j1b

[j1b]

Despite my intentions - no dry fire - no nothing in prep for tomorrow's match.

It'll be interesting. I know I'll wake up early tomorrow to button some things up. Hopefully dry fire a bit before the match. I've not yet resolved but believe I'll shoot twice tomorrow. Some premiss as last time - knock the rust off. When shooting twice becomes a crutch to "getting it done on demand" I'll stop. I just don't see it that way today. Shooting twice right now is all about learning. If I finish tomorrow and feel solid then I'll stop. Or if I completely screw the pooch I'll stop. Something in between warrants a chance to learn and evolve though.

I want to get over to Ohio soon and shoot with Flex and Chris and the others over there. I need to plan that weekend - maybe find a sporting clays course to bust some birds on too. I need to prioritize that trip.

Hoping my gun issue is gone. I think it is, but only time will tell. We'll see if there's improvement tomorrow. It's a tricky gig I worked on with the blaster - I've traded some PM's on it - I think I'm home and have the issue fixed but without live fire Murphy will help me understand if I understand

You all know that I'll be posting immediately after the match with my gut feeling - and then results when they come up.

One question though - and I mean this with all sincerity. I recently posted on a topic regarding "knowing" what needs to be done, "thinking" it was being done only to find out it was being missed completely. I'm just wondering - if anyone who's read this diary has looked at it and been like "duh -here's what he's missing"

I'd love commentary on that. I don't presume to think that many people are following it. But in case some are - I'd love the feedback.

Thanks in advance.

Jack

[j1b]

Alright, Clairton match is over, and I'm back (smelling some super awesome roast as it permeates the apartment!)

Ok - first major victory today . . . the gun worked flawless. A big thanks to TGO (who I know doesn't come into the forums much) but his counsel get the XD back to purring flawlessly. I was ecstatic about that today.

First stage today. Probably the most complex stage of the match. A great stage, lots of options on how to shoot it. I thought it was set up very well, challenging, and fun. I started it off ok, punched three open targets pretty well. Came into this complex little space and managed my way through it. Was over all fairly pleased with how I handled the spot except I had to lean a little further than I expected on one target. Probably a non-factory but there was time there. Into this area with some poppers, a swinger and some statics. I had to shoot ten rounds in this little spot so I was tight. Shot the first popper before my original plan. No biggie but it hitched me up a bit. Got the swinger activated and quite honestly it was just faster than I'd anticipated.

Two things I need to note as a spin off on the first stage. I should have visualized those swingers better. Planned better around them. I didn't, and I should have. So that was a big mis-calculation on my part and caused a good portion of the issue. Secondarily though, Vince (vluc on the forums here) and I were talking and it is interesting in production and single stack how you do get into these tight spots where you've got to commit to a plan and know you've got no extra shots. Part of the game. That happened here - which honestly should have cause me to be MORE diligent about paying attention to the hardest targets in the match - but I didn't.

So I popped popper number two, hit the two statics engaged swinger number one and knew I was loose there. I knew it. Shuffle a bit to get to swinger number two and was loose there. Make up a shot on number two - but not on number one. Load and rack the slide cause I'm dry. Move to the end of the stage and finish fine.

Well - I had a miss on swinger number one. Which was a stinker. It was a tough target but still dissappointing to have a miss. Made up a liner C on swinger two with an A. So on the total course I had one C and one miss (I think - maybe two C's). Point is I was doing ok on points and just flubbed that little section up.

At a major this miss is obviously 15 points. Probably another 8-10 points lost in some of the other stuff. I probably dropped 23-25 points to the stage winner there.

Stage two was a pretty basic stage. No big issues. I got through it fine until the end - slung two shots at a plate before I finally hit it with the third. Outside of that the stage was pretty ok. I'll be a second off pace but outside of that not too bad.

Stage 3 was another shoot and scoot course. I enjoyed it. Targets on the left and targets on the right. I started out ok, flubbed the draw a little but no biggie. The only issue I messed up is I started transitioning to a target on one side before I was done with the first side. I don't know what it cost in time - likely not much. Maybe 2-3 tenths of a second. I don't know how well I moved through the stage. Ok I think but I know I had to stop moving on one bank of targets because I was getting too far forward. So a little hiccup there. The last port was tall - there were seven poppers to take from it. I didn't get in clean so it took longer to engage that first popper. Definitly gobbled up a half second or so. Cleaned up the steel at the end though and that was that.

Stage 4 was a classifier. Don't know which one - very basic. Two strings. 3 targets about 7 yards away spaced about 3 yards apart. Draw and engage each with two. Then recharge the gun and at the buzzer draw and enage with two again. I shot the first string pretty clean. 2 seconds and change with good points. String two I screwed the draw up and punched a D with one of the shots. Don't remember which. I was slow through the rest of the course and landed at something like 2.7 seconds. Should have been much more in line with string one - in the very low 2 second range - and with no D. So that classifier won't get me much.

Stage 5 was probably my least favorite stage. 5 targets between 7 yards and probably 20 yards. All open. Just draw shoot each with 2, reload and repeat, reload and repeat. I did this drill in 15 seconds and change. Had 5 A's and 1 C on every target I believe. I think it was a decent run. Not rock star - but decent.

