Dirtypool40

[Catfish]

speaking of workouts, how are they going?

[dirtypool40]

As I sit here munching a Peanut Butter cookie, I try to suck in my gut and act like I have been working out.

I guess what I should try and say is I have been in a "rest phase". I hurt my back took almost a week off, then cranked my neck, for another week.

I worked out yesterday, and I am feeling better, but I need to get on that morning cardio thing, that helped. I'll pm you a new attempt at a split.

[dirtypool40]

Dissapointing local performance this past weekend.

First stage was a 33 rounder, quick set ups, 4-5 positions, ending with a double swinger, that just didn't look that fast. I went off without making a decision how to shoot it. I had the fastest time of the day, and was only down six charlies.... except for the two mikes on the swinger.

I was pissed at myself for letting that one get away being so sloppy and I really didn't recover well. The rest of the day it was slow times, lack of confidence and another mike. Probably 25% off a solid performance. 2nd Limited by 9 points.

I have three practices planned this week, time to get up. Area 7 is waiting.

[dirtypool40]

I "slept in" today until 0700, no work out.

I dry fired for the first time in a looooooong time last night. I found an old sticker in the shape of a USPSA target and put it across the room as something to center the sights on.

Draw wasn't great, reloads were better than I expected. They need work until I am smoking them in matches again. I think I put in so much time dry firing in Bolivia, that I burnt myself out for several years. I spent a lot of time grooving the new draw when I switched to the DOH and the reloads switching to the standard gear.

I made major improvements, but looking back, it's been every bit of two years since I was at it seriously. that's tough to write and it's glaringly obvious that it needs fixin'.

If all goes well I will practice today, tomorrow and Thursday, ending on some nice relaxing plates before heading up to Area 7 Friday morning.

[Catfish]

Gotta make it fun!! Good luck at A7, I'd bet you do just fine.

[dirtypool40]

Thanks bud. This is the Summer Season opener for me, and I have set a goal.

I want to come in here afterwards and post "I was clean and smooth, but I could have gone faster." I want to go away from that match having hit every plan well, and having seen every single sight picture, and instead of whining about my "D's and Mikes" I want to whine about slow times.

[dirtypool40]

Decent, light practice yesterday.

First shots were a cold EL PREZ, running 4.44 & 51 points. Turn and Draw was a 1.20, load was a 1.04. The overall time for me was fast for cold, and I didn't feel rushed. I was kinda disappointed with the two deltas I didn't call, but I chalk it up to a cold run or bad grip.

Other than that a decent step back and then into partials. I'm doing them differently than the old array that had them crammed together, I'll try to post the array I use now, I really like it. I work them at 15 & 20y mostly, but once ina while will jump in to 10y, or practice moving 15 to 10y shooting them on the move.

What I do mostly is shoot a static 18 round drill. 3 strings. 1 time through it's draw and two rounds each left to right (T1, T2, T3). Holster Now draw to the center target and shoot two rounds each, T2, T3 and jump all the way back to T1. Third string draw to T3, jump to T1 and finish on T2.

Stop, score, paste, reload and do it from the right; String 1 - T3, T2, T1. String 2 - T2, T1, T3. String 3 - T1, T3, T2.

It's sort of a modification on drills I picked up from Manny. You shoot both directions, draw to each target, finish on each target and get to shoot three different partials each run. Nothing to sleep walk through for sure.

I ended with movement to then shooting from a box, and then movement to a starting position, continue to shoot on the move.

Overall a light practice, not too many rounds, but little by little I'm seeing improvement.

[dirtypool40]

Shot plates yesterday under cloudy skies at CFRPC.

On the "crazy plates, cold" I went Went 4 then 3.

Showing the "Original Bianchi plates" to Hardball, we shot them 2x10, 2x15, 2x20 and 2x25 and I went clean. Which felt pretty good. I know it's a lot easier than the "Crazy Plates" but it's still pretty tough.

As the Thunder boomers closed in I ran "Crazy" one more time and finished with a 1. DOH!!! I missed the #3 plate on the Laaaaaaaaast run at 25y. HORRIBLE grip, and I used almost all the time, really digging in the sights and trigger. Got five of six, and hey, I'm headed to Area 7 this weekend, and missing that one plate will keep me VERY humble and respectful.

<Random thought - how does a guy like Robbie keep from sneering at the stage in disgust when he walks up, knowing he will lay waste to it? Insert AHHHHNOLD voice:"I have come for your ALPHAS, give them to me NOW!!!">

**Ahem**, sorry, aaaaaaaaaand we're back. So, it's the 2nd best I've done on this drill. This is Tee You Eff Tough!!! When I start shooting this thing clean, cold, right out of the car....

....well there will be something else to work on, I'm sure.

