small 8.5x11" binder instead... heh.... Ronins_Drill_Score_Sheet.doc Ronins_Drill_Descriptiont.doc Classic_Drill_Score_Sheet.doc Classic_Drill_Description.doc Bryans_Drill_Score_Sheet.doc Bryans_Drill_Description.doc Edited February 8, 2007 by XRe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 Hit the range on Saturday. Shot my new Classic drill - 720/825. The long range stuff got me, in the end, and I was rushing and stabbing at the trigger. The kneeling bit (specified as "under a table") in the 50 yard string will really force you into a cramped position to get the shot off... Noticed a definite lack of patience on the sight picture. I need to shoot the drill again to know how proper the pars are - I think they're fairly close as "general" pars for anyone to shoot. I don't know that I'd say they push a GM real hard, but then I obviously didn't "shoot for accuracy", judging by my score, so... Also ran dirtypool40's "The Partials" drill on Classics at 15, 7, and once at 3 yards, as a "half VP" (draw, shoot each twice). At 15, best was a 2.75 down 2, w/ a 1.29 draw. At 7, best was a 2.13 down 1, with a 1.10 draw. At 3, I ran a 1.92 clean with a 1.02 draw. Those are actually fairly equivalent to what I ran last time I did this drill - a tad better at 15 yards. Sunday, shot the Infinity IMPACT match in Monaville, TX. SV is sponsoring this match, now - after the match, they had a shoot-off (winner takes the kitty - iron sights and Open) - forum member Sean Gaines took the iron sight pot ($90, he told me?) and, well, I'll let you guess who won the Open pot... They also raffled off 4 $1000 gift certificates towards purchase of a new Infinity pistol and a couple of 25% CED products certificates, too. 3 forum members took home the $1K GCs... As part of the promotion, SV also had their cadre of sponsored shooters there, including some guy named Chris... Squadded and shot with Chris - as folks have previously said, he's a super nice guy. I kept up with him for two stages, and then handed my brain off to the RO, as I went on to make mistakes in the three remaining stages - the careless "rushing and not paying attention to the target I'm actually shooting" kind... Most importantly, though, the match exposed a couple of things to work on, and I learned a few more stage strategy tidbits by watching Chris work the stages over. I can't say enough about taking the time to watch and examine the strategies the top shooters use, and ask them questions when you don't understand why they did one thing versus another. I reloaded the gun well yesterday, and I was particularly happy w/ a load to the big stick that I managed. Ok, the lessons I picked up: - the shot you're shooting is the most important one (as if we didn't know that.... ) - see the damn dot on the target before you go pulling the trigger - when picking out a strategy, if you can see a target from a certain position, you should probably be shooting it from where you can see it, unless there's an overriding reason to do otherwise - if moving into an array that you'll have to leave (esp. in the opposite direction), and there are targets that are open and easy as you move in, and one or more that require a hard lean in the opposite direction that you'll be departing, it might be better to actually haul ass into position and set up on the targets with the lean, and "unwind" out of the position on the easier targets, rather than shooting the easier ones on the way in and getting stuck on the leaner, and have a hard time getting back out of position - put another way, backing out and then turning might work out better than an awkward lean in the wrong direction... - only go as far into a position as you need to to see all the targets you need to shoot from there, cause extra non-shooting steps cost .15-.20 each - magazines that seem to work perfectly in practice may still be funky during the match Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I agree - getting to shoot with Popplewell and Wilhite this weekend at DTR was priceless; it's nice shooting with the big dogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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