I told Vince this today. This match was much better for me. Lots of little hiccups, but aside from the miss things were coming together. That I can recall, I didn't miss a single reload. And I feel like I'm getting my "trick of the day" with reloading this gun. All the dry fire before the match prior helped and this AM I drilled it in. Reload performance was exponentially better. Overall points were sound. I think I shot 1 D today, and had a stage or two where I threw too many C's. But overall the points were getting closer.

I think the rust is coming off. I don't know if I'll win today. I'm guessing not, but if I do lose it won't be by the landslide of last match. Probably lose by between 20 and 30 points. That's my guess. This is the trickier stage of IPSC shooting because now I'm getting into this phase of not having to fix the major issues. Just gotta tweak. My expectation is that over the course of a couple months I get to a point where in a 5 stage match 3 are just rock solid stages, and 2 have this little hiccups. Then obviously the goal is to get to a point where all 5 stages are just hard to beat.

I feel better about the match. The shooting. I left the stick out of my front sight and am enjoying looking through the front sight and messing with that.

Good fun today. I'm glad I wasn't plagued by some of the issues of matches past like gun battery issues and reload issues. Gotta keep dry firing though.

Jack

[vluc]

I've had the pleasure of shooting with Jack since he's come to PA, and the difference from the first match we shot a month ago to today is impressive. Crisp reloads, far crisper and smoother than at the first match. Much more confidence, and there was good confidence at the others, but you can see the difference. That and he seems much more comfortable in comparison to his first match here - as one would expect going into a new place.

Was impressed at how well he he dealt with the gun issues in the past matches - never let it get him down or bother him (at least that he showed). Today his gun ran right. He moved and shot well (IMHO) - and responded well to the little hiccups he had. Good speed and pacing, focus on A's and a willingness to discuss the stages with shooters who had questions. He may very well get a "W" today.

Rust is rapidly going away, and I am sure (no, make that positive) that once he gets a chance to run with some of the other higher classed shooters like Matt Trout or Kyle and Chris, he will quickly get back to where he wants to be - and Production in Western PA may never be the same. The level which is very good right now can't help but go up with Jack added to the mix.

Should be interesting...

Edited April 19, 2009 by vluc

[j1b]

I've had the pleasure of shooting with Jack since he's come to PA, and the difference from the first match we shot a month ago to today is impressive. Crisp reloads, far crisper and smoother than at the first match. Much more confidence, and there was good confidence at the others, but you can see the difference. That and he seems much more comfortable in comparison to his first match here - as one would expect going into a new place.

Was impressed at how well he he dealt with the gun issues in the past matches - never let it get him down or bother him (at least that he showed). Today his gun ran right. He moved and shot well (IMHO) - and responded well to the little hiccups he had. Good speed and pacing, focus on A's and a willingness to discuss the stages with shooters who had questions. He may very well get a "W" today.

Rust is rapidly going away, and I am sure (no, make that positive) that once he gets a chance to run with some of the other higher classed shooters like Matt Trout or Kyle and Chris, he will quickly get back to where he wants to be - and Production in Western PA may never be the same. The level which is very good right now can't help but go up with Jack added to the mix.

Should be interesting...

Thx Vince!

Vince is one of those great PA shooters I've mentioned in other posts. Welcoming and has a sincere desire for all shooters to perform their best.

I think the rust is coming off a bit. Little tweaks here and there. Gotta get to more mistake free stages but all in all I'm pleased with the improvement.

The two stand and shoots stand out to me as an area that I didn't drive the gun. I started contemplating the difference between a stand and shoot versus a field course. Stand and shoots are generally known. And short. I picked up the gun and dry fired a bit tonight to reinforce some things and I realized that the big "miss" there was not driving the gun. Driving the gun made the difference between string one and string two on the classifier (which would have taken a 75% classifier score to a 90% classifier score).

On the last stage after the last reload I could feel how my arms were moving when I shot. It was weird. I was looking through the sight, even noticing the color inside the "hole" that the flourscent stick was in. I think I'll keep the sight as is for a while longer. I actually like it - and it is an interesting self check to insure I'm watching my sights.

I digress.

I look forward to next weeks match. Should be fun. And again thank Vince and all the PA shooters I've shot with for their patience as I integrate into the area. I'm also looking forward to busting some birds out on the sporting clays courses soon!

Jack

[Chris Keen]

Sounds good Jack. I'm looking forward to seeing you in action.

Do a Google search for Briar Rabbit range. They are 15 minutes south of I-70 in Zanesville, Ohio. I'm pretty sure they have sporting clays.

If you do make it to Ohio, the first round is on me.

edit: Here's a link to Briar Rabbit. It looks like a good time, but I'm no shotgun guru so knock yourself out Jack.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Chris Keen

[j1b]

Sounds good Jack. I'm looking forward to seeing you in action.

Do a Google search for Briar Rabbit range. They are 15 minutes south of I-70 in Zanesville, Ohio. I'm pretty sure they have sporting clays.

