EZ Bagger

[EZ Bagger]

The time has come. One shooting buddy (Hoofy, who is really only interested in being able to laugh at me...again) in particular has hounded me to keep a journal and I have always fought it, mostly because of the time required and I absolutely despise having to do things more than once...and writing something on paper and then typing it in is doing it twice!

My goal for the journal is twofold.

First: Shame myself into some sort of a practice routine.

Second: Have an easy place to look back over time and see where I've been.

Other than shooting pretty regularly at the local matches, I have been to the range to practice (or shoot at all) all of 7 days in the last 11 months. Don't know how much dry fire I've done because I didn't used to keep a diary , but in that same time frame I'll bet there's not been more than 15 hours of dryfire practice (max).

The reasons for the lack of practice are myriad, the single largest one is a work schedule that during tax season starts at 80 hours a week and peaks at about 115 hours a week for the last 5 weeks of the season.

My first official match was 3 years ago. Man was that fun. Only thing that outdid the fun was the embarrassment!!! I did not start with a single skill, and oftentimes feel as if I still don't have many. A couple of the local guys have been amazing shooting/strategy/etc teachers and a couple in particular have been A+ at teaching the behind the scenes match management and club operations stuff. They've stopped helping me before I've shot, but at least so far have been willing to ask me the important questions afterwards.

My overall goal? Master. Solid Master. Shoot Nationals and end up with a solid Master % kind of Master. Personally I don't care where that leaves me in classification.

Where I'm at...72%. Was a little miffed that the CO state match results have still not been posted, as I knew that match would get me closer to A, but even at that I'd still only be 74.94%. I'm much better at field courses than I am at the speed shoots. Because of that, I usually do well on the high point stages and just do my best to not get blown out of the water on the quickies. I figure if I were to shoot the Open Nationals right now, I'd end up about the 70-72% that I'm currently classified as. Not because that's my class %, but because it's about where I think I'd shoot that match today. That means to meet my goal, I need 15-20% in real improvement. The good news is that if you've seen me shoot, you know that there's plenty of room for improvement

How I'm going to get there. First step was a range session with Ron Avery. It's going to take me some serious time to ingrain the grip and trigger tools I learned, but once I do, I'll finally be able to hit a piece of steel and hammer those targets...because I won't be using my whole hand to pull that tiny little trigger. If I can get this down and natural, just his grip and trigger pull info will be worth 5-10%.

Second step will be a range session with Max (and hopefully Travis too). I don't know what they'll focus on, but I'm sure hoping for another 5-10% piece of the puzzle.

Third step will be a real training regimen. I don't know what that will be yet, but I'll evaluate my skill set and identify those pieces parts that will give the most bang for the buck and I'll start there. Time to pull out SA's, Saul's and benos' books. At first, my regimen will be short, sweet and "easy" to accomplish. Initially it will be more important to actually get in the habit of working out and training than it will be to do hours and hours of dry fire.

Wish me good health....

[eerw]

man.. you better get on this..tax season is approaching

I know you can make this goal..just let yourself shoot..

see ya at the class..

[EZ Bagger]

man.. you better get on this..tax season is approaching

I know you can make this goal..just let yourself shoot..

see ya at the class..

11 hours at the office today wrapping up a few last minute corps. Can't wait for October 15th when all the last minute individuals are due!

[Hoofy]

My overall goal? Master. Solid Master.

Let the journey begin!

[EZ Bagger]

9/18/2007

First day of my new routine. Up before the wife and out the door in time to get to the office at 7:00. Hoping that this will get me home in time to do an hour of dry fire/exercise a day. Only lasted a half hour (doing draws the whole time: 20 min freestyle, 10 weak hander's) at 3.0mph today, but that will come with time.

Also ordered a binding machine so that I can create a journal and change/add pages and formats until I get to something that works for me. Then, as the books get big enough I'll scan them in for posterity, word searches, load data, etc.

If anyone has a favorite log book page layout I'd love to see it.

Next step is to put SA's latest book by the throne

[SA Friday]

9/18/2007

Next step is to put SA's latest book by the throne

TMI, bro

[EZ Bagger]

9/18/2007

Next step is to put SA's latest book by the throne

TMI, bro

What, you never read?

[EZ Bagger]

09/19/2007

Once again...up early and out the door.

