Micah's Range Diary

[Steve Moneypenny]

Congrats on the wins micha. You coming to area 5.

[Micah]

Steve, I had every intention to go to Area 5 and Nationals, but my newly acquired job will keep me from both.

Have a great time drinking micro-brew with Kyle and Gary!

[Sunuva]

8/13/07

-full dryfire session.

-one hour of cardio

This was the last time that I dryfired at the old townhouse. Tomorrow I am busting ass to get moved into my new home, and you can bet on me searching for the best place to setup a new dryfire COF. I still plan on utilizing the large back yard for box movements and barricade work, and will tap the garage for my stand-and-shoot drills, as well as movement for the cold/rainy days ahead.

The results are in from Sunday's match (you rock Keen!):

Back-to-back club wins while wearing Crocs

Hey I see my name

[Chris Keen]

I see it too Bob ..... you should write something in YOUR range diary to describe what you did that worked so well for you! Great Job.

[Paul Santiago]

8/13/07

-full dryfire session.

-one hour of cardio

This was the last time that I dryfired at the old townhouse. Tomorrow I am busting ass to get moved into my new home, and you can bet on me searching for the best place to setup a new dryfire COF. I still plan on utilizing the large back yard for box movements and barricade work, and will tap the garage for my stand-and-shoot drills, as well as movement for the cold/rainy days ahead.

The results are in from Sunday's match (you rock Keen!):

Back-to-back club wins while wearing Crocs

Hey I see my name

yeah.... congrats... gives me more motivation to practice so i can see my name there...

[Sunuva]

Hmmm....... Its not the Croc Its the foot in the Crocs.

LOL you too Chris, Nice win Especially with All the added pressure of your sponsor and a network TV crew keeping an eye on you.

[davidball]

8/12/07

MATCH!

I had the pleasure of reacquainting myself with some of the best that Indiana has to offer! It was awesome to see you cats again, and I look forward to next month!

On behalf of the Indiana contingent, thanks for the great hospitality! We were looking for a great place to take a shooting road trip, and we found it!

It's a bit of a long drive to make it every month, but we'll be back sometime in the future.

[Micah]

CLICKY!

Well, in less than two seasons, I've made Master. All of my hard work and dryfire insanity has paid off.

What does this mean?

I've got to work a helluva lot harder now! Being a Master simply means that I will be shooting against some of the best competition that this sport has to offer. Making Master means that I MUST work on those things that keep me from winning major matches, rather than rely on my strengths to bail me out.

The moving continues even though I am here at work. There is still much to do, as well as working on the old townhouse so that the owners don't slap me with a lawsuit. The thing that has me motivated to the point of madness to get these things finished is setting up my new dryfire areas! The back yard is fantastic, and I cannot wait to set up boxes and barricades, as well as using the space to simulate papper and poppers out to 150 feet.

I have a whole new set of challenges to face...and a whole new "range" for me to prepare for these challenges.

[uscbigdawg]

Micah,

Finally reading through your diary (currently on page 7). Great stuff and on top of smokin' the crap out of myself at the gym, I do have to say you've got my hands tinglin' for my Viper. I can feel the grip in my hand and thinking reloads all I can see is the inside of the magwell.

One thing that you've found (thus far on page 7) is how much more relaxed and smooth things are after a jog. I tried this a couple of years ago. I was at a smaller match and before my shooting buddy and I got up for breakfast and heading to the range, I got up, went for like an easy 3 mile jog and did some push-ups and sit-ups. Got back to the room, grabbed a shower and was ready to go. Energy meter was pinned and although I didn't do well at the match (issues with technique then...) I was much more aware and MUCH more comfortable at the match.

I did the same at the Area 6 3-Gun in '06 and did much better than I probably should have for not puling a trigger in a match for 2 years (much less doing tec-loads on a BRAND NEW shotgun and rifle).

Congrats again on Master class and when you graduate to Open division, let me know. I'll be waiting in Master class for ya. We get back around the beginning of '08 and my goal is Master before the end of the year.

Take care brotha!!!

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

3/5/07

All last night I was thinking about ways to make the absolute most of my dryfire sessions, and I wrote down two things on a note card: "Snap the focus" and "Visual Patience". Today’s dryfire, I focused harder than ever to perform these tasks to the best of my ability, and what I found was astounding. I was seeing perfect, PERFECT sight pictures, and still beating my new par times.