If you do make it to Ohio, the first round is on me.

edit: Here's a link to Briar Rabbit. It looks like a good time, but I'm no shotgun guru so knock yourself out Jack.

Thanks Chris - I'll let you know when I'll be down there. I have virtually no experience in shotgun - but I like pullin' triggers!

I'll let you know!

Jack

[Catfish]

I'm somewhat upset we didn't get a better description of the roast and how it tasted!! I think we all knew you'd tear up the match. Now tell us how the roast was!!

[j1b]

I'm somewhat upset we didn't get a better description of the roast and how it tasted!! I think we all knew you'd tear up the match. Now tell us how the roast was!!

The roast was awesome. Ten times better than the shooting.

My crock pot roast is pretty simple. Some spuds, some carrots, LOTS of onions, beef, and some mushroom/onion soup mix. Some pepper garlic too for seasoning.

It was awesome. I mean superb! Meat was tender. Spuds and carrots were awesome. I love onions, these were very sweet. Killer!

I got no complaints! Thanks Derrick!

Jack

Edited April 20, 2009 by j1b

[Catfish]

man, I just finished eating and I'm hungry again.

Thanks Jack.

[Duane Thomas]

One question though - and I mean this with all sincerity. I recently posted on a topic regarding "knowing" what needs to be done, "thinking" it was being done only to find out it was being missed completely. I'm just wondering - if anyone who's read this diary has looked at it and been like "duh -here's what he's missing"

I'd love commentary on that. I don't presume to think that many people are following it. But in case some are - I'd love the feedback.

Jack,

Don't know if this will help, it's just random thoughts, and I'm not sure how much it even really relates to what you were discussing. Anyway, I just got back, literally about an hour ago, from a 3-day class called Intensive Handgun Skills at a school named InSights Training Center here in Washington state. The head guy at InSights, Greg Hamilton, is one of those been there/done that guys who really has been there/done that. Ranger, Green Beret, current contractor, all that. More to the point, Greg has always been smart enough to never turn his back on the lessons to be learned from serious competition shooters. The first time I trained with Greg, 15 years ago, he was already teaching techniques, and applying lessons, that came out of IPSC, along with all the kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out stuff.

Intensive Handgun Skills is basically a speed shooting course, intended to take whatever level of speed and accuracy a shooter possesses, and improve them both. I fired around 1,800 rounds over the past three days. What I learned was that there are a lot of things that I thought I was capable of, but didn't really KNOW I was capable of, that I am in fact capable of. I also found out there are things I'm capable of doing that I didn't really know I can do because I've never really had the guts to try before. I now realize that, even though I've argued against it myself numerous times, to a large extent I bought into the either/or mentality when it comes to speed and accuracy. Well, actually, I had kind of figured that out before the class, so I was going to use this course to test that out. This is a speed shooting course, right? So why not run the gun as fast as I possibly can all three days? Just see what happens.

I now realize that in my shooting up til now I have wasted HUGE chunks of time overaiming and dicking around on target transitions. What I found out is that I literally can't run the gun so fast that I can't see the sights. No matter what I'm doing. I haven't practiced El Presidentes in years. El Presidentes in the 5.7s with only a few Cs (some of you are no doubt laughing at that but for me that's pretty good). No problem. And I can just look at what I did and tell where I can whittle that down. No matter what I was doing, whether it was standing flatfooted or hauling ass diagonally while engaging multiple targets with splits and transitions both in the low .2s, literally I couldn't outrun the sights. I now realize that up til now I have been VERY tentative in my approach to speed, I just haven't TRUSTED myself. But really, if you can hit, if you can see the sights, as fast as you can shoot, why slow down? And even with just a few days practice, I'm realizing that the QUALITY of sight picture I can see when running the gun as fast as I can run it is SO much more precise and crisp than I ever knew before.

Okay, that's not about thinking you're doing something then finding out you're not doing it at all. It's about a huge insight that you've been cutting yourself off from a skill level that you really possessed all along. But for me it was a lights on experience. I'm so excited. I'm just bouncing.

[j1b]

One question though - and I mean this with all sincerity. I recently posted on a topic regarding "knowing" what needs to be done, "thinking" it was being done only to find out it was being missed completely. I'm just wondering - if anyone who's read this diary has looked at it and been like "duh -here's what he's missing"

I'd love commentary on that. I don't presume to think that many people are following it. But in case some are - I'd love the feedback.

Jack,

Don't know if this will help, it's just random thoughts, and I'm not sure how much it even really relates to what you were discussing. Anyway, I just got back, literally about an hour ago, from a 3-day class called Intensive Handgun Skills at a school named InSights Training Center here in Washington state. The head guy at InSights, Greg Hamilton, is one of those been there/done that guys who really has been there/done that. Ranger, Green Beret, current contractor, all that. More to the point, Greg has always been smart enough to never turn his back on the lessons to be learned from serious competition shooters. The first time I trained with Greg, 15 years ago, he was already teaching techniques, and applying lessons, that came out of IPSC, along with all the kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out stuff.