Taught an "all day" safety orientation for two shooters new to USPSA. So, most of the day was spent thinking shooting.

Hoofy showed up just as the work was done and we were able to do some technical discussions, try out grip techniques, and then finally blow through a couple hundred rounds working mainly on transitions.

Will have to fill in Bill Drill times and Benos Drill times later as Hoofy wrote them down, but he's rifling the night away.

Transitions:

12 yards

3 targets set two feet apart

Focus was on keeping split and transition times identical.

Typical run at .23's to .25's were "easy"

Pushing it while still without excess tension .20's. Felt really good....

Going any "faster" resulted in intermittent .24's to go with the .18's and did not come close to keeping all the shots in the A zone.

[Hoofy]

9/19/2007

Benos (w/2yd spread)

Average time 5.70

Bill Drill (10yds)

Average 2.45

avg draw 1.35

fastest draw 1.06

I don't have the ba!!s to publish mine, but thanks for your help.

Keep your eye on the goal.

[EZ Bagger]

Thanks for the info.... Now all I have to do is make it outdated!

[eerw]

09/19/2007

Hoofy showed up just as the work was done and we were able to do some technical discussions, try out grip techniques, and then finally blow through a couple hundred rounds working mainly on transitions.

WHAT!!!

you practiced...

looks like a good start....keep at it..

[EZ Bagger]

9/20/2007

Up 5 minutes earlier today. Need to make that 5 more for optimum timing with the chores.

Didn't feel like dry firing or getting on the treadmill...at all...until I did a dry fire session. Then I was so pumped up I easily did the 30+ minutes at 3.5mph.

Because of the lack of motivation I decided to not use a timer today. Good choice. It allowed me to focus on the tactile inputs of the draw. By the time 10 minutes came around the draws were working really well. Biggest difference? Pointing the trigger finger at the target earlier in the draw stroke gets the gun level earlier.

Decided to work on reloads too. Took me more time to find a spare mag that would drop free than I expected. But, some days I ask myself how can this happen? Today was one of them. Today was the first time I've ever done a reload and completed it before the dropped mag (usually put 8-10 primerless bullets in the dropped mag and 18-19 in the replacement mag) hit the floor. I usually lower the gun way too much. Today, not at all. Still need to work on this, but man, that felt good!

[EZ Bagger]

Benos is rich now. I'm sure he made at least .02 off of my 1050 order!

Two 1050's ought to be enough...for now.

[EZ Bagger]

9/21/2007

30 minutes of dry fire split between draws and reloads. All were done while dry firing an El Strong & Weak Pres (no turns) target array. Again, no timer, trying to get the feel of touching the gun, clearing the holster, gun coming level to the target and index pointing at the target.

Draws were done to the center/top target, as I tend to want to shoot low and the discipline of getting the gun up and level is good.

Reloads were tougher due to the more realistic "stage", but were still being done "up" instead down at the belly, which is good.

Next week I'll introduce the timer.

[EZ Bagger]

9/22/2007

Local match today. What a bummer. I must have been focusing on everything EXCEPT points. I knew the "major" mistakes I made, but I had no idea how poorly I'd shot point-wise until the scores came out! Even with signing the scoresheets, I had no idea my points were so poor. This is partly because all of the scoring was done as the stages were still being shot, so I don't think I got to verify more that a half dozen targets all day.

Rhetorical question to self..."Where was your head that you don't even remember a single scoresheet's score counts (except for a very poor classifier)?" Even if the scoring were wrong, I have no basis for making corrections!

Only two stage's point counts were above 95% of the available points. One of those was the classifier (03-05). Average of the others? About 85%.

Training for the next week will continue to build the habit of training first and foremost. I'll do at least one real range day.

Second is still draws. Draws at the match were OK, but I still need to make this a skill instead of just a process.

Third. Reloads. Had to do 4 of them at this match and none of them were even close to subconscious. I need to take all stippling off of the grip so there's a smooth reach to the button.

Fourth. Speed on close in targets. These should be all A's, not mostly A's.

Fifth. Transitions. One of my two mikes for the match was on a wide open target, 4-5 yard through a port, while backing up to transition to a target through another port 180 degrees away.

Time to go to Saul's book and create the skills/training matrix so I can further identify training priorities....