Edited July 19, 2007 by dirtypool40

[dirtypool40]

Real light last practice and zero check yesterday before heading up to Area 7. HAd a lazy relaxed 6 on the "crazy plates", missed four the last run @ 25.

Then I emptied my mags shooting the plates @ 40+ as far as we could back up.

Goals as stated are to shoot a boring, smooth CLEAN match as a nice season opener / baseline.

gotta run...

[Catfish]

Have fun, travel safe, can't wait till your reports...

[dirtypool40]

Goals as stated are to shoot a boring, smooth CLEAN match as a nice season opener / baseline.

Well, I am home after the longest, most expensive weekend ever for shooting a one day match. I have a stage by stage, detailed breakdown to post later once I can transfer it over. Let's just say I had a lot of down time in airports to write on the lap top.

As to the "stated goal": I shot clean and boring until I had to say "Guys I need to shoot these two in the next ten minutes or I miss my plane". Of course shooting two stages back to back with almost no walkthrough time is not a recipe for success. <And yes, I STILL missed my plane>. BUT!!! Through 6 stages I had a total of three deltas, and two extra shots on steel. Times were slow, but that was the plan.

Things that were learned / went wrong:

Free / discount travel is NOT worth what you pay for it. There is not price on 30+ hours in Atlanta waiting to get told yet again that "you're not getting on this flight."

My Mags are legal. For the first time ever the MD walked up to me and slapped my 21 rounders in the gauge. They fit and on I went.

Something was up with that chrono. I went 171.2 and 171.5 out of two different chrono's on two different days at two different ranges. I went down to the last bullet and was sitting at (I'm not making this up...) 164.9964 before they re-weighed the last bullet, I gained a tenth of a friggin' grain and made 165.0024. No change in anything on the press or even lots of powder. I heard others were close too and some resorted to "doping" their barrels. I could see dropping 2-3 pf, but 6+????

I shot on a four man squad, me a "C" Limited shooter shooting minor, an older gentleman with a single stack that wouldn't run, and a local club member shooting a Ruger P-85 in his first match. It was fun and quick, but with no one to bounce stage ideas off I have no idea what I missed, and it was a little frantic. Several stages, I saw a clearly better plan AFTER I had run it "seat of the pants" style.

I sent a cashier's check from my bank and emailed registration info three weeks before match time. None of it was received, so as of Tuesday morning my scores are still not posted.

I know I didn't burn it down, but I"d still like to know how I finished. I ran my hf's from the stages I got copies against the posted final scores. Nice and smooth I seemed to hover in the 80-90% range, and from a best of 3rd to a worst of "who knows" on the last couple I didn't see sheets for. I'm guessing I'd have ended up in the 4,5,6 range but who knows?

Hoping to see my name added soon.

Overall a looooooooooong frustrating weekend of $500+ in hotel bills, 10 hours driving and no scores posted. But I am satisfied with my prep and for the most part I shot just like I said I was going to. It was nice to slow down, put the sights where you want them and walk up to that long target KNOWING there were two alpha on it.

Back to practice. I think I just gave up Area 8 by spending the extra money and taking an unplanned day off, so I may have to skip it for Area 5.

Edited July 25, 2007 by dirtypool40

[dirtypool40]

Brief, light practice cut short by rain.

Got out of the car to shoot a 2 cold on the "Crazy Plates". Went clean all the way in and back to 20, then missed one at 20 and one at 25. A pretty solid run, especially cold and I backed it up with a "1" on the next run, clean in and back out, missed my first shot 6 o'clock for 2" into the cross bar @ 25 .

Then the rains came, and I just emptied my mags from under cover 40y away from the rack. Tough but fun too.

New goal is to shoot "Crazy Plates" cold. I feel like it's coming.

[boo radley]

Overall a looooooooooong frustrating weekend of $500+ in hotel bills, 10 hours driving and no scores posted. But I am satisfied with my prep and for the most part I shot just like I said I was going to. It was nice to slow down, put the sights where you want them and walk up to that long target KNOWING there were two alpha on it.

Man! There's GOT to be a story there! This was flying 'stand-by'? 10 hours driving AND a nightmare at the airports? <shudder>

[dirtypool40]

yeah, I'll post it once I calm down and get out of therapy.

[dirtypool40]

Travel. OK, I get it; free travel is not a bargain. After spending 30+ hours in Atlanta trying to catch a flight into Burlington, I gave up and flew into Boston and drove 4+ hours to the match, arriving at the hotel around midnight, 40+ hours after leaving my house. I also had to “shoot through” the last two stages, without a clear plan, my choice in an attempt to catch a flight from after another 4 hour drive, this time back to Boston. I didn’t make that flight and spent my third night in an over priced hotel to try and return to Orlando. I basically scrapped Area 8, and maybe nationals after spending the whole budget on Area 7. Great match, but I will buy a regular freakin’ ticket next year.