Intensive Handgun Skills is basically a speed shooting course, intended to take whatever level of speed and accuracy a shooter possesses, and improve them both. I fired around 1,800 rounds over the past three days. What I learned was that there are a lot of things that I thought I was capable of, but didn't really KNOW I was capable of, that I am in fact capable of. I also found out there are things I'm capable of doing that I didn't really know I can do because I've never really had the guts to try before. I now realize that, even though I've argued against it myself numerous times, to a large extent I bought into the either/or mentality when it comes to speed and accuracy. Well, actually, I had kind of figured that out before the class, so I was going to use this course to test that out. This is a speed shooting course, right? So why not run the gun as fast as I possibly can all three days? Just see what happens.

I now realize that in my shooting up til now I have wasted HUGE chunks of time overaiming and dicking around on target transitions. What I found out is that I literally can't run the gun so fast that I can't see the sights. No matter what I'm doing. I haven't practiced El Presidentes in years. El Presidentes in the 5.7s with only a few Cs (some of you are no doubt laughing at that but for me that's pretty good). No problem. And I can just look at what I did and tell where I can whittle that down. No matter what I was doing, whether it was standing flatfooted or hauling ass diagonally while engaging multiple targets with splits and transitions both in the low .2s, literally I couldn't outrun the sights. I now realize that up til now I have been VERY tentative in my approach to speed, I just haven't TRUSTED myself. But really, if you can hit, if you can see the sights, as fast as you can shoot, why slow down? And even with just a few days practice, I'm realizing that the QUALITY of sight picture I can see when running the gun as fast as I can run it is SO much more precise and crisp than I ever knew before.

Okay, that's not about thinking you're doing something then finding out you're not doing it at all. It's about a huge insight that you've been cutting yourself off from a skill level that you really possessed all along. But for me it was a lights on experience. I'm so excited. I'm just bouncing.

Yeah, I think that is kind of what I'm getting at.

Today I'm shooting at a good speed. Not blazing fast, but not turtle slow. The only thing that'll break me out of that is to go to the range a few times and simply shoot faster. Stage 5 from the other day was a basic, simple course. Should be able to get through it pretty damn quickly. I don't know what my time was, but I can look back and realize I probably could have shot it faster! Just gotta execute.

ACtually the better example is the difference between string one and string two on the classifier. That's the difference between crisp and clean versus rough and off. Now, string one could have been done faster - that's what you're describing. Shoot as fast as you can and just see what you need to. So definitly string one could have been faster. But the delta between string one and string two was driving the gun and being an active participant in the shooting (string 1) versus an observer of things going on (string 2). It is remarkable the difference in my own mind between those two strings. That alone is worth the entry fee to the match.

So yeah, that's what I'm trying to get to. You don't know what you don't know. And the path should be one where you don't know what you're doing, that's why you're doing it, so you can learn it, so you can keep doing it and learn more by doing other things you don't know.

To me a match should be executing at your 98th percent of capability flawlessly. The trick is knowing where that is at.

Jack

[Duane Thomas]

Jack,

I can give you an example of thinking I was executing something correctly, only to have it pointed out to me that I wasn't, from this weekend's class. After one string Greg Hamilton walked up to me and said, "Do you realize you're moving your hips back and forth during every draw? You move them about three times: left, then right, then right again. Not a lot, but like this...." He demonstrated. My answer (shocked), "No, I wasn't."

I know where this came from, I'm sure. Early on in my shooting career I read Bill Jordan's No Second Place Winner and he talked about a draw that bends the right knee while going for the gun, thus swaying the hips to the left and causing a concealing garment to drop away from the gun - I can't remember if there were any other advantages supposed to accrue, like maybe opening up a gap between the body and the gun or whatnot. Anyway, I modeled my draw on the photos of Jordan, and for years that's how I drew. Then I trained myself out of that. (By the way, funny thing - or a least I think it's funny - old article photos of me drawing look really dynamic. I've got my legs twisted, and my upper body's leaning forward, my head's thrust out, they're really interesting photos because there are all these angles, lots of things happening at once. These days, the photos are of a guy standing basically upright, just a bit of forward lean, and all that's moving is his arms. This, of course, makes for a much faster and more efficient draw - but a BORING photo. )

Anyway, the only relic of that early self-training, apparently, is that I still move my hips back and forth while drawing, much more slightly, but the movement is still there. And I was completely unaware of it until Greg pointed it out. Now, I'm not 100 percent sure what effect this has on my speed and accuracy from the draw, but the phrase "probably nothing good" comes to mind. You can bet I'll be training that out of my draw now. To me this highlights the importance of getting feedback from others on your shooting. They'll notice things you never would. Of course, it's a prerequisite that a person have (1) a high enough skill level and knowledge base they can analyze your shooting, and (2) the guts to tell you what they notice. (Of course the kicker is that as your skill level increases it becomes harder and harder to find people able to give meaningful critiques to performance at that level.)

[j1b]

Ugh.

That's about it for today. Maybe ugly??? I don't know. Probably just ugh.

Shot East Huntington today.

First off, this was a great match. A longer drive in comparison to some of the other clubs, but a killer match. Every stage was a quality stage, and there were 5 stages. If you took this match, tripled the stages - it would be a quality area match. That's just to say the stages were really, really good. They were the kind of stages that left it up to the shooter to screw up. Trust me when I say I handled my end of that committment very well.