Edited September 23, 2007 by EZ Bagger

[eerw]

looked like a nice..day..wish I could have made it up...

[EZ Bagger]

Well, it was...and we miss having you around. I certainly understand that the kids etc rank higher than shooting. They're worth it.

[EZ Bagger]

9/23/2007

Today was a mental day.... Spent the day clearing items off of the To Do list (which lifts great burdens :-), don't underestimate that part of life ) and further refining the written performance recordbook. Also put Saul's what to practice matrix into Excel with a first pass at numbers. I think I need a much more detailed (specific) list than what's in his book.

Wondering if my voice recognition software can handle the performance recordbood data, especially the match records info. I could spend the 45 minutes (minimum) on the drive home dictating detailed match notes....

Hmmmmmm.

[EZ Bagger]

9/25/2007

Damn garage. I've spent hours cleaning, sorting brass, rearranging and I still have days worth of work to do to get it set up the way I want. So, no treadmill, but it's far better physically than sitting down all evening at the TV or the computer.

Only 10 minutes of dryfire is the worst part.

Finished up the performance diary today. I'm sure it'll need improvements along the way, but it's a format I can work with...especially now that I can dictate the text of any of it that I want as I'm driving home from a match or the practice range.

Second 1050 arrived today...thanks Benos. Won't be playing with it for a while, since the other garage stuff takes priority.

[EZ Bagger]

9/26/2007

40 minutes of dry fire, all on variants of the El Prez so I get different hand positions reloads, transitions and (because of the no shoots attached) I get a double dose of calling the shots.

Note to self: 5 yds with 1/4 size targets: Par is 6.1.

20 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5.

[EZ Bagger]

9/27/2006

Awesome day! Wish I could do this more often. Got to the range about 10:30 and didn't leave until 4:45. Four friends were there for different blocks of time. Started off with breaking in a couple of .45's, then moved to pure accuracy (Avery Dots) drills, focusing on grip and trigger pull stuff.

From there went on to shoot a couple Higdon drills. 3 different stage layouts focusing on box entry/exits, shooting on the move and transitions.

Then, a few Standards runs with the distances at 35+ yard freestyle, 22 yard strong hand, and culminating in a 15 yard week hand target. Best time 13 seconds for the three strings, down 7 or 8 points on the 18 shots.

Skills that are showing promise:

Transitions...especially on open targets at 15 yards. Was able to hammer these today.

Situational awareness: Other than the times where I knew I was going for the speed, I was able to call my shots and see the dot.

Basic movement skills are not my biggest weakness, and this makes me happy, oh so happy....

Skills that clearly need work:

Close up targets after big transition swings. I have GOT to pause and find the sights! At least if it's a partial target...

Draw is better, but still not good.

Reloads. Again, better, but not good.

Intensity of movements and transitions. Need to get this from the get go, not after being reminded how slow I was on big swings.

Gun positioning so that when the intense movement is complete, I'm in position to press out and see the dot.

Standards course hits/control/dot movement clearly showed when I was gripping the gun correctly. Best thing was to be shooting at 35+ yards and notice the errors, correct them, and see the dot stay on the A zone, even at that distance. Woohoo.

Bought a plate rack. That will almost certainly bring me back to reality :-)

[EZ Bagger]

Upon Further Reflection:

Skills to work on addition:

Any time entering a box or new shooting position, the mental program needs expanding. Currently just picturing getting there quickly. Need to get past the tunnel vision to include what I want to see as I'm getting there. This will need to include gun positioning, spatial positioning, the dot, feet, and even breathing.

The interesting thing will be comparing the previews to the final cut....

[EZ Bagger]

Spent all evening working on the garage/loading area redo, cleaning guns and mags and getting ready for this weekend.... Gave the elbow a rest.

[EZ Bagger]

9/29-30/2007

OK, The smile on my face and the stuff running through my head is just not enough to overcome the absolute exhaustion of spending two days with Max, Travis, and 10 friends at the range. That adrenaline was enough to get me home...but barely enough to actually get me out of the car and into the house!

I'll organize and update later....

[eerw]

good gawd...I am tired, sore and bleeding..

but that was a lot olf great stuff..

I barely found the energy to get myself out of the truck and unpack my gear..then spend an hour on the phone with Ragsproshooter talking about what we did this weekend..