Revelations

[SA Friday]

This may not be the case for everyone, but I find it to be my current reality. I bet this has occurred with others too. I've gotten to a point in my shooting where I no longer am thinking about the basics. I am still practicing them, some more than others. For the most part, the basic skills I need to shoot a match are automatic; draw, reload, calling my shots... It's like I am now shooting a completely different sport.

I'm starting to realize the little things that cost me .5 seconds here and .2 seconds there. Early on, I started to learn where I could have saved 2-3 seconds if I would have shot stages differently, but there was still a huge difference in my times and M's and GM's times. I just couldn't see where I was losing the time. I watched TJ shoot a stage today, and the his splits and transitions were about the same speed as mine. Granted, his were much more crisp and refined, but everything he did differently from the way I shot the stage was a revelation of found small pieces of time. 6+ months ago, I just wouldn't have got it. I wouldn't have known what to look for. Box transitions, when to engage the target, foot placement and movement, move shoot vs stationary shooting, etc etc; THESE are the little things that make the difference in the times on a stage that separate the A's from the M's and not just simply pulling the trigger at Mach 2.

It's more than just, "shoot slow, but do everything else really fast" too. It's now learning how to hit the spot with your feet to instantly engage a target through a port, but doing it without looking where you are putting your feet, because you are reloading on your way to the mark. Dicking around with my positioning to get to shooting through the port has always been about getting the shots before. It's now about the four steps I have to take before the port to be in the right postion, balanced, and sight on target the instant I am there. DING, just cut a second off my time for the stage. Starting to leave the box while in the box and shooting (without missing), and then hitting the next box and starting shooting the instant you are no longer faulting. DING, another .5 seconds off the stage time.

I know I still have to shave time from my reloads and draws still, and I have to refine a lot of what is automatically happening before I will truely be happy with my basic skills. BUT, I seem to have reached a comfort level with with those basic skills that has allowed me to start seeing my next level. My focus has shifted to the small distances I have to move my feet and the subtle differences in how I do this to minimize the amount of time instead of the targets and angles and incompass this into the rest of the shooting. I just don't think I could have done this a year ago. It would have been too much information to try to process all at one time.

Edited November 6, 2007 by SA Friday

[G-ManBart]

1

[benos]

SA,

That's a fun time you're going through. And it just keeps getting more and more fun the more you get into it.

Good IPSC shooters are efficiency experts. Of course in the beginning, everyone has to sort through the grosser skills. Then as experience piles up, the methods by which you physically, visually, and mentally "save time" become more and more subtle.

be

[Kingman]

Watching TJ can be enlightening. Looks like he shot a good match too. I did not even see him there.