CONSISTENCY

[Ed Deegan]

I am seeking constructive criticism so please comment freely.

Yesterday shot a match, 7 stages, lots of opportunities to shoot on the move.

This was probably my 10th or 11th USPSA match. My background is IDPA, but I enjoy USPSA as well.

The Good:

won a stage overall (by 0.02 HF). 1st time ever and am pretty darn proud of that, considering I run a SS. It and one other stage was that point where, as our distinguished host says, "watch the gun work" just happened. It was the second stage of the day, and I was the last shooter.

The Marginal

The "other" stage mentioned above, had a really good run going, and got that "watch the gun work" mental state, BUT had a 4.5 second transition to the last target (forgot about it), which sent a really really nice run into one not so nice.

The first stage of the day, I was asked to help keep score/run the buzzer and I wasn't prepared to do that, which is not an excuse just wasnt part of my mental preparation for the day. I didnt think through the shooting positions well enough and while the shooting was ok, I didnt get into the "observing" mode and got out-thought, resulting in 5 extra seconds moving between shooting positions. I shot first, I wasnt ready mentally.

The Classifier was my attempt to be slow down, be smoothe, and get good hits, with a good "Kodak moment" at the trigger with each shot (Riverdale Standards).

The Bad

The other 3 stages, 1 - I overran myself and had to stop and back up to get a target, flumoxxed me the rest of the stage and got a miss, another I had a miss shooting around a barricade, and the other, just got behind in my shooting.

Yesterday, was 2 of the 4 times in my life that I have found myself "watch the gun work" and that is THE best feeling in the world when it happens.

The question now becomes, how do I improve match consistency? You have a couple where you burn it down, and a couple that are ok and the rest are not awful, but a level that I dont want to be.

[Jake Di Vita]

Just aim.

[Jman]

At your next match. Shoot nothing but A's

Jim

[IronEqualizer]

Over running targets, forgetting targets, all has to do with stage preparation. If you were not ready then get ready. You drove to the match, paid your money, helped out where you could same as everyone else. Take the time you need to visualize the stage and if you can't run shooters at the moment then let them know you'll be glad to run them after you have already shot the stage or after you have prepared. It sounds like you just did not stay focused on shooting. Too much other stuff going on. I still have problems with this but am getting better. After walk through I immediately start my preparation. When I am done I am then ready to socialize run shooters or whatever. I hate leaving a match knowing I screwed up because I did not take the time to prepare to shoot. If I shoot too fast, or too slow I can deal with that, but forgetting targets, or where I need to be to shoot are both easily prevented.

IE

[JThompson]

The bottom line is you only shoot as well as you've prepared to shoot... the actual time in the cof is just the test for what you studied for all those hours during practice. I see a lot of guys get pissed because they don't do well during a cof, and I know that last time the spent on the range was last weeks practice match. As far as I'm concerned they deserve exactly what they shot.

My first match was bad and so was the second. I hit the range and hit it hard. I told those guys that I was coming for them... they laughed and said, "bring it on" I did. Granted, there are no M or GM at the club, but I'm either 1 or 2nd at every match with the A guys. I'm still a U and have been shooting under 4 months, but I put in at least 20hrs a week shooting.

My point is that you will do only as well as you have prepared yourself to do.