I almost posted this morning about my general mood. I wasn't all that crisp this morning. For whatever reason, I just was kind of blah. I almost posted on it, but didn't because I didn't want to solidify the position. You have to shoot on days like this, just so you can begin to get yourself to step up under all conditions. I shot Nationals one year when I had Mono - life doesn't always bend to your whims. I wasn't going to skip the match regardless - but I was very . . . concious . . . of my kind of attitude.

The first stage I shot this morning I did ok. I've got to note that I've become noticeably aware that my speed is off. I hate to say that, but in order to be competitive in this gig I'm going to have to meaningfully step up the intensity and get some speed back in my game. Some of that will come from smoother and more efficient. But I've also got to step it up. Mr. Stoeger or Mr. Sevigny could lap me given my times today. I bring this up because they accidentally forgot to write my score down. So I re-shot the stage and knocked a second off my original time. Through not doing much. Shot the stage the exact same way. I took extra shots here or there on both stages. Loads were good. On my first pass I missed a shot on a popper and had to go back for it. But outside of that, they were similar stages. Except by almost default one run was a second faster. And, I probably needed to be a second faster than that. So to start stages off shooting 2 seconds off pace (on a 12 second stage) ain't gonna work.

Stage 2 I shot ok, except I had a damn miss. On a wide open target. Just flat missed it. And dropped several points. I started today dropping points and I realized something as I drove home. Sloppy points in production are the gift that keeps on giving. First you drop a ton of points because of minor. Second, you get more misses. And - I WAS SHOOTING SLOW TODAY - which once again dispells this rumor that speed is connected to accuracy. I slogged points all over the place and struggled behind the gun all day - which meant poor points, poor times and poor shooting.

Stage 3 was the classifier. I dropped a ton of points and had a miss on weakhand. The miss was about an inch into hardcover and overall I get it. Had that been the only miss, or had I not dropped a ton of points on the stage I probably would have been ok. But I had a miss already. I dropped a crap load of points. And dunked a mike into hardcover. A terrible, terrible stage.

So three stages in and I feel like I've probably dug myself into a 50 point deficit with two stages to go.

Stage 4 - a great field course. Short movement, and choppy. I shot ok here. That is to say I don't remember much about it. I dropped too many points again (smell the theme here?) but I think the rest of the stage was ok. I think. Actually as I think about it the stage was ok. Slow I'm sure though. I was just plugging along and did ok here.

Stage 5 I missed a load bigger than day. Shot it pretty ok outside of that, but that load cost me a second. I know, because I asked Vince if I could reshoot it - I still muffed the dang load - and shaved a second off the time. So again, two seconds slow. And I know I've got to crank it up to get where I want to be.

Reloads were ok today with the exception of the one. I will note - that one was a biggie though. Killed me.

Crappy points all day. Overall just not a solid shooting day. Two misses - inexcusable!

And one thing I'll have to get my head around is not shooting with my competitors. That's what I enjoy. The guy that's going to hand my butt to me today I didn't shoot with. I couldn't feel the pressure from him (which I enjoy) and I couldn't put pressure on him (which I enjoy). That means I've got to raise the intesity inside of me. You have to believe that shooting solid independent of others is the way to go. I so enjoy competing though that I'd rather have a "super" squad so everyone knows where everyone else is at.

I'm dry firing tonight, and all week. Gotta fix this. I've got two weeks until my next match - and I will do better there.

Jack

[j1b]

Scores are up.

There are two distinct feelings I have right now.

The first is one that simply acknowledges that today's match, for me, was very, very rough. I just wasn't happy with the shooting. That is an important distinction to me. The shooting.

I've had some gun troubles, that doesn't bug me too much. Yes - fix it. Gun troubles, as I've posted, kill any chance at a good match. But locally they don't mean much. Fix and move on. I've had some reloading issues. Stuff I've worked on a bit, and have started to find solutions for. Specific issues. I haven't fixed my weakhand shooting and need to - but the rest has been really knocking rust off.

The misses today bugged the hell out of me. Two in one match. Seems almost beyond comprehension to me. That was a tough pill to swallow. One is bad enough, but two absolutely kills me. And I could clearly see the correlation between points down and misses. That I can remember I don't know that I've thrown points like I did today. It happens I know. And I'm ok with those days where you're just a bit off. But today I was throwing points. Badly. The fact that I allowed that to happen, to the point of two misses, is bothersome.

So overall the actually shooting part of the game, for the first time in a long time, was something that I just wasn't happy with. And need to work on.

The second feeling is one of elation. This journal is one that is chaulk full of issues. That's what I want it to be. Critical. Challenging. So I'll always question. I'll always challenge. I'll never be happy with a match. But I am happy tonight with my first official "W" in PA. And the right players were there today to actually make it feel like a win. At the best match, from a stage design perspective, that I've shot here (or in many other places for that matter). I am indeed pleased that the ball bounced my way this time.