How I shot:

I was first shooter on a four man squad. You never really had time to get ready and it was like shooting through the entire match. There was also the arguable disadvantage of not having anyone to bounce your plans off. I had to come up with the best I could quickly, and I am sure I missed some little tricks here and there.

Stage #9 “Crop Circles” is a good example of that. As soon as I was done I knew I had chosen too conservative a plan. The activator that exposed the plates was slooooooow, maybe 3 seconds, and the plates were large. Hoping to cinch the first stage, I shot the activator standing still and then WAITED for the plates to appear, standing still to shoot them as well. I am sure I “owe” 3-4 seconds vs. shooting the activator as a last shot, hitting the reload as I move to the final position and then shooting the plates on the move and as I settle into the final position.

Still I went “one for one”, and started clean, down six charlies, and if my scores ever posts I should come in around 80%. If only I had planned to do ANYTHING during those 3+ seconds waiting on the activator….if only.

Elvis – I shot the same plan as everyone else, just moved with a little hesitation and dropped two deltas, one on the swinger, one on the last target. The good news is, this was the only time my “last target lazy” raised it’s ugly head. Also, for no damned reason I hit a reload moving out of the start position, mandating another reload where I had intended, to get back on my plan.. Overall a bit of a slip, a little slow and down two deltas, and one extra shot on steel. Not smokin’ but if I did the math right I should end up 3rd @ ~90%.

Jimmy Hoffa. I was about 2.5-3 seconds off the pace. Points were good, but I just didn’t move like I KNEW where I was going. I still feel I had a solid plan, but I need to work on moving confidently and explosively if I want to put up the right times. Some of this was lack of walk through, but it’s something I struggled with all day. I calculate my hf will come in around 83% and 6th place. Clearly a missed opportunity.

Bigfoot, talk about a missed opportunity!! I had this one and I let it get away. This 18 rounder required an unloaded start and leaning a bit in a “sweet spot” to get everything without moving. I missed my load badly and wimped out on the swinger, hitting it in two passes rather than hammering two on the first exposure. I remember telling myself not to hammer the swinger in my anger over missing the load, and so I throttled waaaaaaaaaay back to wimp-tastic one shot per pass, but I guess it’s better than dropping an “anger mike”. Not all that bad though, add one more delta and an extra shot on steel. Roughly 3rd @ around 90%.

NY Sewers I had a decent run on, but again, not enough time to really groove a plan, and this was a big, long stage with lots of positions. I would not be surprised if “the boys” found something here, but I think my time was mostly off just from lack of explosive confidence in my movement. Points were solid, I think I was down seven charlies in the thirty two rounds, and I went one for one on the 4-5 pieces of steel. If things post, I should come in around 86% and 4th.

Men in Black was pretty straight forward, but again I would have really loved to have been squadded with “the boys” to see how they did it and if I missed anything. I shot the partial barely visible through the window from the start position, moved to the door with the drop turner, and hesitated a looong second wondering what to do when I missed one. Then I forgot to load until I was almost to the right “squat down” window. I got it together after that for a decent, if conservative, run another 4th at around 85%. Not smoking but after six stages I had a total of three deltas and two extra shots. All in all right where I said I wanted to be.

It’s tough KNOWING you’re not putting up jazzy times, and sticking to the slow, points plan was tough. But I look at this match as a first step, and I’m alternating between being mad at how I shot and seeing some solid improvement. It was nice to have holes where the sights were, having called every shot. I know it ain’t sexy to admit it, but that doesn’t happen all the time.

Atlantis was a cool stage with a wide open shooting area. I heard “the boys” did this in mid 18 seconds. I ran it in 20 with a mike into hard cover (an alpha, but the RO pointed to a hole in the hard cover, so I ate a mike), and 4-5 extra shots on 20+ yard plates moving. All in all, I didn’t take it badly and was happy my time was that close when I really had to “wing” a plan and took so many extra shots on looooooong steel (like .60-75 splits) trying to shoot them moving. Lesson learned. Plant, rip them one for one, and I coulda, woulda, shoulda…

The last two I tanked, rushing, no real plan and gotta-go-gotta go are not a recipe for success.

Overall I have mixed feelings about the whole deal, but let’s call it a challenging learning experience.

[dirtypool40]

Results updated with me in them. Travis was "en fuego"!!! How good is THAT guy?!?!?

Overall, I finished right where I thought I would, but it's still disapointing to see what coulda mighta been. Just the 40 points in penalties rushing through "Chickens" to leave early cost me 4th and my secret 85% baseline goal.

The good news is I think I evaluated my performance pretty accurately and at least I know where the mistakes are..... well most, ok some of them. Was I right about "Crop Circles" or what?

Still, a learning experience. poco a poco.