Basically (and I know that it's been said before, but being told something and experiencing it yourself are two different things) the use of acute visual patience DOES NOT take any additional time, rather simply a sharper level of focus. Literally, today I have found out how to pick up free points that I've been missing out on

This is HUGE and my #1 mistake to date. In thinking that you need to go faster, faster, faster and not taking the time to see what's in front of you, confirm the sight picture and where they were when the gun went off, you cannot go fast and it's the theory of "see brown, be surrounded by brown, pull trigger twice," which at times, I've been known to do.

In my training plan this is the #1 cannon that I will keep posted on the wall above my practice targets.

Great job Micah!

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

Got through it all and have to say that what's impressed me most is your dedication to daily dry fire practice, mental attitude but most of all is your ability to be so self aware to find minor tweaks that need to be corrected. I applaude you for this as it's an area that I need to be more in tune with. I'm getting there in other facets of life, and hope it will translate when it comes to do my shooting basic training (i.e. start from scratch with the mechanics and mental hurdles of our sport).

Great job and glad everything has kinda worked itself out.

Rich

[Micah]

8/16/07

-Moving madness continues

Rich, thank you very much for your praise! Keeping a range diary kept me honest with myself, as well as motivated to preform and not slack off.

Managing the mental aspects of the shooting has been one of the most difficult things to learn. A tremendous factor of this is staying positive and positive self-talk. I used to ALWAYS curse at myself while shooting stages and making mistakes...something that is detrimental to my preformance. After having a bad stage, I would continue to beat myself up, bitching to anyone that would listen.

Now, if I have a bad stage, I leave it in that bay and move on. Taking a page from Steve Anderson, if someone asks me about that stage, I tell them " I had a hell of a lot of A's!"

I turned in my app to Kentucky State, and will be getting my Ohio Sectional out tomorrow. This will be the last two majors that I hit this season. I am inching ever closer to setting up my dryfire stuff here at the new house...not having any days off right now has slowed me down, but I will MAKE TIME tonight!

[steel1212]

8/16/07

I turned in my app to Kentucky State, and will be getting my Ohio Sectional out tomorrow. This will be the last two majors that I hit this season. I am inching ever closer to setting up my dryfire stuff here at the new house...not having any days off right now has slowed me down, but I will MAKE TIME tonight!

For the OH sectional I see that squad 13 has some big guns shooting in it

[Micah]

8/18/07

Work on the dryfire dojo is slow...I have very little time with what's left after work and getting settled in. I bought some florescent lights to hang from the ceiling, but found some awesome bulbs that will do almost as well. I want to set up the garage so that I can dryfire anytime I want...as opposed to being limited to daylight as I was at the old place. If I could install two more light sockets in the ceiling, I will be all set.

As far as an elliptical...it looks like getting a good treadmill will be better: less expensive and SOTM friendly. They are not cheap, but I really cannot rationalize placing a monetary value on my fitness and health (although my significant other begs to differ )

All in all, I look to be neck deep in practice by Tuesday. It's killing me to not practice or work out right now...but once I get the machine built, it will all run smoothly.

[Micah]

8/21/07

-full dryfire session

-one hour of cardio

Bwahahahahahaaaa!!!!!!!

I finally got to use the dryfire dojo (garage) today, and I love it! With a little MacGuyver work, I was able to secure four high output bulbs into the ceiling, so now I could dryfire in the middle of an eclipse I also picked up a nice treadmill from Dicks. It was a bit pricey, but the health benifits greatly outweigh the cost. I have it set up so that I can watch movies while working out as well as practice SOTM with a simulated 45 feet.

I am exceptionally thrilled with using the garage as my "training center" of sorts. With the 1/4 sized targets, I am able to practice a simulated 60 feet, as well as 20 feet of box-to-box work. I'll take some pics after trash day comes and I am able to make things presentable.

[Micah]

8/26/07

-one hour of cardio

-tons o' dryfire

I am in the process of trying out 15 new drills into my dryfire program. I will use these for about a week, then sit down and evaluate whether or not I should add them to my daily program based upon my opportunity points.

Practicing SOTM while on the treadmill is completely awesome! I am thrilled to have the ability to use these two tools in conjunction, and look forward to having it greatly improve my SOTM skills. Here is a breakdown of my strengths and opportunities based on my own evaluation and Saul's tool:

Strengths:

-Reloading on the move

-Extreme accuracy

-Reloads in general

-Splits and transitions at a distance

-Running to my next position

-Drawing surrender, HAS, and turning

-Cardiovascular preformance

-Overall endurance

-Breaking down a stage

-Poppers at all distances

-Strong hand

Opportunities:

-SOTM

-Moving into positions

-Up close hosing

-Close transitions and splits

-Table draws

-Weak hand

I like knowing what I need to improve upon, and look forward to integrating these skills throughout the remains of this season as well as throughout the winter and spring. Milford match tomorrow and Ohio Sectional in 8 days

[Micah]

8/26/07

MATCH!