It was indeed lucky. I've started a spreadsheet that accentuates a match. Shows where I was good and where I was bad basically. I haven't loaded today into the sheet yet, but I will. What I'll find is that one competitor made one catastrophic mistake. The other competitor I can't explain. But one, I can. I know I can because in my spreadsheet I can see where I was that guy just a week or two ago. One bloody huge mistake costs the match. For 3 or 4 stages you're right there. In the hunt. And in one stage the world falls apart. And the game is lost.

So while I'm pleased with the win, I still have that passion of being pissed off about today. And I am - pissed. I can't believe how crappy I shot today. I got lucky today, but I've seen the guys I shoot against shoot. They are solid. Days like today won't happen often. If I want to win, I simply must be better. On every stage.

Jack

[38supPat]

I know where you are coming from. The last match I shot, I too felt slow and I shot bad points for half the match. The only thing that saved me is this time I didn't have a huge blow up. Although I wasn't happy with the points, I only threw one D and no mikes. So I shot solid enough that no one could catch me. This has been a hard learned lesson. Too many matches this year and last, I'd be shooting well enough to be leading the match, only to throw it away on a single trashed stage with either misses or gun fumbling. Worse than that is I still could have survived those issues if I had not shot such crappy points on the other stages...they might have come up as stage wins, but by shooting crappy points, there wasn't enough of a points lead from them to be able to survive a trashed stage. At last years provincials I had some realy great stages where I was closest to or in one case beat Eric G. on times, but tossed too many points to be in contention.

I've found that as far as times go, I need to shoot my pace and either I'm on or I'm not...but in either case I had better shoot the best points I can because fast with bad points barely gets the job done, but leaves too tight a margin and slow with bad points is just unacceptable.

[j1b]

I know where you are coming from. The last match I shot, I too felt slow and I shot bad points for half the match. The only thing that saved me is this time I didn't have a huge blow up. Although I wasn't happy with the points, I only threw one D and no mikes. So I shot solid enough that no one could catch me. This has been a hard learned lesson. Too many matches this year and last, I'd be shooting well enough to be leading the match, only to throw it away on a single trashed stage with either misses or gun fumbling. Worse than that is I still could have survived those issues if I had not shot such crappy points on the other stages...they might have come up as stage wins, but by shooting crappy points, there wasn't enough of a points lead from them to be able to survive a trashed stage. At last years provincials I had some realy great stages where I was closest to or in one case beat Eric G. on times, but tossed too many points to be in contention.

I've found that as far as times go, I need to shoot my pace and either I'm on or I'm not...but in either case I had better shoot the best points I can because fast with bad points barely gets the job done, but leaves too tight a margin and slow with bad points is just unacceptable.

I'd tend to agree.

I gotta be crisp. That's what it takes.

I don't know what a great score would have been this weekend. Heck, I was surprised to pull out a win. I got lucky. It's easy for me to think 10-15% better was an easy go get. Then again, sometimes you think you're shooting crappy and you're in fact shooting a bit better. I shot an area match like this once - I didn't win it but I was so freakin' close and had I been paying attention at all probably could have gotten into the zone. I wasn't though. Hell, I remember Brian at the match telling me "if you hadn't hit that no shoot you'd have won" - and I also recall not even really knowing where I stood in the match. I figured I was so far out of it it couldn't matter.

Tiger talks about grinding a lot. Maybe that's what I did this weekend. I just grinded it out. Nothing was coming easy, but just kept plugging along.

That said, I still had two misses. The score was easily 30 points behind where it should have been just from that!

Jack

[j1b]

This week is flying by!

I've got a full plate tomorrow - but then Thursday I shoot a few rounds of skeet. Friday I'm headed to Arkansas to spend some time with my wife and daughter - FINALLY!

I love all the shooting I'm getting in. Not as much as my family though.

When they get out here I'll probably shoot a little less. Maybe not - who knows. I'm starting to gauge the matches in the area - some are probably skippable. Some probably are not.

So I'll get all that figured out. Regardless - if you think about my week thus far:

Sunday I shot a match

Sunday I was fortunate to win that match

Monday - eh - it's Monday. What are you going to do?

Tuesday is done and in the books

Wednesday is hump day - no different than any other day. Possible a round or two of skeet is in my future though

Thursday is work again - but DEFINITLY some skeet that evening.

Friday I fly home to see the family!

Friday night - drinks at the outdoor fireplace!

Saturday I wake up with the family - a true blessing. Trust me.

Sunday - back to pittsburgh . . .

All in all - a great week!

Jack

[j1b]

Ahhh - the eve of match day.

First off, I love the journal idea. Who ever came up with it. It's a great way to document what happened, any significant events etc. etc.

Recently we got some match results back a little later than normal. I reviewed the results and was having a hard time remembering what happened here, what happened there. Went back and read the journal entry for that match, correlated it to the results - and bam. I remembered it all.

So my point in posting tonight is really to just kind of validate the mental components of this game. Had a goofy "episode" on Thursday night shooting skeet. I don't have the vernacular to be able to describe what I went through. I e-mailed a friend about it and found that in text I just couldn't articulate myself well.