2007 Area_7_Championship_-_AWARE_Invitational - Final results for Limited

Place Name No. USPSA Class Division PF Lady For Age Match Pts Match %

1 Travis Tomasie 229 L1973 GM Limited Major No No 1018.4224 100.00%

2 Chris Tilley 136 TY38861 GM Limited Major No No 976.8308 95.92%

3 Michael Burrell 201 TYF42936 M Limited Major No No 934.2902 91.74%

4 Lee Dimaculanagan 230 A45511 M Limited Major No No 866.4139 85.07%

5 Eric Stanley 241 L2443 GM Limited Major No No 826.7709 81.18%

Match: 2007 Area_7_Championship_-_AWARE_Invitational

Competitor: Eric Stanley L2443

Female: Yes

Report Generated: 07/26/07 09:07

Stage Name A B C D M NS P LS XS XH AP Time Total Points Hit Factor Stg Pts Place

1P 1 Elvis Lives 17 8 2 1 17.91 111 6.1977 107.9265 6

2P 2 Wheres Jimmy Hoffa 16 4 13.27 96 7.2344 82.8740 6

3P 3 Bigfoot Sighting 14 4 15.30 86 5.6209 80.8117 3

4P 4 Aligators In The Sewer 27 5 27.46 155 5.6446 137.8013 4

5P 5 Men In Black 15 3 1 15.89 89 5.6010 84.5026 4

6P 6 Atlantis 20 6 1 1 20.06 116 5.7827 108.8435 6

7P 7 Bermuda Triangle 12 2 12.66 68 5.3712 56.7395 6

8P 8 Revenge Of The Chickens 15 5 2 1 17.30 65 3.7572 59.1575 18

9P 9 Crop Circles 21 6 18.00 129 7.1667 108.1143 4

Edited July 26, 2007 by dirtypool40

[zhunter]

2007 Area_7_Championship_-_AWARE_Invitational - Final results for Limited

Match: 2007 Area_7_Championship_-_AWARE_Invitational

Competitor: Eric Stanley L2443

Female: Yes

Report Generated: 07/26/07 09:07

So, were you High Lady???

[XRe]

So, were you High Lady???

The drugs have obviously not dulled your powers of observation

I think Eric has a new tag line.... "High Lady"....

[zhunter]

So, were you High Lady???

The drugs have obviously not dulled your powers of observation

I think Eric has a new tag line.... "High Lady"....

Good point!!!

And did I mention that dRUGS aRE gOOD

I love that new tag line!! Where is FLEX when we need him??? FLEX, calling FLEX!!!!!!!!

Dave, send him a PM about his!!!

[dirtypool40]

I'm high lady bitches!!!

[Catfish]

I'm high lady bitches!!!

LOL!

[dirtypool40]

Back to our regularly scheduled program....

I shot two runs on "crazy plates" tonight in a short practice session. Shot a stinkin' 1 cold (missed #3 on the first 25y run).

Then we played around on a quicky little field course for about 50 rounds and the clouds rolled in, so I shot one more run through the plates, aaaaaaaaaaand ANOTHER "1". Another miss at 25y to start the run, then clean all the way in and out.

Clean is coming, and I WILL shoot this drill clean cold. SOON.

[carinab]

I'm high lady bitches!!!

So that explains the man-crushes...You're really a woman! Girl, we need to talk about your wardrobe and those hairy legs! Uh, unless you're completely "out" with this whole she-male thing...then I guess it doesn't matter.

[dirtypool40]

I am sooooooooo going to have to nip this in the bud before it jacks my entire diary.

There's a joke here somewhere about my ex ruining me...

......then there's the man-crush quote.

damnit!!! one little scoring mistake and it's the freakin' crying game up in here!!!

[dirtypool40]

55 Shooter local today at CFRPC and I was HOA 5% ahead of an Open Master.

I'm not supposed to whine when I win, but I can say what I did right and wrong in critique.

Started off solid on a quicky (non classifier) standards. My time was 1.5 seconds ahead of the field and I shot decent points, although I did drop one delta.

Next stage a had a very sloppy run as far as movement and extra shots go, but I held onto the points, and everyone else had trouble so I ended up at 99.81% of the Open stage winner.

The next stage was a 22 round field course, lateral quicky and then quick jump forward. I shot it sans reload, and really put up a pretty solid run except for dropping a "last target mike" in my haste to move into the last position. Open stage winner was at 12.10, so with a mike, my 10.50 and good points was still good enough for 95.3%.

I did shoot a solid run on the next stage, a little 18 round quicky, and won it overall.

Last stage was a dumb, lateral box to box, and I finished a weak 3rd at 88% for extra shots on the plate rack and star.

Overall, I am much improved over my last local match and feel like really solid performances are just around the corner.