Had a great time at Milford today. I shot well, but am still getting used to my new trigger (my old one crapped out on me). Here is the video from today:

Stage 1: Pretty good table draw, no extra shots, and good hits!

Stage 2: I feel good about how my speed shooting is coming along. Again, great hits here too.

Stage 3: Great hits, but I allowed myself to get boned by the left swinger. I should have shot the left side like I shot the right side: Shoot the swinger as it became visible, as opposed to taking the static targets first.

Stage 4: The middle port had three poppers that activated two drop-outs on the right and the left, as well as a static target. I felt good about this stage, as the hits were good.

[dcarter]

I like the finger in the camera on stage 4. Sorry I couldn't be there. It looked like a good set up. A lot of stuff going down at work and home and couldn't make it out but I should be able to come out to Oxford. Keep it up! I want to see your new dojo.

[Steve Moneypenny]

Congrats Mr. Master... see you in ohio.. i'm thinking about adding a day an shootin A3 and the KY in the same weekend... it must suck not having vacation.

happy Shooting

Steve

[Micah]

How I dryfire.

[Micah]

OHIO SECTIONAL!

At last, my chance to take another swing at the match that sent me into my dryfire tirade!

An excellent match, Flex and a host of many put on a challenging and fun event. The weather was perfect, and I had a wonderful time chatting it up with friends that I haven't seen in quite some time

I arrived to the match and made the decision to shoot Limited 10 minor, as there were no Masters in Production. Steve Moneypenny (who was on my squad) thought that it would make things interesting to join me, and together we duked it out on the same squad, shooting minor. This made for a very interesting (and exiting) day of shooting.

I started off the day on the three distance stages, which were ran one after the other. Distance is my thing, and I could easily visualize one perfect little A on the paper (one shot only on these targets) and every piece of steel dropping to the ground. Once the buzzer went off, I achieved what I had pictured:

From there, we went to a quick turn and burn stage. I felt good about this one as well:

**topic continued on next post**

[betterment]

Once the buzzer went off, I achieved what I had pictured:

It has been worth reading your posts from 9 months ago and to see the progress. I has given me some encouragment and enforcement to know that if you put in the time and effert (everytime) it will pay off.

Thanks,

Phil

Threw the qoute in there just because I liked it

[Micah]

OH SECTIONAL...continued...

My fifth stage was a demonic beast that Flyin40 created that had hardcover blocking all but the lower A on ALL of the targets. After watching several top shooters bury a few shots into the black, I decided to take it slow and accurate. I walked away without any mikes:

My favorite stage of the day, all of your mags (save the one in your gun) were placed in the basket on the kart. The kart had to be all the way at the end of the track to activate the two dp's. I opted to shoot the stage, then take the kart down to set the dp's free. This allowed me to shoot the stage with only two additional mags (yes, I did stick one in my mouth) and cut across the fault lines:

Another stage...not much to say here...it felt okay, could have been a bit more smooth:

If there were two stages that I could take back, the following video would be one of them. On the plates at the end of the stage, I called all of my shots, but nicked one without knocking it off. I was not aware of this until I removed my magazine. What I should have done is accept the miss and move on, but instead, I wanged the round in my gun at the plate, missing once again, and tacking on 4 additional seconds. This goofy error was the first of two stages that allowed me to hand the match back to Moneypenny:

The other stage that I want back is Quickly II. I took my strong handed shooting skill and allowed myself to think that I could duplicate that speed with my weak hand. What resulted was a stupid mental error that left me with my only other penalties for the day. I allowed myself to lapse in visual patience, and I paid the price. (And this is the last time I will recall anything but Alphas on this match.)

Overall, I am happy with my performance. Being less than 3% of a GM is something that I can live with, especially if it is Moneypenny. He is a fierce competitor and a pleasure to shoot with. I went back and looked at my old video from last years OH Sectional, and the difference is staggering...literally a sloth versus a cheetah. The best part is...I'm just getting warmed up

[Sunuva]

Nice Micah, All that hard work is paying of! Keep it up.

[Catfish]

good job Micah!!