I think I got "hope" nervous. Kind of like with the Penguins tonight. I'm anxious about the game because I want, and I hope, that they win. That's ok, because I have no say or input on the outcome what so ever. But shooting skeet I glanced over at the bays where the IPSC match was and I went through this "I hope I win there this weekend" which caused this weird avalanche of paranoia. Ok - that's an exageration. I did get a little cross ways though because I know myself well enough to know that the term "hope" doesn't have a play in how I shoot. I've never seen success with it.

The nervous energy I like. I always get nervous before matches, and I like that component. Always have. It means I care. A few matches there in Arkansas I stopped getting nervous and that definitly was a bad thing.

So the very obviouse answer is that you gotta get to the shooting. That's all that matters, just focus on the shooting. And that's where I landed. But I wanted to do a dry fire session and nail things down. You know, make sure everything was ok. And I had a terrible dry fire session. Particularly in points - which means bad juju for me with how I shoot. I gotta get to the points. It was pathetic. So the last bit of dry fire, I didn't do a draw, I didn't do a load - I just screwed around with the gun. No pressure - just playing.

Today I am more excited about the match. Nervous? Yeah - but good nervous. Like normal. And I did my dry fire session not to "confirm" anything but rather to just put in a decent dry fire sesssion. Worked out ok. Things went well.

The moral of the story is that in a 3 day time frame my skill level didn't go up, down, or around. It stayed pretty even. But it was my head that allowed me to either limit how well I did or maximize how well I did. Nothing else changed.

I don't know how I'll shoot tomorrow. One thing is for sure, I'll put out a strong effort. The good news is this. If I shoot and lose tomorrow, that's cool. First off, there are some damn good shooters out here. It's ok to lose to guys like that. And, it only motivates me. It only drives me to be better. If I win, then I can confirm why I so enjoy the nervousness I get going into matches.

I love the human component to these games. It just makes things fun!

Will post on the match tomorrow.

Jack

[j1b]

There are days when the man upstairs drops so many hints that "maybe you should sit this one out" but I didn't - and I paid.

From an overall performance perspective today was a terrible as any I can recall. Not recently - ever. It was a terrible day on the range.

Stage 1 was a classifier and I didn't have a heck of a lot to gripe about. I had that little reload forcing the gun out of battery incident pop again for the first time in some while. Outside of that, I don't recall much being terrible about it. I wouldn't say it was spectacular and the gun hiccup definitly caused some pain. But all in all ok.

The second stage we shot was stage 5. I started ok, got onto a partial and had to make up a shot. I'm pretty sure I needed it. But then that forced me to run my gun dry, so I load and rack the slide. I can hear the seconds ticking away. But that mag was short loaded too. So the beautiful thing was having to do a load out of my pocket to finish the final three shots. Yep - that was special!

Stage 3 was a creative little stage. I opted to shoot it all strong hand on one side and all weak hand on the other. I knew my main competitor had messed up on another stage a little so I figured if I dropped the hammer a bit on this stage maybe I make up some points and make this thing a match again. Had two misses, but I want to premiss this. I liked how I shot the stage. I don't know where the misses came from, but visually and in terms of movement, pace, vision - I liked a lot of it. There were a lot of positives in it and I want to capture that. Because the score will be terrible.

Stage 4 was an all steel stage. People know I'm not a huge fan of all steel. I did ok. Not great. I survived it. I was probably two or three seconds off the pace. I knew the match was pretty well over for me. I know I overstepped one spot and had to go back a little. Whatever. It was what it was . . .

On to stage 5. Good stage. Good stage for me at least. Pretty smooth. I'd describe the run as solid and I was glad to end on that note.

But - me being me - I decided I couldn't leave that range with such a God Aweful performance so I loaded back up and went again.

First stage we shot was that nifty little stage I had the misses on with my strong and weak hand. Like I said, I liked how I shot that stage so I opted to do it the same way. I felt really, really good about it. Start off strong, get to the weak hand side. Another short loaded mag!!!! Again! The beauty? I had one more mag and it only had a few rounds in it. So I wound up with a target with no shots on it cause I didn't shoot at it. That's two short loaded mags in a single day. What an idiot!

Go on to the second stage which was the second stage we shot the first go around. Things were much smoother. I had a make up shot on the exact same target, had another dry reload. But all in all it went much better. Put it this way. The first time was 24 seconds. The second time was 17 and change. Much better.

On to stage 3 which was my closing stage on the first match. Comparable performance. I think the first time was better but all in all pretty comparable.

Starting stage 4 - the steel stage!!!! Buzzer goes off. Click. Rack. Click. Rack. Click. On and on. I tell the RO "I think I'm done" and UASC. I haven't checked to see what went wrong, I suspect a busted firing pin.

Plenty of people offered to help out. Loan guns etc. etc. but at that point, I simply needed to take the hint. Today wasn't working out for me. It happens.

This match will dissappear into the memory bank and we'll start doing better going forward.

Worst match day I've had in ages, and it's almost like I could see it coming.

Jack

[38supPat]

First off, I love the journal idea. Who ever came up with it. It's a great way to document what happened, any significant events etc. etc.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42600

Thanks Jack, that was exactly what I had in mind.

And about your last post, I feel for ya, chock it up to lessons learned and move on. Had a few of those days myself. Short loaded mags, forgetting how doors work, broken parts. Nothing like driving two and a half hours to a match, shooting one stage (and winning it) only to have a link break on the second stage, no backup gun, no spare parts, just a long drive home....

[j1b]

First off, I love the journal idea. Who ever came up with it. It's a great way to document what happened, any significant events etc. etc.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42600

Thanks Jack, that was exactly what I had in mind.

And about your last post, I feel for ya, chock it up to lessons learned and move on. Had a few of those days myself. Short loaded mags, forgetting how doors work, broken parts. Nothing like driving two and a half hours to a match, shooting one stage (and winning it) only to have a link break on the second stage, no backup gun, no spare parts, just a long drive home....

Thx Pat.

Good lord, shitty couple of days. Yesterday was terrible. Today was terrible. Tomorrow has the makings to be terrible.

Wednesday is looking ok so I guess that's a plus.

I heard a quote today that describes how I compete to a tee. Right, wrong, or indifferent - it is how I think.

Someone asked the question do you love to win or do you hate to lose more? Think about that for a quick second.

I understand fully that I hate to lose. A win for me is satisfying for a moment. It's very nice. Makes me humble. I enjoy it as it settles in, but over the course of a day or two it slides away to the next challenge.

My answer is I hate losing. I lost yesterday. By 100 points. I lost big time. And I am hacked about it. Mentally I guess I just wasn't there, but it's a hangover that'll last the week.

It's Monday night and I'm already ready for the weekend.

Jack

[j1b]

Where did it go?

It is utterly amazing to me, time that is.

We run around and measure stages in seconds. Trying to cut a quarter second here, a quarter second there. It's amazing to me my last post on a match was May. It is now, for all practical purposes, October. Not a match in between the two.

I was reminded of this today because vluc - Vince - e-mailed me just checking in. Amazing people we have in this sport. Always checking in, seeing how things are going.

Well, those seconds we try to save??? They happened to me over the course of about 6 months. It's like I've blinked and here we are, in October. The trees are starting to turn. The Pens are playing soon. Hunting season starts Saturday. Amazing.

No shotgun rounds really shot since my last post. Certainly no pistol matches. Just workin', getting acclimated, getting moved in, landscaping, trying to find time to spend time with my precious family. My family has really been incredible through this move, we're all getting adjusted.

Work has been good, hard, but good. And we've all been busier than all get out.

Thanks Vince for the e-mail. Perhaps next season will bring more stages. More shooting. More getting out.

For now we're looking forward to winter. To those cold mornings where we can't really do anything, which makes nothing a pretty appealing offer. To snow. Skiing a little. Good hot tubbing. Stiff drinks. Too getting a couple of deer in the sights. And of course to the Holiday season - my favorite time. This year the bride and I are headed to Antigua - looking forward to blowing some bubbles down there. Haven't been diving this summer either - all in all I'd say the summer has been busy. So busy I blinked, and alas it's over. In some ways I look back and wish there was a little time left. But time in the rear view mirror has never been well spent for me. The windshield is looking pretty good ; )

Jack

[j1b]

I've been out of it. For a while. Like .... Maybe the "15 years" kind of "a while"

But I dabble. Every little while I pick the heaters up and act like I am what I used to be. Knowing I was never what I actually thought I was - always a disappointment

But I realize a couple things after this match this weekend (I shot Sunday).

1) my old diary posts were so .... Searchy. Like I was searching for what I already knew. It was weird, though telling, to read them.

2) I heard on so many occasions "it's all good until that buzzer goes off and then you just lose it" I heard that like 4 times. I have to say - after not actively shooting in a LONG time I just wasn't there. I simply had in my mind to execute what I'd planned - whether the timer was on or off. I was rusty for sure but tried to account for that - don't set a stage plan that can't be executed. I think for the first time ever I walked a stage IMMEDIATELY AFTER I shot it. I tried to understand where I didn't execute and then figure out why and what I could do about it. That was interesting.

3) it was weird to hear people talk about strategies in terms of engaging targets. Folks took an extra step to insure their "draw" target was wide open and easy. Hell.... I don't shoot much anymore and I was thinking B.S.! I'm shooting that 12 yard hardcover target off the draw. I have to shoot it one way or the other - what difference does it make?

4) single stack was DAMN hard at this match. I have no idea how I did, but the match was tough with a .45 ACP skinny gun and carry gear.

5) I sure wish I was as good once ... As I ever was .... But realize I ain't .... Bummer

Fun to shoot a match again. Better than my last match a few weeks ago in Ohio. Hardly good ... But I'll repeat what I said last time (though things were better this time). I was slower than I wanted to be. I dropped more points than I am comfortable with. But ultimately I didn't see like I like to see. When I see like I know I can then things will progress. Hopefully poke some holes a few more times this summer - but we'll see. My ability to commit has been unreliable on these forums so I'm just gonna go one match at a time.

Cheers!

J

Edited June 23, 2015 by j1b

[sfinney]

Welcome back.

[38supPat]

Good to hear you are still out there